When many people think of web design, they think of putting as many elements on a site as possible.
However, for anyone who’s involved with web design in a professional capacity, they’re well aware that this practice is about much more than how something looks.
Quality And Usability Is The Key
Instead, one of the primary goals of web design is to make it as easy as possible for visitors to access and navigate through a website.
Additionally, quality web design is also focused on maximizing a site’s conversion rate.
Even the best inbound marketing companies know that once visitors are brought to a site, it still needs to have all the necessary elements to persuade them to compete the desired conversion action.
Since the most effective approach to web design has a very specific focus, it’s possible to accomplish a lot with less than most people expect.
To show just how well a less is more philosophy can work for web design, here are five examples that show just that:
Optimizing Forms For Better Conversion
It’s common to see forms with anywhere from six to ten fields. While some forms require that much information, others simply do it because they think they should collect as much information as possible. In reality, that approach will ultimately lower the form’s effectiveness and overall conversion rate. By removing fields that aren’t absolutely necessary, you can reduce friction and increase the number of people who submit the entire form.
Site Navigation
Since you want to make it easy for visitors to get around a site, you don’t want to overwhelm them with too many options. Instead, you can maximize usability by limiting options and then complementing the menu with a search box.
Videos Can Boost Engagement
Embedding videos on a site can significantly boost its engagement. However, the one downside to using videos is they can take a while to load. If a design includes too many videos, it may defeat the propose of increasing engagement by causing visitors to leave before the site finishes loading. Being selective about video usage will prevent that from being an issue.
Trust Seals
Conversion studies have shown that including a trust seal throughout the design of a payment process will boost purchases. However, other studies have also found that including numerous seals has the opposite effect. If you’re not sure which seal will work best, split testing can reveal the winner.
Pictures Are Great But Don’t Go Overboard
As with videos, too many pictures can slow down loading times. Additionally, an excess number can also distract visitors from the content that matters most. While pictures definitely have their place in web design, use them wisely to get the most mileage.
Although it’s not always easy to get clients on board with a more minimalist approach, using concrete examples like the ones above can help you present the strongest possible case.
