Being creative with your web design can really help your website to stand out, and get noticed. But creativity also needs to stay within the realms of usability, and should be focused on improving the user experience. Here at Pumpkin Web Design Manchester, we know exactly how to balance our creative ideas, with practical and usable design features. And as Manchester’s leading web design experts, we work with companies and businesses across the region to provide top notch web design and web marketing support. This includes creating stunning and unique websites with a real creative kick. As a result, we have produced this guide to balancing creativity with usability for web design.
Creativity in web design
Web design is all about finding creative and inventive ways to create a website that will stand out from the crowd. And this includes balancing a wide range of aspects and elements, including:
- navigation
- typography
- imagery
- video content
- icons
- illustration
For this reason, creativity is essential for a website to succeed online. Especially as competition for website attention becomes increasingly significant. However, your website doesn’t just need to look impressive, it has to put the user needs first.
Web design and the user experience
The user experience should be the first thought whenever you are developing your website. Re-designing your website and web pages over time is good practice, but you shouldn’t overlook the user experience. So what does the average user need from your website:
- Readability- Creating impressive fonts is great fro grabbing attention, but your user actually needs to be able to skim read that text, to get the info they want. Too much emphasis on hard to read font or text types can lead to a negative user experience.
- Simple navigation- So you might want to direct users around your website in a specific way, but it wont always work out like that. People want to find out the necessary information in as short a time as possible. So your navigation needs to be easy to understand, and easy to follow. Don’t over-complicate the navigation design.
- Recognisable- If you are using any icons, imagery or illustrations to emphasize your text, or make your website more visual, make sure that these are instantly recognisable. Overly creative design aspects can really reduce the usability of these elements.
Balancing creativity with usability for web design
To get the best of both worlds, in this instance, a creative and unique website with great usability, you need to work on balancing creativity with usability. Some methods include:
- getting creative with your above the fold content to grab attention. Whether you combine colour gradients with unique typography, or professional video with text, your above the fold content is the perfect place to show off your creativity.
- blending the lines between elements in a creative way. For example, merging the block of text with the image element, while maintaining readability. While white space is important, it can be used for creative effect.
- using subtle animation for text, buttons or elements
- adding colour gradients to make a statement
For more information about balancing creativity with usability for web design, or for professional web support, get in touch with the experts today, here at Pumpkin Web Design Manchester.