Hey folks, for my first blog entry I thought I would write about some of my top issues that I see with designs these days on the Internet. I would say that if you see a design that you don’t like, there is probably something in my list here that wasn’t followed. These issues, correctly used, are really the core to having a good design.
Not Enough White-space
I remember my professor from my very first design course in college telling us how important white-space is to a good design. He definitely made it sound very critical at that time and it was something I took to heart. I see time and time again where designs have not been granted enough white-space between content items. This often makes a design look busy or downright confusing to the intended audience. Whenever I design a web site I always start off with a healthy amount of padding between elements, enough so that if there are revisions that require additional content to be worked in I can adjust some of my white-space so that it will fit. It’s always a good idea to think ahead when designing to see where you can make adjustments if needed so that you can help your client with suggestions on how to make the design more appealing to them if they are struggling with accepting it. As a loose rule I try and have around 20 pixels of padding between pictures or blocks of content on a design. Even when it comes to line height on a paragraph of text, recently I’ve been using 12pt font size with 18px line height in my mock-ups. This gives a spacious, easy on the eyes appearance for reading. That’s really what white-space is all about. It’s there to break up blocks of content so that the viewer can easily identify where content begins and where it ends.
No Visual Contrast between Various Levels of Importance
Having visual contrast in a design is something that I think gets overlooked often. What I mean by visual contrast is the use of size, weight, color, or shape to set up an identifiable visual hierarchy of importance between various items. These items can be headlines, navigation links, graphical callouts, and any other imagery. For example, say we have two headlines on a page where the first headline is the attention grabber and the second headline is suppose to be your intro into the content on that page. When designing this scenario we want to make sure the first headline is undeniably recognizable before the second headline. To see an example of what I mean, view our Why Us page. You can see in this example how I’ve not only set different font sizes and font colors but I’ve also indented to further separate the two. The sub-headline is in line with the content to help reinforce the fact that it is about the content on that page. Setting up a system for your designs in this manner not only makes the site look nice, but helps the person viewing your site understand where to go next and what to expect later in your site.
Improper Proportions on Various Elements
Another issue I see often is when designers make pictures, navigation, or some kind of design callout larger than what is truly necessary. This is especially true with the client’s logo. Most designers, I would say, have experienced the reason for the running joke behind the client always wanting their logo bigger but managing your proportions on other elements in your site is also important. Don’t make that sidebar too wide or too slim; don’t make your navigation bar extremely huge and also not extremely small. These items have a relative level of importance on your site and they need to balance each other out. You don’t want to consume space for something that isn’t really important when something that IS really important is being pushed into another element or crammed together. When it comes to web sites, they have a purpose. Whether it is to inform, entertain, or make money the design has to be able to convey the content appropriately to allow the site to perform its purpose.
Bad Photography / Bad Imagery
Photography these days can make or break your design. A great shot can make an otherwise ugly design into one that is award-winning. If you truly want to impress your viewers, don’t skimp on photography. Every picture that goes up on your website needs to be professionally taken. By that I don’t mean taken with a professional camera by an amateur photographer. Good shots require a keen eye, correct lighting, and appropriate staging. When designing a site, I will go to stock photography sites to find that perfect image. Sometimes it takes a while to find the right image but in the end it will make a difference.
Using Colors That Make Viewers Eyes Beg for Mercy
This is one of the most annoying fumbles I can think of. I don’t care what the site is about if there is an offensive color on the site I’m gone. Color is one of the most complex subjects in design. Volumes have been written on the theory of color and how it affects people. If you watch a lot of television you will notice most people in commercials wear blue.
When designing a site, make sure to identify any existing color schemes that have been established by your client. If no real branding exists, then I suggest going to http://kuler.adobe.com to find a set of swatches that will best work for you. I use Kuler on most of my designs now. I’ve found that I am more creative when I work with a good palette of colors. Another point to note on colors in designs is to not use overly saturated tones. The more saturated your color is the more difficult it is to find something that will work well with it. Not only that but some colors get pretty rough on the eyes at full saturation. Typically how I handle saturation is, the lighter the hue, the less saturation, conversely the darker the hue, the more saturated I make it. Full hue and full saturation is death to all eyes.
Wrapping it up
So those are the top 5 fumbles that I see in web site designs today. Being able to identify and correctly implement them is something that takes aspiring designers years to perfect. If you have any questions or comments after reading this please post them and I will respond as best I can. Let me know if there are other fumbles you see in today’s designs.
