10 Website Layout Ideas
Your website’s design can be both utilitarian and expertly built, but it must ultimately serve the aim of promoting your business. Making a decision about the structure of your website’s content can help clients understand your brand’s objective and make a purchase.
The significance of a good layout
Web design began to resemble print media after the advent of the internet. Similar to a newspaper magazine layout, columns and rows followed strict lines, with material and photographs attached to predetermined places.
The variety across websites was restricted by these consistent layouts. However, new website layout design options, tools, and templates emerged along with the evolution of coding languages like HTML, CSS, and JavaScript to enhance loading times and site functionality.
Whatever the website type, the presentation of the content is just as crucial as the content itself. The user experience (UX) will suffer if there are components that divert users or make it difficult to understand crucial information.
Layouts ought to be customized for the kind of material you’re displaying. For instance, a landing page for a sale should be set up so that customers can easily find information about the products and make purchases. However, the structure of a blog should prioritize reducing distractions so that the text is easily readable.
Use these 10 layout suggestions to develop a website that appeals to users and offers a memorable user experience.
1. Use a parallax effect to add depth.
A layout design gains depth by using parallax scrolling. The background of the website moves more quickly than the foreground, giving the impression of pseudo-3D depth.
It layers visuals, photos, and text to make a page layout more dynamic and immerse visitors in the experience when done discreetly – without distracting them with excessive movement. The parallax effect will be encouraged to continue as they scroll down.
In his creative portfolio, Australian animator, motion designer, and film editor Jack Jaeschke merges illustration, video, and parallax motion.
As site visitors read around Jack’s website to discover more about his work, colored, animated circles in the backdrop add color and play. Jack may experiment with interactive design and show off his ingenuity without detracting from the content thanks to the dynamism of parallax.
2. Employ overlapping components
Website layouts can be more flexible thanks to contemporary web design technologies than traditional layouts’ self-contained columns.
In contrast to the structured columns of print design with stacked items, designers are allowed to stack the z-axis with design elements, whether those elements are text, images, colors, etc. By experimenting with restrictions in this way, layouts can be made that are unexpected but interesting.
The website for Slay My Resume, built by Stephen Voisey, uses overlapping text boxes in various colors to direct users through the site’s message.
Ali Williams, the company’s proprietor, provides assistance to job searchers in honing their resumes and cover letters in order to land interviews. And like a strong resume, Ali’s website keeps visitors reading.
The reader is guided from section to section without interruption by the site’s graphics and color squares, which slightly overlap. Visitors must navigate the website in order to finish reading one portion while already beginning to read the next.
3. Use Offset Headers, Subheaders, and columns to break up the text.
Less is more in some layout designs. A design can get cluttered if there are too many intricate animations and other frills. Often, a layout only needs columns and offsetting features to draw in enough attention to convey a brand.
Designers need to balance the text and graphics, just like with any unconventional layout technique. Although they can be offset or overlap, these components nevertheless need to be logically related in order to direct visitors.
The pharmaceutical company Alvogen employs this staggered design strategy, rearranging the structure of some sections so that images are on the left and text is on the right. As a result, site visitors are directed down the page in a visual ladder effect.
4. Use horizontal cards to organize the content.
A straightforward method to prevent overpopulation in a design is to use a horizontal layout. Additionally, since the structure becomes a vertical scroll on smartphone screens, it functions effectively.
For some of the most critical content, Hypergiant, a provider of cutting-edge AI software solutions for businesses, uses horizontal cards, giving its website a timeline-like flow.
The horizontal display, similar to a photo gallery or slideshow, helps site users absorb each segment in its full before moving on, as opposed to the conventional, newspaper-like structure of a title, followed by an image, and then text.
The horizontal cards easily show the content on the site in each snapshot, eliminating the need for users to scroll up or down to read more.
5. Divided screens
To maximize screen space, you can divide large content chunks using a split screen layout. A more complete experience is delivered when complimentary content is featured on each side of the screen.
The UX of the food kit company Ono is vibrant and animated thanks to split displays and scroll-triggered animations.
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Because site visitors must scroll to view the material on the right side of the screen, a clear route leads to the final call-to-action (CTA) at the bottom of both columns.
New images appear on the left as the reader scrolls, providing variety and keeping readers from getting bored. Another useful method for connecting relevant content blocks together is using split displays.
6. Using a massive copy
When executed well, giant content commands attention and makes a strong statement about a brand or CTA.
On the homepage of the digital agency Okalpha, a large headline and a downward arrow prompt visitors to scroll down to learn more.
And the salutation is, “Hey. It serves as an opening statement and conversation opener, as if you’ve previously inquired about their well-being. The brand and its services are briefly described as website visitors scroll down to discover more about Okalpha.
Make sure there is a clear purpose behind the content, such as a CTA, when employing bigger typography. For this website, it directs users to the “About” page, which invites them to learn more about the agency and work.
7. Decide to browse horizontally
Instead of using a vertical scroll to display brand pictures and concepts, websites frequently employ horizontal or side scrolling, which has an impact on how the content is organized.
Text, graphics, and other components must be arranged in an effective side scroll with the right messaging fitting into the screen size restrictions.
Side-scrolling is an engaging and original approach to navigate content since it gives the impression of going through a gallery or turning pages in a book. This design enables visitors to view examples of previous Krasa Architecture work.
8. Inset sliders
By defying design convention and saving space, inset sliders allow a web designer more creative freedom. In the past, carousels or sliders have divided a design, which could have an adverse effect on accessibility and might move too quickly for users to take in all the information.
Sliders are still functional, but designers are improving them to make them less obtrusive. In order to save users from having to go between different sites, it is the intention to design material that can be explored with just a few clicks.
Without writing a single line of code, you can design bespoke sliders with static items or CMS collection lists using the Refokus Slider Generator tool. This helps e-commerce sites present their products without having to reroute to another page.
9.CSS Grid
The CSS grid aligns components on the horizontal and vertical axis grid layout, just like this smiley face created in Webflow.
With the use of a CSS grid, designers can precisely manage how elements are positioned both horizontally and vertically.
Broken grid website layouts and other creative designs are possible with CSS grids, which are excellent for experimentation. Use a CSS grid layout for greater design accuracy.
10. The trend of brutalism continues
Navigating the web became a more polished experience because to responsive design, better-organized content, and streamlined navigation. Brutalism develops its own aesthetic hierarchy in defiance of all accepted design fads.
The brutalist design aesthetic is preferred on this designer Joshua Garcia’s portfolio website, which includes an accordion of case-study projects.
Brutalism combines realism with innovation. Brutalists are creating new methods to make noise as designers discover new ways to revolutionize user experience.
These innovations include disruptive navigation, jumbled focal points, strange color schemes, asymmetrical layouts, irritating images, and cryptic text.
The categories of the website are stated in Joshua’s design using bold, black lettering on an off-white background, divided by horizontal lines.
A fading backdrop image appears when you hover over each phrase, and clicking opens the work samples.