The Zen of Slick Website Design

Are you looking for the best possible design for your website? Make no mistake: the best way to do so is through the feedback (both expressed and implicit) of visitors. It is only by continuous split testing of design elements that you'll eventually find the magic placement that really works for you and your audience.

In all case, and since you cannot efficiently split test your design options until you have sufficient visitor data, you should know about the best practices for a slick website design. If you pay close attention, you'll notice how these strategies are used in many big websites, and that's really not by accident!

Let's now consider the ideal uses for all the major areas of your website, from header to footer. Keep in mind these uses may vary depending on the type of website and its main goals.

Header: give them reasons to stick around

This is where you need to place all the stuff that really matters the most. You need to realize that about half of your visitors will never actually scroll bellow the header of your website; unless you manage to give them valid reasons to stick around, they'll just bounce and resume their searches elsewhere.

This means, you always have to strike a balance between what people expect to see and what you want them to show. More importantly, you should put something in the header for visitors to interact with; the sooner a visitor clicks something in your website, the likelier they'll be engaged and keep clicking down your sales funnel (provided you don't have them click away first).

Let's see some typical uses for the header area of modern websites:

• Website with a faithful and vast audience? Header should include subscription options.
• Website aimed at promoting a known brand? Header should include a big logo/symbol/picture pertaining the brand.
• Commercial website that complements off-line business? Header should include contacts/location.
• Commercial website that operates on-line? Header should include shopping cart and point out valid forms of payment.
• Informative website with lots of search engine traffic? Header is the most profitable place for ads.

With practice, you can almost guess what a website is really all about just by looking at the elements they chose to include above the fold. Simply put, you should put the elements you want to make most prominent at the top of the page. And ideally, you want to make those elements actionable, since visitors will naturally interact with them.

Body: present your content to provoke engagement

When it comes to the body of your website, that's where visitors expect to see the beef - or rather the content. The ground rule here is making sure you have content worthwhile publishing; otherwise few people will bother reading it. But asides from publishing good and relevant content, you should look for the best ways to present such content. In this case, there are some universal rules that work great for most types of websites:

• Use descriptive headlines and sub-headings to neatly organize the text and make it scannable.
• Consider adding a table of contents if you tend to publish longer articles.
• Break up paragraphs to a maximum of 4-5 lines each, since big chunks of text are uninviting.
• Use bold, italics and underlines strategically; keeping in mind that over-doing defeats the purpose.
• Add relevant pictures that illustrate the content; fill in captions, since people actually read those.
• Include calls to action in the right places, such as a big bold "Have something to say? You're welcome to join the discussion!" after the actual content and before the comments section.

It's easier to have visitors read through weak content that's efficiently organized, that through strong content that's poorly presented. The reason why is because most Internet users are skimmers, always looking around and jumping between websites until something catches their attention.

It's much easier to catch the attention of your visitors if you focus on the form rather than the content. If your website excels at both form and content, you will then be on the fast track for success.

Sidebars: not unlike the side dish to your website

You should think of the sidebar in your website as an opportunity to tell a side-story, or provide alternatives for anyone who is getting bored with the main content on a page. In some websites or specific pages, it may be wise to use no sidebar at all, whereas in others multiple sidebars may work best. Let's contemplate the most common options and their suitable applications.

Sidebar(s) on the right side: This is probably the most common sidebar placement, and not by chance! Placing the sidebars to the right makes them look like a side note, which is often what they're supposed to be.

Sidebar(s) on the left side: By placing your sidebar(s) on the left side, they will be emphasized over the content. This is simply because people in the western civilizations read left to right.

Double Sidebars wrapping content: This kind of placement is great for making your website look busy and shock-full of information, but sometimes it can work against you and make the layout look too confusing, with too many options.

No sidebars: Typically used in landing pages, since this placement clearly narrows down the attention of visitors, making it easier to convey a clear message... as opposed to having the visitors feel giddy from the panoply of contents and widgets.

Should you decide to use a sidebar (or more), you want to make sure the elements in each sidebar suggest a kind of narrative or sequence, rather than looking as if they were placed at random. It's usually a good idea to try different combinations and see which seem to add to the flow of visitors inside your website.

Footer: Your last chance to hold a visitor

Traditionally, the footer on most websites used to be nothing beyond a reiteration of the website name or copyright claim. Nothing wrong with that, really; but this kind of strategy is not going to impress your visitors and convince them they should hang around more and maybe add your website to their bookmarks.

What savvy modern webmasters are doing these days is using the footer on their websites as an opportunity for further engagement. This makes sense, since visitors who make all the way down to the bottom of your website are surely still looking for something. It may be an element you placed elsewhere and they overlooked, or it can be something more specific.

Some ideas for elements you may want to include in the footer of your website, next to a descriptive call to action: Subscription + social share buttons ("If you like this website, subscribe and share!" )

Contact info and maps ( "Your opinions and feedback are most welcome!" )

Most popular posts ("Check our most popular articles here!")

Big banner or logo ("Come back anytime", or "Have you bookmarked us?" )

And that is our look at slick website design, from head to toe. Remember, efficient web-design should not only look good... it should also - and especially - serve the usability demands of your visitors. Keep working to bridge the gap between what you want people to see and what they're looking for when they come across your website, and you will quickly add to the results you get.