10 Principles Of Good Web Design

Basic design rules are useful for anyone who creates visuals: Images for blogs, social media posts, article covers, or video thumbnails. If you run a Instagram account (or any social media account), sooner or later you'll want to create a good-looking picture. Maybe to visualize information from a post, catch attention, or simply diversify text content.

These rules are also helpful for anyone who works with designers. When you give a technical assignment, you act as a client who has to evaluate the result. Feedback like "something feels off," "the color looks wrong," "I just don't like it" is too vague. The designer won't understand where they went wrong, and you won't learn what to ask for next time. Knowing the basics will help both sides.

If you review layouts or attend design presentations, it helps to know the common rules. You'll understand designers better, speak their language, and even give more useful feedback.

Basic rules are especially important when you're just starting out. You might have heard the phrase: "To make great design, you need to break the rules." That's true but only after you learn them. Without this knowledge, beginners often don't know how to improve a layout. Rules give you a foundation for creating solid and professional designs.

This rule works in real life too. For example, if a sign hangs right above a door, we assume it's the name of the store. The same happens in design: Placement creates meaning.

The principle of inner and outer spacing (inner ≤ outer). The distance inside an object should be smaller than the distance to the outside. Otherwise, the layout looks confusing. For example, there are two objects in the layout:

For example, take an article and look at different examples of internal and external spacing between objects like the logo, cover image, etc.

The Proximity Principle is a rule you should apply often, so that becomes second nature.

It may seem simple at first glance, but how exactly do you apply this rule in design? What goals does it serve? What outcome should you aim for?

A classic application of Fitts's Law is an infinite click area. If you place a button in the corner of the screen, users can just move the cursor to the edge and click—no need for precision.

Important objects must be visible at first glance. Designers don't just think in terms of brightness or size. They think in terms of emphasis: "Which element attracts the eye first?"

Every screen needs a standout element. If all elements look equally important, the design feels flat. The user's eye has nothing to catch on, and the design won't be memorable.

You can create emphasis with color, size, or shape. The key is hierarchy: First the important elements, then the secondary ones. Principle objects catch the eye first, and the others are noticed afterward.

Emphasis helps solve the main design task. It draws attention to the objects that are most important for the client, designer, or business. If there are no emphasized elements, the layout is weak.

White space (also called negative space) is the empty area around an element. It helps focus attention and makes the layout clear.

Minimalist design often relies on generous white space. Apple has long used this technique to emphasize its premium image.

White space helps create a stylish and premium design even with little content. It highlights important objects without visual noise. Study examples of minimalist websites to learn how to use negative space correctly.

Using white space is a technique that requires skill. Beginners often see minimalist websites and try to copy them. They place a few objects on the screen and leave the rest empty. But can you imagine too much white space on a marketplace or a clothing store website?

Color builds associations with a brand. For example, if you see a mix of red and yellow, you'll probably think of McDonald's. Green and white? That's WhatsApp. With brand colors alone, companies can say: "This ad is mine." You don't even need to read the text on the banner.

If you're starting a project from scratch, you don't have brand colors yet. You need to create or choose them, and then use them consistently. For beginners, it's better to start with ready-made palettes. Here are reliable tools:

Color is also a way to create emphasis. Don't use every shade available. At the start, stick to one main color and one accent color. This keeps your layout clean. Work with shades carefully: Combine them correctly and pick those that match the overall style.

Design may look like a mix of many elements, creativity and something hard to master. In fact, it's built on three basics:

Everything else is just a combination of these elements.

Any design can be broken down into these basics. The more you notice and analyze them on real websites, the easier it will be to create your own layouts.

Consistency is a rule designers often break, and it ruins the overall impression of the product. For example, if one page uses buttons with different corner radii or images with different borders, the whole layout feels messy. Or if one block has underlined links while another highlights links only with color, it creates confusion.

Consistency means following a system of rules. If you analyze a website, you'll notice patterns in spacing, button styles, image treatments, and overall layout. This system is what makes a design look cohesive.

Consistency is also a clear marker of quality. For example, if one heading is 56px, another 54px, and the next 52px, you can say the layout has fallen apart. There's no system, no rules — no consistency.

Modules are rectangles that make up any web page. Elements in a layout should be aligned to make the design look neat and consistent. For correct horizontal and vertical composition, designers use a grid to align elements within a block.

Almost everything tends to form rectangles: A paragraph of text, a headline, an image, a chart. Even a circle is essentially a rectangle with heavily rounded corners. In the end, every element inside a block still becomes part of a larger rectangle.

When modules are aligned to the grid, the layout feels balanced and easy to read. The entire Swiss design style, for example, is built on modularity and rectangular composition.

The Bento design trend makes this principle even more apparent: Designers simply draw rectangles and pack all the necessary information inside them. It's modularity at its most transparent.

Anchor objects are the most prominent elements on the screen: An illustration, a headline, or a logo. According to the rule, they should be placed in one of the corners or at the visual center of the module. This makes the composition look balanced and prevents objects from "floating" in the layout.

This rule also helps fight the fear of a blank canvas. If you're not sure how to arrange elements on the screen, start by placing them in the module's corners. You'll immediately get a strong composition that you can refine later.

Anchor objects guide the overall composition and define where elements should go. Try this: Open your favorite websites, outline their modules, and check how this rule is applied. Without it, the composition falls apart.

Most people read from left to right and top to bottom. The same applies to websites. Users don't read everything word by word—they scan: Their eyes stop at highlighted objects and pick out what matters. Designers have identified two key scanning patterns.

The F-pattern: Users scan horizontally across the top, then move down the page and scan again across the middle, and finally focus on the lower left. The result resembles the letter F. This works well for linear, content-heavy layouts where information needs to be read in order.

The main downside of the F-pattern is that when a page contains a lot of text and very few visuals, the layout can start to feel monotonous. A great way to counter this is by using the mirrored technique—an approach where alternating sections are flipped horizontally.

The Z-pattern: Users scan left to right across the top, then diagonally down to the left, and finally across to the bottom right. The result looks like the letter Z. This works best for dynamic, lightweight pages where there are fewer elements and you want to guide the user's attention strategically.

Use the F-pattern for services and platforms where users need to process a lot of information in sequence. Use the Z-pattern for creative pages with fewer elements, where the goal is to guide attention toward specific calls to action.