When designing a website its easy to get blindsided by aesthetics. There’s no doubt your website should look fantastic and reflect your personal or business brand. It should also be really easy to use. And it should work. Here, we look at five key web design elements to check for on your existing or new website. In each case, we’ll look at both it’s functionality and aesthetics.
Key Web Design Elements – Responsive Menu Toggle
It’s likely that around 50% of your website visitors are now on mobile. We’re assuming your website is fully mobile responsive. The responsive menu toggle is the icon you’ll normally see in the top left or right hand side of the website. Clicking the toggle will reveal the menu. There’s many styles of responsive menus – we’ll leave discussion of those for another article. Today, we’re looking specifically at the toggle – it’s one of the key web design elements we look at below.
Email Sign Up Forms
There are not many websites (if any!) that couldn’t benefit from giving visitors the opportunity to subscribe. Specifically, to subscribe by email. There are real benefits from having a strong email campaign running for your business or brand. For now, we’ll just look at how that works on your website. Here are the locations we’ll often find Subscribe forms (also called sign up forms)
Subscribe in Footer – many websites will include a subscribe form in the footer area, or very bottom of the website. If you would like a low-key approach, this is a good option. It also gives visitors an opportunity to sign up after they’ve read or viewed your content, which makes sense.
Subscribe in Sidebar – traditional WordPress and blog design often featured so-called sidebar areas where important links and calls-to-action could be shown. Overtime this layout has become less popular, especially with the growing emphasis on responsive design.
Subscribe in Content – it makes sense to include a subscribe form right amongst your best content. If you have a blog, consider talking to your website designer about including a subscribe form mid-content. This is often when audience is most engaged and likely to want to subscribe.
Subscribe in Pop Up, Slide In etc – Subscribe forms can also be shown in ‘pop-up’ or ‘slide-in’ in features. These can generally be set to display after visitors have been on your site a certain length of time. They can also be set to show only on specific pages. If you choose to use this type of subscribe form there are a couple of things to remember. Firstly, ensure the form is set to not keeping showing after someone has subscribed. Secondly, consider how long before the form shows again if someone closes the pop up without subscribing.
Customising Subscribe Forms.
If you’re using a platform like Mailchimp, there are numerous options to customise your signup forms. Your website designer can further style your form so that it fits your brand.
What fields to include.
Website Footers – Key Website Design Elements?
Website footers are not often considered on of the key web design elements. But this is key real estate on any web page. The footer area of your website is the area at the very bottom of the web page. On most websites, the footer will be a consistent element across all pages of the website. One exception is Landing pages, where the footer might be removed. Very large website with diverse sections might also have a different footer depending on the section of the website.
Despite it being the ‘last’ element on a web page, it’s certainly not the least important. At a minimum, the footer design finishes the page. It’s an important detail. The website footer should include important contact information. Phone, email and street address. Links to how to find us. And of course links to your privacy policy and terms and conditions. Many website designers use the footer area to provide any easy way to find links to important pages or recent blog posts.
Website Breadcrumbs
Website breadcrumbs are a traditional aid to website navigation. You’ve likely used breadcrumbs on popular larger news and ecommerce websites without knowing it. Breadcrumbs provide a really easy way for website visitors to know where they are on your website. They can also help search engines like google understands how content is organised on your website. Smaller business websites will not have any need for breadcrumbs. But if you have an ecommerce site, or your website includes a blog, you should consider whether breadcrumbs could help make your content easier to navigate.
Calls-To-Action
According to Matt Angel, a web designer in the Blue Mountains, calls-To-Action should be given high priority during your website briefing and design process. It’s important that your designer understands what action you most want your visitors to take. Calls-to-action include signing up to your newsletter, making an enquiry or selling a product. Calls-to-action should be placed prominently throughout your side. This way, when a visitor decides to act – it’s really easy for them to do so.
It’s also important to consider that the best action is not always obvious. For instance, sometimes it’s just as beneficial to have someone take a small action first. For example, getting someone to download an eBook first, could be better than trying to sell a thousand dollar off the bat.
Want to find out more?
There are many key elements of effective website design. This post on HubSpot looks at more key elements of modern website design. It’s good practice to periodically review your current website. The effectiveness of many of the elements discussed here can be measured using Google Analytics.
