How to Create a Website Style Guide for Your Business Branding
On average, 8 or more people, each having a pre-defined role, can handle a web development project.
Getting a team of talented web developers to design a website is actually the best thing to do. It’s only natural in the age where the whole process has gotten a bit out of hand in terms of complexity.
The problem arises when each one of these developers has their vague idea about how the different parts they are working on should appear. So, you end up with one big mess of a website, which, in turn, drowns your intended message in disharmony – a bad thing for your brand.
Wondering what step to take next? A website style guide is your answer.
In this post, I’ll let you in on all about this essential part of web development. Keep reading to learn more about how to brand a website.
Style Guide – What Is It?
A website style guide is a roadmap containing all the requirements the developers in a collaborative project must adhere to in order to have different aspects of the website in sync with each other.
Why You Need a Website Style Guide
Here are a few reasons a web design style guide is essential:
- Eliminates Guesswork – Developers won’t try to come up with their versions, but the kind of styles you wish to have. Also, they won’t find a reason to bring on their preferences.
- Brings Out Your Message Clearly – The end product is one uniform piece. A glance at it shouts what you are trying to put across.
- It makes it easier to tweak a few elements in later dates without going contrary to brand guidelines.
How to Create a Website Style Guide
As I’ve already stated above, a guide is a definition of the different elements and pages of a website. So, creating a style guide is all about customizing the components in line with your brand.
Here are the moving parts you will need to take into account when coming up with a website:
- Typography
- Color palette
- Icons
- Imagery
- White space
- Forms
- Spacing
- Buttons
How clearly can you define your brand before you venture into designing the above elements?
Having Clarity Is One Step of the Way
Have a clear definition of your brand – what it stands for, the message you are trying to pass.
What is your mission? Vision? What are your values?
For a larger part, this is just a recap as there is every chance you know the right story to tell. If not, doing so should be the very first thing.
Notably, a website is the visual representation of your brand because branding and web design go hand in hand.
That aside, time to look at the above-listed elements.
Typography
It’s important that you get this straight as it’s how your website and visitors communicate.
Sticking to a maximum of two typefaces is one way of ensuring you have the typography right. This makes the text easily readable. Also, it brings clarity to the message and a general consistent feel throughout all the pages.
Set the different font details and how they’ll be used for a variety of purposes in general body copies or some specialized cases, like linking, and emphases such as bolds and italics.
Line-height, letter spacing, weight, and hierarchy are just some of these details. Don’t forget to illustrate how you want each of these font details to be used.
Color Palette
Start by setting primary colors that you will feature largely throughout your website. In most cases, the primary colors should be at maximum three for that clean appearance.
In some though, more colors may be essential to bring out other relevant aspects of your brand that the primary ones cannot. In that case, secondary and even tertiary colors may be thrown into the mix.
All these color types should be good both on their own and in combinations.
Take care not to drown the primary colors in all those hues. Remember, they are the ones that speak out about your brand, so having them compete for attention with the others is not a good idea. To emphasize them, include other neutral colors like white, black, and gray.
Icons
Well-chosen icons have the ability to bring out the desired effect on website visitors. In fact, icons trample copy, color palettes, or any other kind of graphics by far.
The caveat here is to settle on icons that don’t advance biases to your audience depending on factors like religion, history, or culture. The underlying values of your brand can also influence the choice.
Imagery
The images to be used should be sure to follow the emotional trajectory of your brand. This is the most outstanding visual element of this service as it’s usually the first thing visitors will notice once they land on your site. So, put some serious thought into this.
Other considerations to keep up with include image types to be used, their sizes, and the file format.
White Space
The white space offers a break in between the different elements of your website. Be careful in how you recommend its application – don’t scatter your web content but make sure they aren’t so closely spaced either.
A great white space breaks up the site monotony while still letting the message ring on. It also makes your work more organized and professional.
Forms
They provide a way for you to know the visitor more because this is where he/she will be entering personal information like name and email. So, make it as user-friendly as possible.
No one wants to spend the remaining part of his or her life trying to fill a form.
Besides UX, other possible inclusions are active, hover, and error.
Buttons
Buttons are a mix of color palettes, the brand’s voice, and forms.
Here are the aspects to take care of when handling the buttons part:
- Usage – Define and state clearly their intended purpose.
- Sizes – Small, big, or medium. It all depends on what you want.
- Importance – What do you want the user to do? A primary-colored button is excellent for directing the visitor in what action to take.
- States – Normal and hover will do the work just fine. You don’t need all those other options.
Now You Know About The Style Guide
Your web development process is likely going to be worked on by a team rather than an individual. And, it’s your expectation that this team produces a cohesive end product.
That’s why a website style guide is a must-have. It leads to the developers on what you want at the end of it all.
Don’t add this to the list of problems you face. Go ahead and implement this guide to your web design branding and don’t forget to bookmark our website.
