25 Web Design, Web Development and UI Tips to Help Business – GCC Marketing Dubai

In general, giving recommendations on web design is a thankless task, because many difficult to predict factors affect the ultimate success of a business. Even with 1000+ successful web projects, it’s hard to say what works best and for what reason.

Today’s article contains 25 detailed and scientifically based recommendations that will help make the site closer, more convenient and more attractive for each user.

Most recipes are backed up by modern research and many years of web development experience. Here are simple UX ideas for beginners and advanced tips for the pros.

Best UX and Web Design Tips by GCC Marketing Dubai

For your convenience, we will break today’s article into several sections dedicated to certain aspects of the website.

And let’s start with the most important thing – the structure of the template.

Webpage Design Tips

Websites consist of two parts – container and content.

The container, in turn, can be conditionally divided into structure and style. Let’s start with the first one.

The following tips are for the structure and layout of page elements.

1. Observe the visual hierarchy

Each page has a specific visual hierarchy.

If you are not familiar with the concept, here is the definition: “The visual hierarchy is determined by the location, size, color, and contrast of the elements of the web page. It determines their relative importance and the order in which they are detected by the eye. ”

Web designers use a visual hierarchy to first draw attention to important elements.

To do this, the position (higher or lower), dimensions (larger or smaller), visual effects (video, images, icons) and contrast (negative space) are thought out.

The combination of these techniques enhances the effect.

Everyone will see a large video located high on the page, surrounded by contrasting negative space.

On the other hand, few people pay attention to the tiny gray text on a white background, hidden next to the footer of the site.

2. Use a descriptive headline with keywords

The heading at the top of the main page is either descriptive or useless.

If the second, the visitor will not be able to answer his first question: “Did I get to the address?”

The title is a unique opportunity to use the target keyword phrase and indicate relevancy. But many marketers write something clever or vague.

Rule number one: a clear headline is better than a smart one.

He just has to explain the activities of the company and expose you in a good light.

3. Do not place all calls to action at the top of the page

Yes, visitors spend the most time in the header area, but this does not mean that they are prepared to perform the target action after reading a few lines!

Many conversions occur after a full review of the page.

When Chartbeat experts analyzed 25 million web visits across the Internet, it turned out that the largest number of conversions occurred well below the headline.

Do not focus only on the top – leave STA for the middle and footer.

4. Design long pages. Answer all the questions.

More pixels – more space for answers, anti-objection, and social evidence. If the visitor does not find the answer to an important question, he continues scrolling.

A successful e-commerce page is a simulator of a seller’s dialogue with a buyer. Interruption of the dialogue in mid-sentence leaves unresolved issues and does not lead to conversions.

Rule number two: ALL short pages interrupt the conversion process.

Evidence in the studio! The famous marketing research studio Crazy Egg forced the agency to make the homepage 20 times longer. The result is a 30% increase in conversions.

5. Show one thing at a time

“I like clean, modern design,” is what most customers say when discussing the look of a future site. They are often called Apple as an example.

Visitors do not like cluttered pages. They love negative space.

In other words, an e-commerce site should strive for visual simplicity.

In 2012, Google conducted a large-scale study, studying the tastes of the audience.

Even then, analysts came to the conclusion that traditional web design with a navigation bar on the left side, a content area in the middle and a sidebar on the right is inefficient.

Most users gravitate towards a simple and clear single-column pattern.

Therefore, demonstrate one important element on the screen, changing focus as you scroll.

6. Stick to the standard template

This Google study found that “high prototypicality” correlates with the perceived beauty of the template. In other words, strange – not always beautiful.

A website that follows web design standards is more likely to appeal to customers.

According to the polls, the sites considered the most beautiful have both high prototypicality and low visual complexity. They are clean & simple.

Want to stand out from the competition – great.

Experiment with logos and slogans, but the template is not the place to experiment.

Be traditional and discreet about UX. But what is the standard?

The authoritative American agency Orbitmedia conducted its own analysis to find out the design features of 50 leading marketing sites.

Here are its results:

• Company logo in the upper left corner: 100%

• Contact information in the upper right corner: 44%

• Navigation elements in the site header: 88%

• Value offer at the top of the page: 80%

• Call to action at the top of the page: 78%

• Slideshow on the home page: 32%

• Header search string: 54%

• Subscription by email in the header: 24%

• Icons of social networks in the header: 26%

• Footer Social Media Icons: 72%

• Responsive design: 68%

Thus, the following site design can be considered “standard”:

• Logo top left

• Horizontal navigation in the header

• A search bar at the top of the page

• Links to social networks in the basement of the site

• Availability of responsive design

7. Beware of the “fake bottom”

Modern marketing sites, especially those selling, are built from content blocks.

They consist of bricks, where the text is in one, the image in the second, and together these blocks form a monolithic wall. But pay attention to the basement of this building.

The website footer is usually made darker so that the visitor in the scrolling process understands that the end of the page is approaching. If you make the element in the middle of the page dark, this trick will work against you. A person will think that he has reached the basement and will stop!

This web design trap is called the “fake bottom.” Do not get caught!

To keep your business safe, use subtle variations in shades when developing content blocks. The sharper the contrast, the higher the likelihood of a stop.

You can check the activity of users on the page using a heat map.

8. Avoid carousels and spinning sliders.

Carousels and image sliders have been popular in web design for years.

But there is a small problem: visitors during landing can see only the first slide.

In the West, a lot of research in the field of UX was carried out, which proved their inexpediency.

The message that you are trying to convey on the second, third, fourth slide is most likely ignored or not even caught the eye of the potential client.

Why do sliders still live? The reason is simple: when a large company has fifteen departments fighting for the top of the site, you have to put them in one carousel.

It is healthy for domestic politics, not for users.

How to replace sliders and carousels:

• Place photos one at a time so that they pop up when scrolling

• Use your favorite photos that have a powerful effect on people.

9. Discard tabs and expandable blocks

Web design continues to move away from tabs and expanding content blocks.

You should have heard that 76% of website visitors are “scanners,” that is, they are fluent in browsing content and not peering into the arrangement of commas.

Rule number three: scrolling is faster and easier than clicking.

Tabs and all kinds of expanding elements from the content are extremely uncomfortable, unpleasant for the always rushing audience. If people do not have time to click on the tabs, they will not see your interesting content and will not be converted.

Tips for Using Images in Web Design

Let’s talk about the visual images through which you act on the client.

10. Post photos of people

Individuals have unique psychological strength. From the moment of birth, a person constantly watches the faces of others. Their magnetic power is useful in web design.

Photos of real people not only attract attention but also contribute to the conversion.

A study by online marketers at Basecamp showed an incredible 102% jump in conversions when the visual power of individuals and customer reviews were combined on the sales page.

Make sure your website does not look like an abandoned ship abandoned by a team.

Over the years, we have been discussing marketing issues with different companies.

And you know what surprises? Large companies try to look like a nice cafe near your home, and small companies try to look big and solid. Strange, right?

In fact, a business on the Web just has to look more personal and “human.”

11. Do not use stock photos of people

There is a time for free stock photos, but we would advise avoiding the same smiling images like fire. They never work. Rather, they cause distrust.

Companies are seduced by stock photos because it is a high-quality free product. However, the same people smile from millions of other sites – and this destroys trust.

Rule number five: authenticity is more precious than brilliance.

Analysts at NN Group found: users pay more attention to photographs and other images containing relevant information, but ignore stock images taken from public sources. Hire a photographer!

12. Use faces to attract attention

You probably noticed: the face on the screen that is facing the form (call to action, links) acts as an arrow. You immediately look at what’s interesting.

This is a well-known psychological phenomenon. When UX American researcher James Breeze showed people the design of a web page with the same face turned in different directions, heat maps confirmed: users are looking in the direction of the gaze of the hero.

Remember the famous experiment with a child. When a child looks at the camera, visitors look at the child. When a child looks to the right (in the direction of the content heading), the visitor’s eyes switch to this same content. There you should pay attention to!

13. Use arrows to attract attention

People can direct attention, but this is not the only way to control the eyes of your visitors. Small arrows still remain effective.

In CXL ai-tracking experiments, it was found that a simple arrow effectively controls the attention of site visitors.

If you want visitors to look at something, hover a bright arrow at it.

I’m not sure: is this advice ridiculously obvious or deeply perceptive?

14. Control your attention with colors

Each color has emotional connotations (red – urgent, blue – calm).

The color scheme of the site can control the attention of users.

Eyequant research on the color of buttons confirms the power of contrast.

But research shows that colorful buttons are not always effective.

If you want to make the button as visible as possible:

• Contrast the color of the button with the background

• Contrast the color of the button with the button text

• Contrast the color of the button with adjacent elements

• Leave negative space around the button

Von Restorff effect

In the 1930s, German scientist Hedwig von Restorff discovered that when showing a series of ten objects, people remember objects different from others. This is due to the fact that the occipital lobe of the brain is most sensitive to visual differences, or “interruptions in the pattern.”

Web marketer Paras Chopra conducted experiments that showed: great colors are not just remembered better, site visitors click them as much as 60% more often!

Web Design Tip: Select an “action color” for all links and buttons. Make this color different from the brand colors used throughout the design (these are “passive colors”).

Do not apply action color anywhere except in priority clickable elements.

Web Design Navigation and Link Tips

It is time to plunge into the world of site navigation with its menu, buttons, and links.

15. Navigation should be obvious.

Navigation is always a great opportunity to communicate. Visitors usually begin their visit by looking at the headline. Everything, including your menus, is likely to be in sight.

But not all page elements attract attention equally. In the figure, you can see the location of the four optical zones in the order of their visibility (priority).

Site navigation rules have been worked out on hundreds of thousands, even millions of websites.

Adhere to time-tested practices, and users will not get lost.

16. See where you redirect visitors

If a visitor lands on a landing page, your goal is to convert it to a lead. By sending him links to read a blog, you leave the visitor alone with content that is less focused on conversion. Blog posts naturally have more distractions and escape opportunities. The result is low conversions.

17. Be careful when linking to other websites

When appropriate and helps visitors achieve their goals, you can link to relevant content from other people’s resources. This practice promotes mutual advancement in search results.

Often in the top 3 topic pages on SEO and web development, you can find publications that link to dozens of articles and studies!

But on landing pages and homepage you need to be careful with links.

Ask yourself: if your page is optimized for converting visitors to customers, do you really want visitors to click on someone else’s link?

Does this help achieve your business goals? Unlikely.

18. Do not place social media buttons in the header

Bright buttons of social networks in the header of the site will also not help conversions.

Imagine that a visitor has just begun to master with a new resource – and suddenly he notices a familiar Facebook icon. He recalls that he did not check the messages, follows the link and … never returns to your magnificent homepage.

Links to extraneous resources in the header is the wrong way to integrate.

If you link to a social network, do it through the footer.

Tips for filling your site with content

So, we figured out the structure of the template, visual effects and even certain aspects of navigation in web design. Now a few words about filling content.

19. Publish informative subtitles

Vague subtitles are everywhere. They are large and useless, but they are often followed by small, much more useful things. Strange, right? Why not the other way around?

Make sure the headings and subheadings of your content are clear and informative.

If they are called “products” or “services”, will new visitors understand them?

In general, any long content should be broken by sensible subtitles.

This is good for scanners. This is good for people with visual impairments.

This is also good for SEO. Never miss a chance to please search engines!

Web Design Tip: Subheadings can be completely unnecessary. If the page is very compact and perfectly perceived without them, remove the excess. Everything ingenious is simple.

20. Avoid long paragraphs and lines.

Massive paragraph bricks resemble a boring textbook rather than selling text.

UX good practice involves breaking down large paragraphs into shorter ones, not exceeding 3-4 terms in height. By the way, length also decides: experts recommend building no more than 12 words on one line.

“People read short paragraphs, long paragraphs, very long skip paragraphs,” says Jason Fraid, founder, and CEO of Basecamp.

21. Avoid jargon. Speak clearly.

Rule number six: the easier the text is read, the more successful the site will be.

You need to speak the language of the intended target audience.

If you are writing content for a private clinic site, clearly separate – it will be read by health professionals or ordinary patients. In general, long sentences and obscure terms (jargon) make reading difficult. This is bad.

“Be easier! Cognitive fluency is an indicator of how easily the visitor’s brain processes what he sees. When something is difficult to read, we subconsciously find it more risky and / or time-consuming. To increase conversions, use short text, simple fonts, and easy-to-read design, ”advises Roger Dooley, author of Brainfluence.

Content that works on “illiterate” users works for everyone.

We are not about making the text “dumb”; we are about using an accessible language.

A study by Nielsen Norman Group showed that the level of readability of the text significantly increases the success of the web page as a whole. For all visitors.

	Success rate original content	Success rate simplified content
Uneducated users	46%	82%
Qualified Users	68%	93%

Experts took abstruse content and demonstrated it to two different audiences, evaluating the conversion rate. Then they copied it in simple words and repeated the experiment.

What was the surprise of experienced UX experts that even users with a Ph.D. prefer to read content written at the eighth-grade level!

Now ask yourself: 100% of visitors understand what is written?

22. Carefully consider the order of content.

When designing a web page, but the most important material at the beginning and end.

It’s most difficult to keep the reader’s attention in the middle of any list. When visitors look at the page, the first and last points will remain in short-term memory.

In psychology, this is called the serial position effect.

23. Answer the main questions of the visitor

People come to the site for answers.

Your main task is to provide answers.

Each question left unattended reduces the chance of building trust.

Each unanswered question leads the visitor to click on X.

When Joel Klettke applied an authoring method of writing questions and writing answers, he doubled the conversion rate on the landing pages of Hubspot. He interviewed clients, analyzed the answers, gave priority to their needs, and, in the end, used the target language of the target audience in the marketing text. Clever!

Key questions visitors should ask:

• What made you look for a solution on the site?

• What else have you tried and what did you dislike?

• What kept you from taking the targeted action?

• What gave you the confidence to try?

• What made X the best solution for you?

• What was most important to you when evaluating X?

• What did the interaction with the site give you?

24. Use social evidence.

A person is inclined to do what people around do.

By presenting social evidence — the mode of action chosen by others — you reinforce determination. The purpose of the maneuver is to inspire the user: the method of action adopted outside our company is not the norm (not like everyone else).

To do this, saturate the landing pages with powerful evidence. Ideally, each company’s marketing claim should be supported by reviews, etc.

“How many times have you clicked on the sites of promoted marketing agencies, competition winners and award winners, rolled your eyes and returned to the search? You can’t trust marketers who promise to “create something completely unique” – trust specialists who create what customers expect, ”says Kick Point’s Salamandik.

The easiest way to build trust is to add customer reviews.

There is other social evidence:

• Confirmations from influential individuals, industry experts

• Quality customer reviews (unpacking) by customers

• Media logos that mention your products or services

• Widgets for social networks indicating the number of subscribers

• Awards, certificates, membership signs in associations, etc.

How much evidence to publish? There are not many reviews and awards on the site.

Do you know that on the page of one of the most successful Amazon products, 43% of all content is occupied by social evidence of all kinds?

Web Design Tip: Do not compose a review page. They are usually modest sources of traffic. Instead, add reviews on each landing page.

25. Optimize Email Subscription Forms

Most sites aim to expand the circle of subscribers in order to more effectively interact with the audience and promote their products (services). But to do this is not easy.

First, a call to action for a subscription should:

• Stand above the rest of the elements in the visual hierarchy

• Promise the user the specific benefits of a subscription.

• Backed up by social evidence

Secondly, the design of the web form itself must comply with clear principles, which were described in detail by our experts in previous articles.

More than just beautiful web design

“The life of a designer is a fight against ugliness,” Massimo Vignelli.

Everyone loves beauty. Everyone loves cool designer chips.

And everyone loves to criticize.

But the visitor needs not only beauty, but he also needs information.

And the site owner needs real results.

The following are two interesting studies that have come to the same conclusion.

A survey conducted by Hubspot found that a typical user appreciates a clear design and the availability of information is higher than charming web design.

What is most important for you in web design:

• Ease of finding the right information – 76%

• The beautiful appearance of the site – 10%

• Advanced interactive experience – 9%

• Other factors – 5%

The second survey, organized by NN Group, showed: the most common reason for visitors to refuse is the difficulty in finding the necessary information.

The main reasons for the failure of site visitors:

• Difficulties with the search – 72%

• Web page design – 9%

• Uninformative content – 9%

• Lack of support – 5%

• Other reasons – 5%

We love beautiful web design, but that’s not enough.

Focus on content development, not just the container.

Web sites should be beautiful. They must have an emotional effect.

But the success of the site is not only in beauty. The user must find what he came for.

This is the goal of all these web design tips.

This is the goal of all websites.

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