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Running a website teaches you many things, and a few of them are what not to do while starting an eCommerce website. Research is one of the most important aspects when it comes to running a website. You have to follow the crowd to kick-start your business. To open a shop is easy; to keep it open is an art. ~Chinese Proverb Here are a few trends which you can follow while you develop your first website:

Responsive Website Design

Gone are the times when users spend hours browsing a website for their desired products. Now users are equipped with Google, and they have websites which are easy to navigate. In the past two years, there has been so much buzz about responsive website design. What exactly is a responsive website that engages a user so much? The answer is a website which operates on your smartphone with the same efficiency as on your laptop. There are companies doing wonders in developing a responsive website. And Branex is surely one of them.

Clutter-free Website

As the famous notation goes “Keep It Simple” This statement applies to eCommerce websites too. No matter how many products you’re offering, make sure your site is organized in a clutter-free manner. Consumers nowadays are smart enough to abandon the slow website and shift to any other website which saves them time. So, as a company, it’s your duty to get the bugs fixed in your website and make it simpler, yet user-friendly. Yes, user-friendliness is one of the trends which is making so much buzz these days. In the last few years, Amazon has made so much effort in user-friendliness, and their sale are skyrocketing with an hourly rate.

Food Delivery on the Go

In the last two years, online food delivery services have leaped in the Pakistani market. With the emergence of FoodPanda and EatOye, dozens of companies followed the trend. But as they say, if you don't have something good to offer, don't start it. But if you have that passion or if you're a foodie, then just go for it. Start with a blog and turn it into a full-time website. Share your favorite dishes, share funny experiences, or follow the trend and start delivering food right from your kitchen.

Easy Cart System

Amazon has introduced a one-step check which created waves in the eCommerce industry. And smartly, Amazon made it a patent; this turned out to be a very genius step by Jeff Bezos. Now you can see others following the trend of making their checkout page easy. Shopify is evident by its popularity and the importance of the simple checkout system. So, make sure you test your checkout for both speed and simplicity.

Website usability determines the success or failure of a website design. Since the web visitor is the very person who is going to do the clicks and thus holds much importance in the eyes of the businesses, user-centric website design has taken to the first-row position when it comes to inculcating important elements in a web design, for profitability. In this article today, I am not going to discuss the implementation details, such as the placement of the search box and all, but the main principles and approaches for effective web design.

Effective Web Design Principles

In order to effectively use the principles, we must first understand how a web user thinks and interacts with websites.

How a Web Users Think?

Basically, the way a user acts at a website is similar to the way he acts when at a store. Visitors land on a website and they put in a glancing gaze at about everything. They only happen to stay when they find something that interests them. If they don’t, they will simply move on.

What Do Users Appreciate?

Users basically look for information. they don’t really care how is it coming to them. Through the content or through the visuals. This is the very reason behind the success of websites that offer users a chance to acquire relevant information through lots of content and in such cases users are ready to compromise a little on the quality of the overall website design.

How Do Users Analyze?

When a user lands on a webpage, they instantly look for some anchor points which would guide them through the content of the page. The process starts with scanning. Even wondered why we have highlighted text and fancy fonts lying in the middle of many web pages. These are the anchor points that help users build attraction and relate to the topic. The engagement begins here and onwards. Also Read: Single Page Website Design vs Multi Page Website Design

When Do Users Leave?

When the website fails to deliver what the user is looking for, both in terms of design and content, is the time when the user intends to navigate away.

Don’t Make Them Think

Any website design that is created keeping the users’ engagement in mind should be as obvious and self-explanatory as possible. If the navigation and site architecture are not intuitive, the number of questions in the user’s mind will increase and it will get hard for him to comprehend how the system works, thus agitation will build up in his mind and induce him to leave. Also Read: 7 Website Design Techniques That Improve User Engagement

Work To Build Up Attention

A website provides a mix of both static and dynamic content to the user. However, there are certain elements that attract more attention than others do. Images are of them. Eye-catching, interactive images work wonders when we use them to build up visitor’s focus on any one web element. The human eye is a highly non-linear device, and web users can instantly recognize edges, patterns, and motions. This is why video-based advertisements are extremely annoying and distracting, but from the marketing perspective, they perfectly do the job of capturing users’ attention.

Expose the Core Features

Modern web designs are usually criticized for their approach of guiding users by steps, along with large buttons or visual effects. But if we see them from the design perspective, these elements are all but bad. Such step-by-step guidelines for fulfilling any task are extremely important as they lead the visitor, and the business owner wants them to be led in a user-friendly way. Letting the users know what functions are available is among the primary principles of a successful user interface design. And as long as it's achieved, it doesn’t really matter how it’s done. It’s the end result that matters the most.

Keep it Simple and Silly.

The keep it simple, silly (KISS) principle should be the primary goal of every business owner who chooses to get a website designed for his/her business. although the website design is important, however, it just works as an eye candy for the entire experience. In most cases, the web visitor is looking for information than the design only, and it is the design that compliments the information transmittal process. A user-friendly content-rich website that is well-designed serves the purpose exactly right.

Conclusion

So these are the few effective web design principles that I think should be included in any website design if the main aim is to please web visitors and induce them to make a sale or fill a lead. Please do note that these principles are the important ones, but not the only ones to be followed. There is a long list of them, and including all of them will make the post very lengthy and less interesting. I will come up with similar posts soon that will enlighten you on factors that can help you in creating beautiful yet performing website designs.

The modern entrepreneurs of today are passionate, determined, and destined for success. As an entrepreneur, you must also be looking forward to a lot of success. The advent of digital technologies has revolutionized almost everything and everyone now understands that the internet provides the best chance of making money. Indeed, it is exactly why people from all walks of life are engaging them in online ventures, which are commonly launched through website design, however, some succeed and others do not. Keeping in view the new entrants and the not-so-rising number of successful ventures, I, being part of a professional website design company, would like to bring to the attention of budding business owners a few tips that could help them attain long-lasting success in lieu of their professional website designs.

Make Communication Available Instantly

Customer support is one of the primary elements of success for businesses around the globe. For that matter, a budding business owner must make sure that the prospects and clients can get in touch with him or with a company’s representative almost instantly whenever the need arises. In order to provide an instant get-in-touch mechanism to your target audience make sure to add an easy-to-access contact info page/form on your website design. Many business owners, who are luring online leads, fail to understand the importance of a credible contact page and set up long forms which both customers and prospects find difficult to fill out, and as a result, they lose a vital element of attaining client satisfaction.

Increase Sales Through Descriptions

For entrepreneurs, mainly the ones who are running online ventures, they must keep focusing on how to increase their sales at all times. However, doing this gets really difficult if you are not banking on your initials in the right manner. Online businesses that are offering their services for hire to customers must highlight the entire process descriptively. You should also add professional photographs designed to catch the customer’s eye. Do not hesitate to employ services from local artists whose work can provide esteem and description to your online services.

Keep It Simple

In order to make your website sell, don’t forget to take a look at the most selling ones in the world. The current trend that you will also notice is the use of a simple design. With the start of the current year, it has been made evident by design gurus across the globe that less is the new more. Businesses have now realized that customers are not interested in all the dancing and fancy that used to be part of website design in the old days. The customer of today is more inclined towards acquiring information about the service they wish to acquire. Any and every piece of information is welcome and design elements in website designs are kept at a minimum to add more depth to content and highlight what is required without deviating the customer’s attention to anything else.

Choice Of Colors

Another thing that requires consideration is the choice of colors that any business owner makes for their business website design. Since your brand image is not limited to color choices, the color schemes that you choose to send your message across are equally important. Subtle colors are part of the trending design tactics in 2017. The customers of today’s age respond to stimuli subconsciously. Yes, your website needs to look elegant at all levels however you do not have to make it a color pencil box to attract your customer’s attention. In order to do that effectively, you require a functional website that falls on the charts of decent-looking websites in terms of color usage and trends. The preference of colors of your target audience might differ with age and gender and most importantly by the shopping habits. Although race and nationality also hold much importance, however, we will not go into that detail in this article. An important point to note here is that no single color can bring about the best conversion to your website. To check which color fits best on your requirements, get help from A/B testing which is an effective testing method used especially when the business owner is confused among two equally deserving options. A/B testing will reveal which color option is liked by your customers and bring ease to your quest to find the perfect color scheme for your website design.

Typography

Typography is yet another element that is overlooked at all levels during a website design process. Your first step towards including effective typography in your website design is to first learn about the typography concepts. People still believe that typography is a mere game of typing letters, we must clarify, that it’s not! The anatomy of a typeface involves every bit of the detail that comes in the form of measurements, curves, and other general standards which must be respected at all levels. Sometimes it is even suggested to break a few rules to stand out with your typography design, which again is a critical part to be decided on the business owner’s level. Taking some time to learn the basic principles will make you vastly more aware of the characteristics of the typefaces you choose and the manner in which you are using type as art.

Quick Load Time

Loading time is yet another factor that decides how successful your website will be in front of the customer. You see, it’s a fast-paced age that we are living in and no one has too much spare time to spend on any one event. When it comes to websites, the gurus say that an online visitor leaves a web page if it doesn’t load in a time of 10 seconds. An equipped website developer will help you in this regard. In order to tweak your website in the best possible way so that it loads completely within the 10-second time frame without losing any of its functionality, get in touch with a professional website developer at your earliest.