The web is changing. Since the widespread adoption of mobile devices, the way people interact with their devices and search engines has shifted. Users now expect websites to be optimized for quicker load times and easy access to information on whatever device they're browsing from.
Moreover, the visual elements of your website should be ordered so that the most important information is placed on top, then the second-most important information below that, and so on.
In this blog, we are going to discuss the 5 most important website design principles you must follow this year to stand out from your competition.
Hick's law says that the time a user takes to make a decision increases as the number of choices increases. So if you have too many options on a website, or if those options are badly organized or difficult to find, your users will need longer to decide what they want and get frustrated in the process.
Hick's law is important because it helps us understand how we can design better interfaces for our users—and every day we're faced with new challenges as UX designers!
For example, let's say you want people to sign up for a newsletter. You could place an input box right at the top of the page where people can type their email address into it—but if there were also an option for them to select an industry or company name from a dropdown list, then they would probably be less likely to complete this step quickly because they would need more time to decide which option was most relevant.
The rule of thirds is a compositional theory that is often used in photography and graphic design. It states that an image's key points of interest can be found along the imaginary lines that divide the image into thirds horizontally and vertically, creating nine equal sections. The rule of thirds is often applied to images with a horizon line to create a more visually pleasing composition.
In website design, the rule of thirds can be applied to every element you add to your site—from text blocks to images. It's about making sure that everything your viewer sees on your page has a place where it belongs.
The goal is to make sure that nothing takes up too much space or feels disconnected from anything else on the page.
White space allows you to draw attention to the most important parts of your design and helps you avoid clutter. It also helps with readability—if there's too much text and not enough white space, it can be hard for people to read.
Clean design means that each element in your website has a purpose, and all those elements work together to create a cohesive experience for users.
Occam’s Razor is a philosophical principle that states that when you're trying to explain something, the simplest explanation is often the best. In terms of website design, this means that you should keep your design as simple and clean as possible, because your users will be more likely to understand it.
If you have a lot of information to convey on your website, there are some ways to do so without adding clutter:
Visual hierarchy is the arrangement of objects within a page or website, such that the most important information is seen first. This makes it easier for users to find what they're looking for and helps them understand the content's structure.
In order to establish this hierarchy, designers must consider what types of content they're using and how they want to present it. For example: if you're designing an e-commerce site, where you want users to easily find items that interest them, then it makes sense to place those items at the top of the page. If you're designing a blog with multiple posts, then it may make sense to stack those posts vertically in order from most recent to least recent (or vice versa).
Website design is a challenge. You need to figure out how to make all elements work cohesively, despite the fact that all of the elements are different mediums with different functionality. How do you prevent the design from being chaotic? How do you keep all of that information visually organized and digestible for your user? We hope to provide some useful ways to rethink your web design process.