Imagery
Everyone knows a picture speaks a thousand words. How can you make sure your pictures are saying the right ones? It all starts with planning.
Before browsing through image repositories or commissioning photography, take a close look at what you already have - your organisation could be sitting on a goldmine of visual assets. Many organisations simply don’t know those assets are there, or they’re unable to locate them within a timely manner.
Think big
When it comes to choosing images, avoid those that translate your copy too literally. Try to find an overarching visual concept before you kick off your search as it will help you to come up with more original imagery.
Quality counts
There are few factors influencing the suitability of imagery for web, particularly when it comes to photography. As a rule of thumb, you want to make sure that the images you choose are high-quality and feature enough space to include copy and generally avoid making your site look too busy.
Additionally, it is helpful to know that customers tend to resonate with images that feature humans rather than objects - but always make sure you stay on-brand.
Tag to find
Finally, when you add images to your website, make sure you to tag them logically. Remember what we said about organisations being unable to find images within their own databases? Tagging will solve this problem.
Typography
Typography is an often overlooked, but immensely impactful aspect of web design. Picking a font shouldn’t be done in haste, considering that experts like Oliver Reichenstein argue that ‘Web Design is 95% Typography’.
Limit choice
Choosing one to two fonts to reflect your brand identity in 8-10 different styles is the ideal way to avoid overloading your website with a multitude of typographic elements. This is enough to develop a clear typographic hierarchy that makes your page easily scannable for users - no uppercase needed.
Readability
Not every font is as legible as Arial. Besides font sizes, there are a number of technicalities that determine whether characters and words are ‘easy on the eye’ or not. Arguably, you need to find the right balance between a font that works for your brand and one that makes the lives of your readership as easy as possible; you don’t want their attention to drop while looking into your content.
Accessibility
We often come across sites that - at first glance - offer a brilliance user experience. On closer inspection however, they are revealed to lack functionality for certain user groups.
How? These sites don’t meet accessibility standards.
Unfortunately, accessibility isn’t on the top of everyone’s agenda despite an increasing awareness of its importance.
Users first
Depending on contrast rations, markups, and scalability of your content; visually impaired audiences might find the site difficult to use. Keyboard users should be able to navigate through your site without problems, and your interface should be designed logically - making sure that assets that look like buttons are, indeed, buttons. There is nothing more frustrating than being unsure if it’s your laptop or the website that’s broken - when everything is working perfectly fine.
Simplicity
Typography, imagery and accessibility go hand-in-hand when it comes to creating a website that's easy to digest. Don’t overload pages with fancy features, as they could lead to dropping attention and high bounce rates. Identify the core of your content and display it in a simple and clear way. This will help you get your message across.
Render well
On the more technical side of things, make sure that your website is compatible with all kinds of browsers and devices that your users might use. This is particularly important as assistive technologies are advancing at a rapid speed.
Creativity is for everyone
Creative is part strategy, part experience, and expertise. There are many small changes that can make big impacts - you just need to know where to look.
There is a lot that everyone can contribute to creative challenges in digital - designer or not. Don’t just take the design of your website as a given - question it. Take another look at the practical tips we have given in this blog post and assess if they are implemented on your pages.
More input needed? Follow the link at the end of each section to get into more detail about the particular topic.
Creativity is for everyone. Let us show you how.
Related Resources

8 steps to displaying impactful digital imagery
You don’t need to be a designer to source brilliant imagery. These guiding principles will help all of your team to consistently source high-quality, on-brand imagery.

Typography - what you need to know
Everybody is able to make good font decisions. This guide demonstrates how.

Website accessibility simplified
A standout user experience should be accessible to everyone. This is how you make sure your website follows best practice.
Related resources

8 steps to displaying impactful digital imagery
You don’t need to be a designer to source brilliant imagery. These guiding principles will help all of your team to consistently source high-quality, on-brand imagery.

Design audit
Pixl8's Senior Digital Designer explains how to run a design audit of your website, to better understand its visual impact.

Creative briefing at the Shard
Creating a member-centred digital experience is possible. User research, persuasive copy, and emotive marketing are all ways to ensure you resonate with your members.

Digital journeys that deliver
Discover all the insights from our latest webinar on "Digital journeys that deliver", organised in partnership with MemberWise.

What great design looks like
With innovation at the heart of our designs, Pixl8 holds strict core principles that each web development adheres to. We would like to share some of our principles and experience with you, and showcase some great designs that our teams have put together.

Ads versus user experience? There's no contest
Creating a clickable ad is only the start. Designing a user friendly website journey is the key to driving conversions.

Raising website design with accessibility
Making websites more accessible means making sure they can be used by as many people as possible. Our Senior Digital Designer explains the benefits of accessibility, and showcases great examples.

Preview: Design takeover month
This April, our digital design team will be sharing insights to help elevate your organisation’s website and deliver a better experience for your users. See a preview of the content now.

Top tips to improve your membership landing page conversion
Kicking off our Design Takeover Month, Creative Director Luke Holderness shares his top tips on increasing conversion through simple design techniques.

Internal site search: help people find what they're looking for
Understanding the importance of site search on your website can make all the difference. Read our experts' advice on setting up a strong search function.

Website accessibility simplified
A standout user experience should be accessible to everyone. This is how you make sure your website follows best practice.

The laws of simplicity
You don't need to compromise on functionality to achieve a user-friendly interface - here's why.

Typography - what you need to know
Everybody is able to make good font decisions. This guide demonstrates how.

Designing online services that wow members
Great online services can boost your member value proposition. In this blog, we explain how to use design to elevate how your members experience services.

The benefits of user testing your website
Our top tips on how to approach user testing

How to bring your brand to life online with design systems
As part of our Design Takeover, Pixl8's Senior Digital Designer Andy Orme explains how a design system can help teams bring their brand to life in digital.