How To Simplify Web Design Process

Do you own a business and want more people to recognize your products, brand, and services? You’d probably think of creating an online platform that allows people to see and discover your business. If you do, then you’re doing it right.

Nowadays, many people spend most of their time browsing through social media apps, blog sites, websites, and many more. With that said, it’s essential to build a website that will allow you to convey your message to your existing and potential clients. But for this to be successful, you need an effective and attractive web design.

However, web designing is not easy, especially for newbies. Every detail, from background color to typography, must be thoroughly checked and reviewed to generate leads and convert them into sales effectively. In addition, you have to consider the difficulties and drawbacks that designing entails, such as limited resources, cost allocation, and time anticipation.
But you don’t have to go through all of that to design a website. In that case, here are some tips and tricks you might want to adapt to simplify the designing process:

1. Design A Sitemap

Sitemaps are diagrams that present each level and function of how web pages and content are connected. It functions as a guide to help you determine the flow of your platform.

If your website has no proper flow, users will most likely leave immediately and look for a new one that is simple and quick to access and navigate. So, if you’re asking if sitemaps are necessary, the answer is yes. 

Moreover, if you don’t have time to learn how to create a sitemap by yourself, you may visit other online platforms that offer site mapping, platform designing, and implementation. They will do all the hard tasks while you continue your job with the sales and marketing facets of your business. Expenses might be hefty for a startup, but the benefits you can get can outweigh the cost. 

Here are other benefits of sitemaps, depending on your situation:

• When you’re redesigning a website: The diagram helps point out non-functional areas and improve their abilities. 
• When you’re designing a startup platform: Sitemaps acts as a layout that simplifies web designing creation and implementation, saving you time and money and avoiding wasting efforts.

Whether you're building a new one or redesigning a website, sitemaps will significantly ease the complicated procedures of web designing.

2. Gather Your Ideas

First and foremost, you have to gather all the ideas you need. Let your creativity flow in and take note of every design and concept you and your team can produce. Start asking your creative staff about their ideas. They might be hesitant to express themselves, so explain that every thought will be entertained, and they will not be judged because of it. 

Here are some techniques you might want to use for effective team brainstorming: 

• Use Lists Or Bullets – Let your team formulate their thoughts in a way that everyone can understand with just a glimpse. Using lists and bullets helps you focus on the main idea that you can expand later. For example, you may list all designs related to minimalism or monochromatic color blending.
• Freewriting – Similar to lists and bullets, freewriting allows you and your team to formulate ideas in a narrative form. Start by setting a limit to yourself, such as setting a timer or word limit. Continue writing until you reach your limit, even if you’re jotting down nonsense ideas. You may end up getting a lot of fillers, but at least one or two great ideas may be hidden deep within these thoughts. 
• Cubing – Like a cube, every concept should be evaluated using six different points of view. You may do this by describing, analyzing, associating, comparing, applying, and arguing each idea with your team. Then, you will be able to determine the potential of each idea.

With these simple techniques, brainstorming will never be simpler and more productive than before.

3. Focus On The Essential Elements

Now that all the necessary concepts have been gathered, it’s time to take a look at essential elements for a winning and profitable design and layout. Focusing on essential details, small or big, will help you release all the tangles of the entire process. 

However, many websites still fail in this part. These websites failed to succeed because their sites are filled with cluttered and unnecessary information, making it difficult for their users to find the specific content they need. 

Start by analyzing which parts and areas are important and focusing on building and improving them. This may not be easy, so you might need to apply the 80-20 principle.

This principle suggests that 80 percent of the content’s value is what people search and look for. The rest is used for the presentation and demonstration of the page. For example, focus on your platform’s snippets, reviews, forms, and call-to-action (CTA) buttons of your planned website. Then, allot 80 percent to transform them into something that will be more beneficial to your potential clients.

4. Delete Cluttering Elements

 

After deciding which elements should be included in the website, the next step is to clean up your board filled with unnecessary elements. Start by identifying the focal points that don’t usually get enough interactions, ruin your platform designs, and are just eating too much of your space. These could be sidebar panels, social media sharing widgets, meta details, and other unimportant links.

These elements don’t increase and improve your website’s user experience. Instead, they make it difficult for your clients to browse your website and look for the necessary information they need. So, it’s important to have this clutter removed from your board so people can use your platform without any fuss. 

5. Remove Unnecessary Pages

Web pages are important to keep the content on your website separated from others based on their functions and categories, preventing a cluttered pool of information. However, it might not be good for your website to have thousands of unnecessary pages. 

Because of this, your potential clients might entirely lose their interest in your website. So, delete the unnecessary pages that are just causing delay and confusion on your website. 

After doing so, it would be easier for your clients to find and focus on the information they need and navigate your platform. With fewer pages, visitors only need a few clicks to locate what they want, and your navigation menu would be easier to access than before. 

What Are The Other Options To Consider?

Google hates changes concerning your online platform. This may sound off for a giant tech company, but it’s true when talking about Google’s search engine. As a result, the tech giant may reduce your ranking for making significant changes. On that account, consider other options that may minimize the effects on your hard-earned rankings before removing old content.

• 301 Redirect – A 301 is among the basic ways to redirect your page permanently to a new URL. This helps stabilize SEO efforts during site migration. When it has been redirected, the previous link may show ‘‘moved permanently’’ or ‘‘go here instead’’ to your audience.
• 410 Pages – According to experts, if you want to remove a page permanently, you should do it using 410 pages. This action tells search engines that what they’re looking for is permanently gone. In that case, Google will remove pages that show 410 in their index.

If you’re not sure what to use, ask your professional web designer or SEO specialist to determine the best for your website without affecting your rankings.

6. Maximize The Use Of White Space

White space is among the essential styles you have to consider when building an effective and simplified web design. Many giant companies are using this to their advantage to help them attract potential clients. Also, you might probably see your favorite brands using this to promote their products.

In addition, it highlights your content so that other people may focus on it even better, helping them absorb the information on your pages faster without any distraction. Also, it enhances and improves the overall appearance of your platform as long as you use it correctly. 

What Are The Types Of White Space?

Depending on your plans to simplify the designs of your platform, you may consider the two types of white space:

• Micro White Space – It’s a small gap you can find between a series of words, images, menu options, etc. This is important to help your audience read and understand the words you placed on your platform. Furthermore, it separates essential elements perfectly, showing that every text has a different function from others. So, it’s best to have a little bit of white space on your site.
• Macro White Space – As opposed to the micro type, there are bigger gaps between the structure and sections of your platform and the separation of its header, footer, and sidebar. In addition, it allows your viewers to navigate your platform easily by instantly showing the starting and ending point of the platform. Moreover, it ensures that every function and button are distinguished from others.

If you’re designing a new platform or reworking your webpage, this is the right time to incorporate it on your pages. After you eliminate unnecessary elements, placing white space in areas where eyesores reside will be much easier.

On top of that, you may consider hiring a professional web developer to assist you with the things you might not know. They will do their best to help you incorporate white space that not only highlights your content but also makes your website simple without deleting the necessary elements. 

7. Limit Your Choice Of Color

Color combinations are among the essential factors most people consider when visiting a website. According to experts, almost all people purchase products and services based on what color they see. 

It might be surprising at first, but humans love to look at things based on their appearance, so it makes sense. Additionally, colors are proven to increase brand recognition. In that case, it’s only fair to say that the right combinations of color are essential to one’s business. 

Since your goal is to simplify your web design process, start by choosing two to three colors. Then, use their shades for other areas like headings, subheadings, and menu boards.

Nevertheless, choosing a good color scheme is not easy. In that case, you might need these few tips to help you pick the colors you need:

• Understand Emotion In Every Color – Each color emits different emotion. For example, you may use yellow if you want a cheerful-looking platform or blue if you want to showcase your creativity and wisdom, and many more. 
• Check Your Target Market Area – To whom are you planning to sell your products and what emotions do you want to show? After answering these questions, take a look at the personality of your prospects. For example, if you’re selling organic products, you’d probably want to consider green, which shows positive health and nature. Plus, the fact that eco-friendly people will be your target market.
• Consider Gender – If you’re selling gender-based products, consider which colors these people would most likely prefer. For example, men prefer to look at blue, while women prefer red. On the contrary, don’t forget the colors they don’t really like, such as brown and purple for men and brown and orange for women.
• Let Go Of Your Favorite Color – Remember this, you’re choosing a color based on what your customers would like. This is a common mistake most companies make they use the color they want without considering the psychological point of view. Moreover, it doesn’t matter if you don’t want a certain color, what matters the most are the preferences of your target market.

Final Words

Web design may be the most complicated component of creating an effective website. However, it doesn’t always have to be that way when creating a new website or redesigning your existing page. 
That said, you might want to consider the few tips presented above, such as pooling ideas, creating sitemaps, using white space, deleting unnecessary elements and pages, and limiting your color options. With these tips, designing a website will never be complicated anymore. 
Also, if you don’t want to be stressed thinking of every tiny detail, you may consider hiring a professional web designer to help you achieve the dream platform you want. 
Hopefully, this discussion may help you on your journey to attract more clients and make your business thrive.