JMM Web Design Group

Web design is the creation of websites and pages to reflect a company’s brand and information and ensure a user-friendly experience. Appearance and design are incorporated as vital elements whether you’re designing a website, mobile app or maintaining content on a web page. Gaining web design skills can help you in applying for roles where your creativity could help a business improve their brand, their message and their bottom line.

In this article, we take a look at web design, including what web designers do and the common web-designing elements they work with and use.

What do web designers do?

Web design identifies the goals of a website or webpage and promotes accessibility for all potential users. This process involves organizing content and images across a series of pages and integrating applications and other interactive elements.

The professionals who perform this process are called web designers, and their job includes the following duties:

• Selecting easy-to-read fonts

• Choosing attractive color schemes that also enable easy-to-read fonts

• Implementing a brand’s identity into the colors, fonts and layout

• Creating a map of the website’s structure to ensure intuitive navigation

• Placing images, logos, text, videos, applications and other elements

• Using coding languages, such as HTML and CSS, to create layouts and to style pages

• Making optimized versions of websites and pages both for desktop and mobile viewing

There are two common web design methods: adaptive and responsive design. In adaptive design, the website content is created using standard screen sizes as the frame for the layout.

In responsive design, content moves dynamically according to the screen size. Web designers use the various steps of the general web design process to employ these design methods depending on their client or employer’s preferences and goals for the site.

What are the elements of web design?

The web design process allows designers to adjust to any preferences and provide effective solutions. There are many standard components of every web design, including:

Layout

The layout of the website is how the material is displayed on a page. Choosing the layout is an essential task for the designer. It should be simple, intuitive and accessible. Web designers can use blank areas called white spaces to organize the elements of the site with grid-based designs to keep them in order.

Designers can create specialized layouts for desktop screens and mobile devices. Mobile-friendly websites are a necessity because many visitors access websites on their cellphones or tablets.

To ensure a website is ready for mobile visitors, the designer can use a responsive template that adapts to different screen sizes or a mobile-only look that will activate when a non-desktop device connects to the website. A consistent layout between supports contributes to the visitors’ trust.

Images

Images are illustrations, graphics, photographs, icons and others used to provide supplementary information to the text. To create the effect desired, designers can pick images that complement each other and the brand that the website represents.

Visual hierarchy

Visual hierarchy is the order in which the user will process the information on the site. The designer creates it by applying a visual pattern to the website. The visual pattern is the way the design directs visitors’ eyes and behaviors.

For example, F-Patterns or Z-Patterns emphasize the top horizontal section of your site, where most designers place navigation and the brand’s logo and sometimes a search box. These are elements that inspire user interaction and brand recognition.

Color scheme

The color scheme is a combination of colors that is in harmony with the brand and industry it represents. To achieve this, they will pick a dominant color and a few others to create a palette. A color palette can be monochromatic (different shades of the same color), analogous (colors close to each other) or complementary. Designers also account for what colors users are more likely to be attracted to.

Typography

The typography is the style or font of the written content. Web designers pick one or a combination that is attractive and easy to read. To make the best choice, they should choose a font that corresponds to the target audience. Some sites may be better in serif fonts while others can use non-serif fonts, depending on the site’s industry, purpose and typical user.

Readability

Readability is when the text of content is easy to see and read on a webpage. The text on the website should be readable because visitors usually spend little time on it and should find information quickly. The designers can achieve this by selecting an appropriate size and pixel for the text. The contrast between the text and the site’s background colors also improves readability.

Navigation

The navigational elements are the tools allowing users to choose where they want to go within a website. They may be present in the header, body and footer of the website, depending on the site’s layout and structure. These elements are essential as they direct visitors to the information they want as quickly as possible.

Designers can choose a variety of navigation designs and layouts, such as using a button that hides and reveal navigation menus. They can also incorporate one-click arrows and other buttons that direct users back to the top of a page, to a specific area of a page or another page entirely.

Content

Content is all of the information available on the website. It is a pivotal element because visitors want to get information quickly. When the website communicates clearly and grabs the readers’ attention, it is more likely to convert them into consumers. The designer can achieve this by using the appropriate tone and provide the right information on the entire website, including the “About” and “Contact” pages.

What is the use of web design?

Web design is used to achieve various tasks and goals, including:

• Search engine optimization: Search engine optimization (SEO) is a method for improving the chances for a website to be found by search engines. Web design codes information in a way that search engines can read it. It can boost business because the site shows up on the top search result pages, helping people to find it.

• Customer satisfaction: A professional web design impacts clients’ satisfaction positively as it provides them the information they are looking for quickly. It helps the company build a positive relationship with the visitors by ensuring the navigation on its website is easy to understand, predictable and consistent.

• Mobile responsiveness: Mobile responsiveness is the feature of a website that allows it to display on a mobile device and adapt its layout and proportions to be legible. Web design ensures sites are easy to view and navigate from mobile devices. When a website is well-designed and mobile-responsive, customers can reach the business with ease.

• Consistent branding: Branding refers to the promotion of a product with a unique design. Web design helps companies build or maintain a clear brand for their business. When a website expresses a business’s brand consistently, it makes it easier to navigate and helps customers more clearly identify the visual elements of a brand as a specific company and its products or services.

• Technical efficiency: This term refers to how productive a website can be in making a comfortable experience on a website. Designers can achieve this with clean coding that allows for quick loading times, functioning links and dynamic images and graphics. Web design services also fix those eventual glitches when they occur.

• User experience optimization: Web designers run reports to understand the way people are interacting with a website all over the world. They determine which pages have more or less traffic and adapt the web design to optimize the user experience.

• Conversion: Conversion happens when a visitor completes a desired action on the website. Attractive web design encourages visitors to stay long enough to be converted into consumers. They will click on a call-to-action button, exchange valuable information and subscribe or buy a product.

• Improved sales: Increasing the number of items sold or acquiring more active customers are objectives of a compelling website. As web design reaches targeted customers and search engines, it helps the business make conversions on their site and improve its sales.