Have you every been to someone's house and just started feeling like you had to get out of there? You may not have even realized at the time but the energy a house has effects how you feel. I've had friends that I just didn't like to visit because the flow of their house just didn't feel right. They have a pool and a comfortable family room but the overall energy of their place was just wrong. Feng Shui examines how the placement of things and objects within it affect the energy flow in your living environment. At this point, you are probably asking yourself what does Feng Shui have to do with what makes a great website. But...

Web Design Factors that Effect Emotion

I'm sure you have experienced it for yourself. I've seen websites where the flow was all wrong or the color scheme made it difficult to read the content. There are a number of things that effect your website design you should consider while it is being constructed.

Web Design Factors

1. Probably one of the biggest factors to consider are the fonts that you use on your site. The type of font you use should be easy to read on computers and more importantly (at least since I became old enough to need reading glasses) is the size of the font. A good font size is 16px. Stay away from fonts that are in script or look like cursive handwriting as some of them can be rather difficult to read. And if you are going to be using more than one font, be sure that they complement each other. For example, you shouldn't mix a san-serif font with a serif font.
2. Color is another thing to factor in on your website. First of all, the overall color can cause certain emotions. For instance, the color red can signify rage or anger or it can stimulate appetite. Blue is peaceful, green is relaxing and implies wealth and so forth. Don't use more than 5 colors on your website or it can be too distracting or look unprofessional. Keep in mind that the more colors you use the longer it can take for your website to render. If you want to get an idea of what your site could look like using a particular color scheme, visit Color Scheme Designer. Put in your main color and take a look at the example pages.
3. One of the obvious web design factors is the site's layout. But what may not be so obvious is that you should only have one column that is used for your main content. Additional columns should be used for other things like coupons, data capture, and the like. Your text alignment should be left-justified and not centered or right-justified because that is the way we read (left to right and it's just easier if everything lines up on that side). And the most important thing about layout is that everything should line up and not look like a photo collage.

Those are the three things that can make a visitor to your website leave and never want to come back. Keep in mind who your target audience is and design your website around them. Keep your website clean and easy to use. Nothing is more frustrating than going to a website to find an answer, and not being able to find it because the website's design doesn't make sense or it's just too difficult to navigate.

There is a lot that goes into web design and these are just a few issues that need to be addressed. Keeping in mind these factors could mean the difference between a website that converts visitors into customers and one that repells people. Just like your home, you want your website visitors to feel comfortable so they will want to do business with you. I know that design isn't nearly as important as the actual content on a website but it does play a big role in getting business.

If you are looking for a website design or redesign, we would be honored if you would give a call 336-684-6505.