How to choose a design style for your website: a four-question process
Choose a website style by answering four questions in order: who is reading, what kind of content carries the page, how the business should sound, and what photographs you actually have. Each answer rules some styles out. Whatever is left after all four is usually one or two candidates, and either will serve you better than the style you admired on someone else's site.
Why mood boards mislead
The usual way people pick a look is to collect sites they like. The trouble is that those sites were designed for someone else's content. A fashion label's site with one enormous photo per screen looks wonderful because the label has a professional shoot behind every image. Copy the layout for a plumbing business with three phone photos and the same structure will look empty. Style follows from material, and the material is yours.
So when working out how to choose a design style for your website, start not with what you like but with what you have and who it's for. Taste comes in at the end, choosing between options that already fit.
Question 1: who is reading, and how?
- Older visitors, or anyone reading carefully (clinics, solicitors, care services): favour styles with large body text, high contrast and calm layouts. Rule out anything that relies on tiny type, low contrast or motion.
- People in a hurry on a phone (takeaways, trades, venues): favour plain, direct styles where the phone number and opening hours dominate. Rule out styles built around large hero imagery that pushes facts down.
- Peers who judge craft (other designers, architects, developers): this audience notices type, grid and detail, so a disciplined style like Swiss or Technical earns trust.
- Families and children: friendly, rounded, colourful styles work, provided the text stays readable.
Question 2: what carries the page?
| If the page is mostly… | Look for a style that… | Examples |
|---|---|---|
| Words: menus, articles, services described in prose | Is built around a reading column and strong headings | Editorial, Swiss |
| Pictures: products, portfolio, venue | Gets out of the way of photographs | Luxury, minimal, Organic |
| Numbers and facts: prices, specs, schedules | Has clear tables and figures | Technical, Swiss |
| A single message: a launch, a campaign, an event | Can make one statement loud | Brutalist, Playful |
Question 3: how should the business sound?
Write three adjectives for how a customer should describe the business after visiting. Then test each candidate style against them. A brutalist page can't sound "gentle"; a playful one struggles to sound "discreet"; a luxury one rarely sounds "affordable". If a style contradicts any of your three words, cross it off, however much you like it.
It also helps to look at the business's physical presence. If the shop has a hand-painted sign and wooden shelves, a cold technical site will feel like a different business when a customer walks in. The site doesn't need to copy the shop, but it shouldn't argue with it.
Question 4: what photographs do you have?
This is the question people skip, and it decides more than any other. Photo-led styles need a set of strong, consistent images. Type-led styles can work with very few. Be honest:
- A professional shoot, consistent and recent: any style is open, and image-led ones will show the work at its best.
- Decent phone photos, a few of each thing: choose a style where type and layout carry the identity and photos support it.
- Almost nothing yet: choose a type-led style now (Editorial, Swiss, Brutalist) and plan a shoot. A strong typographic page with no photos beats a photo layout filled with stock images.
The website photography guide shows how to plan a small, consistent shoot.
Mistakes to avoid
- Choosing by trend. A style chosen because it's current will look dated sooner than one chosen because it fits.
- Mixing two styles. Taking the headline treatment from one and the cards from another gives two conflicting sets of rules.
- Letting the logo decide everything. A logo designed in an afternoon shouldn't dictate the site's whole look.
- Never revisiting it. If the content changes, say you add a shop, the right style may change too.
How the choice works in Anticode
In Anticode the first two questions are partly asked for you. When you describe the site, the Architect replies with a short plan, including a proposed look, and may ask up to three questions where the answer changes the build, which can include the design direction, each with suggested answers to tap. The Designer then holds the build to one of seven design systems: Editorial, Technical, Luxury, Playful, Brutalist, Organic or Swiss.
The proposal is a starting point, not a verdict. You can switch direction at any time in the visual editor and see the same content in another system, which is a quick way to run questions three and four against real pages. What Anticode can't answer is question four: it doesn't know which photos you'll have next month. For a side-by-side overview of the styles themselves, see types of website design styles.
Questions people ask
Can I change my website's style later?
Yes, and you should if the content changes. In Anticode you can switch design system at any time without rewriting the content.
Should my website look like my competitors' sites?
Look at them to understand what visitors expect to find, not to copy the look. Sharing a style with competitors makes you harder to remember.
What style works with no photos?
A type-led style such as Editorial, Swiss or Brutalist. They draw their character from typography, layout and colour rather than imagery.