When designing your website there are many practical considerations to bear in mind, from the ease of navigation to the layout to how effective it is at getting people to click ads or buy products.
At the same time though you also need to think about the subject of the site and whether or not the style and the design ties in with that. This means making sure that when someone looks at your website, they almost intuitively recognize the niche it’s focussed on and they can decide right away if they want to stay or leave. At the same time you will also this way be able to ensure that your website appeals to the same kind of people who enjoy the niche it’s based around, and that you also make sure your site creates the right kinds of emotions and associations that you want.
Suiting Your Design to the Niche
So how might your design be suited to a particular niche? Well there are several things to consider here. Here are just a couple of them:
Color Scheme: The color scheme of your website will automatically communicate a lot about your site. For instance if your site is about ‘going green’ or other environmental concerns, then using greens and a generally clean design is a great way to communicate that fact and create kind of association. Meanwhile you might also use green for a ‘make money’ website.
Meanwhile if your site is about sci-fi or tech then blues, blacks and silvers may be more appropriate. Thanks to science fiction films these are the colours we’ve come to associate with the future and science. Similarly if your site is about business, or promoting a B2B service, then you might want to consider using dark blues and whites. These are colors that feel more ‘professional’ and that will help make your site appear professional as a result. At the other end of the spectrum are sites that are aimed at children – and in this case you might want the site to use bright colors like reds and blues as children have been shown to respond better to primary colors. Finally if your site is about something in particular such as a character or a brand, then you should reflect those colors in your site design. A site about Superman for instance would almost certainly want to involve large quantities of red and blue.
Font: The font can also help to reflect your niche and this is something else to consider. For instance if you have a site that’s about retro gaming then you might want to make use of a kind of pixelated system font. Likewise if your site is about Victorian England you could use a ‘ye olde’ kind of font or one that looks like acrylic handwriting, whereas for a vampire site gothic text could work well.
Images: Of course your images should reflect your niche, but that should also apply to things like buttons and switches. Try to think about the era you want your site to evoke, the mood and the audience yet again. Backgrounds too are important to consider here, and you can either go straight forward and use images that are of or about your niche, or you can use images that evoke the topic – such as old stained paper for instance for a pirate website.
