People believe that if their product can speak for itself and they don't need to work as hard on their branding as they should. Well, that's how many businesses lose their customers. Statistics show 94% of users abandon a website that doesn't have an attractive design. Your product may be able to speak for itself, but the potential consumer needs to stay on your site for a while to hear its voice.
When a prospect lands on your site, it takes them only a few seconds to form an impression of your brand. And your site's design influences their impression significantly. If they like what they see, your brand appears credible.
We know developing unique and creative website design ideas can be challenging. But you can always revisit the web design principles, surveying the best website design examples for inspiration, researching your target audience, and implying other practices can help.
Critical Principles of Web Design
All of us can recognize which is an impressive web design and which isn't. But when designing, only a few people ace the process. Why? They know the fundamental principles that help them develop excellent website design ideas.
These principles will keep you from making mistakes while designing a website, which ruins the vibe.
1. Navigation
Do not hide your navigation menu. You must've come across many websites where the navigation menu is hidden under an icon. Those are lousy website design examples.
A navigation menu gives an overview of your business to the visitor. When they land on your site, they should be able to see what services you offer and if you would be of help.
If your navigation menu is hidden, some users might not go in and look for your services and leave. They could be the clients to whom your business would've been relevant. But they left because they couldn't see what you offered at first glance.
Hidden navigation menus create a better user experience on mobile phones because of the screen size, but navigation menus must be visible for desktops.
Consider keeping a fixed navigation bar to make it easy for your users to navigate to wherever they want, no matter which webpage they are.
2. Hierarchy
Style the information on your site according to its importance. When every element on your website is styled in a way that attracts attention, it won't get any. Because the clash overwhelms the user resulting in them abandoning the site.
Have a look at Shopify's landing page design.
Image taken from Shopify
The purpose of the landing page is to convert the visitor into a customer and provide to-the-point information. That's what is done here. The designer knew what information was most important for the customer. That's why they've kept it bold and the largest font on the screen.
Once the consumer has been attracted to the bold and large headline, they will move to read the description, which is second at grabbing the consumer's attention. That's how the hierarchy works. Style the most critical information in the most captivating way, then decrease the captivation as the element's importance decreases.
Another thing to remember is the contrast. Ensure the colors and styles of your site's elements go well with each other and the background. Here Strikingly's web page portrays the perfect example of good contrast. See how all the ingredients go well together, maintaining the correct hierarchy.
Image taken from Strikingly
3. Colors
Colors portray a brand's identity and convey emotions for styling purposes. But those are not the only things colors are used for. In web designing, colors have a function. They indicate whether something is working, is a button or link, etc.
We know that a piece of text in a different color from other text is a link. Therefore, if you type the information in different colors, that would mislead people into thinking it's a link.
Take a look at this image. At first glimpse, you know that the blue text is a link.
Image taken from Strikingly
Tips to Come up With Website Design Ideas
We understand that you can get demotivated if you can’t think of an appealing web design idea. Here are some tips you can implement to get those website design ideas flowing.
1. Talk to Your Client
If you're designing a website for your client, talking to them about their business and what makes it unique, knowing their brand values and identity can help generate appealing and relevant website design ideas. Ensure to study your client's scope of business thoroughly.
Here's a list of things you can ask your clients to develop website design ideas to showcase their business perfectly.
- Ask the client if they have an idea or an example to inspire their site's design.
- The goal of their website.
- The results they want from their site.
- What is their business trying to accomplish?
2. Learn About the Trending Designs
Web design trends have been involved rapidly, and it may be challenging to keep up with them. If you're done with building the foundation for your website and struggling to move forward, researching the recent trends can spark creative and unique website design ideas.
Listed below are the web design trends for 2022.
- Retro typography
- Playful cursors
- Sophisticated serif fonts
- Typography animation
- Hover gallery menus
- Black-and-white textured illustrations
- Unconventional product images
- Brutalism
3. Go Through Other People's Work
Image taken from Strikingly’s user’s website
You can find website design inspirations anywhere from your email inbox to the blogs and ads you see. Visit sites like Behance and Dribbble to see what other designers are up to.
Another way to get inspired and get the website design ideas flowing is to create Pinterest boards. When you move on to brainstorming, create Pinterest boards of the graphics related to the client's requested themes.
4. Go Outside for a Walk
You can't think of excellent website design ideas because you've been sitting in front of the computer for a long time and being hard on yourself. Sometimes the harder you try to come up with ideas, the farther you move away from getting one. De-stress yourself. Go out for a walk. According to a study, walking can positively affect your creative thinking process.
Some Helpful Design Ideas
We compiled a list of website design ideas you can incorporate into your project to form a creative concept. Note that according to your target audience, these impressions might be suitable or unsuitable for your project.
1. Animate Your Design
Animations can help your design eliminate the static feeling that makes them look outdated. Technological advancements have encouraged brands to steer clear of static pictures and illustrations and move toward moving graphics.
Animations are great for eCommerce website owners who want to showcase the variations of their products from different angles. Jack Jeznak's portfolio website is the best place if you want inspiration for animated website design ideas.
2. Welcome Your Users with Soft Colors
Using colors that are easy on the eyes creates a feeling of relaxation. Pastel color palettes are great at encouraging visitors to explore your website, which leads them to see essential elements of your site, such as products and call-to-action buttons.
If you're designing a website for a brand that focuses on nature, peace, and eco-friendly products, pastel colors are best at speaking for businesses like these.
3. Sometimes Less is More
Sometimes a simple design can represent a company better than loads of graphics and text. For instance, have a look at Dr. chai's website. They've kept it simple with images of their products and a few buttons. A few components, yet impactful.
Image taken from Strikingly’s user’s site
Minimalist website designs significantly represent businesses like interior design and furniture manufacturers.
4. Type-heavy Designs
Instead of illustrations and shapes, try letting the text style the website. You can either go for a minimal or maximal text design. The variety lies within font families, font styles, text colors, and sizes.
Type-heavy designs go best for businesses that target people who think logically or value messages that go straight to the point.
Give Your Design a Domain
After all the steps, your mind might be ready to spill some ideas. It's time to give your design a place on the internet. If you're designing a website for yourself and are prepared to hire a programmer, consider using Strikingly first. It is a website builder that automatically makes your design suitable to view across all devices.
If your website design still lacks some components, you can use Strikingly's pre-designed templates and incorporate your ideas. Else, you can start with a blank page and build your design through sections.
Strikingly offers an intuitive yet robust website editor that doesn't require any coding experience to build a site. It includes features like an online store, blog, site analytics, email marketing tools, custom domain names, mobile action buttons, and also allows embedding videos and sitemaps in your website.
Strikingly values its user's time and effort and to show that, they offer 24/7 customer support through email and live chat. Now that everything's set, start implementing your website design today with Strikingly.
