How to evaluate website design: complete guide

As a business owner or manager, you might work with a designer and need to assess their work. It can be challenging to determine the quality of a designer's work if you don't have a background in design yourself. That's why I've created this comprehensive guide on how to evaluate website design, so you can make informed decisions, streamline the process and even choose the right designer for your needs.

The perfect design assessment roadmap

Before jumping to the criteria by which you will evaluate website design, let's look at what the perfect roadmap should look like.

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Step 1. Get on the same page with your website designer. It's a crucial step to make the process as efficient as possible. Don't just send the designer a brief or descriptions in the email as they do on Fiverr. You need to set up a meeting where you discuss your business, its goals and vision, the target audience, and the design capabilities. After this, you'll be able to evaluate website design according to the goals you've set. As a bonus, you will see if this designer is oriented on business growth.

Step 2. When the designer comes up with a concept, ask them to walk you through it, not just look at the images in your email. It's also a great way to see the level of professionalism of your designer: they should have reasoning for every design decision they make, and it should be aligned with the goal you've set up.

Step 3. Evaluate website design. After this walkthrough, take your time and use the criteria in the next chapter to help you do it. Remember that you can't rely on your personal preferences (e.g., which colors you like). Think of your goals and audience.

Step 4. Give clear feedback. As you went through all the steps, you now clearly understand what to tell the designer. It would be best if you had the reasoning behind your feedback. If you say, "It's not there yet" or "Let's try a different direction," the journey will go on and on and on. Structure your comments as much as possible and send them in one email. Your designer would likely want to discuss them to check if you're on the same page.

Repeat steps 2-4 until success.

What to look at to evaluate website design

Structure and consistency. It's a first design criterion without which everything else will crumble. All the elements on the page (layout) should look like they're part of the family. Icons, buttons, images, fonts, etc. Indeed it can be hard to assess as a non-designer but look for the following:

• It's essential to ensure elements are aligned and structured within the design. Symmetry can be broken, but it should be done with intention, and the reasoning behind this should be communicated during the design review meeting. Proper alignment and balance help to create a visually pleasing and organized design.
• Font consistency is another aspect to consider. A clean and professional look can be achieved by limiting the number of fonts to 1-2 (according to the brand style guide). It's also necessary to keep the number of font sizes between 4 to 5 (more about that in the typography section). It helps to create a clear and consistent visual hierarchy and makes the content easy to read and navigate.

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• Button design is another indicator that you can look at. Buttons must have a consistent appearance throughout the design, such as round corners or a specific shape. It helps to create a cohesive look and feel and makes it easier for users to interact with the website.

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• Icon design is an important aspect to consider. Icons should have a consistent size (or two sizes: primary and secondary icons) and look like they belong to the same family. It helps to create a pleasant visual experience. We'll talk a bit more about icons in the imagery section.

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Colors.

Colors are crucial. Colors are the key to providing the feelings and emotions to people so they would perceive your brand as you want them to. We won't go deep into the psychology of color – you have your website designer to worry about it, but let's look at some key aspects to pay attention to.

The first observation you need to make: did the designer use your brand colors in the website design? If you don't have the brand identity design yet – stick around in this blog, and you'll find out why it's essential to have one before designing marketing materials.

The design should use a palette that includes color/s for the background, for texts, accent color/s for icons and illustrations, and action color (for clickable elements). It's a good idea to check if all those colors are used for a reason and not all over the place.

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By the way, about the action color (relevant for the website design or landing page design): make sure that the designer used one particular color for all the clickable items (buttons, links, tabs, etc.).

Typography.

As we discussed in the consistency section, it's important to use a limited amount of font types and sizes. Below you have a small introduction to the world of typography so you have enough information to evaluate website design.

There are serif, sans-serif, display, and script fonts in terms of font types. Serif fonts have small lines or flourish at the ends of the letters. They convey a traditional and classic look and feel. Sans-serif fonts don't have any decorations. They give a modern and minimalistic vibe. Display and script fonts are usually decorative. They have a lot of character and are intended for use in larger sizes for titles and headlines.

There is a possibility to use one font type for the whole design or one for the titles/buttons/subheads, and another for the long texts.

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Fonts hierarchy refers to the sizes of the fonts. The content should be readable and should contain a clear message. That's why we divide it into paragraphs and give titles and headlines for different website sections. The approximate structure:

• Hero title – the main title of the website
• Headlines of the sections
• Subheadings inside the sections. Usually, this font size can also be used for small, concise paragraphs that should attract attention (hero subheadings, quotes, facts, etc.)
• Main body text
• Additionally, if needed, there can be small text sizes for asterisks, helper text, etc.

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Your brand style guide or brand book should help the marketing designer choose fonts. If you don't have your brand identity yet, the designer can use a font that matches the emotion you want to evoke.

Imagery.

Last stop you need to make to evaluate website design is imagery. It includes photos, illustrations, and icons. It's nice to have them custom-made for your product and brand, but if your designer uses stock images, make sure they look not too "stocky" (fake smiles, overused styles, trivial symbols, etc.) and go in the same style.

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Conclusion

So, to successfully evaluate website design, you need to walk through the proper process. It includes setting the goals, walking through the design decisions together with the designer, mindfully assessing their work, and providing clear feedback. Many things go into the assessment process: layout consistency and structure, appropriate fonts, colors, and imagery. By considering these elements, you can streamline the process of creating your website and ensure that the final product accurately reflects your business goals and vision. Following this guide, you can make informed decisions and successfully work with your designer.

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