Your website’s functionality is important because it impacts how well the site is perceived and welcomed by the users navigating it. Any modern website in this digital age needs to pay close attention to how well the site is attracting and retaining customers.
As a business, potentially losing up to half of your customers, is the difference between you living to thrive another day or sailing on a sinking ship.
This guide will share with you all of the helpful tools you need to know to ensure your website functions with efficiency and prioritizes user experience at the helm.
What makes a functional and efficient website in 2024?
In 2024, what makes a functional and efficient website? What qualities and functionalities does your site need in order to appeal to the modern, digital user? Here are a few things that matter when designing your website for functionality.
User experience - A website needs to be easy to use, have a clean aesthetic, fast loading times, and clear navigation from one page to the next.
Secure - A website should be secure so that users navigate the site knowing that their information is safe. An SSL certificate ensures secure connections, as well as protection against the typical vulnerabilities online businesses face.
Content - All content should be accurate and relevant to the user. Whether it’s educational or entertaining, it has to offer some level of value, as well as being in a readable font.
Mobile optimized - As mobile seems to be one of the most used devices for online navigation, it’s important your website is optimized for mobile.
UX is a big player and contributor to the success of a website. It also helps to get your website ranked higher on Google. With various algorithms in play via Google and other social media platforms, it’s important that you’re doing what you are able to do to improve the efficiency of your site to play ball with the algorithm in question.
Top 5 tools for modern websites to use for functionality
Now that you understand what common features to look out for in a functional and modern website, what tools should you be using?
1. Design and prototyping
There are some great software and tools out there that are helpful when it comes to design and prototyping. One such application worth looking into is Figma. It’s a free design tool for modern websites to utilize when needing to design a prototype in just one central space.
It’s a tool that brings together your teams, making it a multiplayer collaboration when improving the functionality of your site. You are able to create realistic and no-code interactions with prototyping, fine-tuning every element that’s incorporated into the user experience.
It helps provide a seamless and fluid look to all of your products and brands. Building great user experiences proves challenging but it’s applications like Figma that make it easier. Being able to work collectively as a team through one platform is helpful in rolling out products and services to your users with more efficiency.
Figma
Designing and prototyping any part of your website is a crucial point within web development and determines just how well-received your website is by its users.
2. UX and UI design
UX and UI design are both equally important when it comes to web functionality as they work together in order to help provide a great experience for the user.
When it comes to using tools for UX and UI design, you should understand the key differences between the two. UX design focuses on the user’s overall experience, including how it makes them feel. UI focuses on visual and interactive elements so that ultimately, the user finds it easy to understand and navigate.
Examples of tools to use for the purpose of UX and UI in web development would be Adobe XD, UXPin, and Origami Studio. These tools should be more than enough to align your focus on UX and UI to improve your website’s functionality.
3. Open-source web dev platform
Open-source platforms are helpful to have when looking to create a functional website for your business. Such examples of open-source platforms for website development are WordPress, Drupal, and Joomla to name but a few.
Taking Joomla as one of the most popular website builders on the internet and used by many businesses nowadays, its open-source CMS is highly customizable.
Joomla is highly streamlined but users have the ability to benefit from the platform through its vast array of plugins that fit the needs of most businesses online nowadays.
That flexibility when it comes to web development and design is important because your website might not want to fit into the mold of others. An open-source platform has many benefits from its cost-effectiveness which makes it accessible to all businesses, to how tailored it is for your website.
Joomla is considered to be a highly reliable platform where faults are fixed easily and quickly, ensuring very little downtime or errors are experienced by users.
4. Webpage creation
One of the most important elements of your website is the web pages themselves. The creation of such webpages is influenced positively by the tools you use.
Adobe Dreamweaver is useful in many ways when using it for the purpose of web page creation. Users are able to design web pages visually without needing to write or learn how to code manually.
Adobe Dreamweaver
The interface is easy to use and you’ve got a lot of visual aids that help even those with basic web design skills. The collaborative features make it easy enough for web designers to collaborate with other professionals involved in the web development of your site.
5. Text-to-video AI
Artificial intelligence or AI for short has had a lasting impression on the current digi-verse that is the internet. Not only that but it’s seeping into all elements of business and pleasure, whether we like it or not.
When using tools to improve functionality, accessibility is an important talking point that not all businesses embrace.
Simple changes make all the difference to your website’s functionality and its accessibility. Using text to video AI helps provide visual imagery and content that’s audible for the visually impaired and hard of hearing.
Synthesia
The opportunities that tools like this present will encourage more traffic to your site. More importantly, it’s traffic that’s diverse and inclusive. This is something that all businesses online should be striving for in 2024 when it seems many of us are divided.
How to further improve your website?
In general, there’s a lot that you should be doing in order to make your website as functional and enjoyable as possible for the users. Here are a few suggestions on what should take your priority when updating the site.
Improve page speed - Slow pages will put off users from browsing any further.
Create a responsive design - The design of your website should be engaging for the user and not challenging to navigate.
Focus on SEO best practices - SEO is a great way to ramp up your presence on search engines.
Include clear CTA buttons - CTA buttons encourage your users to do something specifically, so ensure these are clear and precise.
Add white space for user focus and navigation - White space is helpful in drawing attention to the content on the site.
Ensure clear navigation - Clear navigation is crucial for the user to have the best experience possible.
Improve consistency in branding - Consistency in branding will help distinguish your site from other competitors.
Lastly, you should be looking to regularly update and maintain your content. As the months and years go by, the older content will start to look less compatible with the modern design and functions of your site.
Improving your evergreen content and content quality, in general, will help new customers when they land on the site for the first time. Remember not every user is going to land on your homepage. They might end up clicking through to a link that unfortunately has a 404 error. That’s not a great first impression by any means.
Make functionality a priority for your website development
There’s a lot of work that goes on in the background in order to achieve a functional website. Use these tools and tips to get the best out of your website development and design going forward. It’ll help encourage more users to your site who ultimately will have a better experience.
Your website’s functionality is important because it impacts how well the site is perceived and welcomed by the users navigating it. Any modern website in this digital age needs to pay close attention to how well the site is attracting and retaining customers.
As a business, potentially losing up to half of your customers, is the difference between you living to thrive another day or sailing on a sinking ship.
This guide will share with you all of the helpful tools you need to know to ensure your website functions with efficiency and prioritizes user experience at the helm.
What makes a functional and efficient website in 2024?
In 2024, what makes a functional and efficient website? What qualities and functionalities does your site need in order to appeal to the modern, digital user? Here are a few things that matter when designing your website for functionality.
User experience - A website needs to be easy to use, have a clean aesthetic, fast loading times, and clear navigation from one page to the next.
Secure - A website should be secure so that users navigate the site knowing that their information is safe. An SSL certificate ensures secure connections, as well as protection against the typical vulnerabilities online businesses face.
Content - All content should be accurate and relevant to the user. Whether it’s educational or entertaining, it has to offer some level of value, as well as being in a readable font.
Mobile optimized - As mobile seems to be one of the most used devices for online navigation, it’s important your website is optimized for mobile.
UX is a big player and contributor to the success of a website. It also helps to get your website ranked higher on Google. With various algorithms in play via Google and other social media platforms, it’s important that you’re doing what you are able to do to improve the efficiency of your site to play ball with the algorithm in question.
Top 5 tools for modern websites to use for functionality
Now that you understand what common features to look out for in a functional and modern website, what tools should you be using?
1. Design and prototyping
There are some great software and tools out there that are helpful when it comes to design and prototyping. One such application worth looking into is Figma. It’s a free design tool for modern websites to utilize when needing to design a prototype in just one central space.
It’s a tool that brings together your teams, making it a multiplayer collaboration when improving the functionality of your site. You are able to create realistic and no-code interactions with prototyping, fine-tuning every element that’s incorporated into the user experience.
It helps provide a seamless and fluid look to all of your products and brands. Building great user experiences proves challenging but it’s applications like Figma that make it easier. Being able to work collectively as a team through one platform is helpful in rolling out products and services to your users with more efficiency.
Figma
Designing and prototyping any part of your website is a crucial point within web development and determines just how well-received your website is by its users.
2. UX and UI design
UX and UI design are both equally important when it comes to web functionality as they work together in order to help provide a great experience for the user.
When it comes to using tools for UX and UI design, you should understand the key differences between the two. UX design focuses on the user’s overall experience, including how it makes them feel. UI focuses on visual and interactive elements so that ultimately, the user finds it easy to understand and navigate.
Examples of tools to use for the purpose of UX and UI in web development would be Adobe XD, UXPin, and Origami Studio. These tools should be more than enough to align your focus on UX and UI to improve your website’s functionality.
3. Open-source web dev platform
Open-source platforms are helpful to have when looking to create a functional website for your business. Such examples of open-source platforms for website development are WordPress, Drupal, and Joomla to name but a few.
Taking Joomla as one of the most popular website builders on the internet and used by many businesses nowadays, its open-source CMS is highly customizable.
Joomla is highly streamlined but users have the ability to benefit from the platform through its vast array of plugins that fit the needs of most businesses online nowadays.
That flexibility when it comes to web development and design is important because your website might not want to fit into the mold of others. An open-source platform has many benefits from its cost-effectiveness which makes it accessible to all businesses, to how tailored it is for your website.
Joomla is considered to be a highly reliable platform where faults are fixed easily and quickly, ensuring very little downtime or errors are experienced by users.
4. Webpage creation
One of the most important elements of your website is the web pages themselves. The creation of such webpages is influenced positively by the tools you use.
Adobe Dreamweaver is useful in many ways when using it for the purpose of web page creation. Users are able to design web pages visually without needing to write or learn how to code manually.
Adobe Dreamweaver
The interface is easy to use and you’ve got a lot of visual aids that help even those with basic web design skills. The collaborative features make it easy enough for web designers to collaborate with other professionals involved in the web development of your site.
5. Text-to-video AI
Artificial intelligence or AI for short has had a lasting impression on the current digi-verse that is the internet. Not only that but it’s seeping into all elements of business and pleasure, whether we like it or not.
When using tools to improve functionality, accessibility is an important talking point that not all businesses embrace.
Simple changes make all the difference to your website’s functionality and its accessibility. Using text to video AI helps provide visual imagery and content that’s audible for the visually impaired and hard of hearing.
Synthesia
The opportunities that tools like this present will encourage more traffic to your site. More importantly, it’s traffic that’s diverse and inclusive. This is something that all businesses online should be striving for in 2024 when it seems many of us are divided.
How to further improve your website?
In general, there’s a lot that you should be doing in order to make your website as functional and enjoyable as possible for the users. Here are a few suggestions on what should take your priority when updating the site.
Improve page speed - Slow pages will put off users from browsing any further.
Create a responsive design - The design of your website should be engaging for the user and not challenging to navigate.
Focus on SEO best practices - SEO is a great way to ramp up your presence on search engines.
Include clear CTA buttons - CTA buttons encourage your users to do something specifically, so ensure these are clear and precise.
Add white space for user focus and navigation - White space is helpful in drawing attention to the content on the site.
Ensure clear navigation - Clear navigation is crucial for the user to have the best experience possible.
Improve consistency in branding - Consistency in branding will help distinguish your site from other competitors.
Lastly, you should be looking to regularly update and maintain your content. As the months and years go by, the older content will start to look less compatible with the modern design and functions of your site.
Improving your evergreen content and content quality, in general, will help new customers when they land on the site for the first time. Remember not every user is going to land on your homepage. They might end up clicking through to a link that unfortunately has a 404 error. That’s not a great first impression by any means.
Make functionality a priority for your website development
There’s a lot of work that goes on in the background in order to achieve a functional website. Use these tools and tips to get the best out of your website development and design going forward. It’ll help encourage more users to your site who ultimately will have a better experience.
About Natalie Griffiths
Natalie is a freelance writer with five years of experience in copywriting for businesses, spanning many industries.
