20 Basic Design Principles to Follow for an Effective Business Website [ Infographic ]

When users surf your website they don’t only consume information there, they judge you also and a good web design can stand you out from competitors.

Your website has a purpose of attracting visitors and converting them into sales or leads. This purpose will fulfill only when you will give the best user experience.

One thing you will have to keep in mind that when we are talking about design then it is art and everyone has their own taste. So you have to scrap away your prejudice and biases.

See you are not a user of website neither your boss is. Hence while working on the design of your site keep the care of taste of users, not your boss. Your boss may like dancing monkey on homepage then what ??? 😉

The best way is you should perform a multi-variety test and take a data-driven informed decision.

If you are indecisive that why you actually require a smart and effective website design ? I have collected some stats which will make your case stronger that why you need to give best user experience through superb, effective and smart web design.

Below Stats suggest Why You Need Smarter Website Design ?

• Given 15 minutes to consume content, two-thirds of people would rather read something beautifully designed than something plain. (Source: Adobe)

• 39% of people will stop engaging with a website if images won’t load or take too long to load. (Source: Adobe)

• 51% of people think “thorough contact information” is the most important element missing from many company websites. (Source: KoMarketing)

• 38% of people will stop engaging with a website if the content/layout is unattractive. (Source: Adobe)

• 44% of website visitors will leave a company’s website if there’s no contact information or phone number. (Source: KoMarketing)

• Between December 2013 and December 2015, tablet internet consumption grew by 30%. (Source: comScore)

• Between December 2013 and December 2015, smartphone internet consumption grew by 78%. (Source: comScore)

• Between December 2013 and December 2015, desktop internet consumption dropped by 1%. (Source: comScore)

• Mobile devices now account for nearly 2 of every 3 minutes spent online. (Source: comScore)

• 13% of adults access the internet via mobile only. 11% access the internet via desktop only. (Source: comScore)

• 40% of smartphone and tablet owners search for B2B products on those devices. (Source: KoMarketing)

• 47% of website visitors check out a company’s products/services page before looking at any other sections of the site. (Source: KoMarketing)

•  Once on a company’s homepage, 86% of visitors want to see information about that company’s products/services. (Source: KoMarketing)

• Once on a company’s homepage, 64% of visitors want to see the company’s contact information. (Source: KoMarketing)

• Once on a company’s homepage, 52% of visitors want to see “about us” information. (Source: KoMarketing)

• After reaching a company’s website via a referral site, 50% of visitors will use the navigation menu to orient themselves. (Source: KoMarketing)

• After reaching a company’s website via a referral site, 36% of visitors will click on the company’s logo to reach the homepage. (Source: KoMarketing)

I think on basis of above stats you must be understood that you actually need to improve your existing website or in case you don’t have a website then you need a smarter one immediately.

Although every business is unique and their web audience is unique too. Hence web designing should be done by keeping in mind of that uniqueness.

But there is some common thread in every design pattern which you require to care. Here Canva’s Designing School put it all web designing basic principle together in one infographic.