How is bad design killing your website, and what should you do about it?

First, look at the data, proving that your web design is fundamental and influences your sales. Here are some facts about users and website design:

• 44% will leave a company’s website if there isn’t any contact information or a phone number.
• 38% will stop engaging with a website if they find it unattractive.
• 70-80% research a small business online before visiting it or purchasing something from it.
• 51.3% of worldwide users access the web via mobile devices.

With data in mind, let’s move on to the things you might be doing wrong. These are the most common design mistakes that are hurting your website:

1. Not keeping your site up to date.
2. Design based on trends and not the users.
3. Too many different font styles.
4. Lack of contrast.
5. The website is not optimized for mobile.
6. Complex, confusing copy or too much text.
7. Too many pop-ups and ads.
8. Poor Navigation.

So, with the statistics and most common mistakes in mind, let’s discuss how to use design in an appealing way that doesn’t increase bounce rates.

Here are the best tactics for web design:

• Simplicity: Get rid of unnecessary design elements and make your site easy to understand.
• Hierarchy: Organize your site so visitors naturally go toward the most important elements.
• Navigability: Make sure your website’s navigation is clear and straightforward.
• Consistency: Your site’s overall appearance and feel should be consistent.
• Accessibility: Make it compatible with all devices (mobile, tablet, etc.).
• Conventionality: Don’t reinvent the wheel. Use elements and design with which people are familiar.
• Credibility: Be upfront about your intent and your pricing.
• User-centricity: Gather user responses to all site elements to get the best UX.

Diving a bit deeper, let‘s address each of the eight mistakes we named separately.

1. If you’re not keeping your site up to date, it gives a bad first impression. And first impressions do matter. For example, poor image quality could scare your potential customers away. When in today’s world, you can search for something in just one second and get hundreds if not millions of results; you’ll simply click on another website if you’re not satisfied with the one you just opened.
2. Too many trends might make customers feel like a product is identical to everything else on the market, which is harmful to how customers feel about a product. Knowing your audience and adjusting the design based on their needs is essential.
3. Consistency is the key to having a successful and well-recognized business. If you use too many fonts on your website, it looks messy and less trustworthy. From our experience, you shouldn’t use more than three different fonts.
4. Lack of contrast means that everything on your website kind of blends in together. Ensure your foreground and background elements have enough contrast for improved readability and simple details recognition.
5. In today’s world, most users access everything they need via phone. So, your website must be mobile-friendly. When creating websites, we always suggest doing mobile-first and only then moving to desktop.