The main goals of website design are engaging visitors and making them return. While various elements impact the user experience (UX), maintaining visual consistency throughout the design can pull it all together and give you an edge over the competition.
Why Is Visual Consistency Crucial to Your User Experience?
When people instinctively understand how to move through your site or what details are most crucial, they’ll find the entire journey easier. You might want to avoid predictability in your content, but keeping things consistent in your website visuals reduces the effort users must make to engage with your content.
The web design market is worth approximately $56.8 trillion, and experts predict it will increase with an annual growth rate of 8.5% through 2031. You can get ahead of the competition by understanding how to use visuals to create an amazing UX.
Achieve Visual Consistency in Web Design by Focusing on These Factors
If you’ve been in business or designed websites for a while, you probably already have an idea of how to ensure branding and visual consistency. However, there are a few specific elements you can improve to take your branding a step further.
1. Visual Hierarchy
Your visual hierarchy is how you arrange elements on your page to move the reader where you want them to go. Larger and bolder elements signify importance, and users tend to engage with them first.
You’ve likely noticed that text on a page has a variety of sizes and weights. For example, the headline might be in a larger font with bold formatting, while the body text is smaller and not bold. Creating a list of how each element on the page should look ensures consistency from one part of the site to the next.
Designers can also create a template for page layout so they have an idea of where different features go, no matter how many pages are on the site.
2. Color Profiles
Well-known brands use a consistent color palette across different channels. No matter where you connect with your users, you want the same general look so they can recognize your brand. Consider big names like Coca-Cola, with its red and white color palette, or Starbucks with its earthy tones and splash of green.
Ensuring visual consistency across devices means tapping into certain design principles, including color standards set by the International Color Consortium (ICC), who created color profiles in the 1990s that help facilitate color management standards between platforms and devices. The key is to ensure the colors appear the same on a mobile phone as they do on a desktop computer or a tablet.
No matter how users access your website, it should have the same hues. When you use an ICC profile, you may still encounter some differences, but your colors will be truer than if you don’t. An ICC profile taps into a color gamut, but you may find improper mapping occurs at times and printers and devices show the colors differently. Perfection may not be possible.
3. Imagery
If you want to create a similar experience each time users visit your site, the images on it need to have similar sizes, colors, borders and placement. Just as you made a visual hierarchy with a layout for the page, you should list how large images should be, if any will be bigger for emphasis — such as a hero image — and typical image placement.
For example, you might want to indicate the first image should always be a 300 dpi photo with certain measurements and placement on the page.
4. Typography
Typography is the design of the text on your pages, including the font you choose. Different fonts can convey tones and messages for your brand.
To create consistency, you should start by deciding on the look you want for your headlines, including the size, color and any special ligatures. Your typography needs a hierarchy just as your site does. The largest text will draw attention first.
Consider the size, font style, color and weight of headings, subheadings and normal text for your page design.
Maintain Consistency With Brand Guidelines
Once you have an idea of the look you want, you should create a brand style guide. You want anyone who works on your site to stick to the same rules and standards over time. By creating a style guide and teaching designers about your overall brand image, you can accomplish excellent UX and drive brand loyalty.
