Appealing web layouts

What makes a website appealing? Content and usability are very important issues but I think the design of a website is just as important, if not more so. As humans, we tend to appreciate attractive things. This has led me to research the aesthetic psychology of humans and what makes a website look nice.


Aesthetic psychology

Even though the article describes human beauty, I agree with Daniella Berge when she says, "Most definitions associate beauty with "harmony of form and color" and with "pleasing the eye"." and, "Beauty is a matter of personal taste... some of your appreciation is also cultural."

Everybody knows the saying "beauty is in the eye of the beholder" and it's true whether it's in human attractiveness, art, fashion or even on the web. A web designer has got to be careful when designing a layout. Something might look attractive to one person but not to another. I think an important aspect to consider is colour palette. Colours on the web have to compliment each other, for usability and aesthetic reasons.

However, it is important to define your target audience. Using myself as an example, I want my portfolio to appeal to companies who want a creative website. For example; bands, children and movie websites. My worst nightmare is to be stuck creative boring corporate websites. And while it's important to appeal to a lot of different people, I also think it's important for a portfolio website to reflect its creator, to say something about that person.


Creating an appealing website

The most important aspect in creating an appealing website in my opinion is colour. Because this is so important I am later going to dedicate an entire blog entry on this subject. However, Dallas Hart says, "Users apparently know color when they see one. Your color preference is therefore very vital and you should be careful in picking a color motif that reflects your company or organization's identity, yet at the same time, makes the website text easy to read."

Simple layouts are effective. You don't want to distract a user from the content of a website. Statistics show that users spend less than 4 seconds on a website before deciding that a website is worth the read (Jakob Nielson, 2008) so it is important that the layout never conflicts with the information a website is trying to provide.

White space is also an important consideration to make as it makes the website look 'fresh' and not overcrowded. However, white space doesn't need to be white as long as there is space. White space is just a general term for not overcrowding the website and having a space of plain colour on the page. (webdesignfromscratch.com, 2009)


Soon I will be drawing up a design specification for the layout of my website. These are the things I feel I should pay the most consideration to and what makes a web layout appealing.


References

1. Daniella Berge. (). Human Grooming: Human Beauty. Available: http://www.daniellaberge.com/grooming/beauty1.htm. Last accessed 13 March 2010.
2. Unknown. (2009). Current style in web design, web 2.0 design style and principles. Available: http://www.webdesignfromscratch.com/web-design/current-style.php. Last accessed 13 March 2010.
3. Jakob Nielson. (2008). How little to users read? (Jakob Nielson's Alertbox). Available: http://www.useit.com/alertbox/percent-text-read.html. Last accessed 13 March 2010.