Creating a user-friendly website is important for your company, organization, or product. What are the key tips for making your website user-friendly? According to a San Diego web designer, the following ten elements are crucial in creating an easy to use, functional website.

Clean Design

A “clean” design is one that is crisp, bright and isn’t afraid of white space. White space may seem like unused real estate, yet proper use of empty space on a web page draws the user’s attention to correct locations. A busy or cluttered page may not direct the attention of the user to certain elements. When consulting with a web design company in San Diego, they asserted that “less is more” in the design of a website.

Consistency in Design

It is essential that each page of the website is consistent with one another, utilizing the same or similar design elements. By creating uniform text font, font size, color schemes, etc., the website will feel like one cohesive unit, rather than separate pages.

Ease of Navigation

The user should be able to easily identify the different pages of your website (Contact, About, etc.). It is best to use user norms and expectations. Having a navigation bar at the top or to the left, as well as the bottom of the page, is what a user would expect and be looking for. These navigation menus should be found consistent on each page.

Attention-Grabbing Buttons

If you are creating a call to action for your website user, such as “Contact Us Now!” or “Subscribe Here”, they should be placed as buttons, not simple hyperlinks. Using clear buttons that grab attention is the best way to drive your users to follow these call to actions.

Obvious Hyperlinks

Hyperlinks do still belong on a website, though. Once again, using what users may already expect is the best method here. Website users will understand that a different color or an underlined text signifies a link to another page.

Supportive Images

While images can be very helpful, they must support the content of the website. Images can distract a user from the information provided. Any images used should enhance the message of the website. Utilizing stock images is not suggested. Users give better responses to original images.

Mobile-Friendly

Creating a website that loads smoothly on a mobile device is extremely important. According to Pew Research Center, 68% of U.S. Adults own a smartphone. The mobile website should still exhibit easy navigation and clear design format.

Consistency Across Browsers

Your website should function the same when accessing your website on Internet Explorer, Google Chrome, Mozilla Firefox, or any other internet browsers. Ensuring that your website works on all browsers is key in being user-friendly.

Eliminating Errors

Errors occur. Maybe a link was misspelled or a page deleted. The response of a website should direct the user to write the location or back to another page. A user may become frustrated with a website if these errors occur frequently. It is important to keep links updated and create a pleasant experience if the user is directed to an Error or 404 page.

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