Creative Website Design Tip 1: Alignment
For me, alignment is one of the most fundamental principles in web design, which should be given a lot of thought. If there is no alignment in place, a website can look chaotic and messy. However, there are clever ways in which you can purposefully break the rules of alignment to draw the eye and create beautifully unique layouts.
When designing a website, you can have multiple margins in place so that alignment is more complex and interesting. Alignment can take place on both the X and Y axis, sometimes even on the Z axis. Alignment could be considered a form of poetry in the realms of web design due to its structural patterns and expressive opportunities.
Creative Website Design Tip 2: Space
Whether we’re talking padding, margin, white space or negative space, they all contribute to website design in huge ways. A designer can use space to invoke a particular mood or feeling when viewing the website. Websites with lots of space can portray a fairly relaxed and comfortable ambiance; on the other hand, websites with little space can make you feel excitement and intrigue. Of course, they can also produce negative feelings if they’re done poorly, for example too much space could lose your interest or too little space may make you feel overwhelmed. Therefore, the balance of space is essential in creating the right environment.
Creative Website Design Tip 3: Font choice
Choosing the right font can be a timely process, but one that deserves every second of it. Fonts are extremely expressive and have a huge impact on the overall design of a website. The first thing to think about is do you go for a serif or sans serif font? A sans serif font may be more fitting to a modern tech website whilst a serif font might work better for a museum website. That said, there are no specific rules, so it can come down to what works and feels right for your brand.
With so many types of fonts, each with slight variations, it’s clear why it can be such a difficult decision to settle for one. It’s therefore best to decide on the type of font you want, i.e. serif, sans serif, script etc. and then narrow it down further with width, x-height, contrast etc. You’ll then have fewer fonts which meet your requirements, making it easier to choose.
Creative Website Design Tip 4: Colour palette
This is a subject that could be discussed in great length and it’s difficult to summarise how important colour is to web design. Every colour and shade can have a vast number of connotations and emotional connections. They can also differ from person to person and country to country. So, it’s important to know your target market well to ensure the colours you choose will resonate positively with them. Putting together colours that complement each other to make the perfect colour palette is hugely important to build a strong brand and website. It’s vital for web designers to understand colour theory so they can make the right choices.
Creative Website Design Tip 5: Graphic / Image style
I’ve put this last because all the other characteristics need to be spot on before this will have much impact. This is the icing on the cake. Which if done properly, will bring your website to life and complement all other design choices you’ve made so far. It’s recommended that you choose a consistent style of photography or graphics throughout the entire website. This strengthens your brand and ensures your design flows continuously. Remember, a picture can tell a thousand words, so tell your story with the right ones. Top Tip – use unique imagery wherever possible.
If your website is lacking in any of the areas above, you could be losing potential customers because they may relate the quality of your services to the quality of your website. Therefore it’s crucial that your website looks as slick as possible. If you feel you could benefit from a new website design, our expert web designers are ready to help. Get in touch with us now for a free consultation.
