By Gapsy Studio, Medium
Creating a website design you need to remember that certain patterns or web design rules have been already developed. This is important primarily for new designers or those who have decided to create a site for the first time.
According to Google’s study, it only takes 50 milliseconds (that’s 0.05 seconds) for visitors to form a first impression of your website. Sad statistics, isn’t it?
The first and main goal of the designer is to make a person hold their eyes and stay on the page for further actions. Users can quickly rate anything based solely on emotional reactions and visual attractiveness. The main designer’s task is to lure the user with at least one element on the page, because of which he won’t close the site in a second. Modern people who don’t even have any specific education in the field of design, feel the atmosphere of the site, the level of communication with the user and the overall appearance. That’s why you should follow some standard web design principles to make your website convenient and easy to use for visitors.
What are web design standards?
Web design standards are a kind of foundations that the user is completely used to and knows exactly where it is located on the site and such as rules and recommendations for finding something on the site A web design standard is something that website visitors are easy to accept visit after visit no matter which website they use. For instance, you won’t find many websites prominently featuring the company logo in the bottom right section of the footer.
Why web design standards are important?
- standards help designers to make the site/application intuitive for their users
- standards help users to immediately find the necessary elements on the site without thinking about where and how the element is located
- standards will never scare you away from your product because everything in it will be familiar and understandable
- standards help designers to hold down all the important elements on the site and following them, for sure, nothing important will be missed
Current web design standards
More than 1.5 billion sites currently exist. Their number is increasing every day. Therefore, the competition between sites becomes insanely large. Almost 50% of small businesses that create their website neglect the main standards of web design and their business has less chance to succeed. The more standards you follow, the greater the likelihood that your site will be successful and attractive to the user.
It’s very important to comply with the basic standards for web design since people have become accustomed to it over the years.
Let’s take a look at the 10 most popular web design standards below.
1) Logo layout
A logo is one of the first and most important elements of any company’s web design. A lot depends on the style and aesthetic content of your logo type, but its location on the site is also important. That’s why 99% of designers place the logo in the upper left corner of the site header, this is a standard for the location of the logo to which everyone is already accustomed.
2) Contact information layout
The contact information is very important for your site as thanks to this information a user can contact you for further cooperation. The probability of future collaboration with your company depends on where you locate your contact information. Almost half of all web sites have a contact button or a link to them in the right corner of each page, this placement is considered common and standard.
3) Navigation layout
The navigation system of your site also plays a big role. This layout location depends on how convenient it will be for the user to be on your site and whether they want to return to it. It’s extremely important to think over a navigation system that will allow the user to easily navigate through the pages of your website. The main navigation is located in the header at the top of every page in 88% of cases making horizontal top-level navigation a web design standard.
4) Homepage slideshow
Homepage slideshows is an interesting approach to make the first impression. It’s an easy way to display any kind of content you want your users to see. It’s often one of the most effective ways to convey information. More than 60% of the websites have a homepage slideshow (also known as a carousel) with a rotating series of images and messages.
5) Value proposition
Give people the opportunity to get acquainted with the services or products that your company provides. This will allow them to study your skills in a more detailed way and find out what services they can get. 80% of websites have an explicit value proposition located high on the home page.
6) Call to action
The call to action buttons can take the form of a simple click, subscription, access to the profile, registration to receive a trial version of the product or even to purchase. By creating the right design for these CTA buttons you will provide a much greater response to your site than without them. The call to action button is absolutely necessary element of each website design. More than 70% of the websites contained a call to action element within eyesight during opening the home page. It’s highly recommended to use this standard.
7) Site search
One of the most important principles of usability is the ability to search for information on the site. The search bar can already be considered as one of the standard provisions in the development of a design. More than half of all sites have a search in the profile header so that the user can easily find something simply by entering a word in the search.
8) Newsletter subscribe box
Site subscription gives users the opportunity to receive more personalized information. You can register and receive the newsletter by mail or by phone number. Over 60% of sites have a sign-up box on their websites so it’s also a web design standard.
9) Social media icons
More than 70% of the websites include icons for social media websites in the footer. This simplifies the user’s task, so as not to search for the social networks of the company or the site itself, you can simply click on these social networks and look at them quickly.
10) Responsive web design
According to the latest research, mobile devices generated 52.6% of global website traffic. This confirms the fact that websites are now more visited by mobile devices than by computers or laptops and you should definitely think about a good adaptation of your site or in other words responsive web design. It’s also important to note that search engines included in the list of the most important ranking factors precisely the presence of adaptive layout or mobile version of the site. The market, of course, reacts to this, and now half of the sites have the adaptive design and layout. Our studio always follows trends and adaptive design is one of our priorities in creating web projects. We can help create your site looking beautiful on any device: whether it will be a computer, laptop, or phone.
Web design standards 2020
After we looked at different web design standards and principles in general, it’s time to figure out which trends and standards will be present in web design 2020.
Here are some web page design guidelines in 2020:
1. VIVID COLORS+SIMPLICITY
As more and more brands strive to be more visible against the backdrop of many competitors, the trend to use bright and bold colors in website design will continue. Everyone knows that bright and saturated colors pull attention, that’s why so many designers use them. The main thing here is not to overdo it, because the main goal for the user is to read the information on the site, and not consider its color component.
2. BOLD TYPOGRAPHY
2020 font willn’t be something fundamentally new. But it should be mentioned that currently the greatest preference is given to sans-serif fonts, so if you want to stand out from the competition, this year it’s worth exchanging traditional fonts for something more daring.
3. DUAL COLOR TECHNOLOGY
The design in two colors and their midtones looks very stylish and modern. It makes the site more pleasing to the eye and easier to read. After all, the fewer colors on your site, the greater the likelihood that a person will not be too distracted by the color component of your site, but will still read the presented information.
4. REAL DESIGN SITE MOVEMENT
In modern website design, 3D graphics, creative animation, and GIFs pictures are gaining more and more popularity. The main thing to consider when posting modern animated graphics is that they require more time to download, and as we know, customers don’t like to wait. So if you aren’t sure that animated elements will load quickly on your site, then it’s better not to use them.
5. CLASSIC BLUE-COLOR
Classic blue is recognized as the №1 color this year. This color symbolizes airiness, serenity, calmness, constancy, which in turn is easily perceived by the eye and isn’t visually confusing. But at the same time, it evokes attention and promotes high concentration.
