I spend a lot of time thinking, writing and talking about user experience, data and analytics, and general strategy within UK web design, and it may sound like I sometimes downplay the importance of visuals and aesthetics when it comes to websites.
This is because many web designers (and their clients!) focus predominantly on how a website looks, rather than how effective it actually is at generating leads, enquiries and bookings. I'm trying to address that imbalance!
But of course visual design is important too, and here's the main reason why:
Aesthetics matter for credibility.
Your website visitors will make snap decisions about whether they trust you within seconds of landing on your website. They’re not consciously analysing your fonts or colour choices, but they are subconsciously making a judgement about how well established, credible and reliable you are.
If your fonts are difficult to read against your background colours, or your logo looks like it’s from the 1990s, or you’re still using the default favicon from your website platform… all these things add up to undermine your credibility as a business and a brand.
You might have fantastic testimonials and perfectly put-together messaging, but if your visuals look inconsistent, DIY or dated, it creates small moments of doubt, which can be enough to stop a visitor from getting far enough to see those testimonials or read that perfect messaging.
The bare minimum
Here’s a bare minimum visual identity checklist - you need the following if you want your website to look trustworthy and professional:
✅ A clear, legible body font
✅ A contrasting heading font that makes key information easy to scan
✅ A small, well-defined colour palette where the colours complement each other and meet accessibility contrast standards
✅ A logo that reflects your brand, ideally with a couple of layout variations (horizontal and square) and ready to use in backgroundless formats such as PNG or SVG
✅ A website favicon, which is a simplified version of your logo mark that appears in the browser tab and helps people recognise your site at a glance
✅ And ideally, a simple brand stylesheet you or your designer can refer to so everything stays consistent
Most clients who come to us for a website redesign don’t have all of these basics in place. Maybe their logo is outdated, or their colour palette doesn’t meet accessibility guidelines, or they’re missing things like a favicon or consistent heading styles.
That’s why we include a brand refresh as standard in every website project. We don’t redesign your brand so much that it becomes unrecognisable, but we do take what you have and work with you to polish it up and create the bare minimum: a clear, consistent visual identity. Without this, it’s impossible to produce a website that looks cohesive and credible.
Image 1: the client’s original logo
Image 2: The results of the brand refresh - updates and variations on the logo (including a submark or favicon), a fleshed out colour palette, and typography pairings
Image 3: The polished up branding in action, used on the redesigned website.
Taking your brand’s visual identity a step further
If your business is well established, you’ve got some marketing budget, and you’re ready to stand out from your competitors, this is the stage where it’s worth investing in a more distinctive visual identity.
This is where branded assets come in. Custom illustrations, brand icons and a more developed visual system (used according to properly developed guidelines) show potential clients that you’re established, detail-oriented and committed to quality. Not only do these kind of elements enable us to build you a fantastic-looking site, they signal professionalism, confidence and credibility.
A more developed visual identity also helps you carry your signature style across everything you create, from your website to your social graphics, slide decks and printed materials. It makes your brand instantly recognisable, wherever people come across you.
In case you didn’t know, at Pie Heart Studio we can develop your extended visual identity as part of a website redesign. Take a look at how a recent client’s visual identity design was carried through into the new website:
First image: extracts from the brand guidelines booklet we created for the client
Second image: the visual identity and branded assets being used across the redesigned website
When ‘flashy’ design gets confused with good design
When it comes to websites, a well-constructed visual identity is far more effective than fancy animations or special effects.
I’ve seen plenty of sites (by overenthusiastic freelance developers and big, expensive web design agencies) where the design has been pushed so far that it actually gets in the way of user experience. Moving parts, dramatic transitions and overly artistic layouts might look impressive at first glance, but if they distract visitors from the message or make it harder to navigate, they’re working against you.
Meanwhile, the actual brand identity gets lost in all the noise.
Good visual design supports the user, guides their attention and makes decisions easier. Simplicity within page layouts is a good thing, and will highlight your brand and services, ultimately leading to more enquiries and bookings.
As you’ll see from the examples in this article, at Pie Heart Studio we focus on clean, simple layouts and designs, which give your services and brand identity space to shine. The above brand refresh and visual identity design were by Tara, our brilliant graphic designer, and the web pages were by Lydia, our fantastic web designer.