Designing a website is a journey that combines creativity, functionality, and strategy. For beginners, the process might seem overwhelming, but with the right approach, you can create a site that is both visually appealing and user-friendly. However, there are common pitfalls that can derail your efforts. In this guide, we’ll walk you through the basics of web design and highlight the key mistakes to avoid.

Set the objectives of your website

Before diving into design, you really need to clarify the purpose of your website. Is it to showcase your portfolio, sell products, or provide information? Your website’s goals will influence its layout, design elements, and functionality. At this stage its easy to lack focus and trying too hard to be all things to all people. You should avoid trying to serve too many purposes at once, as it can confuse visitors. Keep your goals clear and concise.

Prioritise the user experience (UX)

A well-designed website puts the user first. This means ensuring your site is easy to navigate, loads quickly, and provides valuable content. Use intuitive menus, clear calls to action (CTAs), and responsive design (that is, design that works on all devices from phones to tablets to desktop computers) to enhance user satisfaction. A common pitfall that we've seen seveeral times is that sites use overly complex navigation, with overcomplicated menus or unclear paths that can frustrate users as they canot find what they're looking for and leads them to leave the website too quickly. In technical terms, this is called a high bounce rate. Another common error is to ignore the needs of mobile users. Depending on the type of site you are developing, in general most web traffic comes from mobile devices, so a non-responsive design that doesn't look right on smaller screens will alienates a large audience. This is particularly true for business to consumer websites, although plenty of business to business websites see over 50% of their traffic coming from mobile devices.

Visual design

Visual design is crucial for making a strong first impression. Use consistent branding, complementary colors, and readable fonts to create an aesthetically pleasing experience. Some websites favour imagery over words whilst others can be more biased to written content. In our experience its best to get the right balance between words and pictures. Images and video engage an audience, but words (especially words optimised for search engines) help your website to be indexed by search engines making your website more discoverable. Using too many images, videos, or flashy animations can slow down your site and distract users. Hard-to-read fonts or mismatched styles can make your site look unprofessional. A great visual design goes hand in hand with the user experience, combining to provide your visitors with a satisfying overall experience.

Web content

The content of your website should engage your visitors and provide them with some kind of value. Whether it’s text, images, or videos, the focus should be on quality over quantity. Break text into digestible chunks and use headings to improve readability. Bombarding users with too much content can overwhelm them. Keep it concise and organised. It's important to proofread your content too, as typos and grammatical errors can reduce your credibility.

Optimise for speed and performance

A slow-loading website drives users away and increases the dreaded bounce rate. You can optimise your website by compressing images and video, using efficient code, and minimising the use of heavy scripts. High-resolution images and videos that are not optimised can dramatically slow down loading times, especially on mobile devices where speeds are generally lower. Ignore performance testing at your peril as neglecting to test your website’s speed can lead to a poor user experience and lost visitors.

Implementing strong calls to action (CTAs)

Calls to action (CTAs) guide your visitors towards specific actions, such as signing up for a newsletter, making a purchase, or contacting you. Use clear and compelling language to encourage this engagement. Generic phrases like “Click Here” don’t convey value, so its better to use actionable phrases like “Get Started” or “Learn More.” And whilst strong CTAs are a good thing, overloading a page with multiple CTAs can confuse users and dilute their effectiveness.

Accessibility

An accessible website accommodates users of all abilities, including those with disabilities. There are several techniques for making a website more accessible, including using alt text for images, ensuring high colour contrast, and making your website navigable with a keyboard. Failing to make your website accessible can alienate a huge pool of potential customers and in some cases may even violate legal requirements.

Testing

The biggest pitfall to avoid is a lack of testing before a website is launched. Your website may look great and work perfectly on your computer and the browser you use, but it may not function properly on different computers  and browsers, let alone on the myriad of different screen sizes of mobile devices. Test and test again should be your mantra. And once you've launched your website, it's important that you regularly test your website on different devices and browsers to ensure it performs well and continues to perform well as new standards emerge. Technology advances at a rapid pace and a website that worked well even only 18 months ago may well fall behind as new operating systems, devices, browsers and technologies emerge. Regularly test your website, gather feedback from your users and make improvements as needed.

Search engine optimisation (SEO)

Search Engine Optimisation helps your site to be indexed by the search engines and therefore rank higher in search results, making it easier for users to find you. You should focus on using relevant keywords, optimising metadata, and creating good quality, relevant content to enhance your chances of search engine success. Although ensuring your site contains relevant keywords and phrases, keyword stuffing is counter productive. Overloading your content with keywords not only hurts its readability, but it can lead to penalties from search engines as they assume that you are trying to fool them. Likewise ignoring SEO altogether is a mistake as a website won’t succeed if no one can find it.

Web design is both an art and a science. By understanding your audience, focusing on usability, and avoiding common pitfalls, you can create a website that not only looks great but also delivers results. Remember, simplicity, consistency, and user-centric design are your best tools for success.

Whether you’re building your first website or refining an existing one, taking the time to plan, test, and iterate will help you create a site that stands the test of time.