WordPress has become so ubiquitous as a web hosting and designing platform, that it can be difficult to get your site to stand out from the masses. In such cases, spicing things up a bit by experimenting can lead to some great results, such as increased ad traffic. For now, it’s safe to say that as far as standing out on WordPress goes, it might pay to be a little more adventurous.
Now, it’s worth pointing out that being adventurous doesn’t mean you can just throw the rules right out the window. Rather, it’s mostly about breaking convention and trying out things you may never have tried before with your existing site or with a new one.
Of course, you don’t have to combine all of these options all at once nor do you have try every single one at all. In fact, some of these items can be the complete opposite of each other, so using them together might not work that well.
The goal is simply to do something outside your comfort zone and see if it works out.
Go Crazy With The Color Palettes
We should probably qualify this part first before you go nuts and start mixing orange with indigo and fuchsia with abandon. Basically, if you have been using safe options up to this point when designing a website such as sticking to a single or dual color palette that have been proven to work together, perhaps it’s time to try something a little out there.
A background of pink that’s sprinkled with a little red, yellow, blue, and violet could work if you don’t make them too conspicuous. A bold background color that users might not automatically associate with the kind of niche you’re in could work, as well, such as a deep purple for a job agency. This can really touch your visitors’ interests, provided you don’t go overboard.
Bold Typography
Bold, as in, daring. Not Bold, the format.
Basically, WordPress sites have always had the standard setup of having the headers in the right positions for the right parts of the content for obvious reasons. However, more and more domains are now trying new typography formats where everything from the headings to the body are found all over the place. This example should give you some ideas as to what this might look like.
There are also examples of creative heading designs such as overlapping words to form a completely different phrase or being artsy with the color palette to form non-obvious images relevant to the domain or content.
Extreme Minimalism
So, just as we got to a rather exciting start with the first two items, let’s dial it way down and go the opposite direction with extreme minimalism. Basically, you want to convey your message as clearly as possible while keeping your webpage as empty as possible. The idea being that users are so used to being bombarded with so many words, images, blinking banners, videos, and so much more that the sheer absence of any or all those things can be jarring.
This will also force them to actually focus much better since they have fewer distractions to contend with. Naturally, this will work best when the niche that you are operating in is relevant to design such as offering workshops that help sharpen focus. It’s positively poetic.
Keep It Subtle
You know how, when you’re body and mind is relaxed, and you suddenly notice something moving at the edges of your peripheral vision? You can apply that to your website in a much more direct fashion.
Basically, you use animations that move in such a subtle way that users wouldn’t even be completely sure that they are seeing something move for the first few minutes they spend on your site. They’ll be almost convinced that they are seeing things, which is a sure fire way to hold their attention.
It’s practically cheating.
You can achieve this by employing subtle animation twitches such as slight movements with the arms or legs, or a quick eye-roll. The effect is amplified when you have multiple animations that are also randomized, so users won’t be able to predict exactly what will happen next and with which image.
Web Page Or Paper?
People are easily snagged by nostalgia and for those who miss the pen and paper days, hand-drawn graphics on a web page can be especially appealing. These can come either in the form of the lettering itself, the background images such as a wall that looks like it was sketched on a canvas, or content that is reminiscent of 60s comic books.
The possibilities with regards to this particular option are practically endless, with the only limitations being your imagination. You could even use doodles that you scratch on your paper during your free time or when you’re trying to work something out. People are always interested in the weird and the odd.
Rishi Aravinda
I’m Rishi Aravinda and I work for Voucher.co.id. One of the largest discount code platforms in Indonesia that offers discount codes for more than 40 webshops!
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