Where to find inspiration for your new website
Aug 28, 2015
A new website deserves some thought, especially when it comes to design. As the most important online representation of your business, it needs to accurately reflect who you are, while also being functional for the user.
If you need inspiration for a new website but you are unsure where to start, here are some of our favourite places to spark ideas!
Your current website
I know what you’re thinking – why would you want to look at your old website, when you need inspiration for a new one? However, we think it’s essential to study your old website and make two lists before you move forward. First, make a list of things that need to change. If you focus on what’s wrong or outdated, you can start to make informed decisions about what will work better next time.
Your second list should be filled with things which work well, or which need to stay the same, such as your branding. Once you start looking for design inspiration, it can be easy to get caught up in all the possibilities, resulting in a website with too many confused ideas, so making these lists will help you to stay on track!
Websites in your industry
Take a look at other names in your industry, to see how they present themselves online. We are not saying that you copy what your competitors are doing; it is simply to get a feel for what works in your industry, and what doesn’t. How are products and services displayed? What style of images are used? How many pages are there? Gathering information like this will help you to form opinions about certain design elements. A simple, corporate style may be perfect for your business, or you may prefer something quirky and surprising.
All the websites featured on Awwwards have received or have been nominated for an award from jury of top art directors and designers – so you can guarantee that they are all unique, modern and very successful. It’s here, amongst the A-Listers of the website world, that you can find a wealth of inspiration for your new website.
We love it when clients send us a Pinterest board to work from; it’s a brilliant addition to a verbal brief. Pinterest is all about finding inspiration, whether it’s for your next DIY project, your dream holiday, or in this case, your new website. You’ll find thousands of designs, colour schemes and fonts here, which you can save to your own board to keep them safe in one place. With the additional option to upload your own images, you can also save great designs you have found around the web.
In these first steps towards creating your new website, it is important to think not only about the overall design, but the layout of your interior pages. To discover a vast collection of Landing Pages, About Us Pages, Contact Pages and more, Crayon is the place to be. Once you have created an account you can search through millions of designs, with the option to filter your results based on industry, traffic level and page type. Save your favourite designs to personal “collections”, and invite your colleagues to save designs to them too!
We hope you feel inspired for your new website design! If you need any more tips, we’re brimming with ideas here at The Creation Lab. You’re welcome to pop in and see us any time!