The Ultimate Web Design Guide
I’ll let you in on a secret. Bad web design means your website is likely to fail.
“57% of users won’t recommend a business with a poorly designed website. Fifty-seven percent of users are less likely to recommend a business if they have an unsatisfactory experience with their website,[10] which includes a poorly designed one. A website’s design can impact the user’s perception of the company and influence their decision to recommend it to others.”
-Katherine Haan, Forbes Magazine.
You’ve seen it before—overcrowded layouts, confusing navigation, crazy branding, bad content, and pages that take forever to load.
The truth is, most small businesses don’t even know where to start, and it shows.
In this guide, I’ll cut through the clutter to give you a roadmap so you can plan and create a site that actually works.
Whether you're dreaming of launching your own blog, showcasing your portfolio, or setting up an online store, this guide will walk you through the process.
What's Web Design All About?
Before we get our hands dirty, let’s look at what web design actually is.
Web design and web development are different things.
Web design is the art of making things visually appealing and easy to use.
Whereas, web development focuses on the behind-the-scenes coding magic, web design is what makes people go "Wow!" when they land on your site.
Not all web development is the same. Some people build websites from scratch with code.
Others use a web building platform. Two of the most popular are Wordpress and Squarespace. If you’d like a comparison of the two, go here…
Planning Your Website Is The Blueprint for Success
Alright, let's start with a game plan.
Here's what you need to do:
Define Your Purpose
What's your website all about?
Are you showcasing your artwork, selling your expert services, or sharing your thoughts on a blog?
Knowing your goal will guide everything else.
Know Your Audience
Write down the answers to these questions:
Who are you creating this site for?
What are their goals?
What are they searching for when they land on your site?
How does your product or service (or blog) help them solve problems?
Understanding your visitors will help you make design choices they'll love.
Remember:
Your site’s purpose + your audience’s goals = Your website’s goals.
Scope Out the Competition
Take a peek at what others in your field are doing.
It's not about copying, but getting inspired and spotting opportunities to stand out.
Analyse 3 of your competitor’s websites.
What do you like about their design?
How could your site be better?
Make notes.
Map It Out
Sketch a simple sitemap.
Draw it on paper to begin with.
Then, if there’s a design program like Figma that you’re familiar with - use that. Doing all this work before you begin means you’re more likely to end up with something good.
Also, create a sitemap for your website, showing how all the pages connect.
Write Your Copy
Write your website content now.
I know, I know. It sounds the wrong way round.
Most people make the mistake of thinking they should write their copy last.
Or they try to write it while they’re putting the design together on the platform.
Big mistake…
Make your life easier. Write all or most of your content now. Including video scripts.
Believe it or not, this approach really speeds up your web design process. I always start this way. It’s the workflow I was taught in web design, and it works remarkably well. It’s as if, by focusing on the words, the design emerges!
Writing content is as much about copyediting as it is about copywriting nowadays. Because even if you use AI to roll out some ideas, you’ll need to shape it so you don’t just sound like every other website in your niche.
Your words are just as important as your visuals. And they’ll serve to give you a taste of the user experience as soon as you do start designing.
Choosing Your Tools
You always need the right gear for the job at hand.
So, let's talk about the platforms and tools you'll need:
Website Platforms
WordPress, Wix, and Squarespace are the three main choices, although other platforms are available.
Over the past decade or so, I’ve used all three of them. Here’s what I’ve found in essence…
WordPress is super flexible and really popular.
Wix is easy and great for beginners.
Squarespace is used by a lot of designers, loved for its elegant drag-and-drop design features.
If you’re going to build your site yourself, try playing around with each of the above, and see what you like. In the end, you can always transfer content and domain names from one platform to another.
You won’t be stuck forever with a single design space.
Design Tools
At first, aim to keep it simple.
Create holding copy with the free version of ChatGPT.
Use Google docs or Word or Pages to save your web copy and content.
Check out Adobe XD, Figma, or Sketch for creating your layouts and prototypes. Personally, I love Figma.
Approaching The User Experience (UX)
Here’s your one command for customer conversion:
Make your website a worthwhile experience. Make it a joy to use
User Experience design is all about making your site feel right to those who may become your future clients or customers.
Here's how:
Get inspired - find examples of web designs you love in your business category. Explore the navigation between pages. Can you find what you need easily? How? Why?
Start with Wireframes - these are the rough sketches of your layout, the skeleton of your design. Paper and pencil will do. Creating a sitemap helps here. The user should be able to easily & intuitively achieve the goals of the site. In other words - book a call, holiday, appointment or time-slot of some kind, buy a thing, or get the information they’re looking for.
Create Prototypes - this is where your design starts coming to life. It's a more detailed model of your site.If you use Figma for this it becomes way easier. In my opinion. Make at least two different designs - one dark-tone and one light-tone. How do you guide your user through the website to achieve their goal/s? Is it a smooth, easy journey, or do they need a degree in foresight to find the course, product, or booking timetable they want?
Research the user experience - if you’re not a professional designer it doesn’t matter. Just ask people what they think about your ideas. And ask for suggestions on websites in your business niche that have a UX. Get feedback. Change things until your web design works.
Remember, a good UX is like a well-designed park – easy to navigate and enjoyable to visit.
Designing the User Interface (UI):
Once you’ve got the basics down, it’s time to play around with colours, fonts and all that fun stuff.
It’s time to make it look awesome.
While UX is about how things work, UI is about how they look.
Here are some key elements:
Colour, Emotions, & Branding
Colours aren't just pretty – they're an important part of web design and marketing. They’re powerful tools that can influence how people feel and act when they visit your site.
To a certain extent. I mean, there’s a limit to how much we understand the influence of colour on each person. After all, we all have our own relationship, if you like, with the colours around us.
Find out more about the psychology of colour in web design.
Realistically, colours affect all individuals in different ways. However, choosing and using your brand colours well can make a huge difference to how well your website achieves its goals online.
Here's a quick and very basic colour psychology primer:
Red: Energetic and bold. Great for calls-to-action or food-related sites. Don’t over-use. It can make some people feel panicky because it’s often associated with danger.
Blue: Calm and trustworthy. The world’s favourite colour, apparently. Perfect for financial, technology, high-end, or healthcare websites.
Green: Natural and growth-oriented. Ideal for financial, property, environmental or wellness brands.
Yellow: Happy, young and optimistic. Works well for children's products or creative services. Golden yellow (really a kind of orangey-yellow) works well for high-end expensive products and services.
Purple: Luxurious, spiritual, and creative. Excellent for beauty, wellness, or high-end product sites.
Orange: Friendly and confident. Good for brands that want to appear approachable.
Black: Sophisticated and powerful. Great for luxury brands or minimalist designs.
White: Clean and simple. Creates a sense of space and works well with any colour scheme.
Remember, these aren't hard rules – individual differences are at least half the story.
The key is to choose colours:
That resonate with your brand.
That work within your industry.
That will appeal to your target audience.
Fonts and Typography
Your words or written content are the voice of your design.
And text is as much part of the overall visual design as any images.
Here's how to make your type talk:
Choosing the Right Font For Your Brand
Serif Fonts (like Times New Roman): These have little feet on the letters. They often convey tradition, respectability, and formality. Great for law firms or academic institutions.
Sans-Serif Fonts (like Arial): Clean and modern-looking, without the little feet. They're easy to read on screens and give a contemporary feel. Perfect for tech companies or startups. They’ll lend a modern tone to your site.
Script Fonts: These mimic handwriting and can add a personal or elegant touch. Use sparingly, perhaps for headings or logos.
Display Fonts: Bold and attention-grabbing, these are best for headlines or short text snippets.
Typography Tips
The way you arrange words on the page is also a design thing.
A Hierarchy Of Headlines
Use different sizes and weights to guide readers through your content.
Your main heading should be the largest, followed by subheadings, then body text.
A Question Of Readability
Ensure your font size is large enough (at least 16px for body text) and that there's enough contrast with the background.
Limit Your Selection
Stick to 2-3 fonts maximum for a cohesive look.
Too many fonts can make your site look a bit mad.
White Space & Line Spaces
Give your text room to breathe.
Your reader is much more likely to read the words you’ve worked so hard on, if there’s space for the eyes and mind to think about the content.
A line height of 1.5 times your font size is a good starting point.
Brand Voice
Your words should be speaking your brand’s language.
Your brand voice is a unique identifier.
It’s how you communicate with your audience – it's the personality of your brand expressed through words.
Here's a quick overview on how to develop and use your brand voice:
Define Your Brand Personality - are you formal or casual? Serious or playful? Innovative or traditional?
Know Your Audience - speak in a way that resonates with them. A financial advisor and a skateboard company will have very different tones.
Be Consistent - use the same voice across all your content – from headlines to button text.
Show, Don't Tell - instead of saying you're funny, write content that makes people smile.
Remember, your brand voice should align with your visual design.
A playful brand voice paired with a very formal design can create a disconnect for your visitors.
Minimalist Design.
Less is.
More.
Minimalism in web design is all about stripping things down to the essentials. If you’d like to know about minimalism and web design - go here.
It's not just about using less – it's about making the most of what you use.
Here's why and how to embrace minimalist design:
Benefits of Minimalist Design
Faster Loading Times - less content means faster loading, which is great for user experience and SEO.
Mobile-Friendly - simple designs are often easier to make responsive. And remember - As of July 2024, 59.7% of global web traffic came from mobile devices.
Focus on Content - with fewer distractions, users can focus on what's important.
Timeless Appeal - minimalist designs often age well and require less frequent updates.
How to Achieve Minimalist Design
You can easily tweak your original design to include the following:
Use White Space
Don't be afraid of empty space.
It helps guide the eye and create a sense of elegance.
Limit Your Color Palette
Stick to 2-3 colours for a clean, cohesive look.
Use the same colours consistently across all pages of your site.
And don’t forget to use them in any social media posts too. Brand recognition is your friend.
Choose Fonts Wisely
One or two simple, readable fonts are all you need.
If you want to use a stunning, serif font to wow your audience - use it only in main headings and only once on each page.
Simplify Navigation
Keep your menu items to a minimum.
Use clear, concise labels.
Avoid long lists of nested menus.
Use High-Quality Images
When you use fewer elements, each one needs to pack a punch.
Match your images so they:
fit into the brand tone and voice of your design,
fit into the surrounding text or headings.
fit with the overall palette of your site - although the odd pop of colour is a good thing if you want to draw attention to a particular thing.
Responsive Design
One size rules them all.. (Devices).
Your website needs to look great on everything from a smartphone to a big desktop monitor.
That's where responsive design comes in.
It's like having a chameleon website that adapts to whatever device it's viewed on.
You may have to spend a bit of time on this, but it’s worth it.
Building Your Site
Bringing your vision to life is the really exciting bit… it’s the fun part – actually building your site.
If you're comfortable with coding, you'll be working with HTML, CSS, and JavaScript.
Don't worry if that sounds like alphabet soup to you – many platforms offer drag-and-drop builders that make it easy to create a site without coding knowledge.
Speed and Performance
Make It zippy
Nobody likes a slow website. It's like waiting in a long line – people get impatient and leave.
Use tools like Google PageSpeed Insights to check your site's speed and get tips on how to make it faster.
SEO: Help People Find You
Search Engine Optimization (SEO) is the breadcrumb trail you design for search engines to follow.
Use descriptive titles, add alt text to images, and create a clean site structure.
It'll help your site show up when people search for what you offer.
Accessibility
Design for Everyone
Making your site accessible means ensuring everyone can use it.
It's not just the right thing to do – it can also improve your SEO.
Use proper headings, provide text alternatives for images, and make sure your site works well with keyboard navigation.
Check out how your site looks to people with colorblindness. You can easily adjust hues and saturation.
Putting It All Together:
All these design choices are worth it.
When you're making design choices, consider how all these elements work together:
Start with Your Brand - your colour choices, typography, and overall design should reflect your brand personality.
Consider Your Audience - what will appeal to them? What will they find easy to use? Why will they stay and read any content?
Think About Function - every design choice should serve a purpose. Ask yourself, "Does this help or hinder the user's experience?"
Test and Iterate - don't be afraid to try different combinations and get feedback. Web design is an iterative process.
Testing and Launch
The final countdown.
Before you hit that launch button, test everything.
Check your site on different browsers and devices.
Look for any broken links or slow-loading pages.
Once you're happy with everything, it's time for liftoff…
Ongoing Maintenance
Launching your site isn't the end – it's just the beginning.
Regular updates keep your site secure and running smoothly.
Like tending to a garden – a little regular care goes a long way.
Stay Trendy (But True to You)
Web design trends come and go.
Right now, minimalism, dark mode, and 3D elements are all the rage.
Keep an eye on what's new, but always stay true to your brand and what works for your audience.
So, there we have it. A roadmap for your web design.
Creating a stunning website is a journey. And like any trip, it's full of learning experiences.
Remember, every great website started somewhere.
Keep experimenting, stay curious, and most importantly, enjoy the process as well as the finished website.
aesthetics and functionality
Great web design is a balance of aesthetics and functionality.
It should look good, feel good to use, and effectively communicate your brand goals.
With these principles in mind, you're well on your way to creating a website that's not only visually stunning but also effective and user-friendly.
FAQs
1: What's the difference between UX and UI design?
UX is about how easy your site is to use, while UI is about how it looks.
Think of UX as the layout of a store and UI as the decor.
2: How do I pick the best colours for my site?
Consider your brand personality and the mood you want to set.
Tools like Canva palette can help you create great colour schemes.
3: Do I need to learn coding to make a website?
Not necessarily. Many platforms offer user-friendly builders.
But knowing some basics can be helpful.
4: How often should I update my site?
Aim for at least a monthly general site check-up.
Keep your content fresh, and update it regularly.
And check your links - just to make sure everything's working properly.
5: What are some common web design mistakes to avoid?
Cluttered layouts, poor mobile design, and ignoring accessibility are big ones.
Always put yourself in your visitors' shoes.
6: How many fonts should I use on my website?
It's best to stick to 2-3 fonts maximum.
Too many fonts can make your site look cluttered and unprofessional.
7: What's the benefit of minimalist design?
Minimalist design can lead to faster loading times, better mobile responsiveness, and a cleaner, more focused user experience.
8: How do I choose the right colour scheme for my brand?
Consider your brand personality, your target audience, and the emotions you want to evoke.
Don't forget to check how your colours look on different devices.
Creativity & Technical Skill
Above all, remember, web design is both an art and a craft.
A blend of creativity and technical skill.
If you’re a business - it’s your most important marketing tool.
Spend time getting it right.
You might just want to plan an overview, and hire someone to do the wireframes and development. Most people do.
Because when you’ve created a space online that people enjoy visiting, they’ll let you know with clicks and orders.
So it’s worth doing well.