We have recently launched a website for painlesschildbirth.co.uk and we thought it would be a good case study to explain some of the elements of web design. When it comes to web design it can be easy to just place a static colour container to hold some text, if you give it some time and thought you can really enhance a design with some depth, texture and eye-candy, these are some of the things that we feel add that little bit extra to the whole design.
As you can see, just by adding some glow to a solid colour a container looks less two dimensional, also combining a drop shadow with a texture can add lift and realism to something that will be viewed on a two dimensional screen. Another subtle technique is to add a reversed drop shadow which essentially, is a drop shadow that is light and pail rather than a true dark drop shadow, this gives an embossed effect. However, be careful when using this technique as it only works when using darker coloured elements on lighter coloured backgrounds. Eye-candy is also nice to add as it acts as a visual prompt, in this case it is an email link.
This design was in the early stages of client approval, if you would like to see the finished design you can visit the website painlesschildbirth.co.uk
Feel free to leave your comments below, we would love to get your feedback.