If you want to establish a serious online presence, then you need to have a stunningly designed website. Your users wouldn’t want it any other way, which is why we’re now going to look at website design ideas.
An Adobe study revealed that if people only had 15 minutes of Internet access, 66% would rather spend it looking at something visually interesting than simple.
That’s why you need great website design ideas if you’ve just started establishing your web presence.
In today’s post, we’re going to explain why website design is so important, discuss how to get started with your design, and go through a couple of website design examples that will inspire you. With all of that out of the way, let’s dive right in…
Why is Web Design so Important?
So why should you pay so much attention and invest so many resources into your web design? In short, you should care about the design of your website because your customers will. People are naturally attracted to the striking design.
Still don’t believe us? Then check these numbers out:
- 4 out of 10 users will leave your website if they find the layout unattractive
- Around ¾ of users judge a brand’s credibility based on visual design alone
- 9 out of 10 users’ first impressions of websites are related to design
But what do users want? What’s considered good design? Isn’t beauty in the eye of the beholder, right? While there are certain personal preferences, in general, people have similar ideas of what’s beautiful and what’s not.
Most people positively react to elements like easy-to-read font, soothing colours, and basic, natural shapes. You can use colour to trigger certain emotions and attract people to a certain part of your site and use texture to add depth and visual interest.
How to Start With Web Design
Now that you know just how beneficial good web design can be, you need to know what makes a good design. Visual appeal is one thing, but your website also needs to be usable. Your audience needs to have a great experience if you want them to keep coming back.
Here are a couple of principles of good web design you should be aware of.
1. Make Sure That Navigation is Intuitive
When it comes to the website layout, you should abide by Hick’s Law. In essence, the law dictates that you should keep things as simple as possible. The design of your website needs to draw attention to certain parts of your site while allowing users to navigate easily.
2. Keep Things Aesthetically Pleasing
Even if people manage to find their way around your website, you still need to keep things visually interesting. A few years ago, two researchers made two ATMs that functioned the same. One was attractive while the seconds weren’t. Test subjects reported that the visually attractive ATM worked better. Researchers concluded that visual appearance has a huge impact on user experience.
3. Usability Needs to Be at a High Level
In addition to being visually ingesting and inviting, your web design needs to be functional. Your visitors want to find certain information so you need to make it prominent. More than 85% of users want product information, 65% want contact info, and more than 50% want to see the About Us page.
4 Website Design Ideas for 2020
With all of that being said, now’s the time to look at 4 distinct website design ideas that will hopefully spark your imagination and inspire you to create a great-looking site. The sites we have for you today all collect and curate some of the most interesting web designs available on the Internet.
1. Dribble
Overall, this is a great place to find website design ideas for business, and you should check it out right away. It hosts a huge number of innovative websites that will help you stay on top of design trends. Unlike other websites on the list, Dribble mainly functions as an online portfolio. So if you like a particular web design featured on there, you can contact the designer and work with them directly.
2. siteInspire
The design examples featured on our third website are really impressive. On siteInspire, you can find numerous large eCommerce websites as well as small art websites. The best thing about this website is that it allows you to filter websites and find ones that are relevant to your business. The site managers update the gallery all the time, so you don’t have to worry about a lack of inspiration.
As the name suggests, this website is the perfect place to find website design ideas for beginners. You can look up websites by category or you can find websites you want by typing certain keywords into the search bar. For example, you look up websites by style. So if you want to create a minimal website, you can just browse that category.
4. Crayon.co
In the last spot, we have perhaps the biggest website on the list. At the moment, Crayon.co features more than 35 million different websites. And the number is only getting higher. For years, marketers, business owners, and web designers have used Caryon.co to find inspiration for their next project. Besides so many websites, it features a set of filters that allow you to find what you want in seconds.
Final Thoughts
If you want to have your customers hooked to your website, you need to leave a killer first impression. According to Google research, it takes your users 0.05 seconds to form an opinion about your website. That’s why you need to make sure that every element of your website looks perfect.
We talked about the importance of good web design, about the important elements of design, and we even gave you a few good website design ideas. Now, the ball is in your corner. Go out there, find a good designer, map out your website, and start designing it.