For the uninitiated, it might seem like there are only two types of website design: good and bad. However, it’s a lot more nuanced than that. There are dozens of different types of web design out there, all designed to cater to different needs and skill levels. Understanding the various types of web design can help you develop a clearer understanding of what the perfect website for your business looks like, and know what to ask for when consulting with a design company. In this article, we’ll dive into the various web design types, highlighting their purposes and how they meet specific user expectations.
What Is Web Design?
Let’s start off by covering the basics. The term website design refers to creating a website’s visual aspects, known as the ‘front end’ of the site. The process includes planning the website layout by creating wireframes and sitemaps and then bringing it to life before passing it on to a web developer to be coded. Good web design is about using colours, fonts, images, and strategic layouts to create a site that’s easy to use, matches the brand, and is appealing to the target audience. It’s about crafting an online space that’s intuitive, accessible, and engaging for website visitors, ensuring they can find what they need and have a positive user experience on the site.
On the other hand, web development is the process of building the behind-the-scenes of a website and the foundation that makes it functional. While some website designers know how to develop a website and some web developers know how to design, they’re two distinct elements of website creation. You can read our article about the key differences between website design and development if you want to learn more.
The Different Types Of Website Design
Static Website Design
Static design involves creating websites that deliver the same website content to every visitor without any personalisation. These sites are made up of fixed HTML pages and display the same information to all website users every time. Statics websites with pre-set page dimensions that don’t alter based on the user’s device or different screen sizes.
Static websites are often faster to load and easier to create because they don’t require complex programming or database management. Static layouts work for businesses that only need a really simple website or only want to share specific information, like address and opening times, without the need for regular updates.
Although static sites are way less flexible than dynamic layouts, static layouts are still an option if you’re looking for a more cost-effective solution for small projects like portfolio websites. However, updating content on a static website can be time-consuming, as it often requires web development skills to make changes to the HTML code directly.
Dynamic Website Design
Dynamic web design allows for more complex websites with interactive and tailored content for each visitor. These websites use server-side programming languages like PHP, JavaScript, or ASP.NET to fetch data from a database, offering a personalised experience based on user interactions. Dynamic website layouts support features like user profiles, comment sections, and content management systems, making it ideal for eCommerce websites, forums, or any site that needs regular updates and user engagement.
Dynamic website design also makes updating content straightforward, allowing website owners to make real-time changes without needing to alter the code directly. However, dynamic websites can be more complex and costly to develop.
Responsive Website Design
Responsive website design ensures that a website looks and works well on any device, from desktops to smartphones. By using flexible layouts, images, and cascading style sheets (CSS), a responsive design layout automatically adjusts to the screen size and orientation of the viewer’s device. This approach improves user experience, making it easier for visitors to navigate and interact with your site regardless of how they access it. With most internet traffic now coming from mobile devices, a responsive design is crucial for reaching a wider audience and boosting SEO rankings.
Adaptive Website Design
Adaptive website design creates multiple versions of a webpage to suit different screen sizes, potentially improving load times and the overall user experience on different devices. Unlike responsive design, which is one website layout that adapts based on the screen size, adaptive design detects the device and loads the right layout for it. While it’s great for providing a more customised user experience for specific devices, adaptive design requires more work upfront because you need to design layouts for various screen sizes.
Liquid Website Design
Liquid design, also known as fluid design, allows a website’s layout to adapt to the user’s screen size by using percentages instead of fixed pixel widths responsive design uses known as ‘breakpoints. A liquid design layout ensures that the website looks good on any device, from mobile phones to large desktop monitors, by stretching or contracting the content to fill the available space. It’s particularly useful for creating responsive websites that provide a seamless experience across different devices, making navigation and reading easier for users. This design style is about flexibility and accessibility, ensuring content is always legible and usable, no matter the screen size.
Adaptive Design vs Responsive Design vs Liquid Design
Adaptive, responsive, and liquid designs are distinct web design approaches. Adaptive design uses static layouts based on breakpoints that don’t change once loaded. Responsive design behaves differently by changing at different breakpoints according to the browser’s size, offering greater flexibility. Liquid design allows elements to stretch or contract to fill the user’s screen, ensuring content looks consistent across devices. Each method has its benefits, with responsive design being the most flexible, adaptive offering tailored solutions, and liquid ensuring full use of screen real estate.
Single-Page Website Design
Single-page design focuses on delivering all the content on a single, long, scrollable page. This design is popular for its simplicity and ease of use, especially on mobile devices where scrolling is intuitive. It works well for websites that aim to tell a story or for those that want to provide a linear journey for the visitor. However, they wouldn’t work if you want anything more from your website than that. One major limitation is its potential impact on SEO; with all content on one page, it can be challenging to target multiple keywords effectively. This design style can also lead to longer loading times as all the content loads at once, which may affect the user experience negatively, especially if the website is image or animation-heavy.
Multi-Page Website Design
Multi-page websites follow a traditional web design approach, spreading content across several pages to organise information effectively. This web design format allows for detailed exploration of topics, with each page dedicated to a specific aspect of a subject, service or product. Intuitive navigation and strategic visual hierarchy are important for multi-page websites, guiding users through their journey from the homepage to the information they seek as efficiently as possible.
It’s important to design multi-page websites with logical page hierarchy, straightforward menus, and breadcrumbs to ensure visitors always know where they are and how to return to previously viewed content. This design approach is the most popular type of web design and suits businesses that offer a wide range of services or products, providing the space to cover topics in-depth.
eCommerce Website Design
eCommerce website design focuses on creating online stores that are easy to navigate and visually appealing with the goal of increasing sales. A well-designed eCommerce website prioritises user experience, ensuring customers can find what they’re looking for with minimal effort. Features like shopping carts and payment gateways need to be integrated seamlessly, making the buying process as straightforward as possible.
User experience is particularly important for eCommerce and business websites – visitors clicking off because a poor experience translates to real dollars and cents more than any field of web design. This type of design requires careful consideration of layout, product display, checkout process, and security to ensure a safe and enjoyable shopping experience for users that actively encourages more purchases.
Minimalist Website Design
The minimalist web design style is based on the design principles of simplicity. It involves stripping away unnecessary elements and focusing only on what’s essential, improving ease of use and getting rid of any visual clutter. Minimalist web layouts often feature ample white space, limited colour palettes, and simplified navigation. The design and layout let content and imagery speak for themselves without the distraction of intricate graphics or text. It’s definitely a more modern website design style compared to the ‘more is more’ approach we saw on every website in the early days of the internet and even in the 2010s. Gone are the days of complicated colour palettes and GIFs.
Parallax Website Design
Parallax web design involves a scrolling effect where background elements move slower than foreground content, creating depth and a dynamic visual experience. This technique can make a website stand out, offering an immersive user experience. However, it can impact website load times and ease of navigation, especially for users on mobile devices or those with slower internet connections. We recommend using parallax sparingly. Avoid overloading pages with motion and prioritise clear, intuitive navigation. This ensures your website is accessible and user-friendly to all your visitors.
Illustrative Website Design
Illustrative web design uses drawings and graphics to tell a story and convey the brand’s message, making websites more engaging and memorable. This website type involves striking a balance between visual elements and written content to ensure the site remains easy to navigate and the message is clear.
It’s a fine line to walk between visual interest and visual clutter, but when done right, it can be one of the most appealing types of website layouts. Best design practices include using illustrations that align with the brand’s identity, ensuring consistency across the site, and integrating visuals with content in a way that enhances the user experience without overwhelming it.
User Experience (UX) Design
User Experience (UX) design is crucial for making websites work perfectly and are easy to use. It focuses on understanding users’ needs to ensure the site is intuitive and offers a completely seamless experience. Core elements include usability, which ensures the site is easy to navigate, and interaction design, which looks at how users engage with website elements. Tools like user testing, surveys, and analytics play a key role in continually refining UX to increase user satisfaction and drive engagement.
User Interface (UI) Design
User Interface (UI) Design focuses on the visual components users interact with on a website, such as buttons, icons, spacing, and colour schemes. It plays a crucial role in the overall web design, influencing how users perceive and engage with a site. Effective UI design improves usability and aesthetic appeal when designing a website, contributing to a positive user experience. Trends in UI design evolve, with current emphasis on simplicity, intuitive interfaces, and immersive experiences that engage users without overwhelming them.
Although similar, UI and UX design are different web design strategies. UI refers to the look and feel of a web page and how users interact with it, while UX looks at a user’s overall experience on the website.
Scalable Website Design
Scalable design in web development ensures a website can grow and evolve with a business and accommodate more traffic, content, and functionality without losing performance or usability. This approach plans for future expansion by making it easier to add new features, adapt to new technology, and meet increasing user demands without re-coding the website too much. Scalable designs are built on flexible frameworks, allowing for enhancements without complete overhauls, ensuring longevity and cost-effectiveness for websites.
Why Understanding The Types Of Web Design Is Important
Good website design is crucial for meeting user needs and achieving business goals. First impressions matter, especially online when users can click away in a heartbeat. A clunky, outdated web design that isn’t responsive or offers a poor user experience never reflects well. If you’re working with a design agency or professional web designer to build a new website, this article should be able to set you on the right track. Knowing what to ask for and what you want in a website will lead to a better outcome.
How To Pick The Right Website Layout And Design
Each different type of web layout and design format we covered in this article has its place, but some are more essential than others – all business websites should be fully responsive at a minimum in 2024, for example. It’s also important to reiterate that most of these styles of web design aren’t mutually exclusive to each other. A website can be both responsive, scalable, and minimalist. The most important thing to remember when creating a website is to ensure that it aligns with your audience’s preferences and specific website objectives.
