Why Most Website Designers Suck

Website designers come in all styles and colors, but only a few of them are gems. Most modern website designers tend to overlook who the website is created for: the user.

I followed this same path. I started my career designing websites with nice designs, but never with user-friendly elements. Nonetheless, as I became more experienced, I learned to think about the user instead of myself when I was designing a website.

If you realize you’re following this path, here are few tips to help you out.

Read user experience blogs

A user experience blog I visit frequent, UX Booth, help me in my quest for user-friendly websites. They have many articles on accessibility, usability and etc to help improve your websites. Here are a few posts you should check out:

Quick Usability Checklist

5 Tips to Make Your Headers More User Friendly

6 Things to Include for a User Friendly Footer

5 Tips to Make Your 404 Page More Usable

Sketch or wireframe your websites

I personally advocate for sketching or wireframing your websites before you design them in your design application. By laying out each element ahead of time, you see what works for the user and what doesn’t work for the user. It also makes it easier to design in the long run. If you’re interested in wireframing your layout, check out this link: 15 Desktop & Online Wireframing Tools

Put your knowledge to use

Once you have learned about user experience, put your knowledge to the test and apply them to your website. Start by adding subtle changes and if you see positive results (check your analytics!), continue with more major changes.

Now that you’re a better website designer, flaunt it and use it as a selling point.