First impressions matter in business. On average, it takes a user 50 milliseconds to form an opinion on a website and decide whether or not to click away. A website serves as a brand’s first impression and must be able to put forward a brand’s services and message in an easily consumable and visibly pleasing format. However, the question remains, what elements of a website are the greatest indicators of successful web design?
Navigation
In a survey conducted by Clutch, 94% of surveyors reported that navigation is the most crucial website feature. More than any other feature, a successful website must incorporate easy navigation within the page. Without a simple menu layout and minimal drop-down menu options, a website’s other positive attributes will mean far less. While a website may be visibly pleasing, if it doesn’t utilize the user’s language for click options or includes too many clicks inside the website, the page’s functionality will decrease, as will the number of visitors the webpage receives.
Consistent Color Scheme
Oftentimes, when people think of web design, they think of the graphic design work that goes into creating a webpage. This aspect of web development is essential and can easily make or break a visitor’s engagement with the website. If a website’s design is not cohesive or visibly stimulating, visitors are far more likely to click away from the page. The primary goal of web design companies is to create a cohesive page that will allow the user to skim through content and understand the brand’s message. Keeping a color scheme consistent will help increase the time users spend on a web page and limit page clutter that may have made the text more difficult to read.
Mobile Accessibility
Today, more than half of all websites are accessed from mobile devices. As of 2018, 52.2% of all website traffic comes from mobile users, a 50% increase from the year before. In response, many web designers are now focusing their efforts on mobile website design and ensuring it is as optimized as the desktop site. For many years, desktop sites were the primary focus of web developers. Today, however, web design companies must ensure that both the desktop and mobile site are fully optimized for a website to succeed. For this reason, effective web design must ensure a site can be viewed on different browsers, devices, and operations systems in order to maximize reach and conversions.