What are the basics of website design?

The first im­pres­sion counts, which is why web design, i.e., layout, graphic design, features, etc., makes all the dif­fer­ence of whether visitors decide to stay on your website or close it straight­away.

What is website design?

What is the defin­i­tion of website design (also known as web design)? It refers to the visual and func­tion­al design of an internet site.

• What does the website look like?
• How is the content laid out?
• How do users get to subpages?
• Which features does the website have?

Web design brings the content of the website (e.g. your texts) to life. Therefore, layout is one of the most important tasks for web designers. Good web design is always a com­prom­ise between unique style and intuitive user ex­per­i­ence design. The website should be easy to use, but still visually appealing.

Just like other design dis­cip­lines, how a website is designed is often subject to trends. Current web design trends usually result from technical de­vel­op­ments or changes in user pref­er­ences.

What do web designers do?

The work of web designers is mul­ti­fa­ceted and depends heavily on the project. Generally, however, their work is usually a mix of creative design work and technical im­ple­ment­a­tion. They work closely with their customers to un­der­stand them and meet their needs. Typical tasks include:

1. Concept creation: After listening to the customer’s wishes, they create a concept. This includes selecting the colour palette, the layout of the site, the nav­ig­a­tion and the general aes­thet­ics. Initial planning usually includes a style guide that lays out the web design prin­ciples for the specific project.
2. Graphic design: Website design often includes designing graphics and images. This can include designing logos, banners, as well as creating other visual elements. For many graphics, you can use existing libraries. For example, icon fonts, which contain useful pic­to­grams, are popular.
3. Coding: For the im­ple­ment­a­tion of design and concept HTML, CSS and JavaS­cript are used. Some web designers also use content man­age­ment systems like WordPress or Joomla.
4. User Ex­per­i­ence (UX) and User Interface (UI) Design: Good web design always takes a website’s usability into con­sid­er­a­tion. Visitors should be able to click through the website as easily and in­tu­it­ively as possible. The term user-centred design is used for this.
5. Main­ten­ance and updates: After a website goes live, it doesn’t mean that the work is finished. In some cases, web designers stay part of the project to maintain the site, perform updates or add new content.

Web design vs web de­vel­op­ment

There is no clear dis­tinc­tion between the two dis­cip­lines. However, it can be said that the two dis­cip­lines spe­cial­ise in different facets of website design:

• Web design: The focus is on the effect the website has on visitors. The visual design and the way the visitor navigates through the website are the most important aspects.
• Web de­vel­op­ment: Website de­vel­op­ment puts more focus on the technical im­ple­ment­a­tion of the website. Tasks focus mostly on per­form­ance and features.

The areas cannot be clearly separated, because in many cases web designers also create source code and web de­velopers also take usability into con­sid­er­a­tion. There is no hard line that separates the two.

Web design tools

There are many tools available that you can use to make your dream website a reality. Even if you are not a web designer, you can build a pro­fes­sion­al website with the right help. The choice of the tool depends on what you want to achieve, the existing know-how and how much time you have to dedicate to the project.

Website builders

With an easy-to-use website builder, you can build a simple but pro­fes­sion­al website very quickly. You can drag and drop the desired elements to the right place and then add your own content.

Content man­age­ment systems

Content man­age­ment systems (CMS) such as WordPress make it easier to implement your own web project. The software offers a wide variety of themes (design templates) and plugins (func­tion­al ex­ten­sions) that can be installed with just a few clicks.

Web design service

Despite tools being available, you also have to invest time to design your own website. If you do not have much time to spare, you can enlist the help of pro­fes­sion­als. Web design services have experts that build the website based on your ideas.

Benefits of good web design

Good web design lets you show off your content in the right light. In a business context, for example, this would be present­ing the company; in the case of an online shop, it is all about present­ing the products. Only a well thought-out and tech­nic­ally flaw­lessly im­ple­men­ted web design keeps visitors on your website. If, on the other hand, users can’t find their way around, pages load slowly, or content is difficult to grasp, they will jump ship straight away.

This is what you can achieve with good website design:

• Show pro­fes­sion­al­ism: If your website is thought­fully designed and, in the best case, also matches your corporate identity (CI), your website and company will make a pro­fes­sion­al and serious im­pres­sion.
• Increase reach: A good website that has also been created with SEO in mind will rank well with search engines. Your website will then be displayed to more potential visitors.
• Increase con­ver­sion rate: A well-func­tion­ing user ex­per­i­ence guides visitors ef­fort­lessly through your website. With suitable call-to-actions (CTA), you can encourage the visitor to make a purchase or get in touch.

Web design com­pon­ents

Web design covers a very large area. Virtually everything that has to do with the design of a website falls into this field. You can roughly divide the com­pon­ents into two areas. A large part is classic design work, which means the visual aspects that visitors see directly, and then there are also func­tion­al elements that relate to the technical con­di­tions of the website.

Visual

• Font: Using suitable web fonts, your text content will be displayed perfectly. Please note that not every font that is available in Word, for example, can also be displayed by browsers.
• Layout: How graphic elements and texts are arranged de­term­ines how the visitor absorbs in­form­a­tion. Visual stimuli play just as important a role here as clearly struc­tured in­form­a­tion.
• Graphic elements: Logos, buttons, banners and other graphic objects are among the most obvious com­pon­ents of web design. They make up a large part of how the website is perceived.
• Colour scheme: One of the most important decisions and part of any good style guide is the selection of colours used. The best way to do this is to base the colour palette on the corporate design.
• Images & videos: Without photos, in­fograph­ics and ex­plan­at­ory videos, a website looks bare. Mul­ti­me­dia elements offer variety and can convey in­form­a­tion in a different way than text does.

Func­tion­al

• Nav­ig­a­tion: Visitors must be able to find their way around in­tu­it­ively. Menus, footers and links therefore need to be well thought-out. This makes website nav­ig­a­tion one of the most important factors in terms of usability.
• Structure: The structure of the website is related to nav­ig­a­tion. This is mainly about the hierarchy and how well the in­di­vidu­al subpages are connected to one another behind the scenes. The structure can be seen, for example, in the sitemap.
• Per­form­ance: A good website must load quickly, otherwise visitors will get annoyed and are more likely to leave. To reduce the bounce rate, it’s crucial to make sure that per­form­ance is optimised. Core Web Vitals can provide a good insight into a website’s per­form­ance.
• In­ter­ac­tion: Contact forms and other in­ter­act­ive elements are also the re­spons­ib­il­ity of web designers. Plugins can be used for the technical im­ple­ment­a­tion.
• Ac­cess­ib­il­ity: A website should be well prepared for everyone, which is why you should also take visually impaired people into account, for example. Ac­cess­ible web design uses alt text or high-contrast design to ensure that these people also receive all the in­form­a­tion they require. In the WCAG you can find re­com­mend­a­tions on how to make your website more ac­cess­ible for everyone.

Re­spons­ive design

Nowadays websites are accessed from various types of devices. In addition to desktop PCs, there are notebooks, tablets and smart­phones, all of which have different screen sizes. That’s a big challenge in web design because you have to decide on a layout even if you don’t know how it will be displayed later on.

This is where re­spons­ive design comes in. With this tech­no­logy the design auto­mat­ic­ally adapts to the screen size. For example, if content is displayed ho­ri­zont­ally on a usual desktop device, it will now be arranged ver­tic­ally on a smart­phone. A menu that would normally appear in the header will now appear on the mobile phone display as a hamburger menu that opens up when clicked on, or as another kind of re­spons­ive nav­ig­a­tion. Even ty­po­graphy plays a major role in re­spons­ive design since texts should be easy to read on any display.

Search engine op­tim­isa­tion

If you’ve invested lots of time and energy into a website’s web design, then it would be a waste if no-one could find it. With clever search engine op­tim­isa­tion (SEO) the contents and the website is prepared in such a way that Google and other search engines will display it far up in the search results.

For this, loading speed, nav­ig­a­tion and layout must be perfect. If a visitor clicks on your website and doesn’t find the in­form­a­tion they want or they have to wait too long for it, they’ll close the window again and try another website. The increased bounce rate is a negative signal for the search engine. Well thought-out and tech­nic­ally flawless web design is therefore the basis for SEO.

Con­clu­sion: Website design is the basis for internet success

If you want your company or your project to look its best on the internet, your website must not only offer in­ter­est­ing content, but also impress in other ways. That’s why good web design is so crucial. Whether you take on the challenge yourself (with helpful tools) or hire pro­fes­sion­als, make sure visitors feel com­fort­able on your website and can find the in­form­a­tion they need quickly. Don’t forget to use colour scheme, fonts and layout to present your brand properly on the internet.