Designing a website is one of the most important projects that you’ll undertake as a company. It can and should be an expressive project – one that accurately portrays your brand in all its glory. While it’s true that design is subjective and that it’s likely many people will have an opinion on what looks good and what doesn’t, there are some careful considerations to take into account when handing this project off to a design team. Here, our user experience team weighs in on best practices for designing an effective and engaging website using 4 key elements – color, type, layout and photography. Color is essential to the essence of your brand, and your website. Color can help you to attract attention, convey meaning and illicit emotion and action. Certain color combinations can help you to achieve the right mood for your brand. For example, analogous colors (those closest to each other on the color wheel) create harmony and are naturally pleasing to the eye, while monochrome (the same shades) are soothing, and complementary (opposite) create energy and vibrancy. Typography is also important. First of all, make sure your designer is using web-friendly fonts. Make sure the type is legible and embodies the personality of the brand. Don’t use too many different types of font on your website – strive for clean readability and good spacing and alignment. Layout is paramount when it comes to creating a user-friendly website. The first thing to do when designing a website is to prioritize and organize content. Make sure key information is easily accessible, navigation is clear and calls to action are above the fold (before the user scrolls down). Also, don’t be afraid of using white space – clean and clutter-free sites tend to perform better with users. Photography can help you to tell a story, show product perspective and invite users to explore and discover the site and the brand. Most websites are a mix of all of the above items, but if even one of them is off, it can throw off an entire site and turn users off. That’s why it’s important to have a web design team that is well versed in all elements of web design, especially user interface (UI) and user experience design (UX). Website Jungle has been designing and developing websites for over a decade, and provides free consultations to businesses in the NYC and NJ areas. Contact us today at 888-309-3292 with your web design questions.Designing a website is one of the most important projects that you’ll undertake as a company. It can and should be an expressive project – one that accurately portrays your brand in all its glory. While it’s true that design is subjective and that it’s likely many people will have an opinion on what looks good and what doesn’t, there are some careful considerations to take into account when handing this project off to a design team. Here, our user experience team weighs in on best practices for designing an effective and engaging website using 4 key elements – color, type, layout and photography. Color is essential to the essence of your brand, and your website. Color can help you to attract attention, convey meaning and illicit emotion and action. Certain color combinations can help you to achieve the right mood for your brand. For example, analogous colors (those closest to each other on the color wheel) create harmony and are naturally pleasing to the eye, while monochrome (the same shades) are soothing, and complementary (opposite) create energy and vibrancy. Typography is also important. First of all, make sure your designer is using web-friendly fonts. Make sure the type is legible and embodies the personality of the brand. Don’t use too many different types of font on your website – strive for clean readability and good spacing and alignment. Layout is paramount when it comes to creating a user-friendly website. The first thing to do when designing a website is to prioritize and organize content. Make sure key information is easily accessible, navigation is clear and calls to action are above the fold (before the user scrolls down). Also, don’t be afraid of using white space – clean and clutter-free sites tend to perform better with users. Photography can help you to tell a story, show product perspective and invite users to explore and discover the site and the brand. Most websites are a mix of all of the above items, but if even one of them is off, it can throw off an entire site and turn users off. That’s why it’s important to have a web design team that is well versed in all elements of web design, especially user interface (UI) and user experience design (UX). Website Jungle has been designing and developing websites for over a decade, and provides free consultations to businesses in the NYC and NJ areas. Contact us today at 888-309-3292 with your web design questions.