3 Tips for Successful Site Design

By Rome Morgan, WordPress Assistant, University of Arkansas

Although content will always be king, design is an essential element that supports your content, and communicates your message. Your site should appeal to your specific audience, whether that audience is made of students, parents, potential employers, or anyone else. In this post, I’m going to share with you three easy ways that you can spruce up your website to make sure that the design reflects your goals and your content.

Tip 01: Design to maximize your user experience.

Why do people come to your site? Is it to find the dates of a conference? Or maybe it’s to read the latest blog post about community happenings. Your design choices should always begin with this question. Whatever the reason people come to your site, its structure should be designed for that purpose.

The most important information should be presented on the landing page, or at least linked on the landing page. An important date should not be located on a bottom of a submenu of the last link of the main navigation. This may sound simplistic, but too many links, too many items on your main navigation are confusing to your user, and clutter the rhetorical goals of your site.

Learn how to manage your navigation menus.

Tip 02: Choose your fonts wisely.

Choosing fonts thoughtfully can completely change the look of your site. You may feel like this is an issue that you can’t be bothered with but trust me—it is worth your time! Fonts influence how visitors see your site and how they understand the content. Many research studies have confirmed that people attribute different personas to different fonts, and this can influence how they perceive what they are reading.

Some general rules about fonts: Serif fonts are generally considered more formal and traditional, whereas san serif is more playful and modern (see examples). It’s recommended to use a mix of both in order to achieve the right balance in tone. You might want to choose a different font for the titles than for the body paragraphs. Readability is the most important function of type, and serif is generally the most legible for long form reading.

This may seem intimidating, but there are lots of resources on the web to help you choose the appropriate font for your site. Take some time to explore Google Fonts, where you can find many of the same fonts already embedded in the Divi theme. In Google Fonts you not only can “try out” multiple fonts, but you can also get recommendations about which fonts look best together. Choosing type does not have to be complicated or time consuming, but if you put some thought into it, it can really make your site shine.

For more information, read this article.

Learn how to change your fonts in this tutorial.

Tip 03: Select a color scheme.

Color schemes can be implemented in various ways. You might choose to keep a neutral palette in order to offset bright, colorful images. Or perhaps you might use background colors to section off content in independent blocks, using the color to reflect a change in content.

Check out the University of Arkansas web color style guide, where you can find official and unofficial palettes available. Or if you want to choose your own color palette, you can use the free website Adobe Color, where you can scroll to find tertiary, secondary, or custom palettes. Texture, in addition to color, can also add style to your site. I recommend the site Subtle Patterns for textures that won’t overwhelm your users.

Conclusion: Design makes a difference.

You don’t need to be an artist to design your site. Just ask yourself, who is visiting my site and why? How can I make the site support their experience?

Design is essential in supporting your content. Taking a small amount of time to set up your site will go a long way in maximizing the efficiency of your site.