It has been said that a picture is worth a thousand words. And when it comes to web design, this is almost always the case. Imagery is so important to captivate your users, draw potential customers in, and guide them through your website. And that’s why visual features can be used effectively across your website. So what kind of visual features should you use? And how do they fit into your overall web design? Well, here at Pumpkin Web Design Manchester, we are Manchester’s leading web design experts. As a result, we have produced this guide to visual web design features.
Visual web design features
Visual web design features cover a range of options, suitable for any business or company, with any branding style. From fun and creative, to sophisticated and sensible, any visual features you use, should be personalized and tailored to suit your website, and business, style. The range of visual features covers a variety of options, including:
- images
- icons
- illustrations
- animations
Images and web design
From the above the fold image that grabs the users attention, to the individual product images, your website should be fairly image heavy.
Using a large, great quality image for the above the fold content is a popular method for creating a landing page that is visual. With only a little amount of text, it is down to the hero image to capture attention, and imagination.
In addition, images can draw attention to a piece of text, and catch the users interest. This interest then guides the user down a web page and can lead them to other parts of your website. In fact, users are most likely to skip through your website, looking for either headings or images to guide them to the information they need.
Furthermore, professional quality product images are essential. Users can find out all they need by simply looking at a few images of your products, and if they need more information, they will then read your content. This rarely happens the other way around. So you need to include product images that really accentuate the best features.
Icons and web design
Another of the key visual web design features is the use of icons. These are small illustrations or symbols used instead of, or alongside, certain pieces of text. For example, instead of writing “call us…” you might instead use an icon of a traditional telephone. In this way, icons are a fantastic, low-key way to make your website more visual, and more image based. However, you should only use icons that universally recognized, to help avoid potential confusion.
Illustrations and web design
For some companies, simple pictures, or common icons just wont cut it. And illustration is used instead. This can be incredibly effective, as long as the style sits with your company branding. For example, cartoon style images or cute illustrations would not suit a business that was aiming to be serious, and sophisticated. While they could be perfect for a company based on fun day trips or children’s clothing.
For more information or advice, get in touch with the professionals today, here at Pumpkin Web Design Manchester.