What is "Look and Feel"
The "look" of a website is about its visual design and the "feel" about the whole experience of looking around the site and reading its content. Sometimes the term is discussed in terms of a site's "usability". As has been helpfully pointed out (1) - given the ubiquity of the concept - "usability" is an awkward word that has neither style nor elegance. Which is paradoxical, because those things are precisely what it should be about, and probably how you will want your site to look and to feel as well.
There is a long(ish) list of the components that add together to determine how a website looks and feels to its visitors :-
- Information Architecture - or the structure of the site
- Navigability - or how a visitor moves around the site to find the required information
- Tone - or the style of the writing
- Layout
- Typography - what the fonts used communicate (playful/serious etc)
- Colour scheme
- Imagery - what sort of pictures and graphics are incorporated
Fundamentally, however, you can leave as much of that list as you want to your website designer. What you need to be thinking about at this stage of preparing for the creation of a website is the message you want reflected in the design of the site.
Some "Look and Feel" Guidelines
The first consideration is about impact. As you will be well aware, it is crucial to convey the essential purpose of a website from the moment the visitor sets eyes on the first page. The way the site looks needs to communicate what type of business it fronts; it must establish the basic purpose of the site; it must be visually attractive; it should communicate credibility; and it has to arouse interest.
In general, it is a layout that is clean and simple but with a strong design that is visually appealing and will communicate a professional impression. Clutter is to be avoided.
And that is not just about clutter on any one page. The clean and lean impression of a basic layout that is carried through across different pages, along with a consistent colour scheme, enhances the coherence of the whole website.
When deciding on colour schemes there a couple of basic precepts to take into account. It works to think in terms of a specific colour palette, with closely related tones and shades. Even if garish is something you are aiming for, maybe your business is about selling party accessories, sticking to complimentary colours (a range of pinks and purples for example) is more visually appealing than going for clashes. And with regards to your background, if you need your visitors to read your text easily it needs to be in a darker colour on a lighter background. If you want to highlight great photographs without much text, then a black background is OK.
Back to the layout, and where you decide to position your menus. You will note that the options as used on most websites are to go either across the top or down the left hand side of the web page. The top of the page has the advantage of being (usually) more visually appealing and of fitting page flow better. Having the menu down the left hand side, however, means that you are less limited by space so more items can be added in the future if it turns out to be necessary. The choice is yours.
Researching "Look and Feel" for your Website
Do a search and find examples of 2 or 3 existing websites that you like the look of. A starting point is the sites specific to the industry or area in which you work, but it can be worth widening the search to those that are not related but might incorporate the design features and functions that you are looking for.
The point is not to be able to copy or plagiarise what other people are doing. The clues provide reference points to demonstrate for our designers the direction in which you want to go. While it is the sort of characteristics that you like and want to aim for that are most helpful, knowing about elements that specifically don't appeal can also be informative.
Your Company Logo
You will also want to brand your site with your company's identifying mark or logo. There are three options here -:
- Do you have an existing company logo that will provide the main identifying visual for the site? If so, we will need a digital file so that we can build it into the site.
- Or do you want our designers to devise a new corporate identity logo for you? Do ask for a quote.
- Or do you want the site to be headed simply with your name or the name of your business? We can incorporate this onto to page in the font of your choice.
Reference
(1) Mcgovern G., Norton R,. O'Dowd C. (2001) The Web Content Style Guide Financial Times Prentice Hall