What Your Website Needs: The Look

The look of your website is very, very, very important. I don’t know if I stressed that enough. Today I will talk about the visual aspect of a good website.

These tips can be applied to blogs, music sites, start ups, small businesses, sole entrepreneurs, sole entrepreneurs pretending to be big businesses, and most other industries that require websites.

Why?

First Look. When a website is entered, the first thing that attracts people’s eyes is not the text content (as nice as that would be sometimes) but instead is the graphical experience that is shown.

Impression. If a website has a bad graphic design it will be perceived as a cheap website. This means that anything within the website will automatically be perceived (at least at first) as cheap. To make a good impression on a visitor, the look must appeal to them.

Navigation. When the entire site is comprised of textual content, there is a navigation problem. Imagery, graphics, pictures, etc. are used to organize the content and navigation within the site. Without it, the site would be much more difficult to flow through.

What?

Simplicity. I am a designer who believes in simplicity. While the graphics within the site are important, too much of a good thing does exist. I see it all the time with websites overdoing their graphics. The site looks “totally rad” but goes no further than that. Too much graphical design distracts the eye away from the most important part, the reason the site is there.

Color Scheme. The colors you use should match that of your branding. In most cases, and in most industries, very vibrant colors are too much for a site. For some like artists or clothing designers this may be different. Too many colors can be distracting and unappealing.

What I try to use are dominant and supportive colors. The dominant color is the one (or more) mainly shown in the site. In this site those would be simple dark gray and white. The supportive color would be a grayish blue (or mildly unsaturated blue for those of you with a BA in Art).

Borders. A key function of graphics is to provide borders for the various content of the website. This is important because it allows the human eye to separate specific parts of the page and the site as a whole.

Unity. This is a rule that can be stretched but is still important. It is necessary for a good user interface to have a unified site theme throughout.  Without this, people get confused. It has that “woe, where am I?” effect on visitors. Unless your product is supposed to make people feel that way (you know who you are) I would not recommend this.

Unique Experience. A lot of my clients come to me wanting their site to mimic another within their industry. This is good in some ways because consumers within their market expect businesses to keep up with each other but they also expect a unique experience from competitors websites. No one likes a copy cat. No matter how amazing it is, if it’s been done before - no one cares.

Quality Design. The most important function is quality. You want your users to enter your site and navigate through it easily. You want your design to reflect your company positively, and you want to evoke a sense of wonder in your market base.

FAQ

How often should I update the look of my site?

Everyone has a different opinion on this. I would say the most accurate answer to give is once every two or so years. This can vary from industry to industry but two years is a pretty good rule of thumb. People who frequent a site get bored easily so an upgraded look can really help bring them back after a while.

Should I hire a professional to design my site?

Probably. Even if you know coding and even if you are an artsy person, the design element of a site is not easy to handle. You have to take into account many functions. The differences in browsers, screen sizes, pixels, hue, color, brightness, contrast, balance, etc. is enough to make your head spin. All of this and much more has to be taken into account when developing a good design. If you have enough experience in it, by all means go ahead, but otherwise keep it to the professionals (like me).

Should I have a dark background or a light background?

Either would would depending on what you think your audience would like. What is important is to have a light background behind your bodies of text and have dark (or black) plain text as your main font. Your logo, links, and some titles can have advanced fonts but the main body should be easily legible and simple as possible.

This article is the second in a series. Please check out What Your Website Needs: The Homepage for more insight.