Every individual element of web design is important in relation to your whole website composition.
Even little things like typography and iconography have to be considered both individually and in a composite manner to allow you to great a full webpage and indeed website which is both pleasing on the eye to visitors and fully functional enough to meet your needs. There are a few things you should consider in order to get the right composition to generate maximum results, including:
Balance
Like with print design, balance is important in terms of the ratio of content to image on the screen. You also need to find the balance between white space and font, and the location of your font on the page. When you decide on something that matches your brand and vision, be sure to stick to the same theme throughout to give users a reinforced branding message.
Placement and relationships
Everything has its place on a website based on functionality, vision and purpose. You need to consider how the content relates to different segments of each page, such as headers, paragraphs, lists and even images and animations.
Grid design
Print design has always had a heavy focus on compositional grids, however web grids vary from this as websites can be dynamic and responsive. A responsive design then allows grids to adapt based on screen size – which is of course perfect considering more and more of us now access online information from our smartphones and tablets. Taking this into consideration, you should plan your content around how it would fit in each layout, without compromising on visuals.
Looking closely
In regards to composition, it’s easy to get swayed by the details of specific techniques or current design trends. However this usually leads to sites which often don’t meet the requirements of the user as the bigger picture has been missed. Looking closely means going beyond the simplistics of the layout of a website. It’s not only good enough to be able to recognise good or bad web compositions, you must be able to understand why they are so. It’s only then that you can offer practical solutions that form the right composition for a website.
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