What makes a good website is that it fulfills its intended purpose. Of course, it’s not just that simple as there are many factors involved in making that happen. For example, functionality, consistency, and other factors contribute to the qualities of good website design.
Some web designers judge websites based on their appearances. Other designers are more focused on the functionalities and other qualities of a good website. While the functionality and appearance matter, those are just two components dictating qualities of good website design.
Moreover, how a website is perceived is depended upon many key factors. For instance, does it provide a great user experience via optimized content? How easy is it to use? Given these points, let’s look at some important factors and qualities of good website design.
Qualities Of Good Website Design
The below guidelines will help you when considering your next web project.
1. User Friendly and Functional
Not only do good websites provide a great user experience, but they’re also easy to use. A less than optimal user experience makes it difficult for visitors find answers to their questions. Not to mention, find essential content that’s relevant to them.
Chances are, they will instead leave your website before taking the desired action.
2. Fast Loading
The need for speed doesn’t just apply to cars in the Fast & Furious movies, it also applies to websites. With the increasing usage of mobile devices for web, visitors are impatient. Not only that, but people expect instant responses.
For this reason, your website needs to load quickly so that it provides the content quickly. Hence, a great user experience. Obviously, visitors won’t stick around watching the clock tick. Instead, they will go elsewhere. And you know where that is. Yes, your competitor’s website.
But slow loading sites are not always just the problem of the content. It’s also due to your hosting environment. Not all hosting companies are created equal, nor are they equipped to handle large WordPress websites. So, if you’re expecting a respectable website load time, you need to invest money into respectable hosting.
3. Website Purpose
Imagine that your visitors are seeking website design services. Your site’s description in search results hints to that. Yet, when they land on your website it’s all about what celebrities are doing online.
First, this is false advertisement. Second, the visitor is beside him or herself with frustration. And third, your site will most likely be reported to the Better Business Bureau. Not to mention, reported to all the search engines.
While the above is a worse case scenario, your website needs to accommodate the needs of the user. Moreover, it should contain the type of content the user is expecting to see. This alongside a clear, simple purpose help users to better interact with what you’re offering. By doing this, it makes for a good website as well as design.
So, what is your website about? Are you selling cosmetic products for great skin care? Is it a food and beverage site or medical spa? See where I’m going here? Different websites have different purposes. However, there are core purposes common to all websites:
- Building Your Reputation and Brand Awareness
- Sales and After Care
- Describing Expertise
- Generating Leads
4. Quality Content Is What Makes Good Website Design
Quality content is not just about appropriate imagery, it’s also about the copy; text on the pages. Because in most cases, visitors are looking for something specific. If you just have images and no text to describe it, users won’t know if it’s what they need.
Although text and images are important, there are other forms of website content. For instance, video and audio. And the quality of the content depends on the type of website. But in every instance, good content must meet the needs of the visitors.
In fact, great content is one of the most important component of effective websites. So, if you really want to know what makes a good website design, then provide awesome content. Your visitors will stick around a lot longer.
In essence, no other aspect of the site should take precedence over good content. This includes search engine optimization (SEO) and website design. But bear in mind, these components are also important. After all, without SEO visitors won’t even see your content because they won’t be able to find your website. It’s all a balancing act and knowing what’s important.
5. Attractive and Simple Design
Today’s website don’t need the old Flash animations and all the going ons on a page to grab attention. In fact, pure CSS and JavaScript alone can make stunning moving visuals on any website. These types of animations usually load faster also.
As a result, clean and simple designs are usually more effective. Not only do they provide the appropriate content, but they also offer a professional appearance. If you’re looking for inspiration, check out some of the website designs we’ve done.
6. Easy Navigation
This one is a no-brainer. Because if visitors can’t navigate your site, how will they find anything? For this reason, easy navigation is a critical component of all websites. In addition to it being in a consistent location on every page, it also needs to be easily accessible.
Website accessibility don’t just apply to the average person, it’s also vital for people with disabilities. So, having a consistent, global structure makes your website easy to navigate for everyone.
7. Responsive Design
Many people assume that mobile-friendly and responsive design means the same for websites. On the contrary, there are uniqueness between the techniques. A mobile-friendly site simple means that the content is loosely adapted to the mobile device. It will do as much as it can to give access to information to mobile users.
Conversely, responsive design seamlessly responds to the screen size of the device being used. The viewpoint for the content exactly matches the device the site’s being viewed on. Therefore, responsive design should be top of mind when building today’s modern websites.
8. Optimized For Search (SEO)
As mentioned in item #4, search engine optimization is also what makes a good website. Even though there are different marketing methods to drive traffic to sites, search engines do the heavy lifting. Notably, Google is the largest search, but there are others such as Bing and Yahoo. Of course, this depends on the location of your business as others such as Baidu is ideal for China-based sites.
With this in mind, a good website is search engine friendly.
9. Secure
Security is a big concern these days, both online and offline. Consequently, users and site owners alike need to be protected. Even if your website is not processing orders, there are other reasons to secure your website.
These days, most hosting companies provide a free SSL certificate as part of your hosting plan. And google has taken it a step further showing relevant search results for sites with an SSL certificate. Additionally, depending on your particular browser settings, neither Chrome nor Safari will display sites with no SSL.
In the event that your site is not secured, you should immediately contact your hosting company. They will be able to activate the SSL certificate for you.
10. Unique
No site owner wants their website to look like it’s part of a herd. Instead, you want your site to stand out from the crowd. Oftentimes, that’s difficult to do with website builders like Shopify, Wix, and others. It’s not impossible to accomplish, but it’s a daunting. Particularly, if you want a unique and fresh looking site on these platforms.
Even with awesome content, if the look and feel is the same as your competitors, then it’s the same. At least, that’s what your visitors will think. Instead, have a custom website design built by our expert WordPress designers. Don’t be afraid, it’s far less costly than you think. Besides, don’t you want a website that compels visitors to come back for more?
About the Author
Dr. Amelia Royster-Davis is a Doctor of Education and an Instructional Designer. As the Director of Web Development at Envisager Studio, her primary focus is to lead the web development team in building modern, responsive websites. In her spare time, she writes about web development, UI and UX.
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