How long it takes people to decide to stay on your site?

It took less time than it took you to read the title and this question.

It takes 5 to 10 seconds for people to make this decision. Following these best practices will help you create the first impression that attracts people to stay.

This article will explain create engaging designs with these 11 web design rules that hook your target audience.

1. Have a purpose

Clarify the purpose of your website before you start the design process: The reason for your website should be the driving force in deciding which features are needed.

Know that your website is intended for your users, and design and optimize your website with that in mind. Putting the "why" first will help you build a website that drives traffic and keeps users engaged while maintaining delighted users.

2. Use consistent design elements across your website

Look at any professionally designed website; you'll notice that every site uses the same fonts, colors, logos, and styles on every page. There is a good reason for this series. The use of similar visual elements leads to a recognizable and consistent brand.

Moreover, you will save time when building your website because you don't have to think about how each element will look every time you add it.

3. Keep it Simple

Simplicity is the best way to think about the user and the use of your website. Here are some ways to achieve simplicity by design.

• Color

Colors have the power to convey messages and evoke emotions. Finding a color that matches your brand will allow you to influence how your customers behave towards your brand. Restrict your color combination to less than five colors. Complementary colors work well. Attractive color combinations increase customer engagement and make them happy.

• Type

Typography plays a vital role in your website. It attracts attention and acts as a visual statement of the brand's voice. Books should be legible; at most, three different fonts should be used on the website.

• Imagery

Images of all aspects are used on the web. This includes photos, images, videos, and all kinds of ideas. All models should express and reflect the company's spirit and serve as an example of their personality.

Most of the first information we use on websites is visual, and it is essential to first display high-quality images to give visitors the impression of professionalism and trust.

4. Navigability

Designing custom layouts on your website is essential to help visitors find what they are looking for. Ideally, a visitor should land on your site and not have to overthink about what to click next. The movement from point A to point B should be as smooth as possible.

Here are some tips and tricks for improving your site's navigation:

• Make navigation more accessible and closer to the top of the page.
• Include the links at the bottom of your site.
• Consider using bookmarks on every page so that users remember their navigation path.
• Include a search bar at the top of your site so visitors can search for a keyword.
• Only offer a few options on one page. Make it simple again!
• Include links in your page copy and explain what the links lead to.
• Don't make people dig deep.

5. Check your website for errors

Maintaining a website is a big job that can be blown away by the slightest mistake. Here are some common issues to be resolved immediately:

• Beware of dead links. Users can quickly get frustrated when they click on a link on a site and get a 404-error page in return.
• Check your site for typos.
• Ensure all media files are loaded correctly? with no broken images or videos.

6. Always use negative space

Negative space (or "white space") is the area around page elements, whether images, videos, text, or buttons.

Most advertisers rush to fill in all the empty spaces on the page, hoping to provide visitors with more information so they will be more interested. However, this often leads to cluttered and confusing pages.

This is where the white spaces come in. The use of negative space highlights the essential elements of each page, as the lack of color draws the visitor to the brighter parts.

7. Clear CTAs

Your calls to action (CTA) drive your customers to convert by buying your products, interacting with your Content, making a phone call, or making an appointment.

• What is being offered is immediately evident. Text messages attract users to an unlimited number of movies and TV shows. Text messages form the basis for CTAs.
• Potential questions should be answered immediately through WooCommerce FAQ Plugin; users can cancel them anytime.
• Bold, highlighted CTA should be in a prominent place. The CTA itself immediately grabs the eye. It is colorful and unique. Users can enter their email addresses to activate the changes to start immediately.

8. Readability

While providing the information is one thing, its success lies in its readability. This is where font selection is made, and data entry is essential. While Verdana is common, Arial fonts fall under the sans serif fonts used, and multiple tests are sometimes used to find a font that is also useful. The font size on websites is usually set to "16px".

9. Add social proof

Adding social proof to your website means using the power of digital to build a positive relationship with your brand, its services, and its products. These long-term efforts should lead to success and better engagement with your brand.

Much social proof happens on social media, where brands work with micro and macro influencers to create sponsored posts and user-generated Content. But your website design itself can play a big part in justifying your brand, including things that reinforce its credibility, such as:

• Infographics with remarkable statistics, such as the number of followers
• User-generated Content (UGC)
• Review scores, feedback, ratings, and awards
• Testimonials and reviews of products or store
• Case studies from your previous clients
• Verification credentials and trust badges
 

10. Create a smooth user journey

Your website should make life easier for your visitors, not harder for them. Users will only be happy if they can use the page, so you must make it clear and easy to understand.

Carefully designed and streamlined workflows to improve user experience, helping you cut costs and increase clicks.

11. Consider accessibility best practices

When creating a website, consider how the design affects how to interact with a person with disabilities.

The World Wide Web Consortium's Web Content Accessibility Guidelines are a set of guidelines that web designers can use to improve the accessibility of their Content.

Some of the basic guidelines include the following:

• Provide text to replace non-text. Add keywords or more text to Content such as images, buttons, or videos to do this.
• Turn on text translation, sign language translation, or subtitles for audio or video content.
• Refine Content by increasing contrast with color and other methods, ensuring text isn't lost when people resize it and ensuring it's editable. Click or pause the sound.
• Make Content accessible to people who use a keyboard instead of a mouse to browse websites.
• The contents should not include lights at a speed that could cause shock.
• Pages should be organized and coded so users can navigate the website efficiently.

Conclusion

The truth is that website design is very subjective - only some people like the way your website looks. However, there are proven UX principles that, when well thought out and implemented, help visitors feel at home.

Most website visitors will not return to a website after a bad experience. And how can you blame them? We've all been there. So, as a final piece of usability / UX knowledge, start improving. Imagine yourself in your visitors' shoes (or, more precisely, the browser window) and keep them in mind at every step of the process.