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Design UX UX Design Web Design

Most Effective Website Layouts For 2022

Website Layout is the first and most important stage in creating any webpage. This phase lays the groundwork for the majority of your work and determines the overall structure and functionality of your website. A website’s structure, or site design layout, is what decides how that site’s content will be presented and how users will interact with it. Selecting the most appropriate website design for your needs and those of your target audience may be a complex task and that’s where this blog comes in handy.

What Is a Website Layout?

A website’s layout is the blueprint that specifies its overall layout and organization. The design prioritizes the most important aspects of the website and makes it easy to navigate. If a website is going to be successful, it all comes down to the design. The purpose of employing web design services is to attract and retain visitors by making the site’s pages easy to use and logically organized.

What Makes For A Good Website Layout?

Although the variety of professional web design layouts is a source of great admiration, it is important to remember that there are some core elements that every layout type has to incorporate, even if they do it in a non-traditional fashion. The most important things to keep in mind while designing a page are:

  • The header should always include the site’s primary navigational features and clearly communicate the site’s structure and how to reach specific content.
  • The page’s main content, including images, text, and any other supplementary materials.
  • The menu used to navigate the site; might be a sidebar, hamburger menu, scroll-triggered menu, sticky menu, or any other type of menu.
  • No matter how small or large a website’s footer is, it should always include links to social media, legal disclaimers, and privacy policies.

Creative Website Layout Ideas 

Z-Pattern Style

As soon as we find a new website, we scan it quickly to get a feel for what it’s about. In order to skim and read quickly, many people make the shape of the letter Z or read in a zigzag pattern. Our gaze travels from the upper left to the upper right, then to the lower left, and finally back to the upper right. The Z-pattern website layout takes use of this pattern of reading by laying out the most crucial details over the Z’s surface.

A logo is strategically positioned at the top left of the homepage in this design to grab the viewer’s attention immediately. It’s usual practice to put the menu and a conspicuous CTA beside it, in the right-hand corner. The most important details should be placed along the diagonal of the Z-pattern, which runs from top to bottom of the page. Incorporating eye-catching images and a single, clear sentence that sums up the website’s purpose are two effective methods used by website design professionals.

F-pattern Layout

Similar to the Z-pattern layout, this one takes into account how readers often skim web pages. Websites with a lot of text prompt us to scan or read in an F-shaped pattern. This indicates that we focus mostly on the left side of a page, but we do pay some attention to the top horizontal section.

If you’re going with an F-shaped design, put your money where people’s eyes are most likely to stay: above the fold. To help your site’s users find the content they’re looking for, a navigation menu and anchor texts are both useful additions. Text on the left side of the page may be made more aesthetically pleasing by using the F-vertical pattern’s line. Images, icons, and list formats like bullets and numbers are all useful tools for this purpose.

Full-Screen Image Layout

Fullscreen image layouts may make for striking and engaging home page designs by featuring a huge image in the middle of the screen. Massive media features may tell an audience a lot about you and your accomplishments with just a glance. This design is wonderful since it adapts well to mobile viewing.

Anything from a still image to an animated GIF or even a short clip will do as visual support. However, in order to make the most of this format, the content you provide must be of good quality and appropriate to your service, product, or general vibe. Include some descriptive text with your Fullscreen picture to help users understand what your site is about. Create an attention-grabbing header or motto to showcase your business’s offerings and entice site visitors to read further.

Distinctive Box-like Layout

The grid-based or box-based style of a website combines disparate elements of design into a single, unified whole. Information is contained in its own box, making the whole thing seem more cohesive. The user can click on any of the boxes to be sent to a specific webpage devoted to that topic.

To unify the many boxes on your site, it is advised that you include one huge featured box as the header. The page’s title, a short summary of its contents, and a link bar to other sections of the site can all be included in the featured box. Another piece of advice is to carefully select the images to use in each section of the boxes so that they complement one another and form a unified brand image.

Cards Layout

Cards layouts, like box-based layouts, make use of a number of boxes or other rectangular containers to showcase a wide variety of information. The website’s design is mostly non-hierarchical, with no particular elements being given more prominence than others and all content being given equal weight.

Every single card has the same capabilities, making it simple to copy and paste your data across all of them. The resulting modular design works well across a variety of display sizes, making the site’s content more accessible and less intimidating to newcomers despite its depth. The use of a card layout is a fantastic option for a website with a lot of content, such as a video blog or an eCommerce site.

Split Screen Layout

You may demonstrate to your reader how two seemingly disparate elements can complement one another by using a split-screen arrangement. Any kind of division on your website, whether vertical or horizontal, falls under this category. It facilitates instant decision-making and immediate participation from the reader. E-commerce sites that have different parts for men and women, as well as portfolio sites, company sites, and so on, benefit greatly from split-screen layouts.

Asymmetrical Layout

This trendy website design makes use of a split-screen layout, however, the division between the two halves is not symmetrical. By shifting the apparent center of gravity from one side to the other, this design becomes more dynamic.

To emphasize some details without distracting from the whole, you can use non-standard sizes, colors, and spacing across the page. This may be accomplished in your own website design by making specific items larger, bolder, or brighter to serve as focal points.

Conclusion

If you own a business, your website serves as the virtual equivalent of a physical storefront. Your online shop should mirror the aesthetic quality, simplicity, and warmth that you’d expect from a physical location. We hope that this list was helpful in narrowing down which website design is ideal for your site’s visitors. Contact Us today to evaluate your website’s layout.

Read more about website layout to highlight your content here.

Categories
Brand & Identity Design UI Design

When To And When Not To Use Dark Themes?

The dark theme or the dark mode design has been trending from quite some time now. It became seemingly famous across the world of the internet when Google adopted it for Google drive. It did receive an excellent response from all nooks and corners of the world; however, that doesn’t mean that every business or website can pull off a dark theme. What are the factors that need to be considered before deciding on using dark themes? When should you use dark themes? When should you avoid a dark theme? Let’s check it out.

The Dark Themes Can Be Used When You Want To:

  • Emphasize visual content
  • Enhance emotional branding
  • Go minimalistic
  • Match your brand colors
  • Improve usability

Emphasize Visual Content

A dark theme is perfect for making visual applications and websites stand out. The deep, substantial backgrounds provide the much needed high-contrast backdrop for images, graphics, videos, and visuals of any shape and color. It elevates the visual hierarchy as the lighter visual content stands out against the dark background; Especially if you’re using large, high-contrast images. If images are playing the lead role in your application, or website, and a copy is a sidekick, consider a dark color palette.

Enhance Emotional Branding

A dark theme needs much more blank space to avoid looking chaotic and cluttered. Thus, dark applications and websites tend to elicit stronger emotions than light ones. Color psychology also impacts the emotional appeal. Generally, we associate dark colors, primarily black, with mystery, power, elegance, and drama. Therefore, when a dark background is paired with some high-contrast, big images, the finished output looks stunning.

This mood-setting strategy works beautifully and frequently appears on product pages and entertainment applications. Apple’s iOS 13 page uses a dark color scheme to make their product seem more sophisticated and elegant. Similarly, the Halo App’s dark theme makes it look more dramatic. However, a lightly-colored website or app can be just as impactful. Choosing the right color scheme depends entirely upon what emotions you want your brand to evoke.

Go Minimalistic With Dark Themes

In case you already use a minimalist design that has limited content, your conditions are suitable for dark mode. In a situation where the text is the primary content, dark UI can make legibility an issue. Typically, dark mode amplifies visual clutter making a cluttered screen even more chaotic.

Match Your Brand Colors

When a brand’s existing color palette is already dark mode compatible, the dark mode is the way to go forward. Think twice about going dark if it seems like you have to change the brand to fit the aesthetic. Similarly, if your brand needs to use a wide spectrum of colors, consider a lighter UI. The full-color spectrum doesn’t read pleasantly on dark backgrounds.

Improve Usability

Sometimes, your app has to be dark to be user-friendly. For instance, apps designed for heavy nighttime use will employ a dark color scheme to avoid straining the user’s eyes. The trend is especially noticeable in entertainment apps like Netflix and Prime Video, but other applications offer a dark mode, too. Twitter lets users toggle between light and dark in the settings, and Google Maps automatically darkens at night.

However, the time of day isn’t the only usability factor to consider. If your application is intended to be used for hours without rest, a dark theme may minimize eye strain. That’s why dark themes are popular in code editors and financial apps.

You must avoid dark themes when your website or app has:

  • Lots of text
  • Lots of elements
  • Bright colors

Lots of Text

One of the most significant drawbacks of a dark color scheme is that it is terrible for displaying text. Light text on a dark background is hard to read. Dark themes are not suitable for interfaces with lots of copy. Not only do people have to spend more time reading the text, but the comprehending ratio also dips. On the other hand, dark text on a white background looks crisp, clean, and refined. The copy is easy to read and extremely legible. Browse across all major news and blogging websites, and you will find that they all have light backgrounds instead of dark ones. Your website should not have a dark theme if it contains lots of written content.

Lots of Elements

Finally, a dark theme can be a poor choice for apps and websites with lots of icons, buttons, and small images. That’s because of the dark background de-accentuate empty space. While de-emphasized empty space makes large images and minimalist pages elegant and dramatic, it makes small icons and dense pages look cluttered, unorganized, and unprofessional. Admin backend panels are a great example. The difference is even more obvious when you compare a light panel with a dark one. 

On dashboards, the dark theme does not look bad, but it does look denser. In some instances, that’s not a problem. However, the clutter problems don’t end here, because, with a dark color scheme, it’s hard to make each element stand out. Since a dark color scheme limits your color selection, it’s harder for a designer to maintain good contrast. This does not pose a problem if a page has a few key elements, but if a page contains several buttons, icons, menus, and banners, the overall design will look much less cluttered on a light background.

Bright Colors in Dark Themes

Dark themes also limit your color options. Too many bright colors can clash against the dark background and give your entire website a harsh and unfriendly appearance. While the occasional splash of color can add brilliant emphasis, most of your elements should be muted neutral colors.

Read more about how to use colors in web design here

There are a lot of advantages to using a dark theme:

  • It reduces the strain on eyes
  • It increases visibility in low-ambient lighting
  • Saves a lot of battery life
  • Gives an emotional boost 

But, you need to understand that one size doesn’t fit all, and hence the pointers mentioned above will help you in deciding if you must use a dark theme or not. Still, confused? Talk to our experts now!