3 Quality Web Design Tips Taken From Fundamental Decorating Tips

If you think of your website as your virtual office, then it makes sense you would want it to be as visually appealing as a physical location. Whether you actually have a physical location or not is irrelevant.

The following are some basic decorating tips that you can use in your home, office, store, and yes—even your website.

It’s not about going for a certain look. It’s about creating a feeling.

This is the most important rule for decorating and design. When going for a certain look, you tend to copy somebody else. You might change a few things to make it “unique” (quotation marks intentional) but in the end, it’s not very original at all. Walking into a store and buying everything that goes together in a furniture set is actually very unoriginal. Don’t go for a look that already exists, instead create your own! When going for a feeling, you focus on what matters most. Have you ever walked into a coffee shop and instantly felt comfortable? That happens by design. Literally! Everything from the color palette to the décor was carefully selected and place to create a relaxing environment. When designing a website, consider how you want your audience to feel with the first glance. Generic templates can usually be identified as generic templates—the equivalent of boxed furniture sets. Having a website custom designed already sets you apart from competitors, and you have more flexibility with how traffic will be impacted. Just be sure to tell your designer what feeling you want to create, rather than a look.

Emphasize.

A well-decorated room emphasizes a certain focal point such as a piece of art or a fireplace. Each room will have a different focal point, but it is usually the first thing that catches your eye. In web design, the emphasized focal point may happen accidentally. Gain control by choosing one (large) element to emphasize primarily, and balance it with secondary elements that complement the focal point without creating clutter.

Choose a _____ Color Palette.

This is an extension of the first two points. Choosing a color palette can actually be a very complex process and it is better that way. Since we’re talking web design, your emphasized focal point probably doesn’t already have a color because it’s probably not a fireplace or artwork. So you have a little more flexibility there. Choose a palette of colors that create the environment you want. Colors that work well together may contradict each other, such as blue and orange, but the important thing is to follow the 60:30:10 rule. (In interior design, but can also be applied to web design.) 60% of your design should be the primary/base color. 30% should be your accent color, and 10% should be your “trim” or secondary color. The color palette used in your branding (web design, logo development, etc.) should always be consistent and it should have a value that contributes to the impact you want to make. So you might not want to choose a few of your favorite colors because they are your favorites. Instead, look at color combinations that work together so you can create the feeling you want.