1) Make Your Website Mobile Friendly
A bit more than half of web traffic is mobile, and this has been true for a long time. However, many developers even today don’t design mobile-friendly websites. They put a lot of effort into making it look great on desktop and much less time into how it looks on mobile.
A client won’t like a website with a poor mobile user experience. A visitor that doesn’t like the site will hit the back button quickly, which is bad for the website’s SEO.
2) Use Retro Web Design
Making a website look like something from the 90s or 2000s isn’t always a good idea, but it works great if you use this style at the right time. It is not always necessary for the website to be about anything from that time.
An early 2000s style is popular today and probably the best choice. Zoomers who didn’t grow up with early 2000s websites still like the early 2000s style.
3) Add Interactivity
Adding an impressive and not basic interactive element to your site can make it stand out. For example, you could offer an interactive map of the world that displays information whenever you mouse over a certain location. You can add games, calculators, and many other interactive elements.
4) Start From Scratch
Don’t start with a template or a website you have already built and change it around until it becomes something new. If you switch to starting with a blank canvas, you’ll notice your originality improves right away.
5) Use Better Images
The higher the budget, the better images your client needs. Using free images you find on public domain websites isn’t good enough for a high-budget project. You might even hire a professional photographer if the budget is high enough.
6) Don’t Add Unnecessary Decorations
In my opinion, minimalism is overrated – too many web developers use it, so I prefer adding a lot of content and designs to the sites I build. However, all the decorations you add should be necessary, not just there to fill the blank space. Blank space is positive because it enhances the power of each visual element on your site.
7) Make it Possible to Skim Your Website
When someone is looking through several websites to find information, they may be skimming rather than reading. They will jump from sentence to sentence and not read the whole thing through.
You can make it easier by bolding certain words. If the most important words are in bold or italics, someone skimming your website can still find the information they need.
8) Use a Mix of Originality and Familiarity
One web design principle that everyone sticks to is putting the navigation bar at the top. There isn’t any reason to change that – it’s what users expect. You can add originality without going against the most tried-and-true website design strategies.
9) Put the Most Important Information at the Top
Remember that internet users are very impatient and will hit the back button if they don’t immediately find what they want. Each page of your site should put the most important information at the top, with supporting information farther down.
10) Use Animation
Animation doesn’t always mean a complex animated video. Adding small pieces of animation can make your website look better.
You can make buttons and objects on your website change shape and color a little if someone mouses over them, for example. Adding small or even subtle and not immediately noticeable animation to your website can make it stand out from the ordinary.
