Respecting Conventions in Website Design and Increasing Conventions

Conventions in Website Design:

While designing websites or getting your website developer to design your website it is required to understand where would the different elements or web conventions sit on the page.

In this blog post, we will go through that design aspect from a marketer’s side of thinking and not a designer approach to provide a better user experience.

We all want new designs to make our website different but don’t forget the web conventions while making it unique and even if you do so make it evident to user that this is your new scroll bar design or your new shopping cart icon. Or your new way of doing is so valuable that it justifies some degree of user frustration by giving a lift in brand engagement or brand awareness. This concept is by Don Norman from his book “The design of everyday things”.

Common Conventions in Website Design:

Let’s focus on your homepage

Logo

Your logo or brand name should be in the upper left-hand corner. The logo should always click back to the homepage.

Navigation

The navigation bar on the top of the page and secondary navigation for extra product services on the left-hand side column. For e-commerce, shopping cart icon should be on the upper right-hand corner.

Utilities

Additional items like registration, login, my account, contact us sometimes FAQs should be on the top of main navigation bar besides shopping cart icon or social media icons. These are smaller and not considered under main functionality.

Any text that you underline, has to be a link. Don’t underline text that is not a link. Any text that has a border around it is a button. Is also clickable and leads to a page on the website.

Animated flashy colorful rectangles are animations- has a lot of colors inside with a call to action button. It is normally an advertisement on the right-hand side column.

A business message with a Headline

The headline on an image with a sub-headline is where you want your customer’s eye to fall on first. It should be a larger font than the normal text on the website with the headline talking about the product and the sub-headline giving the benefit or value that it offers.

Having a site search is very important if you have an E-Commerce website and also if you have a services website where you have lots of products. It should either be in the center of the page below the main navigation or in the top right-hand corner.

Forms

With the text fields in a form, you should have the Asterisk(*) or “Required” written with the field because when the user fills up the form and the form doesn’t get submitted it creates frustration in user’s mind. So if required it should be told with the word “Required” but not left on the customer to assume.

Free

Free means free, if you say free trial, people don’t assume or think they have to enter their credit card information or pay. The free trial doesn’t mean you get a refund in 30 days if you are not happy. That’s a big convention that people often times misunderstand for the sake of marketing but it tends to backfire.

Footer and header

Footer and header sections are designed differently with consistent visual styles. They provide a visual cue and the elements present inside the header and elements are consistent and do not change. Consistency gives users a sense of orientation and it follows throughout all pages on the website.

Also Read: First Creative Web Design Company to build Social Sports Network.

These are web conventions that should be used appropriately and should be missed while designing a website.

These conventions are summarized based on research conducted on website users given by many well-known researchers.

Conveyz designs websites taking into consideration these conventions to provide a better user experience that increases conversions. If you need help with designing your website on these conventions please contact Conveyz – Brisbane Website Design.