Several studies have shown that you only have a few seconds to capture the attention of the visitors to your website. Branding, colour and typeface play an important part, and so does the layout of your website.
A basic house layout consists of a roof, four walls, windows and a front door. Yet, not all houses look the same. The role of architects and civil engineers is precisely to design drawings that will suit the exact needs of the occupants, and the variations are endless. The same goes for a WordPress website.
Designing the space
While a website may be constrained by the rectangular space of the screen – and getting smaller all the time – there are endless configuration possibilities when it comes to laying out content on such a restricted space.
This is when website designers come into play and tailor the content to suit a specific need. Such decisions are made at an early stage of the design and require careful consideration.
Tailoring the layout
A recent trend on the WordPress theme marketplace has witnessed the emergence of massive one-size-fits-all templates promising a huge amount of functionalities. More than often, the end user will only require a fraction of these functionalities, resulting in bloated themes slowed down by redundant lines of code.
For instance, particular website layouts are more suited to certain activities or businesses:
- Artists, artisans or creative agencies need to display their work on the home page in the form of a grid or a portfolio. Users also need to navigate effortlessly between items.
- A one-page website design will more than likely suit medical professions, sole-traders, freelancers or restaurant and café owners who need to give an instant snapshot of the services they provide.
- Website templates displaying videos, slideshows or galleries on the home page are designed with photographers and videographers in mind who need to showcase a large selection of their work.
- Most e-commerce or property websites require a way of listing a large number of items on the home page
- A magazine style website will suit the needs of journalists and bloggers who want to display a dynamic newsfeed. Combining photography and formatted content, food blogging websites have turned into a popular blueprint in recent years.
Depending on your specific line of business, a carefully crafted website layout should
- instantly reflect your line of business or your activities
- feature strong visuals
- provide a logical flow of information as users navigate and scroll down the screen
- display a clear call to action (Contact Us / Fill in this form / Buy this product etc.)
