Shapes are integral components in web design, being present in component framing, site navigation, and drawing a viewer’s attention to particular site areas. Our guide will help you understand how to implement shapes into your next web design project.
Everyone knows and agrees that content is king. The more engaging and exciting the things you write, the likelier it is that your site will become an increasingly trusted resource for those looking at your website. But beyond content, there is also a serious consideration for the utilization of shapes because, as web design services experts know, universally recognized geometric shapes provide an inherent clarity and understanding when observed by humans. They are also a vital part of contemporary web design trends. Therefore, to stay ahead of the competition, implementing strategic use of geometric shapes is essential for web design project implementation.
Think about your perceptions of what feelings or reactions get generated when you observe figures with rounded corners versus those with angles and sharp edges. Chances are, the emotions spurred by these shapes are different in what they mean to every person. Regardless, those meanings are essential components that build up blocks of design because they present many unique characteristics that impact viewers in vastly different ways.
Shapes will be part of every webpage; there is no getting around that. So even if your site is a glorified wall of text, shapes are still adorning your page. Regardless of the shape, each carries its meaning and will have a particular effect it elicits from your audience.
So what shape types are there, and how do they affect web design? Let’s dive in.
Shape Types
Before addressing how shapes impact website visitors, it’s important to clarify which forms are best used when engaging in a new web design project. There are three basic shape type categories: natural, abstract, and geometric. There is no mistaking one category for another as they are each attributed with some distinct characteristics.
● Geometric Shapes: These are commonly recognized patterns such as squares, triangles, circles, rectangles, and other shapes characterized by their symmetrical designs, an attribute that exudes feelings of efficiency and organization.
● Natural (Organic) Shapes: Curvier and unique than standard geometric ones, natural shapes present themselves in nature. They are unique and irregular, with some degree of symmetry, but not always present. In web design, organic forms such as leaves, clouds, flowers, crescents, and others convey uniqueness and spontaneity. They are typically illustrated on websites through images.
● Abstract Shapes: Unlike common geometric shapes or those found in nature, abstract shapes are stylized variants of natural shapes and are recognizable, but with enough characteristic variants to make them stand out as different and unique. These shapes are commonly used to denote a variety of concepts and ideas. These, much like their natural counterparts, are widely applied in web design through images as well.
How Shapes Affect Web Design?
Web designers utilize shapes to convey particular messages to the audience, and the nature of the shape applied can ensure that the message is communicated more efficiently. The use of shapes in web design is multi-purposeful. They can help grab an audiences’ attention, highlight certain content, draw focus on particular areas of the page, and liven up the site’s content to make the experience more engaging. Shapes have even been associated with conveying distinct moods and ambiances.
As the most common geometric shapes, rectangles, and squares convey uniformity, equality, security, calmness, and honesty. While these shapes are not the most effective in grabbing a viewer’s attention, they are great at emphasizing those most pertinent to a viewer’s attention once the page is rendered for them.
Circles and circular shapes, on the other hand, are great at grabbing attention and are used very effectively in ensuring notice of a call to action. Commonly reminiscent of the sun, fruits, wheels, and other aspects that enrich life somehow, circles also trigger thoughts of femininity, care, love, perfection, tenderness, and support. Many buttons, emojis, and icons in navigational and social web design schemes are typically circular or surrounded by circle form.
Conversely, triangular shapes resonate with the symbolism of power, energy, balance, and strength. Web design utilizes triangles in a multitude of ways. Triangles with a stable position (sitting on a flat side base) exude stability and are commonly associated with the law, religion, and science. Triangular shapes balanced on one of their corners, on the other hand, convey a sense of instability. However, triangles are seldom used on their own. Instead, web designers tend to combine them with different shapes, especially more complex ones like polygons, squares, and rhombuses.
Traditional website layouts are built-in standard grids composed of horizontal and vertical lines. While typical, these are not quite as attention-grabbing as diagonals. On the other hand, diagonals are pretty effective at moving the viewers’ eyes around your site, freely and easily guiding them from one field to another.
These days, a professional website that does not utilize polygons either in the background or in the images crafted in Photoshop is doubtful. Polygons permit a sense of futurism to the site and provide an added layer of depth when utilized in appropriate manners.
Whatever your particular web design goal is, there is almost certainly a shape that will fill the need. Using forms appropriately, you can make any website that is a good, attention-wielding resource by attracting visitors with conditions that add depth or promote focal points. Here are some of the primary purposes of infusing shapes into your web projects.
● Connection or separation of distinct fields can be accomplished by organizing data within shapes.
● Direct how a visitor visually navigates around your page.
● Emphasize particular areas of the page.
● Enhance the sensation of movement and depth on the page.
● Generate impressive visual effects.
● Frame various components.
Conclusion
Application of various shapes for your site’s logos, brand symbols, designs, and other aspects can create a lasting and powerful effect on your visitors. Classic web design entails using geometric shapes, but more great websites also infuse both natural and abstract shapes.
Because the proper use of geometric shapes is pivotal to effective web design, you might consider studying some basic modern design principles to understand what notions web designers use to convey and portray particular feelings and evoke particular responses by implementing these shapes into their design models. When your site stands out, an effort much assisted by utilization of shapes, it is better received and more readily recognized by your customers.