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8 Fundamental Principles of Effective Web Design

Imia Hazel on August 24, 2021

Web design is a significant component of the web design process. If you're fascinated by web design, we think you have such a creative streak. And...

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GrahamTheDev • Aug 24 '21

Love everything except your alt descriptions, they need to describe what the content of the image is in context. Copying the heading text to the image just results in duplication for people who use a screen reader.

So you have two options:

If you believe that the image adds nothing to the article, leave the alt attribute empty as this marks the image as "decorative".
Describe the image as if you were explaining the article to someone over the phone, just enough idea to get an idea of the image without explaining minute details.

For example your first image:

"Accessible Entry" sign on graffiti covered wall.

Other than that (minor) point, it is a superb article, the "F" pattern is the one that most people forget so it was particularly great to see that getting attention!

❤🦄!

Imia Hazel • Aug 24 '21 • Edited

Thanks InHuOfficial,
ALT description is a great tip indeed.
I will refine myself to use it in more logical way.
Once again thanks and thumbs up.

Grant Eben • Sep 2 '21 • Edited

Point #7 "F Pattern Design" applies to designs supporting any language that reads left-to-right, not just websites of "the Western world" which implies websites of "the Eastern world" are excluded.

I'm curious if the eye-tracking research you cited tested websites supporting right-to-left languages to reach the conclusions you mentioned.

I strongly agree with every other point.

Imia Hazel • Sep 2 '21

Actually this point is about natural tendency of reader. Very next is,

A well-designed website will follow the reader's natural rhythm of page skimming.

I agree with you point and thanks for your interest and attention.

Grant Eben • Sep 2 '21

Yes, but your wording frames this natural tendency or rhythm as exclusive to or inherited from the Western world, and that's not true. There's designs from non-Western countries following "F Pattern Design" that predate the concept of "the West".

Imia Hazel • Sep 3 '21

Thanks for your valuable comments.

tmblog • Aug 31 '21

Very nice and informative breath of fresh air incidentally, was looking for the bookmark button on this page whilst browsing from a mobile browser. OMG it took me ages to find it scrolled up and down literally 5-6 times until I accidentally noticed it on the sticky menu at the bottom of the screen. I wonder if the sticky mobile menu is a place to put all unnecessary things on? Any research on that I wonder, would be happy to hear your thoughts.

Imia Hazel • Sep 2 '21

Thanks

Alberto Villanueva • Sep 30

Thank you for such an interesting and enriching post. I am a beginner web developer taking my first steps in web design.

I´ll do my best to apply these fundamental web design principles in my journey to becoming a web developer.

Once again, thanks for your time and effort in sharing your knowledge.

sid • Aug 24 '21

Great post!

Imia Hazel • Aug 24 '21

Thanks for your appreciation.

Aaron McCollum • Aug 25 '21 • Edited

Thank you for writing! For fonts, is Google Fonts generally safe to use? If I link to fonts in my HTML document, will it show up no matter if the user has it installed or not?