Focusing on the Myriad Aspects of Design
February 8, 2024Design fundamentally exists in all things. It is manifest in several aspects and is tangible once perceived. Design is a powerful medium and only if success can be anticipated will the design take root and be formed to bring in the necessary appreciation. This formula applies to all types of design and especially on the web.
Website design cannot be compartmentalized. It differs from other kinds of design. For instance, if an author has written on a subject or topic, it is the designer’s duty to give form and stature to that particular work which ranges over typography, dimension of the book’s physical size and other facets that pertain to design. A book interacts through a variety of concepts and eventually makes the reader absorb its entirety and merge it into a complete form.
Design is a crucial factor. It must be able to draw the reader to the book or the visitor to the website to stay entranced, attracted and enticed. Design should be vivid, vibrant and vivacious enough to stand out, be it a book on a shelf or a screen or thumbnail on the web. But there are differences to consider. The content of a book is already planned, steady and realized. Website content on the other hand is in a state of constant change or is yet to be conceptualized. Book design mirrors the content but website design should offer a taste of what is yet to come.
Websites need a structure that is flexible…which should expand and include pattern, design, craft and the art of an invisible module that integrates with a comprehensive attitude. This should be evident as websites should portray and conform to the concept of the product or the subject for which it has been created. The site should contain the elements of subtlety in design and content to contain the attraction of the visitor. This has to be the turning point which converts a visitor into a reader and eventually into a potential buyer that transforms an impression and merges it with an education. Besides being enticing, a website should contain design which is responsive and sustaining.
Engaging the viewer is not enough, the content and design of a website should preserve and capture attention which should not be coincidental but intentional that enhances experience. Unlike a book with its physical content, a website should probe into the aspect of distraction which turns the eye to yet another facet of the design which mirrors the content and the targeted product and yet keeps the visitor engaged. The art of design is subtle and carries with it the responsibility of gaining the visitor’s time before the attention is diverted.
Book covers work on the craft of seduction which speaks for itself. But websites revolve on the variables of psychology, composition and efficiency that lend to visual seduction. Designers have gone out of their way to draw the visitor to the crux of the matter, to hold the attention even if it is for a minute because they believe they can hold the delicate balance between seduction and simplicity merged with expressions of design to offer clarity. Designers have to read between the lines in order to place their emotive expression where there was nothing. Knowing and showing design has its differences, while the designer has to adhere to an artistic execution that involves spirit, emotions and character.
