When Graphic Design Takes Over Web Design - Web Design - Internet

A website that is pleasing to the eyes and gives superior user experience is a dream of every business owner, who wants a strong online presence. Irrespective of the nature of the business, a professional website must have all the elements integrated together- web design & development, graphic design, copywriting and search engine optimisation. However, what happens when a designer gives preference to the aesthetics more than the technical aspect of a web design? The answer is simple- you get a beautiful website that attracts the traffic, but fails to convert them due to lack of usability.

While we cannot say that a website can survive without a good graphic design if its web design is superior, the fact remains that too much of anything can be bad for your site. Graphic design is an older concept than web design, and it is mostly used for prints. However, since the dominance of Internet and its use for business marketing and advertising, graphic design eventually made inroads into the domain of website design as well.

The significance of graphic design in a website is for all to see, but it should never take precedence over the actual website design because a good looking website would be of no use if it cannot convert the visitors. While graphic can be used anywhere in the website, one should try to restrict its use at some pre-defined areas only. Discussed below are the places where graphic design can complement a web design-

Footers and headers- Whether it is the home page or any other web page of the site, unique graphics on the footers and headers can add a new edge to the site, making it more defined and supporting the web design. Depending on the nature or the theme of the website, you can use imagery and other features to make it more interactive and user-friendly.

Page titles/headings- Although you can simply have a simple text title on top of every web page, the visual experience of the users can be enhanced with the help of a graphically designed title that has some clip art or illustration as well.

Background images- When using background images it is important to ensure that they do not take away the focus from the description on the web page. The background colours should highlight the textual description and make it more readable.

Flash- This is the most controversial element used in web design and graphic design. While many people believe that it is unnecessary to have too much Flash on a website as it increasing the loading time, there are many successful websites that are based on Flash (example-YouTube). It depends on the kind of website and its purpose when using Flash. Thus, one should use it only when and where it is necessary.

Keeping these points in your mind, would help you in getting the graphic design that complements the web design, instead of dominating it.