The World Wide Web was initially a collection of text pages. With time, the content became richer with graphs, colors, animations, and illustrations. With Web 2.0, websites became more of art pieces rather than a collection of text pages of Web 1.0. Understanding Visual Communication and applying it to web and application design can make or break your web or app’s success.
1. Decide on Color Scheme. Colors are the first things that humans notice. This is the first decisive factor which will determine whether the user will spend more time on your site or leave immediately. If your organization or business have official color scheme then incorporate that in the site design. For inspiration, analyze how famous brands have done this. Keep target audience in your mind. Note how age, gender, ethnicity, nationality, and religion determine color choice.
2. Use Appropriate Typography. Use fonts that are aligned with your brand philosophy. Apps dealing with kids and kids’ stuff can use funky fonts. Professional sites and apps need professional fonts such as Times New Roman and Courier. Use appropriate size for headings and subheadings.
3. Layout the Layout. Arrange content in a manner that guides the user in a systematic and logical way. With careful layout design, you can guide the user to a particular section where you can give important information about your product or how to buy it. Don’t clutter the page. Let the text (and content) breathe!
4. Use Empty or Negative Space. Blank space isn’t as important and useful as it is in the web and app design. Cramped data in the page is a big turn off.
5. Balance it. Balance is an important element in visual communication. The overall layout should be balanced. View art work for inspiration on how to balance all the elements on the page.
6. Employ Illustrations. Human beings communicate 70 per cent through visual cues. A picture is worth a thousand words; the adage isn’t pointless. Instead of using a thousand words use a picture. A webpage should not contain more than 400 words anyway.
7. Use simple and universal icons and symbols. They should be easy to decipher yet interesting and creative.
8. Simplify it. Set simplicity as the benchmark of your web and app design. Avoid using unnecessary data, text, and graphics.
Applying these tips will instantly improve your website and app design. Following are some bonus tips that will further improve your understanding and use of visual communication in web and app design.
* Take a visual communication course from any art school or institute.
* Take Visual Communication online course (Massive Open Online Course).
* Or watch visual communication and graphics designing tutorials on the net.
* Analyze the famous websites and apps to see how they have implemented it.
* In illustrations and icons, use human elements. The image of a machine or gadget becomes more appealing if a human is handling it.
* Use negative space to enhance site design and layout.
