Category Archives: Design Rant

Flat web design is one of today’s most popular trends in the web industry.  The flat web design style essentially refers to design that eliminates drop shadows, textures and gradient features that have been commonly used in web design for many years.  In flat design, typography and the use of solid colors are featured.

Flat design is two dimensional. There is no attempt to add any three dimensional effects or trick the user into thinking they are interacting with anything else than a flat screen.  In flat design there is a lot of white space and a clear interface created by a grid system.

Flat design is minimalistic.  It relies on visual cues, such as color and typography to guide your users and help them reach their goals. The idea is to remove all distracting design elements and really focus on the content. Without distractions, your attention is drawn to the essential parts of the site. It allows goals to be reached in a shorted amount of time.

Like another recent trend, responsive web design, flat design is easily scalable. While realistic images and other design effects can be difficult to scale, flat design elements like color and typography can easily adapt to smaller screens.  With mobile devices becoming so mainstream – this is almost vital in today’s world.

For example, instead of having a highly designed button, in flat web design a colored link is used. Instead of a background image, a plain background color would be used.  Another example would have different content areas done in different colors so they could be easily viewed across many different kinds of devices.

Flat design is being used more and more. Its simplicity and effectiveness is being embraced by many sites and might well be popular for years to come.

Your website’s colors are important in many ways.  Not only is it important to choose the right color scheme for your business objectives – it is important to consider what kind of feeling or mood you would like to evoke when people visit your site.

Colors and their hues affect emotions.  Different colors create different feelings.  Certain colors emote excitement, some offer serenity and others power.  Every color comes in a range of hues. Green, for example, can be pale baby green, forest green, garish lime green, or anything in between. All of these can work well in one context and not at all in another.

Red is frequently incorporated into many websites and marketing material and can add a sense of energy and enthusiasm to any business. Other shades of red can also be used to create a feeling of passion or power.

Yellow is a color that is rarely used alone in design but is a color that evokes joy and happiness, so it sometimes added to enhance visitors with a feeling of warmth and contentment. Brown is another color that seldom stands alone, but is can add credibility to your professional or personal website. Brown is a color used to emit feelings of comfort and stability. Green is commonly found in the color scheme of many business and money-making websites. Naturally, this make a lot of sense, since green is the color that speaks of money, wealth, and prosperity.

Of course, white is included in almost every website, but it is still a very important color to consider that can have a profound effect on customers. White speaks of faith, purity, youth, and peace. White can also sometimes offset the impact of bolder, brighter colors. Blue is another color that is frequently used in design, but not quite as frequently as the many shades of red. Blue symbolizes freedom, tranquility, and coolness. It also is a reminder to many of vacations, the beach, or water. Black also speaks of power, but is can symbolize elegance and mystery as well. Black is another color that is usually found in nearly every website as well, and can offset some of the calmer effects of a white background.

The meaning of colors can change depending on the culture. If your website is targeted at specific countries or cultures, learn about what colors mean in those cultures. For example, in Western cultures, white represents purity and simplicity, among other things, but in Eastern cultures, it’s the color of mourning and death.

Moods are created by the colors or groups of colors used in the overall design scheme. The idea of creating moods surrounding your particular product or service may seem a little bit of a stretch but it has been shown to be very effective in many cases.