Nearly half of people base a business’s credibility on the business’s website design. That’s a lot of people you could turn away with a poor website!
Custom web design for business owners can be tricky and confusing, but it doesn’t have to be.
Are you ready to create the website for your company, but unsure where to start? Need some ideas to get your creativity flowing?
Keep reading below for eight example layouts you should consider trying out.
1. Three Boxes – A Staple in Custom Web Design
This is one of the simplest designs possible. Don’t let that fool you. This is a classic layout that is frequently used. It can be easily adjusted to fit your needs.
As the name suggests, there is one main graphic image box with two smaller boxes underneath. The two smaller boxes can contain text or additional images. Try making the large box a slideshow of relevant pictures for your business.
Think products and any current sales or deals you are running. Don’t forget to have some type of navigation links and your company logo and information. This information can fit great at the top above the boxes you create.
2. Five Boxes
If you are wary of how simple three boxes sound, fear not. The five box layout is a more complex evolution of the basic three box layout and has more room for all your great ideas.
Some ideas to change up this simple layout include changing the background or adding some drop shadows to the boxes. While the layout is simple, it does not stifle creativity. Play with fonts and colors to make it your own.
While referred to five boxes, this layout really can be four, five, or more if needed. Just be wary of adding too many, as the bottom items will get smaller and smaller.
3. Featured Graphic
This is one of the most common layouts used. It is very popular within the photography community, for good reason. It essentially consists of one large image paired with a vertical navigation on one side.
This layout is handy when you don’t have enough images to fill a page. Choosing this layout also leads to a clean design that is very easy to read.
If you want to take it a step further, try making the large image into a slider. This way anyone coming to the website will get variety and see more information about your business.
4. Headline and Gallery
This custom web design layout is comprised of a grid of images and a bold headline. Be sure to think outside the norm with this. Instead of sticking with square images or graphics, try circle pictures.
This layout would be beneficial to showcase a variety of products. Maybe you are a writer and have written for well-known newspapers. Place images of their logos here to showcase your work history.
5. Fixed Sidebar
This layout changes up the common horizontal layout that can be seen in the three and five boxes layouts among others. With this layout, a fixed vertical bar serves as the navigation area.
This bar will usually remain in place while the remainder of the page scrolls. This makes navigation easy for users. You can combine this sidebar with other layouts too. Try having a sidebar and then placing three or four boxes to the side.
Having a fixed sidebar, especially on the left side is a great layout idea. This is because people actually tend to read or scan web pages in an ‘F’ shape.
6. Power Grid
With custom web design, the power grid layout is more complex than others. While it is a bit more complicated, this layout is very effective.
There usually is a bottom rectangle that contains numerous other squares. This gives this information a unifying boundary but allows the boxes on the inside to be diverse.
7. Advanced Grid
This is another grid based layout like the three and five box layouts. It essentially takes those layouts and makes them more interesting. This happens by varying the sizes of the boxes.
Be creative. Decide what boxes should contain text, images, or even both. If you don’t have enough original images to use, consider using a stock images website. If you want to be extra creative, consider placing some type of animation in one of these spots.
A great option for this layout would be hover animations. People tend to hover over a product when they want more information or are unsure about something. This feature will allow a pop-up of information or another related picture to appear over the original when a cursor is placed there.
8. Full-Screen Photo
This last layout is another one that would suit a photographer extremely well but can apply to any business website. Pick a large and attractive photo to display as the background of the website.
Keep the amount of content limited as to not totally obscure the background image. Try to still have a navigation bar full of links and logs somewhere on the page.
This type of layout is helpful with custom web design because people tend to only read about a quarter of the content on a page if it is busy.
If you want to take your website to the next level, consider using an animation as your background image. When done correctly, this can greatly enhance the web page’s content. Unfortunately, if done incorrectly, it will simply distract the viewer.
Play around with options and speed to find a good option. Try to use in moderation otherwise, it will not have the same effect.
Final Notes
Now that we have shared eight awesome layouts you can use for your custom web design, you are ready to get creating. Maybe try the full-screen photo or featured image layout if you are preparing a photography business website.
Consider using the advanced grid option if you are working on a music business page. This layout will let you present many different areas to group information for your audience.
Do you still have questions about website layouts? Contact us and we would love to help you.