Intelligent Design - Basic Design Guidelines - Likewise, with web...
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Likewise, with web sites, if everything lines up on the same line, the page is likely to look very boring. You can change it up with:
1. Bold Titles
2. Lists of items
3. Indented text
All these things break up the monotony of straight lines and can add rhythm to a design. Yet if there is too much breaking up of the lines, the design can become junky looking noise That is hard to read. Hey, no doubt - some people are into that.
Giving Design elements Room to Breathe
Even things that line up do not generally look good if they can't breathe. Putting text right against the edge of another element has a claustrophobic feel. Some sites pack in so much information on one page that there are no margins or breathing space between elements. The result is in uncomfortableness and unreadability. Give your images and text margins, frames or room to breathe.
Use the Grid, Luke
To help you line things up, use graph paper, the Adobe Photoshop grid or draw a measured grid yourself. In the final design this grid is usually removed, but used in layout to ensure things line up nicely. Experienced designers often intuitively use a grid without physically having a grid in the design.
Next: The Golden Section... >>
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