If there’s one thing you need to remember when building a website, it’s to never take good design for granted.
As we’ve mentioned in a previous article, a site visitor’s first impression on your website can make or break you in just a matter of seconds.
In other words, if they don’t like what they see within that timeframe, chances are they’re going to close their browser windows and direct their attention elsewhere.
Fortunately, there are a lot of ways to prevent this from happening; one of them is to familiarize yourself with good web design practices. And the good news is you don’t need to be a professional web designer in order to do so.
Because while it’s true that not everyone has a good eye for design, preventing bad design becomes easier once you know what to avoid.
Dicho esto, asegúrate de tener en cuenta estos 4 errores comunes de diseño web. De esta forma, tendrás una cosa menos de la que preocuparte cuando por fin empieces a crear tu sitio web.
Error n.º 1: Usar más de 3 fuentes
A rule of thumb when designing websites? Try not to have too much visual elements going on within your space. Having more than 3 fonts on your site design is a surefire way to break this one rule. It’ll also overwhelm your site visitors.
Limitar las fuentes de tu sitio web a un máximo de 3 es una práctica general de diseño seguida por profesionales. Además, aumenta el nivel de legibilidad y coherencia de tu sitio, factores clave para el éxito del tráfico web.
DON’T DO THIS:
Don’t use more than 3 fonts and try to avoid “fancy fonts” as much as possible. These tend to make your site look unprofessional and outdated.
DO THIS:
Use only 2 fonts, or a maximum of 3 if you have to. Notice how the page below looks clean and sleek, all while keeping readability and consistency all throughout the design.
Try comparing the differences between this example and the previous one. The example below with only two fonts is a website that your visitors will likely take seriously. This previous one above with the overwhelming amount of fonts isn’t.
Mistake #2: Failing to Use White Space
White space is one of the most important aspects of web design. But what is it?
Put simply, white space is literally the empty space between elements in a composition.
In other words, it’s negative space. This pertains to anything on your website that isn’t filled with text, photos, or other design elements.
Now, the problem arises when website owners want to fill all of the white space in, which is an absolute no-no.
White space matters because it gives your site visitors and readers some breathing space when going through your site. Just how it was mentioned in the first design mistake to avoid, overwhelming your website with too much design elements is more than enough reason for your site visitors to leave and for your traffic to decrease significantly. It also makes for poorly executed design.
DON’T DO THIS:
In the example below, take a look at how the text is nearing the edges of the purple section’s margin. Notice as well how all elements leave almost zero room for white space.
DO THIS INSTEAD:
Give your site readers some room to breathe. If adding in long paragraphs is unavoidable, just remember to always take the rules of spacing into account—they’re pretty easy to remember anyway ?. It will leave your page looking cool, crisp, and professional.
Mistake #3: Designing Websites With Zero Flow in Your Site’s Content
It’s important to pay attention as to how information on your website is presented. Moreover, site content should generally follow a logical flow, taking the site viewer’s intuition into consideration.
Echa un vistazo a los dos ejemplos siguientes para ver a qué nos referimos.
DON’T DO THIS:
Unless you’re a graphic designer by profession, it’s probably not a good idea to experiment with the standard flow of your website’s sections.
Below, you can see that the site’s design lacks both visual and logical flow; everything is all over the place. You don’t want your audience having a hard time navigating through your site, either. This is another surefire way to do it.
DO THIS INSTEAD:
Notice how the sections of the website flow depending on what actions the visitor is most likely to take.
El diseño es intuitivo y tiene un flujo lógico: en primer lugar, la organización se presenta e informa a la audiencia sobre lo básico, como qué es y qué hace. En segundo lugar, añade cifras fiables para generar credibilidad. Por último, el sitio web proporciona a la audiencia sus números de contacto y una lista de eventos, animándola a pasar a la acción.
Mistake #4: Trying to Fit in Every Bit of Information Onto Your Website
Añadir muros de texto innecesario donde debería haber espacio en blanco puede ahuyentar a tu audiencia. Recuerda conservar únicamente los detalles importantes.
Studies find that readers only visit 20% of your webpage; everyone else outside that percentage will probably just scroll through your site.
DON’T DO THIS.
Don’t overwhelm your visitors with inconsistent, giant walls of text, especially if it means having to sacrifice your website design’s cohesiveness and structure.
DO THIS INSTEAD:
Keep your copy short and concise, and take out chunks of unecessary text if you can help it. Only keep vital information that your site visitors absolutely need to know.
Conclusion
Website design is important, and can be a huge deciding factor in whether or not you gain site traffic.
Recuerda no darlo por sentado. Dedica siempre tiempo a investigar y busca artículos de diseño que te sirvan de guía por el camino. Antes de que te des cuenta, verás cómo el tráfico de tu sitio web empieza a subir. ? ¡Buena suerte!
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This week’s useful resource:
CANVA has hundreds of resources that you can access on their website. Apart from useful and easy-to-follow design tips, they also have photo editing tools, graphs, and a wide range of useful resources you can use for your creative projects.
Echa un vistazo a esta fantástica Guía de colores de Canva para tu próximo proyecto de diseño.
