Effective Web Design Principles You Should Know

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Are you looking for the best web design service in Singapore? Singapore has one of the most vibrant online marketing industries in the world. Virtually all businesses in the country that are determined to operate globally have websites that enable them to provide the best services to their customers.

Your business can join thousands of other successful enterprises in the digital sphere by hiring a professional web development agency in Singapore to create and design the website. The agency will put into consideration of the best web design principles and carry out A/B tests to ensure that all elements of the site are functioning optimally.

Today, we will look at effective web design principles that you should know and keep in mind as you plan for your Singapore web design project.

Visual Attractiveness

You should take your website as an office or store and make it as attractive as possible. The perception of visitors will depend on what they see. The images, videos, and graphics on the website must be interesting.

Reduce words on pages and instead add images, graphics, and videos. The white space is light to the eye and will, therefore, cause the visitor to spend more time. The images must be relevant and captivating to readers.

Pleasantly organize your content with categories and interesting titles. The titles or images should arouse curiosity and compel visitors to spend more time on the site. A visually attractive website will also be memorable and therefore call the visitor to return.

Consistency

Consistency is one of the most important principles that every professional web designer in Singapore puts into consideration when designing a website. The website elements should blend regardless of the page or section of the site. The headings, sub-headings, fonts, sizes, and button styles should be the same throughout the site. To achieve this level of consistency, the web designer plans everything in advance.

Simplicity Works Magic

Simplicity works magic on any website regardless of the industry. A sophisticated site may look good on the surface, but visitors are having a hard time understand navigating it. Putting too many elements on the website page distracts the target audience from the primary objective or purpose of the website.

Effective web design is clean, fresh, and user-friendly. It is not only appealing to the website visitors but also easy to navigate/move from one page to another. This simplicity reduces bounce rate and enhances conversion rate. It is also important to note that loading a website that is packed with features that do not resonate with its main purpose is usually frustrating.

The point we are putting across is that your Singapore website design should be as simple as possible. Users should encounter little or no challenge navigating the various pages and sections.

Readability and Typography

Your website should be able to offer users the information they want in the most effective way. Having a professional web design that is appealing to the target audience is great, but if the text is not readable, you will not achieve the set goals.

One of the guaranteed ways of achieving this goal without compromising the web design is by using the right typography. Typography is an integral part of on-site search engine optimization. Use a font that is easy to read such as Helvetica and Ariel for body text. Typefaces for each design element from body text to buttons and headlines should be combined appropriately.

Here are more wise nuggets that can help you communicate seamlessly with your website visitors:

- Use bullet points instead of long, gusty sentences
- Use short sentences and concise paragraphs
- Cut the waffle
- Organise the content using headlines and sub-headlines

Bold and Recognisable Headers and Titles

The designer must make provision for visible and recognisable titles and headers. A visitor wants to find information fast once he or she lands on your site. This is only possible if the headings and sub-headings are legible.

The design of a website should provide for a simple presentation of content. Extracting information from this content must be made easy and seamless. A visitor should easily jump from the top of a page to the middle because of the subtitle.

Headers for different pages should be clear and easy to recognise. By looking at the header, a visitor should know the type of content that will be contained on the page. It is disappointing to click on Contact Us page only to find that there are not contacts, for example.

Websites also feature footers. They provide direct access to different pages. The footers and headers should be clearly indicated and direct a visitor to the right page.

Imagery and Colour Palette

As we have repeatedly mentioned in previous articles about web design, the human brain is wired to process visuals faster and better than blocks of text. A perfect colour combination will attract website visitors and encourage them to take the desired actions.

This web design principle requires Singapore web designers to select the right colour palette for each website. The niche that the business operates in should be put into consideration. Concisely, the right colour palette will create a pleasing atmosphere that the website visitors will love thereby giving them a positive impression of the brand. The complementary colour palette will give your website design a balanced look that will translate into more traffic and sales.

More importantly, avoid making your website looking messy and unprofessional leaving plenty of white space around the elements. Too many colours will compromise the appearance of the site. Three or four colour tones for the entire website are enough to achieve a clear and appealing design.

Relate the colour of your page with that of your brand. Use subtle colors for the content and images you upload. The visual experience contributes to the overall perception of your website and brand. A person should relate the colours, images, and graphics on your site with what he will find in the real world. If your theme color is blue, for example, the website should reflect similar colors.

Non-Invasive Videos and Images

Images and videos are some of the ways to make your site visually attractive. They also capture a lot of information and make it easy to communicate to visitors. However, the use of these images should not be intrusive.

Web designer must ensure that the images and videos are relevant to the content provided on a page. A visitor should have control over the images or videos he interacts with. It is annoying, for example, for a video to be playing in the background yet you cannot stop or mute it. Such behavior causes visitors to run from your website.

Action-Prompting Landing Page

The landing page can be regarded as the first impression of your business. The perception that develops immediately a person opens your page will determine the kind of business to be conducted and even the willingness to spend money on you. Make an appealing landing page like you would do to the reception of your office.

The details and information contained at the landing page should prompt the visitor to take action. This page must act as a center point such that a visitor can jump straight to the store to buy or blog to get more details. The best landing page provides direct access to the inner pages. The action a visitor takes upon landing on your site will depend on the architecture of your landing page.

Reasonable Pop-Ups

Websites and brands in Singapore are using pop-ups to call for action. The pop-ups want you to subscribe to newsletters, provide personal details, or participate in promotions, among other actions. These pop-ups must be designed in a reasonable format such that they do not interrupt a reader.

It is especially important to ensure that the pop-outs are relevant. No visitor will tolerate ten pop-outs on a subject that he is not interested in. This should also apply to the adverts on your paper. If they are irrelevant and intrusive, visitors will keep away from the site.

14 Essential Tips for Improving Your Web Design

Every once in a while, it is necessary that do a website audit and take measures geared towards improving your web design. Think about this, can site visitors determine what your company does in less than 5 seconds? Do you have a high bounce rate? Can the visitors navigate to the blog in less than five mouse clicks? Do you have an easy to understand pricing layout?

If you have answered ‘No’ to any of these questions, then you need to take a hard look at your web design and web optimisation practices. By improving your web design, you will start communicating clearly with potential and current customers about what you do, who you do it for, and why you do it.

In this article, we look at the top 14 things you need to know about improving your web design.

Create a Plan

To create a proper plan for improving your web design, you should determine the pages that customers visit, the content they consume, and the offers that will help convert them into customers.

The professional approach to improving your web design is to answer the right questions at the right time. When it comes to creating a plan for redesigning your site take what you know about your customers (or collect new user data) and research how they moved from a browser to a customer.

You can then analyse the data to map out your web redesigning strategy.

Remove Distracting Elements from Your Website

Certain web design elements can take away from the value of the message you are trying to pass on. These elements include

- Stocky web images
- Complicated animations
- Lengthy content

Several studies have shown that modern customers have an attention span of less than 10 seconds. This makes it essential that you create a lasting first impression in under 8 seconds. Use short, compelling content that use headers to break down the content into easy to read chunks and light images to improve page loading speed. The content should be free of jargon and grammatical errors.

Add Social Follow and Share Buttons

Social share and follow buttons serve as non-pushy tools that encourage site visitors to share your content on with their social media followers. There are many options available on the internet, and it is necessary that you identify the right social media buttons. You should also consider social media share and follow button placement.

Create and Implement CTAs

Call-to-action buttons help give site visitors a sense of direction. Proper placement is one of the crucial ways of improving your web design.

Most webmasters only add bottom-of-the-funnel (BOFU) CTA buttons and fail to act on top and middle of the funnel CTAs to nurture the visitors down the sales funnel. Read through your content and add CTAs where the visitors will educate themselves to solve their pain points.

Use the Right Images

Ideally, you should use genuine photos, and this, in turn, leads to improved trust for your business.

This includes using images of real employees and the actual office or workshop. However, if you are not in a position to use real pictures, you should ensure that you pick the right stock photos.

Navigation

One of the reasons for improving your web design is to organise your website and ensure that site visitors can easily navigate to different pages on your website. You need to consider elements such as navigation hierarchy, streamlined content, and responsive design, which is essential for mobile users.

Enable Scrolling On the Homepage

Infinite scrolling helps improve your website’s user experience so do not be afraid of designing a slightly longer homepage. Preferably, include between 3 and 5 sections that direct visitors to the areas that will create a seamless user experience.

The list of elements to include in your homepage is endless, but for starters, you could have the following

- Into video
- Your unique value proposition
- About us section
- Customer testimonials
- Product features
- Resources
- Success stories or case studies

Use White Space Cleverly

The white space is a crucial factor when you are gearing up to improving your web design. For starters, it helps to break up your content and increase readability. Some people choose to call it negative space, and it refers to the empty sections of the web page

Visit each one of your web pages and strip away the unnecessary content and design elements. After this, ensure that you appropriately group the remaining content to help users know where the content belongs on the page.

Mobile Optimisation

Currently, over 80% of the population access the internet via smartphones and reports from Google suggests that over 60% of the users will not go back to a website they had trouble accessing via mobile. More so, 40% of these people will end up on your competitor’s website.

Take a time out and access your website via a smartphone or tablet. This simple web redesigning action will help you understand the pain points that are leading to your high mobile bounce rates.

Increase Your Visibility

After working on improving your web design thus far you need to develop a robust SEO strategy to increase your search engine result’s page ranking. Your should consider the search items and keywords that customers would search for on a variety of Google.

This process includes creating a variety of content such as videos, e-book, to blog content and integrating the proper keywords. This avoids bringing in leads who will never convert/ buy your products.

Keep On Testing

After going through the process of improving your web design, you should never stop testing the elements of your new website design. This includes evaluating conversion paths, areas where visitors are clicking, and how far they are scrolling among other aspects.https://mediaonemarketing.com.sg/keyword-research-useful-keywords/

While you might have older pages that are doing well, they may need an information upgrade or tweak the design. However, instead of blindly changing the pages, you should undertake A/B testing, set up heat maps, or carry out multi-variant tests.

Identify and Remove Broken Links

Given your website’s age and size, the chances are that you might have links or pages that are not working. Worse still, Google and other search engines have started penalising sites with broken links, and site visitors will not tell you about them. The best cause of action is to evaluate all the links on your website. Use any of these tools to find broken links.

Create New and Unique Offerings

The typical way of converting leads is by offering demos, offers, or items that visitors will find appealing. However, it is becoming much more difficult to break through the xompetiand get visibility for your items and offers.

It is, therefore, necessary that you pay attention to the resources and offers that are receiving high conversations and those that are not. To reap the fruits of improving your web design, you need to create unique offers that are a step above your competitor’s offers and pay close attention to on-page SEO.

Publish Content That Appeals To Your Persona

Content is a crucial aspect of improving your web design, but most content developers fall into the trap of overusing certain words such as ‘we’ and ‘our.’ However, the use of the first persona will hardly get the point across to the customers.

Essentially, the site visitors of today want you to understand their pain points, and directly explain to them how you can give a solution. So, swap the “we’s” and the “our’s” with “your’s” and “you’s.” The change in the grammar might come off as insignificant, but it will have a significant impact on your visitors’ subconscious which leads to improved conversion rates.

Deadly Website Design Mistakes (and How to Fix Them)

What are the worst website design mistakes that can cost you hundreds of clients today? The Internet presents an excellent opportunity for Singapore businesses to scale up quickly. With a properly designed and functional website, brands can connect with more clients. However, every day we come across a poorly designed, and this often makes us cringe.

Unknown to most entreperenuers is that if you want to have a real impact on the lucrative Singapore digital marketing world, you need to have a good website. Free templates can help you get started, but as your business scales up, you need to start thinking about getting a custom design to help you stand out from the crowd.

Today, we look at three deadly website design mistakes that could be hampering your business from realising its full potential. We will also give you accurate tips on how to fix them.

No Contact Details

Sure, your website content is excellent and convincing, but why will potential customers get in touch with you if you do not provide contact details. A majority of the online shoppers are always in a hurry to complete the shopping process and have no time to search for your email or phone number.

For example, if you want to go to a local restaurant in a new city, you definitely do not want to do is spend more than a minute on the website trying to locate the restaurant’s phone number.

It makes sense to make sure that your contact information is available on the website, or at least provide a link that clients can click on to visit your contact page.

The same case applies to directions. Using the same restaurant example, how will clients get the restaurant if they are no clear directions on the website? Add a map to guide customers; otherwise, you will end up losing customers to your competitors whose sites have visible contact information and a map.

Website is Not Mobile Friendly

Singapore has the highest smartphone penetration in the world. More than 80% of the adult population here use mobile devices to look up information on the internet. If your website is no mobile friendly, you will be losing a ton of traffic to your competitors.

Pinching the mobile device screen to zoom in is not the easiest thing to do, especially when using a large mobile device. If you want to provide the best user-experience and good first impression on visitors, your website needs to be mobile friendly.

That means users should get the same experience irrespective of whether they are accessing it on a desktop or mobile device. Thanks to advancement in technology, there are thousands of responsive web designs that you can use to achieve this goal. Such a design will present your content in a readable way, and web visitors will not need to zoom or pinch the screen to see the information.

Note that a mobile-friendly website means more than just installing and customising one of the many responsive WordPress themes available online. Here are some critical factors that you need to consider:

- Playable content: Make sure that the content plays on both mobile devices and desktops. Otherwise, a “video can’t play on mobile” error will hurt your brand.
- Touch elements: Links and buttons should not be cramped together, as that will make it almost impossible for mobile users to tap on them.
- Website headers: A majority of the top websites in Singapore have significantly reduced the size of their header. Do the same – avoid large header sections to make it easy for mobile users to access your content.
- Font size: Font matters to both desktop and mobile users. The font should not be too large or too small. Be sure to include plenty of white space in your content.
- Run A/B tests on visuals: Some of the website visuals such as pop-ups and floating social sharing buttons might not work well in mobile devices. Run A/B tests and optimise them fully for mobile users.
- Redirects: If you have separate mobile URLs, avoid faulty redirects. This means that all redirects should lead the site visitors to the correct or targeted mobile pages.
- Design of your Singapore e-commerce site: 30% of online shoppers abandon transactions due to the poor mobile shopping experience. You can quickly fix this by making sure the mobile version of your e-commerce site is optimal.

Old-Fashioned “Click Here to Enter” Page

The “Click Here to Enter” fad is old-fashioned and died five years ago. In the past, we used to see this problem in so many websites, but we are glad to report that the numbers have reduced. When a potential customer comes to your website, they do not want to see this page. They already know exactly what they are looking for and have ignored other sites just for you.

Do not make them feel like they made the wrong choice and need to go back to the SERPs page. In the past, this page was referred to as a pre-loader and was meant to give Flash and other website assets enough time to load all elements. It used to ensure that website visitors do not experience a broken website. However, with the current internet speed and technology, pre-loaders are redundant and unnecessary.

Typography in Web Design

When it comes to web design, every element in the layout matters and typography is one of the best ways to improve web design. However, typography is considered to be the hardest part of web design and to create an effective web design, you need to learn the basics of typography science, but most designers and webmasters do not understand how to use typography in web design.

Statistically, web design consists of 95% typography, and you need to go beyond the typeface. To optimize your typography for web design, you need to consider accessibility, readability, graphic balance, but the most critical aspect is usability.

Getting your typography right will go a long way in helping you attract both desktop and mobile users since your site will be responsive and adaptive to their browsing needs. Your website will only have the ability to convert if its typography encourages users to read more of the text therein. Therefore, this crucial aspect of web design shouldn’t be overlooked.

The following typography tips can help you improve users’ browsing experiences:

Use Web Fonts Intermittently

Web designers have access to hundreds of web fonts and typefaces that were previously unavailable online. You may feel tempted to use these typefaces heavily during web design project since they come in multiple weights and styles. Nonetheless, you should be careful as far as the use of web fonts is concerned.

Using web fonts heavily can backfire on you. The aesthetics of the typefaces may be appealing, but using them comes as a price. For instance, if you choose to use the 10 Futura when working on your site’s typography, it will be hard for your text to load on smartphones and tablets of users, especially when Internet connection is slow.

Set Line-Height Appropriately

In CSS typography, line-height implies the amount of space that gets left below and above several lines of text. Commonly, this is referred to as line spacing. If you choose to avoid setting any line-height values during typography, your text will still look okay. Nevertheless, it won’t be outstanding.

Often, mobile and desktop browser users set default line heights especially when none is specified. Even so, browsers can’t tell what’s best for your users. By manually decreasing or increasing the distance that exists between lines of your text, you will significantly improve readability. In the process, you will also enhance your website’s aesthetic effects. However, be careful not to create too much line-height since readers’ attention is likely to be lost.

Set Your Font Size in em Units

When doing typography work for the website design that you are creating, you can set font sizes in several ways. The most common method is the use of the pixel unit (px). You can also use a keyword (small) to count your font size.

SEO Friendliness

Search engines remain the most common avenue through which internet users get to know about different websites. Experts in web design in Singapore and businesses must, therefore, ensure that their sites are SEO friendly. This allows you to rank top with every search and therefore take advantage of organic web traffic.

A website that is SEO friendly must meet a set of conditions that are connected to its architecture, content, and integration, among other factors. Here are actions you can take to make the site more SEO friendly.

Integrate Social Media

The designer should include social media icons to allow sharing of pages from the website. Make it seamless to share content on social media and even engage through comments directly to different social media sites. Search engines regard websites highly if they get traffic from social media or connect to social media in one way or the other. Social media integration should also form part of your digital marketing strategy.

Caption All Your Images and Videos

Search engines are still at rudimentary stages of reading content on images and videos. Their usage will therefore be inconsequential until search engines can recognize them. Captioning describes the images and elements of a picture or video. Search engines will capture your video based on the details provided in the caption.

Be Cautious with Javascript

Javascript is a common language for web designers. However, it sometimes causes some problems for search engines. Reading the language causes loading issues and may lead to site abandonment. Use the language sparingly and your ranking will significantly improve.

Your Domain Name Must be SEO Friendly

The domain name chosen must capture words and phrases that feature in primary searches. It is the first element that search engines consider. Use words that are common in Singapore for your domain. You will beat a lot of competition, especially for organic search.

Polish Your Content and Use Keywords

Keywords are considered when developing content and play a role in the overall SEO strategy. Choose words that feature in searches by people in Singapore around your products. The keywords must be included in titles and subheadings because they will determine the perception of search engines for your website.

There are many other SEO strategies that have to be considered when designing a website. Update your strategy as new tricks emerge to remain on top of the game. Constant evaluation and adjustments will guarantee top stop with every search.

Short Load Time

That loading spinner will make you lose a huge percentage of potential customers. Visitors are looking for information in the shortest time and are no longer patient to wait for your page to load.

Numerous studies show that internet users usually abandon websites that take more than 3 seconds to load. This web design principle, therefore, recommends that you pump up the speed of the site by making sure that all images are correctly optimized.

Develop a website that loads instantly on a computer or mobile device.

HTTP requests that are known to slow down sites can be reduced by combining code into a JavaScript file or central CSS. Website load speed can also be harnessed by compressing CSS, HTML, and JavaScript.

The loading speed can be further decreased by the use of cached data. Loading speed is also determined by the format and size of graphics, images, and videos on your website. A site that is responsive will also load faster and therefore deliver the best user experience to visitors.

Mobile Responsive

Internet access today is rapidly shifting to mobile. More people in Singapore are looking for information and interacting with websites through their phones than at any time before. The website you set up must, therefore, be responsive to mobile users.

A responsive website recognizes that people will be accessing the site using different mobile devices. The configuration should allow usage of devices developed using different operating systems. The speed of loading must also be enhanced and graphics added in such a way that they will remain clear even when viewed on mobile. Make it easy to move from one page to the other while on a mobile phone.

Responsive Web Designs

Responsive web design is not just about stretching and squeezing web pages to make them visible across mobile devices. It is about delivering your Singapore website depending on the size of the screen of device used to access it by the user. Notably, most of the WordPress themes are responsive but basic and so it is recommended to hire a professional web design to create a custom theme for your Singapore business.

Here are the best practices for responsive website design in Singapore:

Horizontal Swipeable Menus

One of the important aspects of a Singapore responsive website design is navigation. Poor navigation will make render your responsive business website useless, as potential customers will not be able to navigate it. Another excellent way to display menus on smaller screens is by keeping it visible but set the content in such a way that it overflows off the edge of the screen. Displaying part of the cut off text shows the visitors that they can swipe to view the rest of the content.

A good example of a website that uses this strategy is The Guardian. It uses a horizontal scroll menu that is clear and laced with a CTA to see “All”. This website also makes maximum use of the available space by displaying the drop down menu only when pressed.

Make Links and Buttons Larger

One of the mistakes that most businesses make when designing a responsive website in Singapore is making the buttons and links smaller on mobile due to the space limitation. This is wrong; instead, you should make them larger to make it easier for the target website visitors to see and click on them.

Text links should also be larger to improve web usability especially if your Singapore website has a grid of news headlines. A large text link such as “Read More” will encourage the website visitors to click on it to read the hidden sections of the news article. Alternatively, you can make the whole content block a link so that the readers can click anywhere to view the whole article.

Both improvements will greatly improve user experience.

Balance Font Sizes and Weights

When creating a responsive website design in Singapore, it is imperative to make sure that font weights and sizes are well balanced. Large headers do not appear well on mobile especially when stretched over a few lines. The size ration of the paragraph text and headers should be expertly balanced.

Simply put, you should request your preferred Singapore website designer to make sure that everything is properly resized. Remember that screens of the latest mobile devices have a high resolution that makes the text easier to read.

There is no harm in making the text smaller on mobile screens but make sure that you increase the font size when the website is viewed on a larger display.

Optimal Reading Widths

The main goal of investing in a responsive website design in Singapore is to reach out to a larger audience and make it possible for potential customers to access your website across multiple websites. Even as you embark on creating a wider layout for larger screen, you should consider the line length of your website content.

If the line of text is too long, a majority of your audience will have a problem reading it as it is difficult to follow line-to-line. In addition, sentence lines that are too short complicates the reading process by breaking the rhythm as the eyes will be forced to move back and forth often to understand the intended message.

Important Information Should be placed on Top of the Page on Mobile

Important information should be placed above the fold. This is the section of the page that is displayed on the screen immediately the website loads. The user is able to view the content placed here without scrolling the page. Contact information, telephone numbers, buy now, and other CTAs should be placed at the top on mobile.

Remember, online shoppers want to find the information they are looking for quickly and conveniently. Make sure that your website achieves this goal by placing all the important information on top of the page. For example, if you have an e-commerce website in Singapore, place “Add to Cart” button at the top of the mobile version of your website. You can also list your “best sellers” (products that record the highest sales) on this section of the website.

Hide Content on Smaller Screens

You can simplify the layout of your Singapore mobile website by hiding some of the content. However, make sure that the content is visible on larger screens. You can easily do this by using accordions and tabs. This move can actually de-clutter the web page when viewed on small screens and allow website visitors to view all the important information, with options to view more content if they wish.

Show More Content on Wider Screens

As mentioned earlier, most Singaporeans own more than three smart mobile devices and use them to access the internet. Each has different screen sizes and this determines the amount of content displayed. One of the benefits of a wider screen is that it allows businesses to display more content further up the screen.

That is, more content will be visible to the website users straight away before they start scrolling down the page. Select a layout that is expandable and can accommodate more columns.

Reduce the Number of Images

Most of the aesthetic effects such as button hover and background gradients can be achieved through pure CSS and HTML. This improvement will increase the mobile pages load speed and save time that would have been spent creating graphics. It is a proven fact that too many images reduce load time.

One way of reducing the number of images on your Singapore mobile website is by using fonts for icons. The beauty of fonts is that they have cleaner edges, ideal for retina display, and are scalable.

Responsive Videos

As you work on creating a responsive website design in Singapore, you should not forget to optimize videos for mobile users. Simply put, a responsive video will adjust to different screen sizes automatically thereby making it possible for the user to view it. The width and height of the video should be optimised accordingly for this to happen.

You can easily make your videos responsive by adding a few lines of CSS especially if the videos were inserted directly on the web page.

Web Design Issues and How to Solve Them

Website design in Singapore is picking up pace fast, and many designers will blow your mind with their creativity. However, you should ensure that they do not add the following elements to your website. Here are simple ways you can fix them if you find them:

Using Stock Images

Stock images are images on the internet that you can buy to use for marketing and promotional purposes or on your website and blog. They can be images of food, products, buildings, or even a team of employees.

The images can be high resolution and attract clients to your website because of their aesthetic appeal, but they communicate you are an untrustworthy brand. One question will be on the client’s mind: If you can lie about a photo you can also lie about the products/services you are selling?

The irony of it is that you do not need stock photos. You can easily schedule a photoshoot of your business premise, products, and staff that you can use on your website.

This will ensure that you start on the right foot with your clients, and you need this if you are going to build relationships that will make you a success in business.

Adding Music or Unnecessary Videos

Websites are sparing no expense in trying to better the experience of clients when they are on their sites. They add music, videos, and gifs to create this experience.

This ends up being counterproductive because it slows down the loading speed of pages on the website. Internet users are not known for having a lot of patience and thus leave without even viewing what the site is selling.

You can quickly solve this problem by having a blog section on your website. You can make the content on the blog as educational and entertaining as possible to improve the experience of your consumers.

Long Paragraphs and Jargon

Internet users love to open several similar websites on different tabs to compare prices and quality of the products. They scan the information on each site to get a better picture of the businesses.

Having long paragraphs prevents them from scanning the website. In most cases, they are put off by the paragraphs and immediately close the tab.

Jargon, on the other hand, makes it difficult to comprehend what the company does and does not do.

Use short and simple sentences to put across your message vividly and to improve readability.

Broken Links

A broken link is a link on your website that no longer works. It is also called a dead link. An example of this is the ‘Error 404’ you see when you click on certain links provided.

Broken links should be eliminated as soon as possible as they can affect your website’s rank on search engines. You need organic traffic from search engines if you are to meet your business goals.

You can find broken links on your website by using broken link checkers. There are several free and premium checkers in the market.

Social Media Icons on the Website Header

It is critical that your clients understand that you are on social media. Clients like posing queries on social media because the response time is typically faster. Including social media icons on your website is a good business practice.

However, it matters where you include social media icons. Icons on the header will see clients leaving your website immediately the page loads to check out your social media pages, and they may not return.

Icons on the bottom of your website allow your clients to scan the site and react to the call-to-action on the site first. Lazada is an excellent example that follows this rule.

Testimonials Page

Trust is a big factor in ensuring that a business is profitable. Online companies have to work more than companies with physical locations to gain the trust of potential clients. As such, many companies elect to have a testimonials page on their website.

The testimonials page is filled with quotes from different clients stating that they are glad they trusted the business. A whole testimonials page can come off as forced marketing.

Having one testimonial quote on several pages, however, looks more natural. You can have the quote at the bottom of the page to back the marketing claim that you have made on that page.

Long Forms

Asking people who visit your website to subscribe to your emails is a practice that every business should do. Most forms usually ask for the name and email of the client.

Some businesses, however, have long forms that ask for a lot of information from their clients. They do this to market better to the target customers but end up with no one to market to because the clients are put off by the long sign up form.

Smooch the Label has a form that only requests for your email address.

Innovative Ways of Optimising Your Website Navigation

Website navigation influences your website’s ability to convert. It similarly affects users’ experiences. If visitors have an engaging navigation experience, it will be easier to convert them into paying customers. Browsing websites that do not have a well-defined and logical structure is akin to getting dropped in the middle of a dense forest without any map or compass to help you find your way out.

You may have a stunning site, but if your visitors find it difficult to locate your products, they will undoubtedly leave and visit competitors’ sites without second thoughts. This doesn’t only apply to your homepage’s navigation. According to Forbes, almost 50% of visitors who land on your website’s internal pages use its navigation menu to familiarise themselves.

Your website could be failing to convert because visitors find it difficult to browse through it and locate what’s relevant to them. Therefore, your on-site navigation needs a facelift if you realise that navigation-related issues have been hindering you from optimally converting site visitors.

Creating a proper navigation system for your website isn’t easy. You should be aware of tips that will help you find your way. Here’s how you can transform a potentially negative browsing experience for visitors into an excellent one.

Replace Drop-Down Menus

If options on your website’s drop-down menu are unfamiliar, extensive, or complex, you should consider replacing them with a detailed page that can enhance website navigation. Drop-down pages tend to be annoying. They also force you to sacrifice valuable information so that you can incorporate everything into your website.

When looking for ways to replace those drop-down menus that could be affecting website navigation, you should look up to Apple for inspiration. Instead of cramming all products into one drop-down menu, Apple showcases them on a single menu page. Visuals accompanying the menu page make it easy for visitors to find what they want without many clicks.

Make Searching Effortless

Visitors who run site searches are more likely to convert compared to those who don’t. Those who make use of search functionality on websites often have the intent to buy. Similarly, they know what they are looking for.

Bearing this in mind, it is sensible to make your website’s search functionality as effortless as possible. You can even have a prominent search bar on your homepage to help visitors find what they want.

Provide Context

You can make visitors find appropriate pages on your website without necessarily expending a single click. This can be done by including clues within your website’s drop-down menu. Clues can in the form of a handy icon, visuals, or any other helpful and relevant piece of information.

Awwwards has an inventive “Category” tab, which not only displays various categories but also gives visitors an idea about the number of entries under each category. You might even consider using colour hues to enhance website navigation. In this case, you will use different colours to give visitors a clue about where they should proceed.

The use of clues will work particularly well with those who visit your website using mobile devices. Due to clunky controls, slower loading times, and minimised screen legibility, mobile users tend to click on wrong links. This is pretty agonising. By using clues, you will help mobile users to navigate to the right pages without making any errors.

Differentiate Your Target Audience By Creating Separate Menus

Designing an interface that guarantees optimal website navigation entails considering the dynamic needs of your audience. It’s tricky to develop interfaces that take care of the needs of two or more distinct groups.

To make sure that everyone within your target audience finds what they need without being required to go through irrelevant content, you should separate your links into two. One of the best places to learn how to differentiate the target audience is The Muse.

To cater to a wide audience without requiring visitors to go through content that might be irrelevant to them, The Muse has different links for employers and job seekers. The first four links at the top of the website’s navigation bar target those who are looking for jobs.

The fifth link redirects employers to their section of the website. The link is grey rather than white like the other four. This alone indicates that the link differs from the others. Uber uses a similar approach on its homepage to enhance website navigation.

5 Actionable Tips on How to Simplify Your Web Design

Do you know you can simplify your web design without spending a fortune? In a world where everyone prefers shopping for products online as opposed to driving to the nearest online store and buying it physically, it is imperative to make sure that your Singapore web design template is ideal for the target audience.

Having worked in the Singapore digital marketing industry for more than a decade, one of the things we have noticed is that simplicity rarely fails to deliver the expected results. Simplicity makes business websites look sleek, eliminate navigation challenges, and offer the best user experience to Singapore online shoppers.

Maybe you want to get more people to sign-ups, sales, or subscribers, the surest way of achieving this goal is by simplifying your web design. A professional Singapore website development company that has a team of talented web designers can create a custom web design that is simple and ideal for your target market.

Before we look at the seven actionable tips on how to simplify your web design, it is important to note that simple website design should not be an uphill all-or-nothing ordeal to your business. Taking strategic steps and making decisions that are based on accurate market data will cushion your business from spending thousands of dollars on the wrong website template.

Tip 1: Channel Your Efforts on Essential Elements

This might seem too obvious to you, but you will be surprised by the number of business websites that are developed without putting into consideration the essential elements that the site requires to function optimally. As you plan for the website design project in Singapore, create a list of the vital elements that the new website should have to get value for money.

Prioritizing and differentiating between what is important and what is not can be challenging, but with a professional Singapore website designer on your side, you do not have to worry. Concisely, focussing on the essential elements will make it easy for the team to design the website and also save time.

One of the guaranteed ways of doing this is by applying the 80 – 20 rule which states that 20% of the content or elements on the website page delivers 80% of the results. Strive to display the 20% only to avoid filling your website pages with unnecessary features.

Why does the 80-20 rule work? This web design approach removes distractions from the web page thereby making it easier for the target customers to navigate it and place orders.

Tip 2: Delete Unnecessary Elements

This tip builds on the first one, which recommends making sure that your Singapore e-commerce website or online store, have the necessary elements only.

The 80 – 20 rule will help you identify the 20% elements that you need to get 80% of the results; you are aiming your get. All other components (80%) should be deleted from the website by a professional Singapore web developer, as any mistakes during the deletion process can affect other sections of your site. The 80% could be blog post meta details such as date and number of comments accrued overtime, sidebar elements, social media sharing widgets and many more.

Note that deleting these unnecessary elements will also boost your Singapore website load speed significantly.

Tip 3: Reduce the Number of Pages

Reducing the number of things and places that the website visitors have to click on to find the information they are looking for is one of the guaranteed ways of reducing bounce rate and increasing conversion rate. Trim down the page count by identifying those that deliver results.

Any page that is not yielding any results should be deleted. Alternatively, you can decide to merge two websites that are similar or meant to achieve the same goal. For example, you do not need to have separate “About Me” and “About the Site” pages since the two are meant to provide background information about your brand.

Put yourself in the mindset of a potential customer who has just landed on your website. If you were to land on your site, what are the key steps that you would take? What would you want to see on the pages? Every page on the site should be performing a specific role.

Do not keep unnecessary pages because your competitors have them on their websites or you think that your brand needs them. For example, a navigation menu that has too many items is confusing and usually overwhelms the website visitors. Optimizing the menu makes it easier for visitors to locate the page that contains the information they are looking for. Consequently, this will make the website user-friendly.

Tip 4: Make Sure Most of the Content is Above the Fold

Numerous market studies have shown that a large percentage of Singapore internet users who love to shop online spend most of their time above the fold on website pages. What does above the fold mean? Simply put, this is the section of the website that is displayed on the screen before the users scroll down. Any content that they view after scrolling the screen is below the fold.

If you are to succeed in increasing your website’ conversion rate, you need to make sure that most of the essential content such as CTAs is above the fold. A simple improvement such as shortening the header height if your site has a logo and reducing the number of navigation menu at the top section will do the trick.

So, if the sign-up form or CTA button is below the fold, move it to the higher sections of the page. Other less essential elements that are still important can be below the fold. The 80 – 20 rule will come in handy when selecting which items should be displayed above the fold.

Tip 5: Reduce Your Colour Scheme

It is utterly easy to be carried away with colours since our brains are wired to process visuals faster than blocks of text. Why use just 2 or 3 colours on your website when you can have 14 or 15? Well, the answer is straightforward; too many colours will not only confuse your website visitors but also cause visual strain.

Sure, the choice of colours depends on the preferred Singapore website design, but strive to use not more than three or two colours. Instead of using too many colours, use shades of the same colours to add texture and subtlety to the visual design of your website pages.

For example, a light blue can be used on the background and darker blue on the menu items and header. As you can see, it is possible to simplify your web design without spending a fortune.

Top WordPress Themes for Your Website Design

Looking for top WordPress themes for your website design? It is no secret that WordPress is the most used content management system used to develop websites, even by web designers themselves. WordPress accounts for nearly one-third of all sites running on the internet today. Since it is a free content management system with an open source structure, almost everyone is using WordPress to manage their online content.

But, the big question remains, how can you manage your content effectively using WordPress? How can you make your WordPress website standout in a sea of similar sites? How can you make your site more attractive and appealing to online users?

Well, the simple answer to all these questions is that you need a good theme. A WordPress theme makes it easy for you to design your website and customize what you want your visitors to see when they visit your site. Your chosen theme becomes the first impression that people notice when they visit your site.

Fortunately, everything that you need can be found online. It doesn’t matter whether you are after subdued themes, colorful, or splashy themes, whatever you are looking for is readily available. So, do you want to create the best WordPress website that features a beautiful and flexible theme? We have compiled a comprehensive list of the best WordPress themes that you should consider for your website design.

Soledad

Soledad is a clean WordPress theme with a classy look. The theme offers a wide range of options for image layout which makes it feel like the perfect fit for any photographer or visual storyteller. Soledad features a wonderful photo slider that is easy to use and quite attractive. The theme also provides designers with more than 40 in-built options to choose from.

There is the cascaded, triple split, and large central photo to mention a few options available. Everything that you are looking for is stored in the slider directory. The second and third column options offer you an incredible opportunity to splash your front page with as many options as you wish. If you need to draw the visitors’ attention, you can decide to use the single column option on your site.

It is almost impossible for your photographs to get lost among the art with the many photo options available. The bright and concise font of Soledad will communicate your message to site visitors without taking over the page. This theme is widely considered as the best photoblog theme available.

Avada

Avada is more than just another WordPress theme. It is a multipurpose theme that can make everything possible. In fact, there is no limit to what you can do with the Avada WordPress theme. For some WordPress web developers out there, it is the best theme available.

Apart from the features listed on its sales page, there are a lot of happy users who have used Avada and praise it. Avada is highly responsive and provides a wide range of versatile features and layout options ideal for both personal and business websites.

The theme is also easy to use since there is no any coding required and it offers a minimalist design. The theme is also e-commerce ready with WooCommerce compatibility. Avada remains one of the best-selling themes on ThemeForest.

Elementor

This is perhaps the most used WordPress theme for beginners. Elementor is created to help WordPress beginners build their first website fast, hassle-free, and without writing a single line of code.

If you don’t have any knowledge of web development and you need to create a website hassle-free, this is the right theme for you. All you have to do is to drag and drop items and customize the content to suit your needs.

Elementor also comes with an awesome visual builder, and this is what makes it one of the best WordPress themes out there. This theme is eCommerce ready since it integrates with WooCommerce and lots of other third party tools without creating any conflicts. This is a powerful and easy-to-use theme for anyone.

Veso

Veso is another creative multi-purpose WordPress theme that comes with a drag-and-drop page builder tool. Designed for showcasing your work online, Veso provides an impressive selection of a wide range of website demos to choose from.

The demo selection features graphic design, designs for illustration, video, and lots of other types of portfolios. Although each Veso option has its own distinct appearance and style, one thing that is common in all pre-built Veso content is the minimalistic design.

If you are a designer looking for a WordPress theme that won’t overshadow your work, then Veso is a good option for you. Veso also offers you complete access to a library of portfolio layouts and templates for the collections and individual pieces of work that you have created.

The theme has lots of other pre-built page templates that cover the other content that you will most likely need including about us, services, case study, and contact pages. Veso is a creative and highly stylish theme that offers you a wide range of versatile options making it one of the best WordPress themes out there.

Writer

The name of this WordPress theme says it all. Writer is one of the best personal blog themes for writers. One of the most critical aspects of this theme is that it keeps a strong focus on your story.

This theme maintains all the aspects of personal blogging while delivering the much-needed professional outlet feel as well. With a simple one-click, you will be done with the installation and customization and back to your writing.

Your web content will get the right punch that it deserves with the bold layouts and highly captivating contrasts that will grab the reader’s attention. Its intuitive flow from featured photographs to the article preview offers your readers an opportunity to sample multiple posts without moving on to the next page. The theme ensures that the reader has sufficient time to explore your site and read your content.

It doesn’t matter whether you are writing fiction, hard science, or poetry; this theme will always present your text in a professional, exposed, and bold format that is quite friendly to the reader.

Divi

The motto of this WordPress theme is “The sky is the limit”, and you will only understand why upon installation. Divi is packed with a wide range of customization features and superior functionality. In fact, the only way you can achieve what Divi offers is by hiring a professional and experienced web developer.

The Divi builder is a specialized feature of the theme that can help you create an amazing layout that will attract a lot of people to your site. Unlike the other builders from other themes, the Divi builder provides you with the freedom to change anything on your layout; from icons to colors, post formats, and even pages.

This is the only way to create a dynamic layout in WordPress without writing a single line of code. The layout builder is also based on a drag & drop interface which makes it ideal for everyone including naïve beginners.

Furthermore, this theme features another 18 pre-set layouts for anyone who is after something that is already functional and highly engaging. These layouts allow you to complete the installation and start uploading content to your website in less than an hour. Regardless of the style that you want to adopt when building your site, Divi will always be an effective and go-to WordPress theme.

Navy

Navy can be described as a multi-purpose business theme with a highly professional but approachable design. The hero images combined with clear white space, easy to read to text and icons result in a sleek and professional look that is perfect for any modern business.

Getting started with the navy theme is pretty simple as well since it comes with functional home pages that only require one click to install. The theme is also loaded with another 22 page templates awaiting your website content.

If you wish to customize the pre-built layouts to create something unique for your business, you can do so quickly with the aid of the drag & drop Visual composer plugin that is included in the theme. Furthermore, if you want to create something unique, the theme offers so much to experiment with including several Google Fonts and six header styles.

The Slider Revolution plugin provides you with the power to add video backgrounds and enables parallax scrolling. You can enhance and organize your site further using the Essential Grid plugin. Basically, Divi is a theme that has been developed with business owners in mind. Building your business website with this theme is pretty simple since it also has business template pages such as pricing, quotes, and contact.

Uncode

Uncode is another beautiful WordPress theme that is highly customizable. This theme features a high number of pre-built demo websites that will offer you a glimpse of how your site will look like when it is live. With the designs covering blogs, portfolios, studios, and even e-commerce stores, you can be sure that you will always find a good match for your project.

The Uncode package also features a wide range of generic designs that can easily be adjusted to suit any website design project. The landing pages will come in handy if you have a product or service that you want to promote online.

This WordPress theme features an incredible library of content templates for all the other pages that you will need to include on your site. Furthermore, the Uncode theme features a full set of blogging templates which makes it a good option for creating blogs as well as adding blogs to your portfolio or website.

Sydney

Are you after a robust online presence? Then Sydney is an incredible free WordPress theme for your website. This theme is also an incredible choice for several freelancers and companies out there. The uncluttered structure and parallax backgrounds of Sydney create a pleasant experience that is great for both business owners and freelancers.

The theme offers full color and layout control with easy access to Google Fonts. You can easily customize the images and colors of individual pages to suit your unique needs. Sydney also features a sticky header bar that allows for easy navigation between pages no matter how far down you might have scrolled.

One Page

This is a single-page WordPress theme that displays all of your most essential website features on your homepage. One page might be the right theme for you if you don’t have a lot of content on your site and you aim to keep whatever you have in one place.

Some people prefer to install One Page theme since it improves the overall user experience and site efficiency. The theme also ensures that your most critical business-related information is listed in one location making it clutter-free and minimalist.

Rosemary

Rosemary is a great WordPress theme for bloggers who don’t want their content to be overshadowed with a complicated looking website. The theme is slightly bright and straightforward which gives the reader an opportunity to concentrate on the blogger’s content.

Its multiple layouts allow you to choose how you want each blog post to be viewed. If you want the focus of a particular post to be the photography, you select a wider layout to showcase your photographs. If you have multiple images to display on a specific post, you are free to choose the gallery view, and everything will be fine

Its typography is also elegant and clean. The theme features a nice tight font that offers you an ample room to convey your story to your readers without feeling bunched up. The different header fonts will ensure that your content flows nicely. Rosemary is an elegant and minimalistic theme that focuses on your content.

To Wrap It Up

These web design principles are essential – they will ensure that you get value for the money and time that you invest in the web development Singapore project. Web design in Singapore has expanded so rest assured to you will get what you are looking for regardless of the complicated design that you may have in mind.

Call us today at +65 6789 9852 for affordable website design services in Singapore. We take pride in being the leading provider of affordable web design solutions in Singapore. Our team is highly trained and conversant with all web design best practices. We will work cordially with you from the first stage to the end and ensure that you achieve your goals. Contact us for more details.

About the Author

Tom Koh

Tom is the CEO and Principal Consultant of MediaOne, a leading digital marketing agency. He has consulted for MNCs like Canon, Maybank, Capitaland, SingTel, ST Engineering, WWF, Cambridge University, as well as Government organisations like Enterprise Singapore, Ministry of Law, National Galleries, NTUC, e2i, SingHealth. His articles are published and referenced in CNA, Straits Times, MoneyFM, Financial Times, Yahoo! Finance, Hubspot, Zendesk, CIO Advisor.

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