How to create a professional website design

To have an effective website, you will need to focus on creating a website design that looks professional and appealing. It is one of the core elements of a great website because the design can either make users stay on your website or leave.

What is a website design?

Web design refers to the process of creating a website that focuses on the design for the website. A website design is created through planning and building elements for your website such as the structure, images, colors, fonts, and graphics.

Why is website design important?

Website design is really important for a variety of reasons where it helps with:

Setting your website’s first impression

When your audience visits your website, your website design gives them an impression about your business where it can be negative or positive.

For that very reason, your website should look appealing so that your audience would stay on your website and get to know more about your business. A well designed website will make it less likely that your audience would leave and visit a competitor’s website.

Builds trust with your audience

People don’t trust poorly designed websites because they tend to make your website look outdated and look suspicious.

While a professional and appealing website design signals trust with your audience making them comfortable to continue checking your website even more.

Building a professional website design is going to make your audience stay even longer on your website which will help your business capture leads.

Creates consistency with your audience

When a business has a website, it needs to be consistent in its design across all pages. This means that a website needs to have the same fonts, styles, layouts in all the website’s pages.

Therefore, a consistent website design is more likely going to keep visitors on your website where they will continue checking it further which will help you by bringing leads and conversions. However, if the design isn’t consistent throughout the website, visitors will bounce from your website and go to other competitors’ professional websites.

Elements in a web design

While designing a website, there are two key elements that you need to plan and execute on your website so it will look professional and appealing to your audience. They are the visual and functional elements that will be discussed below in more detail.

Visual elements

The visual elements of a website are the elements that make the appearance of your website. These elements help by developing unique user experiences and building trust with visitors.

Great visual elements build trust with your visitors and create leads that can then easily become conversions.

Fonts

Choosing a suitable font is one of the main visual elements that you need to focus on. The best font is the one that complements and suits your web design as a whole.

When choosing the right font for your website, you will need to figure out your brand personality so you can choose a font based on how you want your website to appear.

You can search for fonts on Google fonts which offers over 800 free fonts that you can use.

Colors

Choosing the right colors is one of the most important elements that you will need when designing your website. Colors should complement the overall design and how you want your brand to appear to visitors when they are on your website.

Layout

Designing the layout for your website is important as it will show how your website is structured and seen by your visitors. When choosing a layout, you have to make sure that it sends the right message to your target audience.

Graphics/ images/ videos

You can also add graphic elements such as shapes, photos, videos, icons, and illustrations throughout your website which will help your website appear professional. Using these elements can also grab the attention of your visitors and let them stay on your website.

Written content

Your web designer’s job isn’t to write about writing the content, rather it’s their work to arrange the written content on the website in a way that is easy to read and captures people’s attention.

Functional Elements

Functional elements represent what your website can do and how it works when a visitor uses it. When a website functions properly, it can help you rank higher in search engine results.

Navigation

Website navigation is one of the main properties that show whether your website is functioning properly or not.

A website with proper navigation will help your visitors know what your website offers through accessing all website pages easily so it creates the best user experience for those who are on your website.

Compatibility

Compatibility is how well your website loads and looks on different browsers, operating systems, and devices. Therefore, your website should adapt differently on these different channels and devices so that

Speed

One of the best top qualities of a website is that it is fast. So, your website’s loading speed should be fast so visitors can remain on your website and return to it again.

Website speed is a factor that affects its ranking on search engines so you need to take into consideration all the factors that can make your website’s speed fast.

Site structure

The website structure refers to how your website’s pages are structured and connected to each other. Website structure has an important role in providing a great user experience while helping you rank on search results in top positions.

The site structure should make it easy for visitors to navigate through your website as well as search engines to be able to crawl your website.

Steps for creating a website design

Define the purpose of your website

Before you start creating and designing your website, you need to know the goal and purpose behind your website. So, before you start web design, you will need to ask yourself several questions such as:

Who is your website’s target audience
What is the aim behind your website; is it to sell products or services or to inform visitors with new information
After looking at your competitors’ website, what inspiration did you get for designing your website

It’s important to answer these questions so you can understand how you want your website design to look.

Develop Sitemap and wireframes

A sitemap is used as a way to create the structure and organization of pages and content in your website. It helps by showing the website’s structure and explains the relationships between all pages.

After defining the sitemap, the next step is to create wireframes. Wireframes are visual representations of your website structure which acts as a guide that help you create your website’s design final look.

Tools for creating sitemaps and wireframes

Slickplan
Writemaps
Mindnode
Webflow

Here is a visual representation of wireframes from Webflow

Organizing content

The written content is very important in a website because it’s what drives visitors to stay on your website, engage with it, and take action. It is also an important factor in creating visibility in search engines where it will help you rank higher in search engines.

You will need to organize the content in a way that is appealing to your visitors and audience.

Organizing visual designs

In this step, you will need to organize the visual style of your website. So, you will take all the visual elements that were created and organize them on the website in a way that is appealing.

You can also use graphic design software such as Visme to create graphics that stand out to your audience and then set them in the site’s structure.

Website testing

After setting up all the content and visuals, it’s time to test your website. This happens through testing every page to see that all links are working properly on all devices and browsers.

If there are errors, you will need to fix them so your website would work properly.

Launching the website

After testing the website, you will need to launch your website through publishing your website. There will be elements on your website that will need to be fixed in the future and will require constant maintenance so you will need to always fix problems as they arise.

In conclusion, you will need to create a professional website design with both visual and functional elements that will help your website appear attractive as well as provide a friendly user experience that will make your visitors stay on your website.

Osolutions

How to create a professional website design

What is a website design?

Why is website design important?

Setting your website’s first impression

Builds trust with your audience

Creates consistency with your audience

Want to build your own website? Check out our step by step guide for building your website

Elements in a web design

Visual elements

Fonts

Colors

Layout

Graphics/ images/ videos

Written content

Want to know how to structure your website to rank higher on search results? Check out our resource to know how to do this.

Functional Elements

Navigation

Compatibility

Speed

Site structure

Steps for creating a website design

Define the purpose of your website

Develop Sitemap and wireframes

Tools for creating sitemaps and wireframes

Organizing content

Organizing visual designs

Website testing

Launching the website

Want a one to one free consultation that will help you when designing your website, Osolutions can help you with its consultation where it will help you through:

Cairo Office:

Jeddah Office:

FOLLOW US

QUICK LINKS