Using White Spaces in Web Designing

While designing a web page, the designer gathers all the text, graphics, pictures, backgrounds and animations etc. and tries to use them in such a fashion that the web page looks attractive, serves its purpose and sooths the eyes so as to retain the viewer. Many people make the mistake of overloading the page with content and the result is that the web page appears to be congested and the viewer is not able to develop an interest into the content.

White spaces are the empty spaces between text, pictures, graphics or any other content that help in imparting the web page a clutter free and aesthetically pleasing look. It is true that these spaces do not carry any content but an effective use of them while designing a page can change the look and feel of the page altogether.

The importance of white spaces in web design is that they help the viewer shift his eyes comfortably. It also helps in separating the contents from each other. A smart use of white spaces becomes extremely important in the web design if the web page carries a lot of information. If there is too much written content, it would be wise to divide the written content into well formatted paragraphs so that the content does not look messy.

Besides this, white spaces can also set the tone of the web page and its contents. If the web page is rich in graphics and visuals, they would be able to attract the attention of the viewer only if they have their separate identity on the page. If there is too much of both graphic and written content, the quantity and space occupied by the white spaces would have to be increased further. This should be done to ensure that the viewer does not miss any details or graphics even while browsing quickly.

To wind up, it would not be wrong to say that proper use of white spaces is as much an art as fitting the contents into the web page. This art needs to be mastered to ensure that high quality web designs are produced. For the designers who are not confident with the use of white spaces, it would be better if they begin with creating pages that are rich in white spaces and gradually cut down the spaces so as to find an appropriate aesthetically pleasing look that carries the necessary contents.

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Web Design for Small Screens – User Experience at the Top

While many industry experts believe the rumour that Google only prefers responsive websites, this statement is partially true. Google gives greater credibility to websites that ensure good user experience – responsive or not. The success of your web design still hinges on the content that you offer on the site. However, to highlight that content and to make it presentable, navigation plays a crucial role.

Whether your target audience is accessing your website from a smartphone, mobile devices or the usual PCs, website navigation is something that shapes user experience. A well-thought out navigation compliments your content and enhances users’ understanding of what the website is all about. A few years back, mobile web was an uncharted territory and not many web designers were really looking forward to designing for the small screens. However, now times have changed and website design is more about being accessible to the target audience and conveying the message through impactful content, irrespective of the device they use.

So, what is it that you can do to make your website navigation adaptable to even the small screens on your smartphones? As per Google’s guidelines, responsive web design surely is the best practice for designing a flexible website that can adapt to any device, yet it may not be what the users want. Keeping user experience as the ultimate goal, Google says that webmasters can use different HTML to serve their content for small screen devices. This makes one thing very clear that Google doesn’t want everybody to go responsive; rather, it wants website designers to create sites that meet the users’ requirements.

Given below are few tips on designing websites that support smartphones and feature phones –

1.    Please the users, not the bots – Obsessing over responsive design may not pay off well if you are trying to reach users of feature mobile phones. It is important to identify user target audience and the type of phones they use. Designing your website as per the type of phones used by the targets would help in ensuring superior user experience.

2.    If not responsive, you can go for dynamic serving or separate URLs – When designing for feature phones, responsive websites do not perform well. So you can opt for either dynamic serving or separate URLs for feature phone mobile users. Separate URLs work well in smartphones as well.

3.    Stick to the conventional website structure that people are used to – When you experiment with your mobile web design, users tend to feel lost and confused on the site. It is important to eliminate complexity and stick to the site structure that users are familiar with.

Thus, instead of going by what the ‘experts’ say, it is best to find out what the users want, and design your mobile website accordingly.

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Using Unique and Memorable Illustrations in Web Design

You may have very well worked out the navigation plan, the content structure and the development part of your website, but something that really catches the eye of the user first is the aesthetics of the site. Sometimes even the most technically-advanced websites fail to make their mark due to the missing aesthetics. Using recognisable and memorable illustrations in the web design completes a website and makes it look visually appealing.

Business websites are not merely set up for providing contact information about your company; rather they are a very important branding tool that can help you reach out to the target audience and convey your message through your website. When using illustrations for branding purpose in a website, understanding the marketing aspects and user preferences is vital.
Using illustrations instead of icons and symbols makes your brand more attractive to the audience. A web designer can partner with an illustrator to create memorable and recognisable illustrations, so that whenever people see them, they immediately connect those to your website.

Where to use illustrations?

Illustrations in web design are an important branding tool, and it can be used in many areas of your website. Presented below are just few of the places illustrations can be used on a website –

• Logo – A logo generally is about a creative punch line and some design. But combining it with an illustration can have greater impact.

• In the header – Again using a distinguished illustration on the header of your website can be seen as your brand’s signature. So whenever the illustration is there, people would know which brand it represents.

• Background – Web designers can give a unique effect to their sites by using illustrations in the background. Illustrative backgrounds have the power to captivate the target audience quite easily. However, the designer needs to have special skills to use illustrations effectively in the background.

When using illustrations in a website, it is important to maintain consistency to have the maximum impact. Moreover, taking inspiration from other websites can also greatly help in empowering your online brand through illustrations.

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Style Tiles – Simplifying the Web Design Process

When working on a web design project, the most common approach used by most of the web designers is creating different wireframes, getting the clients approval for one of them and nailing down the layout. This seemingly-simple approach doesn’t always work this way because it takes more than that to convince a client. So to simplify the design process, there is a better alternative to wireframing, and that is Style Tiles.

For those who are in initial design stages, using Style Tiles for better visual understanding is a great way to get started. Majority of clients aren’t too sure of what they want, but they know what they don’t want. So, with the help of Style Tiles you can provide the options for fonts, colours, textures, and other interface elements that they would want to be used in their websites. This way, in a single web page, you provide them multiple options to choose from. This approach is similar to what the interior designers do. Before beginning the project, the interior designers show their clients the paint options, texture options and fabric options to choose from.

This is a great alternative to creating wireframes that consume more time because you have to create a full mock up, which has to be too precise. You no longer have to get involved in complicated logistics in creating those wireframes. All you have to do is give multiple options to the client, get their approval and begin the work on the actual website. If the client changes his mind in the mid of the project, you always have other options that can easily replace the existing ones.

From typography to colours and button styling to patterns, everything can be shown to the client in a single page. This tool provides a visual direction to the website designer as well as to the client. Designers who are aiming to create a website that attracts the users and creates a brand, using Style Tiles instead of structuring the page and worrying about the size ratios between elements is a safe bet.

Go for Style Tiles, if you want to save your time and want to provide a clearer visual experience to the clients.

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