Simplicity rules: It makes a site look smooth; lessen navigation perplexity and it helps accomplishing wanted objectives and results (I.e., more information exchanges, endorsers and deals). Be that as it may, over and over again it appears to be subtle to streamline your site plan. Regardless of how hard you attempt, you can't make your work look like Apple's. So what does a site planner truly needs to do? Worry not, for there are 5 beginning stages to improve your site outline.
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| simplebits |
A simple website design shouldn’t be a
daunting all-or-nothing ordeal – you can simplify your design by taking small
steps. Simple tasks like putting the focus only on the essential elements of
your website, getting rid of the unnecessary, reducing the number of pages your
site has, getting more content above the fold, and limiting the number of
colors you use. You can always fine-tune and improve your simple design, but
the important thing here is to get started.
Are you ready to start simplifying your website design? Awesome.
Without further ado, here are 5 starting
points to simplify your website design.
1. Focus Only On Essential Elements
1. Focus Only On Essential Elements
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| thesis |
This first step probably seems
forehead-slapping obvious: of course I
should put the focus on the essential elements in my site, what am I, an idiot? But a surprising number of websites
fail to achieve this and the result is a big mess of important and unimportant
elements spewed onto a page. I’m as guilty of doing this in the past as
anybody. It’s hard to be objective and prioritize what’s important or not,
because everything seems
essential. If you want your website design to be simpler, identify what needs to be
focus, just like with any good visual design or piece of art.
And that means putting the focus only on the essential elements.
Use the 80-20 rule
What 20% of what’s on a page gives 80% of the value and content
that people go there for? It could be the copy, some social proof (review
snippets, testimonials, media badges), and a signup form or call-to-action
button, for example. That’s the 20% right there. On your website, as well as on
each individual page, focus on displaying only the 20% of site elements
that are delivering 80% of that usefulness.
This isn’t a technical step but a principle that you can use as
your guide to simplify your website design constantly. The 80-20 rule will help
simplify your website design by pushing you to trim your site elements down to
the essentials. What’s really cool is that the 80-20 rule can also help
increase your desired results that you hope to achieve on your website. For
example, an increased conversion rate in visitors subscribing, signing up, or
buying. How? You’re
making it so there are less distractions and things for visitors to click on to
leave the page.
As we as a whole know, we're continually searching for a reason
not to buy something at the last stride, and any motivation to explore away is
a decent one. Diminish those reasons and snap away alternatives with the 80-20 principle.
Chris Pearson, creator of the popular Thesis WordPress
theme framework, says this is
exactly what helped increase sales on his website.
2. Get Rid of All Unnecessary Elements
2. Get Rid of All Unnecessary Elements
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| thumblr |
We’re continuing with the 80-20 rule here.
Now that you’ve identified the 20% of website
elements that will get you 80% of your desired results, it’s time to get rid of all unnecessary elements. At the
end of the day, the 80% of site components that will get you just 20% of
results. It could be social media sharing widgets, sidebar elements, blog post Meta
details (date, time, author, number of comments, etc), or links in the footer
(this is especially a huge culprit a lot of the times, particularly when the
visitor is looking for the aforementioned excuse to navigate away from the
page).
3. Reduce the Number of Pages
squarespace
A large part of simplifying your website
design is to simply have fewer places to explore and click around. You can do
that by trimming the page count. Either get rid of unnecessary pages
that deep down inside you know aren’t needed, or at the very least, fuse
multiple pages into one. I mean, you don’t really need to separate
"about the site" and "about me" pages.
Firstly, get in the mindset of the visitor – if you were to
arrive on your website,what are the key things would you want to do? For instance find out what your stuff is about? Or contact you? Next, make sure that your pages facilitate what is
necessary and nothing more. Don’t keep unnecessary pages on
your website because you think you need to, or because other websites have
them. When you reduce the number of pages on your website, not only it is
easier for your visitors to focus on your content because there’s less places
to click around, but your navigation menu is simpler too.
We’ve all been on websites with too many navigation menu items. We
don’t know where to start navigating because we get overwhelmed by the choices.
And when we get overwhelmed by being presented with too many choices, we go
with choosing nothing. By having as few navigation menu items as possible, you make
your website not only simpler but more inviting and friendlier to visitors.
4. Get More Content Above
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| mailchimp |
Studies have
shown that a majority of people spend most of their time above the fold on web
pages (what shows up on the screen without scrolling down). So if you want to
increase the effectiveness of your website, have the main content and
call-to-action elements above the fold. You can accomplish something as
straightforward as shortening the header tallness in the event that you have a
logo and a route menu at the highest point of your site.
This involves nothing more than changing the header’s
"height" value in your stylesheet (typically
style.css or stylesheet.css). Also, see if a sign-up form or button
is below the fold. Move that element higher up in the page so it’s the first
thing a visitor sees. After all, that is your
desired call-to-action of the visitor, so decrease the work needed to get to it (ie.
scrolling).5. Limit Your Color Scheme
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| 37signals |
It’s easy to get carried away with colors.
Why settle on 2 or 3 colors when you can have 12 or 13? But in order to
simplify your website design visually, you need to limit your color scheme. When in doubt, use fewer colors. It’ll
vary based on your design of course, but try sticking with no more than 2 or 3
colors to start off. If you need more subtlety and texture to your visual
design, use shades of the same color – light blue for the background and darker
blue for header and menu items.
I'm as blameworthy as anybody with getting wild with hues before.
I'll include this shading, then another, and another – and before I know it, it
would seem that a rainbow looseness of the bowels everywhere on my site.You can
have your website constructively simplified, but if the colors distract the
eyes when you look at it rather than complimenting the content, then all that
effort was for naught. So use fewer colors with your website design instead.
Having trouble
choosing a color to start with? Before & After magazine has a useful free e-book on
how to find the perfect color here. Need help
with picking a color scheme? Try
out this handy color scheme generator.
Last, but not least
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| apple |
Ideally you're currently equipped and
prepared to begin simplifying your site outline. You'll be more pleased
flaunting your site since it'll look gosh-darned hot and in conclusion, your
guests will have a considerably more charming background searching in your site.
To recap, here are the 5 starting points to simplify your website design:
1.
Put the focus only on the essential
elements
2.
Get rid of all unnecessary elements
3.
Reduce the number of pages
4.
Get more content above the fold
5.
Limit your color palette
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