When designing a website, the key is to balance aesthetics and conversion rates. Using the right graphic design components on a page may significantly impact. First, let’s talk about graphic design and why it’s essential for every website.
What Is Graphic Design?
Graphic design is a method of developing visual information to convey a message to an audience. Typography and graphics play an important role in interactive designs such as magazine layouts and web banners because they create engaging content for the reader. Graphic designers use a variety of applications to produce visual designs that express ideas that enlighten, excite, and engage people to make an effective choice.
What are the Benefits of Graphic Design for Websites?
The success of a website depends on its visual attractiveness. Your audience will be more likely to absorb your message if it is presented in a visually attractive way. It boosts any website’s attractiveness, brand value, usability, and professionalism.
It is via the use of visuals that people might feel more connected to a business since they engage their aesthetic sensibilities (website). As a result, your website’s visual appearance must be first-rate.
There are a few things to consider while designing a visually pleasing website. What are some pointers to keep in mind while creating a website?
A magnificent and successful website may be yours if you follow these 14 design recommendations in this post.
Every Website Needs These 14 Graphic Design Tips!
01. Select Colors That Contrast
Colors naturally convey emotion. Symbolism: Think red for haste, blue for relaxation or tranquillity, and purple for authority. A visitor’s response to your design may be strongly affected by the presence of certain colors if they can be seen.
Choosing colors that don’t contrast, like white and light gray or peach and light pink, is one of the most common web design blunders. These color combinations will not only be washed out and unreadable on screen but also seem dull and lifeless. Instead, choose high-contrast color palettes, such as orange and blue, or colors situated immediately across from each other on the color wheel.
02. Create a Cohesive Design
However, it isn’t necessary for every color in your color palette to compete for attention in order for your images and text boxes to stand out.
Use one or more main and secondary colors to create a color pallet. Your core colors will occupy most of the design, and your secondary colors will act as a contrast to the palette to enhance the design.
Consider utilizing multiple shades of the same color in your main palette, changing the brightness to get your desired colors. Choose a high-contrast secondary color and experiment with its brightness to generate complementing secondary shades, or choose colors of comparable brightness and color family to complement the primary color.
03. Use Fonts That Are Easy to Read
The readability of a website is of utmost importance in web design. Your landing page is not the place for elegant script fonts or young bubble letters to flourish. Your viewers will struggle to understand your content if you choose typefaces that are too small or condensed, and they’ll almost certainly quit the website.
Instead, choose a font that lets your information take center stage. Choosing a font matching your website’s aesthetic is a good start. Select elegant serifs, clean sans serifs, or rounder sans serifs for a friendlier appearance.
4. Minimize the Use of Multiple Fonts.
If you want your design to stand out, you should use at least two distinct fonts to distinguish between various website sections. In contrast, one of the most common “don’ts” of excellent design is using many fonts and typefaces on the same page. When you use more than five typefaces on a single page, the eye has difficulty scanning and absorbing information.
By using one font family or typeface and altering its variations, such as bold, condensed, or italics, you may change the text’s weight and style. Having all text components have the same style gives visual cohesion, yet altering the versions enables you to denote hierarchy and significance.
05. Embrace the White Space.
Many people believe that every square inch of the page must be filled with text, images, or other filler to make an eye-catching design. Rather than a Geocities-style website, website visitors appreciate simplicity. This is where the value of white space, or the absence of any markings, is most apparent.
More complicated designs are less likely to be seen as attractive, according to a Google study from 2012. Low visual complexity or sites with a lot of white (or negative) space are considered very attractive.
Focus on a single element, such as a video or a text box, and leave the rest of the page free of distractions. Compared to a more crowded design, this is more likely to draw attention and be seen as more appealing.
Lines are a great place to start if you’re unsure how to add white space or balance your pieces. Consider placing a vertical line to the left or right when aligning a header, text box, or visual element. Using a mock-margin line anchors the text and serves as a guide for the vertical structure.
Create squares, rectangles, and triangles around your text by combining numerous lines. As a simple touch, a thick border helps provide visual separation between text and backdrop.
06. Pay attention to the structure and alignment of your work.
Structuring the page such that all components are in line helps guide the reader’s attention in the direction you want. A jumbled page might lead readers to leave the page if the items on it aren’t arranged consistently.
07. Use Color and Scale to Indicate the importance
Good graphic design uses visual hierarchy to convey significance via the layout, color contrast or size, and contrast of items. The most visually dominating piece in web design is generally the most significant part of the message. Therefore web designers use hierarchy to bring attention to it. Such an item may be identified by its location on the page, for example, or by its size or color.
Changing the following items’ size, weight, or color is a logical progression from the most visually dominating piece. Visual hierarchy directs the eye down the page toward an end goal, whether it’s an action call or a form to fill out. Create bespoke online forms for your website using a free Form Builder like JotForm.
Create a visual hierarchy in your pieces by using contrasting colors or various fonts. Each element should serve a purpose in directing the reader to either the conclusion of the page or a specific call to action.
08. Focus on Your Call to Action
An emphasis on the call to action is a byproduct of visual hierarchy. Using a CTA might incite an instant reaction or increase your chances of making a sale. Signing up for an email list or making a purchase are examples of common calls to action.
If your page is on a certain topic, your call to action should mirror that topic.
The color of your CTA button should contrast with the color of your CTA text. It’s also possible to use a button that stands out from the backdrop by using a different color or leaving a lot of white space around it.
Similarly, remember the preceding hints on creating a unified color scheme in graphic design. Choose a secondary color that contrasts with your existing brand colors when developing your CTA button or other action items. Action elements, like links and buttons, may have a secondary color that can be utilized throughout the design.
09. Recognize the Fold
Some argue that the diversity of devices we use to view webpages has destroyed “the fold.” If you’re not already aware of the word “fold,” it refers to the portion of a page that is viewable when a screen is loaded. Anything below the fold must be scrolled to view. The fold is no longer as uniform as it was in the early 2000s since the visible area of each screen varies. This does not, however, indicate that the fold does not exist.
When someone opens a website, they can only see a specific portion of the screen before having to scroll down. Tools such as Hotjar may even estimate your website’s average fold line.
The fold should thus be taken into consideration while designing. Website users spend 80% of their time before they scroll down the page. Ensure your most important messages and a call to action (CTA) are visible above the fold.
10. Using images of real people in your design is a great way to add authenticity to your work.
No matter how stylish, a simple website might come off as cold and impersonal. No one wants to be sold to by a robot; instead, they want to be sold by another human being. This is why images of actual people in web design can be so beneficial. It’s one of the hottest web design trends that large firms embrace as part of their overall visual identity.
Consider Basecamp’s case study, which shows how adding real faces and testimonials to a sales page significantly improved outcomes.
There was a 102.5 percent increase in conversions when the sales page contained a picture of a real person in the backdrop. When you don’t use stock photographs, faces may assist create trust and increase sales.
Most stock images are contrived and show models with rigid, frustrating attitudes. If the opposite of what you want happens, then you’ve succeeded! It’s better to go with more casual images of genuine individuals, especially those who know your target audience well.
11 Maintain Consistency
Everything from your font selection to your color scheme to the quality of your lighting and your sense of proportion plays a role in developing a consistent design. For example, a 120-pixel headline shouldn’t be used with a 40-pixel subhead. Consistency is key in your design components, no matter how large or small they are.
Similarly, this graphic design guideline also pertains to the pictures utilized throughout the website. While all photographs should be high-quality and well-lit, if you’re utilizing more cool-toned photography, all images should be cool-toned.
Take a new shot of an employee positioned from the waist up if you want to use a range of photos taken from the shoulders and up. These minor elements together offer an overall cohesive appearance to your design.
Pro Tip: Creating a brand book or style guidelines may go a long way to creating a consistent look for your website.
12. Insert Icons to Create Layers of Interest
Sometimes we want to elaborate on an area of text or call to action, but a full-size picture would be far too distracting. This is where icons may come into play. From arrows and lightning bolts to social networking symbols, they may be put to highlight a part to drive visitors.
As an example, let’s imagine you want to emphasize the advantages of your product or service. You’ve separated each benefit into three text boxes. The simplest and least time-consuming approach to add interest to these sections is to set an icon at the top of each.
As with images, icons may be modified in various ways, including making them thicker or thinner and changing their color. Similarly, symbols such as arrows may be utilized to drive users to CTAs.
13. Maintain simplicity
According to the previously cited Google research, visitors regarded less complicated graphic designs as more attractive. “High prototypicality” was also correlated with perceived beauty, implying that a website that follows a common pattern has a better chance of being regarded as attractive.
Websites that are straightforward to use are more likely to appeal to your target demographic. Use bold colors, various fonts, and high-quality pictures to make your website stand out from the crowd. However, please consider utilizing a lot of white space, clear lines, and aligned parts to create a basic structure that is easy to read and understand.
14. Consider the Purpose of Every Design Element
Getting rid of design features that aren’t necessary is a big component of adopting simplicity. There are several ways to get the same effect, but one common method is to use thick vertical lines as a margin for your title and text box, along with various additional lines.
While the initial phrase serves a function, the features used to stylize the section have made the text more difficult to understand and less compelling. The design is more aesthetically pleasing and easy to understand by deleting unnecessary parts and simplifying the original margin line.
Step back to see the page as a whole before you finish your graphic design. For the most part, unnecessary elements may be deleted from sections that don’t need them. If you’re undecided, just remove the item, study it, and ‘undo’ the deletion if necessary. In most design applications, you may easily add and remove features until you’ve found a balance between aesthetics and functionality.
