It can be quite a challenge to design and create custom websites that are both informational and graphically appealing; it is something that our company is always reviewing. As we have discussed, each of these principles is so important, but how do you find a meaningful way to represent both? You can probably see where this is headed. These two principles consistently show up in the research we do and we have found that balance is the key and learning your priorities can help you get there.

What we will discuss today is identifying your design priorities, your business needs, and the actual design principles that can help you achieve that design balance in your website design.

What are your priorities?

There can be many priorities of a web page: information, action, search visibility, emotional response, etc. These different priorities yield the need for custom graphics or text.

For instance, something we specialize in is search consulting services. This means that when we design and write our web pages, we have to keep in mind specific keywords and goals that drive search engine optimization best practices. Overall, this means that more often than not, we are extremely text focused, and can lose sight of the need for images. Information as a priority is usually the number one reason anyone creates a web page, and it is definitely more text driven than image. This is why you see so many text-heavy websites.

Action and emotional response, can be aided by use of text, but are usually represented by images. Think about the many articles you have read about something going on in the world. While the text tells you the information, how often does it not solidify till you see the image associated with it? This speaks well to the idea that a healthy balance between the two is key.

The basic rule about this is, determine your priority and then make sure your counterpart can increase the impact of the priority.

The Pendulum of Design

One of the important things that we have realized when we design websites for our clients, or for ourselves, is that there is an overall balance, a pendulum that goes with bringing both text and images to the table. Since we discussed your priorities above, you’ll know that there is an overall balance between text times and image times.

Times for more text-focus

• When you are more information focused

• On deeper pages within your site (i.e. not the homepage)

• Need to give people in-depth information about your company

• When you are driving your search visibility and conversion optimization goals

Times for impactful images

• On the homepage of your site

• When you are more impact focused (branding focused)

• Wish to elicit an emotional response

• Principles: Balance and Rhythm

Alright, let’s get down to the design aspects of this. Here are some helpful elements to keep in mind when designing your custom website.

Balance – Means how much visual weight every aspect of the page has. The text, the pictures and headings all carry a weight. They depend on the size, darkness or lightness and the thickness of the lines. Ask yourself whether you are going for symmetrical balance (even distribution to the left and right of the center) or asymmetrical balance (arranging unlike elements of equal visual weight to each side of a page).

Rhythm – Rhythm is the pattern you create by repeating elements of your design. This is a principle that goes along with branding concepts. Making sure that graphic elements of your branding are incorporated consistently throughout your design will make it feel balanced. This means that if you have a consistent way that you handle your text vs. image, it’s probably best to apply that across your website.

So as we have learned, these are the critical elements to bring to your next graphic design project, web page design, or rich Internet application design. Feel free to follow up with our team on our own web design services, or leave a comment below on the best ways you have found to balance your text and images.