When designing and developing a website, there are certain elements that should just fit into place – and with an increasingly aware audience – your website will be expected to feature certain design elements that are now commonplace across the internet.
In this article we will be looking at 10 design elements of today (and perhaps a little of what’s to come in the future) that your website should definitely be incorporating to make sure it’s fulfilling what your viewers and potential customers expect.
Negative Space
Using the right amount of white space on your website can significantly improve the look and feel of your online presence. Although a relatively simple concept, it’s still a widely misunderstood idea.
Line Breaks
With the advent of one-page designs and scrolling web layouts, using the correct line breaks in the right space is important for letting users distinguish between different elements of your page and design. Line breaks come in all forms – and can also be applied to ways in which you can set out headings or typography.
Typography
Using the right typography, in keeping with the common design language of your site, is very important in today’s web world. Typography trends change – and it’s worth spending a good amount of time in the development stage of your web design to work out which style and fonts are best suited to what you’re trying to say. The right font plays a very important part in setting the tone and message for your site.
Principle of Harmony
Balance, rhythm and harmony are all crucial aspects of design as a whole – all websites and their designs need to have a flow and a rhythm that users can easily understand. All graphic designers will understand these concepts and should have the ability to incorporate them within a website in a way that appears attractive and seamless.
Detail
The devil is in the detail when it comes to designing a website – and it’d be a mistake to think users of your website can’t spot the little things. Take time in deciding what details go where!
You don’t need to break all the rules
A common misconception when it comes to designing a website is that you need to be completely innovative and break the rules. This isn’t necessarily true – there are some rules of design that have stood the test of time, and users will be able to spot if a website is done well and carries the right message no matter how groundbreaking or conventional it is. One element of design you have to consider when designing a new website is ‘how groundbreaking do I really need to be?’
Credibility
Off the back of the idea of breaking the rules comes the issue of credibility – you need to introduce design elements that make you seem credible. In some cases this may mean toning the design down, or possibly being less ambitious if the need arises, but in any case, credibility and authenticity should never be compromised.
Focus users’ attention
Your potential customer’s attention span and patience is one of the biggest issues of designing the right website. As a web designer the last thing you want to do is squander your user’s patience – remove anything unnecessary from your layouts and design that may prevent your customers from coming back. In your design you should have elements that keep your users wanting more, and the ability to find out what they want in an easy and stress free way.
If you would like any more information about how graphic design and basic design principles affect your website, our expert team are on hand to help. Beautifully designed graphics can go a long way in terms of your marketing and branding – contact us for more information.