When designing websites is your life, you’ll often find things that are really useful and powerful in getting an approval from the client, but also creating a great experience for the site’s users. So in this post, I’m going to share a few of my favourite tricks and elements to use when I’m designing a website.
Large Images
Humans are visual creatures and websites are primarily a visual experience. A lot of the time, the structure and functionality of the site sadly goes under the radar or is an afterthought, because, especially at the design stage, the imagery can often be the deciding factor.
Big images are one of my favourite web design tropes, simply for the amount of impact they can have on a design. And as attention spans decrease due to internet behaviour trends, breaking up a wall of text with a nice large image is an easy win.
(image: SIGA Slate)
Full-screen experiences
I love creating full screen experiences with websites and web applications, for two reasons:
- Simply, I think they look fantastic.
- They create immersion.
With nothing else on the screen, there’s nothing distracting or overwhelming, nothing forcing the user to go to the next area. The user feels in control of what’s on screen, what they’re consuming and the rate at which they consume it.
It’s a very subconscious tool, but one that makes a lot of sense when you delve into behavioural patterns of users.
(image: Rotary GBI)
Large spacing
Large amounts of padding and spacing helps to compartmentalise content into easy-to-digest blocks, making it easier – and more pleasant – to read.
The human eye wanders multiple times per second, so taking the effort out of focusing by spacing things out makes things easier on the user, keeping them on the site longer and converting them into repeating visitors.
Also, there’s something aesthetically pleasing about keeping content away from the edge of the screen or container that makes it feel a bit more safe and secure. Maybe that’s just me, but I love designing things that way.
(image: Front of House International)
So, there’s three nice and simple web design tricks that create a lot of impact in your designs and end product. I’ll likely do more posts like this, so be sure to check back for more!
Like the way I do things?
I’d love to build visually striking and powerful web experiences for you – get in touch and let’s get things moving!
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