Significant Elements of Website Design

Designing is an art that can take you places. But, when we talk of website design, we talk of a world that can neither be seen nor touched. Therefore, the appeal and effects of designing a site have to be far more impacting than the normal fare. Contrary to common perceptions, designing is much more than creation of HTML Tags. It is all about compacting various parts – content, images, meta tags, links, et al – of a website into an extensive and presentable structure.

Whilst designing a website, designers usually take the following significant elements under consideration:

1. Balance – As a user, you would not like to view a page that has all dark colours on one side and the light ones on the other. The design of a web page should be balanced. This means that the heavy and light elements of the page should be well distributed so as to give a synchronised feel to it. Heavy elements are the ones that are either larger in size or darker in colour, and lighter elements are smaller in size and light in colours.
2. Contrast – This is not to be followed only for colours. Contrast of a web page goes beyond the balance of black and white. It is also about giving a differentiable contrast to shapes, sizes and textures so that they don't look jumbled up together.
3. Emphasis – As a designer, you cannot probably give equal emphasis to all the elements on your web pages. Therefore, it is wise to segregate them on the basis of their significance for your business. Determine the hierarchy of the page and then emphasise the elements accordingly.
4. Rhythm – When we talk of rhythm, it means consistency. An effective and affordable website design is one that follows a certain pattern throughout all web pages. Apart from making it easily recognisable, it also makes it easy for users to identify with your site and business.
5. Unity – This simply means that all elements of your website should be kept close together. The homepage should specially be accessible from all pages of your site, and vice versa. The unified site concept keeps a site together and fosters better navigation.
   

Keeping all the aforementioned points in mind will help you establish a strong rapport with potential customers and induce them onto making purchases from you.