Exploring Website Design (UI): What is it and its utility?
In today's digital world, the design and navigation of your website play a crucial role in the success of your online presence. An appealing design and intuitive navigation are key to capturing the attention of your visitors and keeping their interest. In this article, we will focus on the importance of effective web design, as well as the best practices and tips to optimize these crucial areas of your site. 75% of online credibility comes from web design. Therefore, it is important that when creating a new page or improving an existing one, you know how to do it creatively and effectively, with a focus on creating a satisfying user experience. The first resource in your favor is web design, and here we will explore the basic concepts around these topics.
What is Web Design
Web design is a creative activity focused on the visual aspect of digital environments and materials. It involves the layout and interfaces of digital platforms such as websites or apps, creating a visible and functional configuration for the user by distributing and conceptualizing various elements. The appearance of your website is the first impression that a visitor gets of your brand and can either attract or drive away those who enter it. In fact, studies have shown that a visitor on a website takes only 50 milliseconds to decide whether to continue browsing or leave your web page. Remember that every project should adhere to the basic principles of web design to be functional, compatible, and visually appealing.
Characteristics of Web Design
A successful web design combines visually appealing and functional characteristics. Understanding web design standards is essential for creating spectacular projects. Below are the fundamental characteristics that you should consider:
Its Visual
Web design is primarily visual to be attractive, using graphic and textual elements, images, videos, colors, and all aspects that harmoniously create a pleasant space in which visitors want to navigate.
Enables fast loading
The website should load quickly and not offer obstacles for navigation. Web design largely takes care of this by using appropriate programming languages, visually appealing images without compromising the amount of data, among other aspects. How can speed affect it? According to an Amazon study, for every 0.1 seconds their website took to load, it resulted in a 1% loss in total sales.
It´s Response
Web design must create projects that adapt perfectly to any device a user navigates on. In fact, mobile design is now more important, as over 64% of Internet searches are conducted on mobile phones. By implementing this type of design, you will provide a better user experience as it offers convenience on any resolution and device. Even Google highly values this design because: • It avoids duplicate content. • It increases the possibility of content going viral. • It reduces development time. • It improves web analytics. • It facilitates indexing on search engines. • It increases social media visibility. • It adapts to any screen. • It loads the website faster.
It´s intuitive
Web design should be simple and present a clear logic that anyone can understand; this implies that no element should be without a purpose within the whole.
It´s optimized
The work of web designers nowadays goes hand in hand with web development and content generators, as together they are responsible for optimizing a website to gain positions in search engines.
It has a structure
Web design is order, harmony, and distribution of elements. Therefore, this is an essential characteristic for generating effective projects, as a website requires specific structuring.
It maintains coherence
Web design is not arbitrary or exist in a vacuum; it responds to guidelines such as the target audience, brand voice guidelines, and possibly specific requests to meet defined objectives. Therefore, it is essential for web design to be coherent with all these elements.
It´s interactive
Being web-based, interactivity is part of its DNA. Therefore, web design should be designed to connect and link to the online world through hyperlinks or links within the same site or to external sites. A perfect example would be Apple.
It´s communicative
Web design without intention is merely a good image; that´s why this characteristic gives meaning to what you do.All elements, individually and collectively, should communicate, inform, propose, or promote, from content to visuals.This is why elements such as call-to-action, forms, banners, and other aspects are used to create a bridge between users and a brand.
It´s highly functional
Usability, which is highly sought after today, is a characteristic you should not forget in web design. Being attractive is of no use if it is not effective. Usability allows the functionality of all elements that make up a website, enabling users to navigate smoothly.