The Laws of Web Design to Know

In order to provide your visitors with easy access to the information they are looking for in ways that enhance their engagement, it is essential that your website looks and functions seamlessly.

So, let’s run through some of the most important laws of web design and how they can help you develop a website that positively benefits your bottom line.

Visual Hierarchy

When presenting your visitors with important information about your brand, it is important to use headings, sub-headings and other visual cues to ensure that you aren’t overwhelming them with large blocks of text. Use visual hierarchy to highlight the most important pieces of information and expertly guide your visitors around your website.

Hick’s Law

Every time you present someone with an additional choice, you will increase the amount of time they need to make a decision. For example, it’s often difficult to choose a dish at restaurants with expansive menus. So, if your website is presenting your visitors with too many choices, eliminating some of those options can reduce indecision and increase your conversions.

This Forbes article explains that A/B testing different versions of a web page can be an excellent way to achieve the ideal balance between providing enough choice without negatively impacting decision making.

Negative Space

Also sometimes referred to as white space, negative space encompasses all the parts of a web page that aren’t filled with text or imagery, including margins and the space between two separate images. As teams specialising in website design Surrey, such as www.akikodesign.com/design/web-and-digital/, will tell you, negative space helps to avoid too much visual clutter, which can be overwhelming and deter users from engaging with online content.

Fitts Law

Essentially, Fitts law states that the larger and closer an object is to us, the simpler it is to use. Let’s take Spotify’s mobile app as a good example of how to utilise knowledge of Fitts law. Not only is the play button more attention-grabbing than other buttons, it has also been placed in an area of the screen that is easy to tap.

Niru Eilish