What Is Web Design?

Date First Published: 14th July 2022

Topic: Web Design & Development

Subtopic: Web Design

Computer Terms & Definitions

Difficulty Level: 2/10

Learn more about what web design is in this article.

Web design is an aspect of web development that refers to designing and managing the look, feel, layout, visual appearance, usability, and theme of a website. Web design only focuses on the frontend of the website, which refers to what users see and interact with rather than the database and programming aspect of a website that works behind the scenes to deliver information to the users (backend). A person that specialises in web design is considered a web designer. Different areas of web design include web graphic design, user interface design, and user experience design.

The aim of web design is to make websites and web applications visually appealing and eye-catching to end users. The designs of websites are usually defined using CSS and HTML tags to define the metadata and content of each webpage. Web design is important for a business as it has an influence on how visitors view their brand. A successful web design will attract more visitors and encourage them to stay on their pages, whilst an unsuccessful web design will encourage visitors to leave the website and give visitors a bad impression of their brand.

If businesses have knowledge of web design, they may design websites by themselves. If they don't want to deal with any design aspects of their website, they may hire a web designer to design it for them if they can afford it.

Note:

Web design is not to be confused with web development, which refers to the creation, building, and maintenance of a website on the World Wide Web, which can include both the backend and the frontend.

Methods Of Designing Websites

Before designing the interface using markup languages, such as HTML and CSS, web designers may create a design plan for the website using a website wireframe. They are a blueprint, useful for thinking and communicating about the structure of the website that is being developed before any code is written. A website wireframe is most helpful for creating a design. They are useful for understanding where the content, text, and images will be located on individual webpages.

Web designers may hand code websites, giving them more control over how the website looks and feels as platforms and templates may include limited design options and may not allow users to edit the HTML of their template. If they want to quickly design a website without needing to code, they may use a WYSIWYG interface that allows them to drag and drop items and see what the end result will look like in the application before they publish it, such as the design view in Adobe Dreamweaver.

They may also use a CMS, such as WordPress and Joomla that provide a range of precoded templates that act as a starting point for a new website. These allow website elements to be edited, resized, and removed by clicking a button, representing what they would look like if they were published online.

Web Design Considerations

Web designers are expected to consider certain guidelines when designing a website. These include:

Web accessibility

Web accessibility is the practice of making a website accessible to all users, including those with visual impairments and disabilities. Things to consider when evaluating the accessibility of a website include:

• Do the images have an 'alt' attribute that displays text when the image failed to load that can be read by a screen reader?
• Do the colours in the design have enough contrast?
• Is the text resizable?
• Is the font easily readable?
• Do all the forms on the website, such as the contact form use labels?

If a website was inaccessible, it would be unusable by some, especially those with disabilities. If it was a business website, it could ruin the reputation of a business.

Compatibility

Different web browsers interpret website code in different ways. With a lot of visitors using different web browsers to browse websites, it is important that a website is compatible with a wide range of browsers. Before publishing a website, the design should be tested in multiple web browsers to ensure its compatibility.

User experience

User experience (UX) is the overall experience a visitor has when browsing a website, as suggested in the word. In general, the more successful the design of a website, the better the user experience. This will lead to more visitors staying on the website, a lower bounce rate, and a higher amount of website traffic. All of the factors mentioned in this section can have an effect on the overall user experience.

Target audience

The target audience is who the website is aimed at and the group of visitors that will want to use the online services. The target audience could include:

• Age
• Gender
• Geographical location
• Interests
• Income
• Inspirations

Responsive web design

Responsive web design is a technique that automatically adapts webpages to the visitor’s screen size and width without user interaction. Responsive web design ensures that all the content of webpages display properly on any device with a single design, including mobile devices, tablets, and computers. The aim of responsive web design is to ensure that website visitors have the same user experience, regardless of which device they use to browse the website.

Simple design

A simple design consists of no unnecessary or overly complex elements and will make it easier for visitors to find what they are looking for. When a design is too complex, it will make it much more difficult for visitors to use a website and understand how it works. A website with a simple design should include a top navbar along with clear links to important pages, and a content box below, where the main content is positioned.

No distracting elements

The design of websites should not contain distracting elements, such as unexpected popups, backgrounds, and distracting animations. Distracting elements give a bad user experience and encourage visitors to leave the website.

Web Design Principles

The general principles of web design include:

• Whitespace – Space that is left blank or unmarked on a webpage to balance elements, preventing the page from looking overloaded, and creating a pleasant composition.
• Alignment - Ensuring that all the content and elements, such as images, text, buttons, and content boxes are positioned in a straight line so that they line up in a composition and look neat and tidy.
• Rule of thirds – A web design technique that states that placing items of interest on the thirds of an image keeps users more interested and is more appealing to the eye than placing them in the centre.
• Consistency – Following exactly the same design as other pages, such as using the same footer, top navbar, favicon, and logo.
• Interactivity - Functionality that actually allows users to interact with the website, such as links to other pages of the website, clickable submission buttons, and alert boxes.
• Golden ratio – In web design, the golden ratio is equal to 1:1:618, illustrated with seashell-shaped spirals. It is the mathematical proportion between elements of different sizes and is used to naturally balance content that is text heavy and draw the eyes of users to certain areas. It can also be used to determine how to place elements on the website or to create grids.
• Navigation – A technique used in web design that allows users to quickly find what they are looking for. All websites should include a navbar at the top that contains important links. Pages and sections of a website should be organised with a hierarchy so that visitors can find what they are looking for. This will prevent the website from looking cluttered.

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