Take a look at your website’s current layout. Is it visually appealing and unique? Or does it have a generic and haphazard look? Figuring out the answers to these questions is more important than you think.
The success of a web design project depends on how intuitive and attractive the web design is for the target audience. While there is no rulebook for creating website designs, in the competitive environment of cyberspace, you must aim to stand out from the crowd.
This guide will teach you how to find inspiration for web design projects so you can present your visitors with an attractive layout that speaks to them.
How to Find Inspiration for Your Web Design Projects
1. Understand the Purpose of Your Website
Before you dive into inspiration sources, you need to define the purpose of your website. Do you wish your website users to buy something or request your services? Or do you just want them to take away information? What kind of people will be visiting your website? Are they skilled enough to use computers?
These are the questions you need to ask yourself initially. It is very easy to find a website design that you love but if that design does not match your website's purpose, it's no good. Special effects, high-resolution images, and flashy graphics are all great additions to web design but if they’re not used for the right purposes, they can confuse your visitors or take them off your website.
2. Create a Step-By-Step Plan
Failing to create a plan is like planning to fail. If your website design ideas fail to come around, it might be because you failed to plan and deal with the fundamentals. You need to ensure that your foundation is strong so you can find inspiration to put a creative touch on top.
Here’s what you should do when looking for inspiration for web design:
a) Define Your Website’s Goal
You need to know what you want your site to accomplish. If you don’t, you won’t know what to design towards! Set SMART goals: Specific, Measurable, Attainable, Relevant, and Timely.
b) Sketch out the Buyer’s Journey
You should also make an effort to figure out the road you want your website visitors to take when they visit your website. Have an objective in mind so you can create a structure to guide them along the way.
c) Come Up with a Style Guide
Before you search for inspiration, have a style guide in hand so you stay consistent with your design and ensure uniformity. Your style guide should define fonts, colours, and other essential design elements.
d) Plan Your SEO
When it comes to SEO, planning is super important. You need to have a website sitemap structure in your mind so you understand how to structure the content for your website visitors as well as search engines.
3. Research Your Competitors
What your competitors are doing on their websites can also serve as a source of inspiration. There is no harm in admitting if a competitor is performing better than you and using their design to help inspire your ideas.
Look at your competitors' websites and see what they include on their websites. What are they leaving out? Do they have a strong internet presence that is serving as an additional element? How can you set yourself apart from them?
Researching what your competitors are doing can be quite helpful because it can help you analyse and decide what you can do for your website.
4. Search on Social Media and the Internet
The Internet and social media are the two most important places where you can find inspiration for your web design project. Websites such as Dribbble, Behance, Instagram, and Tumblr house images that can inspire the creative side of your website.
On social media sites such as Facebook and Twitter, look for and follow the accounts of other design agencies and freelancers. Try to find their work through their online channels and take inspiration from it. If you can’t find any, simply type related keywords to your products or services on Google and see what people around the world or in your geographic location are doing.
5. Find Sample Websites You Like and Don’t Like
Another way to find inspiration for your web design project is to find websites you like and don’t like. Before you go ahead and develop your design, take some time out to write down what you like and don’t like about different websites. Remember to make notes of sites and pages that you do like and well as the ones you dislike.
Any marketing team needs to understand what direction they want their business website to go. An agency such as Web Integrations can guide you through this process. They are a leading web design company in Edinburgh and can help you build websites, apps, and marketing campaigns that will improve your online performance.
6. Get Out In the Open
We all have busy schedules and most of us are under constant pressure to always be on the go. If you find yourself in such a situation, cut yourself some slack when it comes to finding inspiration. Sometimes it's hard to let creativity flow when our minds are cluttered.
You find inspiration wherever you are open to looking for it. If nothing else works, we recommend getting outside and looking at your surroundings. Things like architecture, nature and everyday objects can inspire you to take the next big step. Notice design, textures, and colours out in the open and brainstorm how you can use these on your website.
Final Thoughts
You can look for ideas and inspiration for web design projects in any place at any time but it is important to understand that ideas are only born from your head and not from somewhere else. In the end, you must remember that while it is important to give your brain as much information as possible, you should focus on the task and look for solutions inside before you head outside.
