Web design layouts play a significant role in the effectiveness of a website. Understanding what makes a layout effective in web design is important for creating appealing web content for users to see, which is why we’re going to explain two basic web design layouts that are commonly used across a wide range of websites.
What is a good layout for web design?
The most popular web design layouts are the grid-based layout and the F-Pattern layout. Below, we explain what grid-based and f-shaped web design layouts are and share their individual advantages to help you decide what web design layout works best for you.
Grid based layout
A grid-based layout is a web design layout that organises your web content within vertical or horizontal guidelines. Grid-based layouts typically feature margins and columns and purposeful spaces to create an organised and balanced look for the website. This is one of the most popular layouts for web design as a result of its simple-but-effective structure for organising web content.
The advantages of a grid layout for web design
Here are some of the main advantages of using a grid layout for web design:
Accessibility and navigation for users
Canva recognised the advantage of a grid-based design for ensuring user accessibility and navigation across a website. The grid layout organises your informational content in a structured way that makes it easy for users to identify pages and find what they’re looking for whilst keeping the web page looking clean and professional.
Efficient to make changes or additions
The grid-based layout is also advantageous from a designer’s point of view as the content is easy to change and move around. For example, if you need to update some of your content or add additional details to one of your sections, you can easily do this without needing to rearrange the website completely and start from scratch.
Consistent layout is appealing
The consistent, well-balanced design of a grid-based layout is very aesthetically appealing to users and gives your website a professional touch. Keeping your content layout consistent like this is advantageous for not overwhelming users who visit your site.
F-Pattern reading layout
The F-Pattern layout is traditionally characterised by fixating your headings and your content towards the top and the left side of your web page. This is purposeful to match the natural eye-scanning patterns that we use to read and view information.
The advantages of an F-Pattern layout
Here are some of the main advantages of using an F-Pattern layout in your web design:
Matches eye-scanning patterns
Instapage highlighted that the F-Pattern design helps your web design to establish a visual hierarchy as this layout matches our natural eye-scanning patterns (from left to right and from top to bottom). It’s considered extremely effective for directing a user’s attention and focus to key aspects of your content.
Makes the content accessible for users
Because the F-Pattern matches how we read information, this layout can help make content more accessible for users. Easy navigation of a website is key to boosting the user experience and can also improve its efficiency too.
Increases user retention
The fact that users can easily navigate an F-Pattern layout can make it simpler for them to retain key information. User retention is important for ensuring your content is understood and beneficial, whilst also increasing the chances of users returning to your website to review the same content or to look for similar, new content.
How to choose between designs
Choosing the right web design layout can be difficult, but it’s important to keep in mind the type of content you’re planning to include on your web page to help make your decision. For example, if your web page is likely to feature a mixture of written content alongside visual content, such as videos or images, a grid-based layout may be the most effective for displaying this information.
On the other hand, if your content is largely copy-based, the F-Pattern layout will be more beneficial as it can help users to read the content easily.
If you would like to speak to one of our web design specialists about your website design and to explore your options, get in touch with us today! You can also take a look at what other web design services we offer here.