JacciR Design — A New Website
Leo Babauta says that “Simplicity boils down to two steps: Identify the essential. Eliminate the rest.”
This says everything about what I believe about design — and life — in this decade going forward. Simplify. Simplify. Simplify.
My original website has served me well, but I have for a while had the feeling that it is too heavy, too much information. I mean who has the time to read reams and reams of information? And as far as mobile responsive design goes — SIMPLIFY. SIMPLIFY. SIMPLIFY! Scrolling for literally meters through pics and info is tedious and puts me off exploring a website. I’m sure it is the same for you too. It was definitely time for a re-think, and this is what prompted my new logo design and brand new website that I’m launching this Friday. Read all about it here
Bearing that in mind, I have followed the following principles in designing my new website.
Simplification, an uncluttered design
Space for the information to breathe, employing negative space
A clean concise colour palette
Simple typography
SIMPLIFY the mobile experience
Simplification
Simplification and minimalism in design are often confused. Minimalism is always simplified design, but simplified is not necessarily minimalistic.
Minimalism requires the designer to choose a few design elements to emphasise, it makes use of negative space to highlight important features. Minimalism highlights important features to encourage quick conversions. Brian Gardener says “Make room for things that matter by removing everything that doesn’t.” That’s minimalism. Clean. Honest. To the point.
Simplification on the other hand uses the concept of navigational hierarchy and layout to contribute to a visitors first impression. Typically, simple web design uses a combination of grid, minimalism, split-screen, and other layout configurations which are easy to navigate and therefore results in a high conversion rate.
In designing JacciR Design’s website I made use of a combination of these. Navigational hierarchy, a hero image with the most important message ‘above the line’ and no more than three secondary messages just below the point where the screen cuts off the page. My personal design choice is to make use of a minimalistic feel, choosing the important elements and surrounding them with ‘white’ or negative spaces.
Speaking of negative space
Also called ‘white space’ it is the space around the elements on a web page. Funnily enough it doesn’t need to be white, it can be a colour, a gradient or the sky (for example) in an image. White spaces are spaces that are empty of elements, they enable the eye to notice the message without distractions. Clever use of white space enables the visitor to get your message quickly.
A clean concise colour palette
Colour is so very important, psychologically, and it follows that it would be important to a brand. When designing a website, it is important to choose the colour palette carefully. Picking a few colours that speak to the brand, portray the feeling, and deliver the message in a manner that is easy on the eye, compliments the design and allows the message to be loud and clear. Together with the choice of colour, the choice of fonts, colour weight and size all play a huge role in the ultimate look and feel of your website. I am a lover of clean, modern, light weight fonts, I love beautifully spaced letters with lots of breathing space.
I have kept my colour palette very simple on my new website. I have gone for a monochromatic scheme with highlights in colour. In order to make a message stand out, I have used bold letters, or made them light but bigger, or — breathe — use a serif font in contrast!!!! So many choices!
SIMPLIFY the mobile experience
Last, but not least, all websites need to be designed for mobile responsiveness. It is estimated that 65% of viewers are now accessing websites from their cellphones. Mobile responsive design often means cutting elements down even more. Where a grid pattern of nine images works well on a laptop, the same number of images one under the other, meaning a long scroll down the page on a cellphone, will mean people will move on and not see whatever you have below the grid. As a rule I will cut all but three of the best images for the mobile platform.
Stay tuned, Friday is launch day and I’m so looking forward to revealing my new website to you. A new logo, a new website and new challenges to look forward to in 2022.
www.jaccirdesign.com
