Whether you are a web developer, digital marketer, or any random website owner, the website design is basic for good insight communication. Prioritizing an effective layout design that gives off the right visual perception to any audience cannot be overemphasized.
When Layout designs are badly implemented, storytelling will go wrong. This implies that you might risk communicating the wrong insight to your audience. For an online business to be able to convert leads to customers, the composition of the layout design should be optimized to be able to take customers down the sales funnel.
In the course of this article, I would be reviewing what page layout is, the principles of layout design, and a dip into modern layout design and its best practices.
What is Layout Design?
Page layout design is how a website owner presents visual messages in a user-friendly way.
With proper website layout design, the look of a particular page element and the element as a whole piece creates a strong composition. For a layout design to be successful, there should be an aesthetic relationship between the visual elements that make up the page. At the barest minimum, a visual hierarchy should be established between them
What are the benefits of an effective website layout design?
As you are looking into designing your website’s layout, it is important to note its importance. How does a modern layout design affect your online business? Let us take a dip into the 5 benefits of an effective website layout design.
#1. It gives your online brand purposeful visuals
With the aid of visual elements on a webpage, a company can improve visitor engagement. In a layout with well-arranged visual elements, text can be broken up for better engagement. When sites are overcrowded with photos and videos, it would make it appear cluttered. With images excessively placed on a webpage, it would be difficult for visitors to read.
With a good page layout design, it would be easy to create a balance between text and images in your webpage. One substantial benefit of layout design is that they make visual elements purposeful. For instance, you can have a block of text that details the services you provide and then integrate a video below that would explain the service better. With layout design, you have a lot of options on where to add visual elements in a bid to get the best out of them. When you are fully apprised of the importance of layout design, you can make tactful decisions regarding your online brand.
#2. It creates consistency
A layout design helps your brand to achieve consistency across your webpages. It is crucial to build your webpages so that your audience would choose your online brand whenever they are ready to convert. The importance of an effective page layout design cannot be overemphasized.
In the light of layout design aiding to achieve content and media consistency, the visual elements should have the same style, fonts, and layouts throughout every web page webpage on the site. If there is a different design on every webpage, the site would look unprofessional, and the brand might fail in converting leads. Let us iterate that page layout design aids in maintaining consistency for a website.
Additionally, a layout design that is specific to a website would aid in the brand recognition your audience craves. At least with the consistency that layout design brings, your audience would know which colors, fonts, and other visual elements that associate with a particular brand.
Another added advantage of the consistency that page layout design brings is that it keeps your leads longer on a webpage. Redesigning your site layout to maintain consistency can earn a brand more leads and conversions.
#3. A good layout design helps to build trust with your audience
A lot of people find it difficult to trust a poorly designed website. That is why every online brand needs a good website layout design. With super cool drag and drop functionality plus lots of templates that most website builders offer, you can create a good layout that would build brand trust. Sites with bad web design are usually seen as shady or seedy. Think of it this way: a lead is looking for a brand to order a website template from, and if a brand does not convey enough trust because of misplaced visuals, the lead will look for another business to fulfill the order. You can also make some advertisement posters to build trust with the customers and do A/B testing with it.
From another point of view, a site that has a professional look with a good layout design would build trust with your audience. They would trust the online brand and be comfortable checking it out a bit further.
It is very important to establish trust with your website leads so that they can remain on your site and convert to customers.
Understanding the 5 rules of layout design
Graphic design principles like color, repetition, typography, and texture are very much interwoven with page layout design. In modern layout design, there are 5 principles, which are: space, proximity, alignment, balance, and hierarchy. In the course of subsequent paragraphs, I would be elucidating on these five principles that contribute immensely to a good layout design.
#1. Proximity
Proximity entails when visual elements that are placed together have a connection. In page layout design, when visual elements are placed together, they inform the user that they are related together. Visual elements that are not related should not be placed together but instead should be placed apart to avoid confusing. The proximity should not be overdone, as clustered visual elements is another problem on their own.
#2. Hierarchy
In layout design, hierarchy refers to the order in which visual elements in a webpage are placed. The best way to implement hierarchy in layout design is with the use of size. In this case, the most extensive visual element is used, followed by the second largest, and so on. The reason why larger visual elements are more important is that they are usually the first to draw the eye.
Another interesting way of creating hierarchy in a page layout design is with the use of contrast. This way, a web designer does not need to manipulate the size of visual elements on a webpage. Here, elements that have higher contrast tend to stand out among visual elements with low contrast. The third and final way to create hierarchy is by manipulating the positioning of visual elements. When an element on a page stands alone, it will draw more attention to users than those that are grouped together.
#3. Space
In every layout design, space is a fundamental very important principle that helps to organize and separate different visual elements. In any grid layout, spaces help to fill gaps between gutters and columns. In addition, space can also draw attention from visual elements that surround it.
When a graphic designer is creating a layout design, it is important to keep different elements evenly spaced from each other in order to avoid cluttering. Cluttering is terrible, as it would overwhelm the website visitor with a lot of competing elements.
#4. Balance
Another essential element that appeals to the eye of the website visitors is balance. A layout design that has no balance between its components can be a huge turn-off. With a balanced layout, symmetry, radial symmetry, and asymmetry can be easily incorporated.
#5. Alignment
In layout design, there are two types of alignment; there is Edge alignment and center alignment. Edge alignment is a scenario in graphic design when visual elements are aligned to the top, left, right, or bottom of a website layout design.
Left alignment is usually used for text because the text is normally read from left to right (this appeals to the English language). As for center alignment, it is most effective for smaller text sections like the title of a page, icons, images, or other visual elements.
With good alignment, a graphic designer can achieve legibility and workflow. It is important to note that the best way to determine how alignments should occur is with the use of grids.