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Design Articles

When creating a design for a website, there are some basic principles that you need to follow. These principles have been defined by industry standards so there is a definition of minimum or acceptable design quality. These principles ensure that the resulting product is user-friendly and effective in its purpose. Designs that don’t follow these principles don’t even deserve to be called a piece of graphic design work. Such design works are unusable for any medium. All the design principles are important, but one of them has more importance. This is contrast.

Contrast has a huge impact on the quality of the design work. Contrast affects the user experience and effectiveness of the design work. Contrast not only affects the design but also affects the content visibility on a website as well.

If we have to define what is contrast, then in simple words it refers to how to one element looks different from other elements on a website. For example, how the font size of heading and paragraph are different. Contrast is done to ensure the readability of the content, to show the importance of one element over others and to improve the user experience.

Since contrast is so important for a website, it is important that steps must be taken to ensure its effective use in design.

Color Contrast

Color contrast is one of the most important elements in a design. It is basically the color of the foreground and background element or color of one element compared to other elements. When it comes to the foreground and background colors, designers must ensure the ratio of 4.5:1. A black color font on a black color background has a ratio of 1:1, which would make the foreground text unreadable. Another example: the color of a button a website is usually different than the overall color theme. This is to make sure that the button or Call to Action button stands out from rest of the elements on a site.

Size Contrast

Another important principle of contrast is size. The size of one element compared to others or the size of fonts used on a website also needs to have a contrast. There is no ratio or rule of thumb here as it depends on designer’s judgment. An example: the font size of heading is bigger than paragraphs. This is because heading has more importance than the paragraph as readers judge the importance of content by reading the heading first. Size contrast not only applies to the font but also other elements on a website. An example: the size of a banner image on the first fold of a website is more than other images on a website. This is to attract the attention of users.