Hello lovely friends, clients and readers of Kimberly’s blog! My name is Chelsea and I am a web and graphic designer at Olive & Ivy Design, as well as a blogger. It’s my job to help you fall in love with your space on the web- whether that be a blog or a business. I specialize in blog beautifying and custom designs for the modern blogger and small business. My design style is clean, fresh and feminine, and today I’m popping into Kimberly’s online space to share with you some tips to make YOUR online presence just that!
Just like fashion trends, the internet and it’s websites have definitely gone through some phases and fads of their own. We’ve been through the bright colors and childish, scribbled fonts, the animated graphics on every page, pop-ups galore, sparkles/glitter/bling-bling at every opportunity and more. These days, web design has- thankfully- taken a much cleaner turn. Us users of the internet love websites with white space, good readability, easy to use navigation and beautiful photos. There are many times (and I KNOW I am not the only one that does this) that I will go to a site, be immediately frustrated with how “busy” it is, and leave. A good site design is of HUGE importance in this huge marketplace that is the internet, and I’m here today to give you a few pointers on how to clean up your online space and keep those readers reading.
1. White space. White space. White space.
DON’T be afraid of using it in your site’s design. I can’t emphasize this enough. Yes, we often love color. Yes, we often love patterns. But- we don’t need to have all of the things all at once. You can absolutely incorporate pattern or color into your design, but consider using it as an accent to neutral tones (black, white, grey) rather than being the main focus. Keep in mind that some of your readers may have a hard time reading or focusing on things if your background is busy and distracting or if things are all squashed together. You want all eyes on your content and beautiful photos, not the craziness going on in the background.
2. Make it easy to navigate.
It’s hugely important for your readers to be able to easily find whatever they need to find- be it your social media accounts, more information about you, a post they read a couple months ago and loved, or whatever. Make it simple for them! Keep your social media buttons at the top of your sidebar, make sure your navigation/menu bar is well organized and only contains the important things, have a search option available somewhere on your site and have a dropdown list for your archives in your sidebar (I recommend a dropdown simply because if you have been blogging for three years and you try to display all your archives by month, it’s going to be a bit crazy). The easier someone can navigate, the more likely they are to click around and check out different posts and pages.
3. Clean up that sidebar!
There are few things worse when it comes to design than a super messy sidebar. If you’ve gone and invested the money on getting a beautiful design done, why clutter it up with a bunch of unnecessary buttons and junk in your sidebar?! If it’s not necessary, I say scrap it. Keeping your sidebar as clean as possible makes things easy to find and leaves room for the important stuff. Streamline your sidebar and cut down on anything you don’t NEED!
4. If in doubt, hire a designer.
Not everyone was born with an eye for design, and sometimes it just can’t be forced. If you are taking your blog or your business serious, and you just can’t figure out the DIY design thing on your own, hire someone. Designers have experience in making the internet a beautiful place and can certainly help spruce up your neck of the woods as well. A gorgeous design is an extremely worthy investment if you just can’t manage to design something yourself. Do your research. Read a designer’s testimonials, look at their portfolio, maybe even check out a few blogs you like and scroll waaaay down to the bottom to see if there is a link to who designed their blog and check them out (there usually is design credit at the bottom of a blog). When hiring a designer, remember that like with anything else, you get what you pay for. A good design will be worth your hard-earned money in the long run!
I hope that this post inspires you to hop on your own blog today and do a little pre-spring-cleaning!
Be sure to leave any questions in the comments!
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