If you’ve ever tried to DIY your own website design, you know how hard it can be to avoid a cluttered website. Sometimes simplicity is actually difficult to achieve. You have so much information to convey and so many design ideas running through your head. However, without establishing visual priority, our brains cannot organize all of that information quickly. A clean website will feel clear and be easy to use to your visitors.
Limit your fonts.
Using a lot of fonts can be an easy mistake to make, but fixing it can help avoid a cluttered website. Limit yourself to two or three fonts (max) on the entire site. A good way to maintain consistency is by keeping the same style for each font. Always use the same size and formatting (for example, Montserrat Size 20 for all headings; Montserrat Size 14 for all body text.) A consistent type hierarchy will help your visitor organize, prioritize, and categorize all the information across your entire site.
Ensure your text is easy to read.
Along with too many fonts, using all caps or centre aligning your entire copy makes it difficult to read. Text should be aligned left and regular case on a website, especially on a blog, making it easier to read. When text is centered on the page, this makes it difficult to follow the flow of the copy. There are exceptions such as elements like headings and subtitles, and when you’re including short descriptions under those headings and subtitles.
Make sure that whatever colour text you use has some contrast against its background. Choosing a darker or neutral text on a white screen, or white text on a dark screen will make a world of difference.
Simplify main navigation.
Too many options in your main navigation can lead to analysis paralysis. Limit your top navigation to 5 pages. The less options, the better. The rest can go in the footer.These pages should be the crucial pages that someone needs to read through before taking the next step to get in touch. If you do need to link to many pages, group the pages if at all possible to use drop down menu functionality. Too many choices gets confusing to users. Also, don’t get too cute with your page names. Make sure people know what they’ll find if they click on those menu items.
Use white space to let your design breathe.
People sometimes feel a blank canvas needs to be filled with as much content as possible, that it all needs to be seen at once. By doing this, you’ll end up overwhelming your audience and they probably will skip right over it instead.
Lack of negative space makes everything feel cramped—and it’s difficult for our brain to decipher, navigate, and categorize the information. When in doubt, add more space. White space is helpful because it’s a great way to create hierarchy by grouping certain design elements together and separating others. It allows the design to breathe.
A common misconception with white space is that it’s actually white. But really,, it’s just the negative space within a design or image. Anywhere that your eye can rest is really important.
If you can implement just some of these tips, you can achieve a clean, uncluttered website design.
And of course, if you decide that you need assistance with your website… I’d love to hear more about your vision!
hello@openbookdesignco.com
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