How to make a website design really great? What principles to follow? What are the tips? Check the guide!

Change your site for the better: top design principles that work

The design may seem very complex if you do not have artistic skills. On the other hand, it is quite similar to science; you just have to analyze the criteria that characterize a good design. Guys from the SECL group helped us to divide them into main categories. Let’s take a more detailed look at these design principles to apply to your website.

Accentuation

This principle allows you to emphasize the importance of the most necessary blocks. In most cases, when visiting an Internet resource, a person uses only a few buttons or gets acquainted with just some blocks that allow him to form an opinion about the product or site.

Accenting is highlighting the most significant elements on the page. To implement this principle on your site, first, you need to analyze the page’s structure and find out the hierarchy of components on it. Imagine a list of all the components you want to place and select the most important ones. Now, when creating a website design, you can highlight them with a brighter color, unusual font, or shape. Graphic elements, such as curly arrows, footnotes, etc., are also often used to emphasize users’ attention.

Only one component on the page can be highlighted as vividly as possible – it can be, for example, a call to action or an order button.

Balancing

This principle is based on the need to position all design elements so that they evenly distribute the visual load throughout the page. This means that you do not need to place all text blocks, lead forms, or images only on the left side of the screen, for example. It is best to arrange them evenly throughout the page so that they mirror each other relative to the same axis.

Thus, placing a block with text on the left side, place a second block containing a call to action or any other content to the right of it at an equal distance from the center of the page. The same symmetry can be present in any part of the screen and have smaller scales.

Usually, blocks of the same size, having the same color scheme, the same fonts for content, and visual design styles are used to balance the design. It is worth noting that the balance can be of two types: asymmetrical and symmetrical. With a symmetrical arrangement of objects, they are opposite each other relative to a certain axis; an example may be the location of goods in the form of cards on the online store page. In turn, the asymmetrical balance looks like a chessboard – the mirror element shifts to the side, and the place opposite the previous block is occupied by a mirror copy of the block below.

In most cases, each person, when designing a website, tries to balance it, as such pages look much more aesthetically pleasing and allow us to increase the efficiency of content perception.

Repetition

The essence of this principle is to use the same type of design elements on all pages of the site. Repetition can be expressed in the use of the same lines, fonts, shapes, and colors. Almost always, there are similar elements in the web design of sites because they create a logically related image of the entire resource and each page separately. In addition, repetition causes the user a sense of stability, as there is predictability in performing actions.

Do not apply an individual approach to the design of each page; such a site will lose its visual connectivity and will not be perceived by the user as an integral object. Try to use the same colors and sizes for all buttons on the resource, place the same main menu on all pages and avoid multicolored backgrounds.

Contrast

This principle is the visual differentiation of several elements located on the same screen. There are many ways to achieve a high level of contrast: the use of bold fonts, bright colors, larger block sizes, etc.

In addition, contrasting is closely related to accenting since, in most cases, the accent element is more contrasting and stands out from the overall style. For example, text bearing the main semantic load can be highlighted in bold so that it attracts the user’s attention faster than the rest of the content. In many ways, the contrast of elements depends on the type of resource and the goals set for it.

Alignment

This principle ensures the unification of various elements of modern website design. It consists in organizing all the components on the page according to the grid. Usually, unaligned objects are knocked out of the overall style of the page and imbalance its appearance. 

Alignment can take quite a long time, as it is necessary to adjust each component on the page. In addition, some details are very easy to lose sight of, which will entail further design alterations.

Ease of perception

This principle is based on the visual attractiveness of the page and the successful layout of various elements on it. Basically, the convenience of perception depends on how harmoniously the designer was able to combine fonts, colors, geometric shapes, and graphics.

For most users, the sequence of objects on the page is significant. Always put yourself in the user’s place and think about whether it is easy to find what you need on a site.

Now that you know a little more about what makes a good design, what are you waiting for to apply it all? Create your website today! If you are still not sure whether you can do it yourself, ask a professional help! Thankfully, there are many reliable companies on the Internet that can help you solve tasks of any complexity. No matter what kind of activity you are engaged in: be it freelance, private bakery, or private teaching classes, a carefully created website will increase your recognizability, increase your income, and more. So, good luck!