A few weeks ago, a new selling record was established on ThemeForest and I congratulated its owner; this proved that, no matter the circumstances or competition, the job of a good web designer is well paid. Building and launching quality websites is a pretty common activity, this isn’t regarded as something special and difficult as it was few years ago. In spite of that, being a web designer isn’t by all means an easy job- just to make an idea, search the Internet for web design agencies in your town and surely, you will be amazed by the countless offers. Besides that, there are a lot of freelancers ready to take projects from everywhere. Under these circumstances, it is hard to survive without good skills and a strong endeavor capacity.
(Image Source: academyx)
On the other hand, the profession of a web designer supposes many challenges, the most important one being the permanent update of the knowledge possessed. Web designers should handle the exponential development of network applications and websites, or else the risk of being outdated is high and there is nothing more shameful than this.
A designer must be the owner of two items in order to create a good layout: a good set of skills and experience (this shouldn’t be resumed to the year of working in the field of web design, it depends on the intensity and the effort of the individual). Because of the abundance of solutions and the limited number of clients, web designers have tried to obtain more profit hence the competition has stimulated the professionalism. Any successful designer knows that the visual aspect is decisive for any customer and they are really careful of this aspect. This article wants to help designers understand that visual aspects are vital and, once this idea is accepted, it could be a good starting point for improving the works that are going to be made in the future.
1. White space is as important as the content itself
The great majority of the new entry web designers try to add up in their layouts all the elements possible and this mixture is nothing more than an aberration. It sounds metaphorical but you may want to keep the following sentence in mind: the eye needs to breathe in the same way as any living being. The negative space, also called white space is effectively the sum of the regions of the layout where there is not drawn any construction.
My humble advice is not to cover all the pixels of the layouts, as Steve Jobs predicated, let only what is important. Usually, the readers do not read the content of a web page, they are just scanning and the vocation of the designer is to make this activity easy. A complex structure, with complicated navigational menus and an immense written content is the nightmare of any Internet user and the visitors purely will run away from it, which of course, isn’t quite what you wanted in the first place.
2. Pay attention to the font used
I just mentioned the written content in the previous point; even if it’s somehow neglected or considered less important than the design, it is capital. It is wrong to consider them separated entities, the paragraphs are part of the design creation; these definitely contribute to an overall look.
A superb layout must have all the components well defined, from the smallest item to the big picture. The smallest element is the letter and you have another reason to treat it carefully. Readable fonts help the reader scan the layout, offer a nice view, and again keep in mind: small elements make the big difference.
3. Select the proper images
An image speaks better than a bunch of words and the visual aspect is highly based on the use of images. A designer knows that, when surfing randomly, a normal user hasn’t enough patience and few seconds is too much time wasted. Consequently, he will select the best images in order to attract the eyes of the visitors. The curiosity to see the images better, then reading superficially and finally very carefully the content is the sure and healthy way to get serious traffic. The size of the images is another ticklish issue: the bigger the size, the better the quality of these but a considerable size takes longer the upload. The perfect balance is the secret of each web designer.
4. Colors may hypnotize the visitors
Colors are decisive when we are talking about the visual aspect; a decent layout may be ruined, but at the same time improved by a good color scheme. Personally, I don’t recommend the use of more than three colors, sometimes two are enough; the combination of hues and saturation create interesting variations to realize the desired contrast. Even though you can find an almost countless number of colors, the proper combinations are very few and only few people know their magic. A very good tool in selecting the best colors may be any online application, the huge majority of them are of top quality and the work with it, is simple awesome.
5. Balance is everything
It is my own perspective, but moderation is the key in everything. A balanced layout might not be considered original but everyone surely will like the composition, if it is made in quality mode. The balance ensures the intermediate state between being too agglomerated and too minimal, between strident and fade; usually,obtaining the perfect balance is the result of a big experience.
The visual aspect of each website is very important and no one can afford to neglect it hence from the moment of reading this post, please be more careful to it in order to gain more clients. It will be the best reward if any reader will share with us his interesting opinions, therefore use the comment form.
Adam walker works for CS36.com an online shopping site and price compare shop.
