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XD Ideas   /   Principles   /   Web Design

Web Design

What is web design? Web design is the process of conceptualizing, planning, and building websites and web apps. Web design encompasses many different skills and disciplines in the world of design, development, and website maintenance such as front-end design and development, graphic design, usability, and performance optimization. All disciplines work together to achieve the common goal of creating a user-friendly web experience that allows users of diverse abilities to navigate, understand, and use a website to achieve their goal. Read on for more info about the factors you need to pay attention to in order to create a user-friendly website.

Web Design

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We’re excited to announce the first XD Designers Spotlight as part of this week’s XD Creative Challenge

Web Design

Flat vs. Material vs. Skeuomorphic Design Examples

By Nick Babich

Learn about skeuomorphic, flat, and material design.

Web Design

Web Page Design: A Comprehensive Guide

By Nick Babich

Check out our guide to designing a best-in-class web experience.

What Are the Main Components of Web Design?

Every designer will approach building a website differently, but these are the main components of web design: 

  • Web layout – The layout of a website is a critical component of web design since this is often at the core of the user’s initial experience.
  • Color scheme and typography – Other components like color scheme and typography are also important as they can inform the users’ opinions of a website.
  • Navigation – Navigational components help users (hopefully) find the answers they are looking for as quickly as possible.
  • Content – Content is another essential element of web page design. Web designers should put a strong focus on creating a content-focused experience for all types of visitors.
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People visit websites for content, so it’s important to optimize content for quick findability. Information architecture is a discipline that helps web specialists organize content in ways that are aligned with users’ mental models. Designers could use card sorting and tree testing, for example, to ensure that a sitemap–a skeleton of a website’s information architecture–responds well to a user’s behavior. And because this information should be accessible no matter which device is used to view the content, a site’s design should optimized for various devices.

What Makes a Good Web Design?

Good web design has visual weight, is optimized for various devices, and has content that is prioritized for the medium. Web pages are scanned, not read, so the most important elements of a web page should have more visual weight to naturally attract a visitor’s attention. Eye-tracking technologies–heatmaps, focus maps, and gaze point plots–can help designers identify the areas of a site that capture the most attention.

Optimization for various types of devices and resolutions plays a fundamental role in modern website design. Web page layouts should be genuinely responsive and not rely on any fixed-size elements. Web designers using fluid grids and flexible images will guarantee that a web page will render well on a variety of devices, windows, and screen sizes. All pages should be optimized for fast loading, and mobile users shouldn’t face slow loading times caused by non-optimized web assets.

Last but not least, the content layout should be optimized for each type of device (e.g., users on mobile devices should be able to clearly see the most important content right after a page loads). 

What Is Web Design vs. Web Development?

Web design refers to the visual elements and usability of a website while web development refers to the functionality of a website.

Typically, a web designer focuses on the look and feel of things, using tools like Photoshop, Illustrator, and XD to create and customize a website’s visual elements. Since usability is an important factor in web design, both UI and UX principles are used to help meet users’ needs and to solve problems. A web developer’s role is to make the web designer’s concept come to life using software like JQuery or Javascript.

Read on for more insights and best practices for effective web design and stay up-to-date on the latest developments in UX design knowledge.

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Web Design

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Web Design

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UI Design

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Web Design

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Website heat maps allow businesses to identify which areas are getting the most attention.

Information Architecture

6 Ways to Reduce Cognitive Load for a Better UI

By Vitor Guerra

Reducing cognitive load helps to reduce users’ confusion as they navigate a site or product.

Web Design

What Makes a Good User Experience?

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What constitutes a good experience is often subjective, and will likely vary between different people or contexts.

UI Design

Key Principles for Better Design Composition

By Caleb Kingston

Explore visual composition in design, what it is, and the principles you can apply to your designs.

An abstract digital illustration depicts a character in 5 different shapes and sizes in order to fit within a tile in the image.
UI Design

Adaptive Design vs. Responsive Design

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Learn about the differences between adaptive & responsive design to create an experience your users will love.

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