Websites have come a long way in the decades since the internet was conceptualised. Initially, most people did not have an idea of what to do with colours. The result was either cheap website designs crammed too full of information with no way of navigation or too colourful websites with hardly any substance. While content plays a major role in this aspect, one of the main things to focus on in today’s web pages is the colour scheme.

Fonts

When we talk about colour, not many people realize that the aesthetic qualities of a web page depend as much on the font used as it does on the actual colours. Why? Consider a webpage where everything is written in the same font with the same size throughout. Frankly, even if the content is EXTREMELY interesting, would you really have any idea on where to look?

The whole idea with BOLD parts is to draw your attention. Same with UNDERLINED or ITALICS. The best part is that they can be used for different things, with bullets and hierarchies pointing out where to look: just like this section focuses on fonts and the next section on photos.

Photos

It is another highly underrated part of web design. Making the cut in today’s world depends as much on good pictures as it does on colourful buttons. Simply getting a picture off the internet in 5 minutes does not help if you want to stand at the top (it SCREAMS cheap web design). Accentuate the colour scheme in the photos. Make sure the point you want to emphasize is actually in focus. And always keep in mind the overall colour scheme. It does not help if your whole web page is being designed to appeal to simple aesthetics with white as the main colour and all of a sudden you introduce a very colourful picture in the middle.

Of course, the thing might mean to draw attention to specifics, like a tutorial page on photography that highlights the photographs, but keep in mind what you would like to see before you commit.

Buttons & Logos

Who does not like colourful buttons? Go to any major photography website and in all likelihood, they have a dedicated section to cute buttons. But that does not always work the same way. An affordable web design does not mean a bad web design. Heck, even you could design a web page with most of the automated tools available these days with no in-depth knowledge on how it works. So what makes it different from the professionals? Attention to detail.

• Highlight the details with relevant bullets
• Make sure your link buttons do not draw too much attention
• Logos make or break the website, so put some thought into them

Talking of logos, they need to be simple and by extension, easy to remember. Websites like Paypal and Amazon are premier examples of how good logos can work. Whenever you see them, you automatically associate the websites by default. Why is this? High exposure? Not really. They created something that was functional. Make sure you keep that in mind too

Colour is an awesome thing. But like everything fantastic, needs to be handled with care. Always remember the context of what you are doing and you will soar with your web designs. There is nothing called a cheap website: simply your handling of a web page and how well you execute it.