If you have an affiliate blog or even a business blog, you’ll be one in a sea of business websites. So how do you stand out today? How does your website become the one people remember? The problem is that websites have a set of hard and fast rules, right? There is a template to follow and a right and wrong way to do this, yes? Well, no, in fact. There is a lot of room to experiment with web design and too few people are taking that opportunity. So, what can you experiment with in your web design? We’ve got some ideas to get you started so you can take your website into the lab and come out with something memorable.
Drag effects
Drag effects are a great way to allow the user a sense of control over their website experience. It can even be fun. Incorporate dragging functions into your navigation and it can feel like a mini-game on the site. For example, you can allow users to drag “seeds” into the “soil” of your webpage and watch your project or product blossom from it. The possibilities are endless.
Retro fonts
As part of the Neue Nouveau movement going on at the moment, a lot of retro Art Nouveau elements are coming back into trend. These funky swirling fonts that would typically be seen in the 60s and 70s now gracing our screens in eye-catching ways.
But it’s not just the fonts. The whole webpage can be filled with Neue Nouveau. Bright pastel colour palettes and swirling patterns accommodate a more fun and fashionable brand that likes to keep up with trends.
Layering
Layering is a core element of design in lots of areas: fashion, interior, paintings, etc. but it’s criminally underused in web design. Everything on any given website can look very flat, with the depth usually artificially inseminated perhaps with dynamic scrolling or fade-ins of elements. But you don’t have to be that fancy. You can add depth and give the eye something to catch onto by simply layering images and fonts. A good rule of thumb is to treat your font over images like you would a sofa over a rug: two legs on the rug and two legs off. Layer part of your text over the image and part off on the backdrop or create a dynamic backdrop from layering graphics and text.
Minimalism
Minimalism isn’t going anywhere in web design. It has gained a reputation for itself for getting straight to the point. It’s slick, it’s sophisticated, it’s professional, just like the products and brands it’s representing.
But the new minimalist movement is to just give it a little something. A splash of colour in the backdrop, a slightly funky font, etc. Just a little something that gives your message some (this time, emotional) depth, and says that you’re not entirely a soulless corporate machine.
Cinemagraphs
As the name might suggest, cinemagraphs are a mix of cinema-quality photographs with the added element of movement. It’s common, but not necessary, to present all these photos in a dynamic way like flipping through various photos, scrolling through a carousel, etc. But the main thing that connects them is high-quality, almost cinematic shots of what you’re posting. It’s a good option for photo-heavy marketing campaigns or businesses that specialise in media like photography, filming, or graphic design.
Conclusion
There is more room than you might think for experimentation with your web design. That template that you think you should follow has barriers that you can break through. After all, rules are made to be broken, and broken rules are the foundation of innovation. Find an element to experiment with and see where it takes you. As long as you stick to the principles of the website needing to be clear and easy to navigate, you’ll have something that stands out in the best way possible.
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