Web Design | Cork and everywhere

This is a core competency at W3 and we take pride in our ability to bring high quality web designs to market - rapidly and cost-effectively.


When meeting each new website design challenge we focus on :

  • Sound Design – the use of colours, space and shape to produce an aesthetically pleasing experience.
  • Ease of use – navigational consistency, predictability of function and accessibility.
  • Depth – making sure that the visitor's experience is rewarding.
  • Fitness for purpose – correct pitching and articulation of target demographics.
  • Sensitivity to budget and time constraints.

The best web design is often the simplest and most clear design. Someone should be able to click on your web site and know exactly what you do, what your product is, and how they can get it - ideally within the first few seconds. If your web site design does not facilitate this, then there is probably something wrong.

Just like the fashion industry, web design follows trends, and at W3, we strive to stay on top of the trends, offering you the best and most current designs - but not at the expense of creating somehting that will date quickly - great design has a timeless quality to it.

If you want a website desgined or redesigned, please telephine us or drop us an email so we can set up a free, no obligation consultation.

 

But what makes good design?

We have added some ideas and pointers below

Layout

The layout of your site is everything – a good layout will direct your customer to where you want them to go (which is most likely the ‘give us your money now’ page!). It will help them get the information they want, and allow you to tell them what you want. Gone are the days of flashing gifs, gaudy soundtracks and garish colours (or at least, we wish they were gone!). Now, clarity, precision and intuitive interfaces are a must. Here are some useful steps to ensure you utilise your space on the web to the maximum.

Step 1: Know exactly what content is the most important and put this on your front page. This content should lead the customer to other content intuitively.

Step 2: Link everything. This means that people will find what they need, no matter what ‘path’ around your site they take.

Step 3: Utilise careful proportions to balance the layout and ensure that your content is accessible. We love the Fibonacci series but there are countless other excellent mathematically lovely proportions to use, if you aren’t sure you have a natural eye for it.

Step 4: Continuity is key. There is nothing more disconcerting than clicking a link on a site that takes you to a completely different looking page. So choose a theme of colours, fonts, and sizes and stick with it. It just looks better and makes sense!

Colours

Sight is a powerful sense, and is the main sense that interacts with websites. You can control your brand image and how your customers will feel about you, with the careful use of colour. Some tips? (Note that different hues of these colours have different effects.)

Red

Red, being the colour of fire and blood is associated with strength, power, determination and energy as well as the more romantic sides, passion, desire and love.

Red brings text and images to the foreground, so you can use it as an accent colour to stimulate people to make quick decisions. Thus, it is a perfect colour for 'Buy Now' or 'Click Here' buttons. In advertising, red is often used to evoke erotic feelings e.g. red lips, red nails, and red-light districts. Of course, it is also used to indicate danger e.g. traffic lights. As red is also associated with energy, you can use it when promoting energy drinks, games, cars, items related to sports and high physical activity.

Light red can represent joy, sexuality, passion, sensitivity, and love. 
Pink signifies romance, love, and friendship. It is feminine and can be a very passive colour.
Dark red is associated with willpower, rage, anger, vigour, leadership, courage, longing, malice, and wrath.
Brown suggests stability and denotes masculine qualities.
Reddish-brown is associated with autumn and earthiness.

Orange

Orange combines the energy of red and the joy of yellow. Orange represents enthusiasm, determination, attraction, success, fascination, happiness, creativity, encouragement, and stimulation. To the human eye, orange is a hot colour, so it gives the impression of warmth. As a citrus colour, orange is associated with healthy food. You can use it to catch attention and highlight the most important elements of your design, without being too overt, as with red. Orange is very effective for promoting food products and toys.

Dark orange can mean deceit and distrust, but is also autumnal.
Red-orange corresponds to desire, pleasure, domination, aggression, and thirst for action.
Gold evokes the feeling of prestige and quality. The meaning of gold is wisdom, wealth and illumination.

Yellow

Yellow is bright and is the colour of sunshine; therefore, it's associated with joy, happiness, intellect, and energy. Use yellow to evoke pleasant, cheerful feelings. Yellow can also be used to highlight the most important elements of your design, but avoid overusing it as it can be garish. It can be perceived as a children’s colour. Yellow is an unstable and spontaneous colour, so avoid using yellow if you want to suggest stability and safety. Light yellow tends to disappear into white, so it usually needs a dark colour to highlight it. Shades of yellow can be visually unappealing as they lose cheerfulness and become dingy.

Dull (dingy) yellow represents decay, sickness, and jealousy. 
Light yellow is associated with freshness, and joy.

Green

Green is considered the colour of nature. It symbolizes growth, freshness, and fertility. Dark green is also commonly associated with money. Green, as opposed to red, means safety, for example for use in traffic lights. Being associated with nature, you can use it to promote environmentally friendly products.

Dark green is associated with ambition and greed (money).
Yellow-green can indicate sickness, cowardice, and jealousy.
Aqua is associated with emotional healing and protection.
Olive green is the traditional colour of peace.


Blue

Blue is the colour of the sky and sea and therefore, is often associated with depth and stability. IT is strongly associated with tranquillity and calmness. It is a clean colour and often allows for a clear design. As opposed to the emotionally warm colours like red, orange, and yellow; blue is unobtrusive. It can also suggest precision when promoting high-tech products. It is also considered masculine and corporate. Avoid using blue when promoting food and cooking, because blue suppresses appetite. When used together with warm colours like yellow or red, blue can create high-impact, vibrant designs e.g. Superman’s outfit, however, blue and red together can be disturbing to look at.

Light blue is associated with health, healing, tranquillity, understanding, and softness.
Dark blue represents knowledge, power, masculinity, and seriousness.

Purple

Purple combines the stability of blue and the energy and passion of red. It is a regal colour and therefore symbolizes power, nobility, and luxury. Purple is associated with wisdom, dignity, independence, creativity, and mystery. It is however also considered to be artificial. Light purple is a good choice for a feminine design or for promoting children's products.

White

White is associated with light, goodness, innocence, and purity. It is considered to be the colour of perfection. In advertising, white is associated with coolness and cleanliness, so you can use white to suggest simplicity in high-tech products. White or off-white is good for website backgrounds as it allows your content to take centre-stage. Minimalists love white.

Black

Black is associated with power, elegance, formality, death, and mystery. Black gives the feeling of perspective and depth, but a black background does diminish readability, so be careful how you use it. Black contrasts very well with bright colours, for example, combined with red or orange, an aggressive colour scheme is formed.