Tag Archives: layout

Design

How to create the focal points of your layouts

Every web designer is aware that each work created must have some focal points- the places that should attract the eyes of the viewer. This article comes at your rescue and it offers you a few pieces of advice that will help you figure out which are the things you should do when creating something like this. However, before actually creating the focal points, one should take his/her time in order to analyze the project and realize what matters the most, where should these be placed or what is the color that would make this grab the attention.
Anyway, I will cut it to the chase and in the following lines I will present the most important factors that one should take into consideration when creating these important features. If you will follow these steps and if you will be serious about creating something really helpful for your users, then you will definitely be successful in this task.

Illustration

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The graphics of your website are important, especially because they will make your audience notice the most important points. Not to mention that these are very entertaining and relaxing, and at the same time they offer your webpage an appealing and interesting look. Besides being attention grabbers, the illustrations also have the purpose of explaining the users the steps of various processes, and therefore you should not miss the great opportunity of including these “multi-tasking” features.

Another thing you should take into consideration is the fact that in case you must create a hierarchy of focal points, then illustrations will definitely help you achieve this goal. When creating this hierarchy the web designer should arrange the points of interest, depending on their importance. Therefore, a bigger illustration should be used for the most important matter, while some little ones should be saved for the other points that follow in rank.

Buttons

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The most popular attention grabbers nowadays are the call to action buttons. People love these and they usually love to click them, just because they are curious to see certain photo galleries, restaurant menus, store offers, and so on. Besides that, they are very easy to spot: they are big, and they often come in red. So, placing buttons on your website will definitely catch the eye of your audience, who will become intrigued and curios. Just remember that famous line that Dee Dee (Dexter’s Laboratory) used to say: “What does this button do?”

Long story short, it would be a shame not to include buttons on your website because they are very effective: they are visible, people are accustomed to them and also, they offer valuable info to the visitors. However, web designers should be careful. It is not a secret that once people find that something is effective they tend to overuse that certain item. As a result, less is better in this case, otherwise your buttons will no longer be effective and useful.

Simple decoration

It goes without saying that simple decorative elements will help you put the emphasis on the most important points of your webpage. And, especially that these days people love minimalist and clear websites, you will have the chance to make your projects modern and useful at the same time. Everybody knows that the best way of creating great effects and of drawing the attention towards the most significant issues could be made through the use of colors and positioning. Certain techniques you could use in your advantage would be: the color contrast, the arrangement of the focal points, depending on their size or the utilization of various minimalist features.

Therefore, you should definitely think about the simple decoration, because your users love it (it is simple yet appealing), it is not time consuming (it helps the website load fast) and it will definitely play an important role at accentuating the most important and significant items of your website.

The whitespace

If you want to use as little effects and features as possible, and if you want to rely on the power of the whitespace, then you will definitely manage to draw the attention of your readers towards the focal points. Actually, it is important to realize that the whitespace has quite numerous advantages and that it represents a great manner of creating your focal points. In case you wonder why, then you should know that a white and clean space will make it possible for the visitors to notice and observe the features that are crucial for your website and that will help them achieve their tasks faster.

At the same time, if your website has plenty of white space, it means that there are fewer elements. As a result your readers won’t have to go through exhausting searches, in order to get the things they need. Obviously that this also means that you will gain loyal visitors, because usually people are more satisfied with a website that emphasizes the most important factors, without causing them too much stress.

The typography

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Of course that, certain parts of the text of your website must be accentuated and thus become focal points. This is possible, by using a special typeface and by playing with the font size, the text color or the spaces between characters and lines. Ways of transforming your typography into a focal point would be, for example: using red (which is definitely an attention grabber), increasing the font size when necessary, even to certain extents of adopting a huge typography, or simply writing in bold or italic.

Anyway, one should not forget about this important manner of creating a focal point, because texts and their typography could really add a nice effect to your website and they could represent important attention grabbers.

In the end, it is important for web designers to think about this matter deeply, because people need to be guided when coming across new websites that might entertain or inform them. So, create focal points for your website and you will benefit from numerous advantages.

Design

Wireframing – definitely something you should learn about

If you want your creation to be successful and everlasting then you will have to construct it on a great foundation. One must make sure that his or her business is based on something real and concrete, so that it won’t be blown away by a small gust of wind. Believe it or not this “success recipe” works in web design, too. To be more precise, what I am trying to say is that a web designer should wireframe or prototype the web page first in order to do his or her job right.

1.What does it mean?

wireframing
When a web designer is wireframing it means that this person is creating the sketch of the future website. In other words, he or she is taking the first steps that will lead to a well-constructed web page. It is true that many designers prefer to keep this sketch in their minds and to go directly to work on the actual page. Anyway, although this process may take some of your time you should not skip it because as you are about to see, you may use it in your advantage. So, now that you know what wireframing is all about, you should read the following lines, in order to find out why you should use this technique.

2. Why should I use it?

The reasons why one should prototype the website first are pretty obvious from the definition stated above. Anyway, one should start by saying that this process will help the web designer be more organized. Organization is everything in a business. Therefore, if you want to create something clean, helpful and easy to use, you will have to structure your ideas, to visualize and to analyze them. But, this wouldn’t be possible, unless you had created a great sketch containing all your ideas and goals.
Further on, it is important for the people working on creating the webpage become aware of the fact that this process will help them create a connection with the clients. When designing a page for somebody else, you will have to give them a sketch illustrating the future project. As a result, when you will wireframe you will have to put your mind into it and to come up with something beautiful, so that your clients will agree with your ideas. In other words, it seems that in these particular situations wireframing is more a necessity rather than something that will facilitate your job, since it represents the connection between you and your customers.
One should acknowledge the fact that research is an important stage in creating something and as a result one should take this step seriously. As a matter of fact wireframe and research are connected, because when creating the prototype one needs to look for information and to use accurate data, in order to end up with something really good. In conclusion, another reason why you should wireframe is due to the fact that you need to do some research; and if you are not motivated to start this work, the wireframe technique will certainly help you in this sense.

3.What should this include?

These being said, we can move on to the next idea which deals with the things that you will have to focus on when wireframing.

To begin with, you could explain the use of certain elements or widgets. Although most of the web designers deal with this process during the development phase, you could take advantage of the wireframe and start explaining the functionality of your contents. It is needless to say that this will save your time and will also help you be more organized. At the same time, if you must present the prototype to your clients, your explanations will definitely make them understand your ideas better. Therefore, add some drawings or explanation paragraphs in your sketch, and you will see that your job will instantly become easier to do.

Again, another thing that you could do to make your job less difficult would be writing down the rules that your work will submit to. It goes without saying that if you have these rules in front of your eyes when designing and developing the webpage, you will definitely manage to include all the things you desire, without getting distracted.

Another thing that you should know is the fact that the wireframe will help you deal with the call to action buttons and the placement of various other elements on your page. Even if this point does not need a lot of details, it does not mean that you should not plan this efficiently. Therefore, take every aspect of your website seriously and construct a great wireframe in order to have a successful website.

4.What should I know about the wireframing phase?

The customer and the designer should work together in this particular moment of the website creation. Clients don’t know much about the technical stuff of creating a webpage, so this is basically the right time for them to speak and to present their ideas. The job of the designer is to take them into consideration and to make use of them while working. At the same time, the clients will have to understand that this is not the time to worry about the right colors, since they are presented with a mere sketch of what is to come. Also, he or she will have to accept the fact that his or her ideas will mix with those of the designer in order to construct something beautiful and long lasting.
Conclusion
As you can see, wirefreming is an essential step in creating a website. As a result, taking into consideration the fact that you have all the information you need, you should definitely create the prototype first and then proceed to constructing the page. You will finish your tasks faster and your customers will be pleased.