Great design necessitates meticulous attention to detail. Jeff Stephens, the Design Director at Informatics, provides five of his favorite techniques for polishing and refining your next web design.

Everyone wants to establish an effective website that wows potential clients and customers when it comes to web design. But, in practice, what does that mean?

We specialize in website designer in surrey immersive, engaging websites that combine form and function at Informatics. The goal is to provide a fantastic user experience that leads to conversions. After all, what good is a beautiful website if it doesn’t help your company or organization succeed?

Here are five recommendations from Jeff Stephens, our resident design guru, that can help you take your next website from good to great:

1. Keep things simple and focused.

We published a few months ago about how minimalism is having a moment in online design, but we’ve always been curious as to why it hasn’t garnered more attention.

You may reduce distractions and keep people focused on the message or experience you want to convey by removing extraneous elements and inserting lots of white space. Simple color palettes and bold highlights (when used sparingly) help lead the user’s eye, while SEO-friendly, bite-sized text blocks maintain pages scannable and searchable.

Minimalist designs are well suited to smaller screens as the world shifts to smartphones. Examine how much you can omit from your next web prototype—you could discover that you can exclude entire pages or parts while still conveying your point.

2. The headers have been fixed.

When it comes to specific page elements, fixed headers are one of those finishing touches that elevates a web design. These elements, often known as sticky headers, scroll with the page, ensuring that the header, navigation, and social links are always visible.

They’re wonderful for usability and can stimulate exploration because they “enable visitors to explore a site without fear of becoming lost or losing their location,” according to Jeff. This translates to more time spent on the site, increased engagement, and, eventually, more conversions.

3. Hero sliders are no longer available.

The much-maligned hero slider, on the other hand—a giant spinning design element with many places and massive images—is now available.

“The data is in, but nobody engages with them,” Jeff explains, describing it as “one of the first web design blunders.”

He is correct. Over the course of a six-month period in 2013, Erik Runyon’s analysis found that just a small percentage of visitors (1-3%) engaged with hero sliders on multiple Notre Dame websites.

Instead of a hero slider, Jeff advocates having a clear value proposition at the top of your landing or hero page and starting the customer on their experiential journey right away.

“These days, users virtually immediately start scrolling or swiping as soon as the page loads,” he adds. “Don’t waste time attempting to engage them with a large, out-of-date slider.”

4. Video must be embedded.

video embedded “It’s huge,” Jeff adds, noting that nearly three-quarters of people would rather watch a video than read a webpage to learn about a product or service, according to surveys.

You may take advantage of this by developing explainer videos that quickly break down your company’s major service or concept (a minute or less).

Upload it to YouTube and your social media networks, fill in the descriptions with SEO-friendly material, and then embed it throughout your website. You’ll reach new audiences that you wouldn’t have reached with only text.

5. Embellish using non-obtrusive design flourishes

Look for ways to add subtle design elements into your final website, such as thin lines, simple forms, small text, and subtle motion animations. They shouldn’t detract from your core parts; instead, they should complement and connect them to create a sense of flow.