Bringing together architecture and websites for an innovative look at design
In this episode, I’m exploring the similarities I’ve found between architecture and website design and why combining design aesthetics with functional elements is essential to any successful design. Drawing inspiration from different architectural styles, I share my thoughts on how the building blocks of physical spaces align with the foundational elements of websites. By understanding these essential components, we can unleash our creativity and design websites that are both unique and effective.
Timestamps:
[00:01:06] Rediscovering Architecture and Its Connection to Websites
[00:01:48] Architecture's Variety of Styles Built on Common Foundation
[00:03:10] Building Blocks and Expectations in Home Design
[00:04:34] Building Blocks and Innovation in Website Design
[00:06:25] Customizing the Design Aesthetic of Websites
[00:08:24] The Marriage of Space and Aesthetic in Website Design
[00:09:49] The Balance between Practicality and Beauty
[00:10:44] Freedom and Flexibility in Creative Website Design
[00:12:54] Designing Beautiful and Practical Websites
[00:14:09] Marrying Design and Function in Website Design VIP Days
Key Takeaways:
Entrepreneurship journey: Messy, innovative, and evolving as we grow.
Designing physical and digital spaces: Similarities and lessons for websites.
Building blocks of architecture: Spaces and expected functionalities.
Website building blocks: Homepage, contact page, services page, etc.
Freedom to innovate: Adding personal design aesthetic to the building blocks.
Marrying beauty and function: Practicality and creativity in website design.
[00:00:00] For those of you who know my story, you probably know that I did not intend to start a website design business in my life.
[00:00:09] When I went to college, it was because I wanted to be an architect. It had been my plan since I was in middle school and I had everything laid out. I was going to be certified and licensed by the age of 30, but that is not at all what my journey looked like.
[00:00:25] For so many of us, our entrepreneurship journey is messy and it's full of innovation and change and different ways of approaching things as we grow and change as humans.
The similarity of designing physical and digital spaces
[00:01:06] I bring this up because as I have been able to travel more recently, now that we are not stuck at home anymore and I've had some more free time, I've really rediscovered my love of architecture and building and spaces. And I have noticed, as I've thought about it, such a similarity between the space of a physical building and the space that we occupy in our websites online.
[00:01:35] I think it's going to help you think differently and innovate about how you approach your website as you are building and growing your business to reach your clients.
Architecture has many different styles, but is always built on the same foundation
[00:01:48] One of the things that I love about architecture is that there are so many different styles. Personally, I love the arts and craft style. Frank Lloyd Wright is one of my favorite architects, and I get to go to Chicago in September to check out some of his buildings. But as I'm looking at his stuff, I have seen of such a variety of different designs that have come out of that and ways that he plays with space.
[00:02:17] If you drive through neighborhoods, you see such a variety of different designs. Some are modern and clean, whilst others are classic with columns, and all of that comes together to create something really beautiful.
[00:02:33] way that the buildings look can really reflect the way that you experience the space. They reflect the people who built them and the people who occupy them. But no matter what they look like on the outside, there are simple rules that any architecture follows.
[00:02:55] Speaking specifically about a home, a house, when you're building it, there are expectations about the types of spaces that are going to be there. You're going to have a kitchen where you can cook meals and you're going to have someplace to eat them, whether that be a dining room or an eat-in area. For some homes, that kitchen is going to be massive, a chef's kitchen. For others, it's going to be really small, maybe it's just a little galley kitchen with a hallway.
[00:03:24] There's also going to be some kind of living space, a gathering space where everybody can come and get together, and for some people, they want all of those things to be connected, right? We talk about open concept living, where we want to have everybody come over and be entertained. It seems like a huge thing on HGTV that everybody's an entertainer and wants people in their homes.
[00:03:47] For other people, those are going to be separate spaces because they're more quiet and reserved and they like the traditional feel of each space has its own use.
[00:03:57] There's also going to be spaces for rest and sleep. You're gonna have bedrooms, you're gonna have bathrooms where we can attend to our needs. You're going to have some kind of outdoor space, whether that's a balcony, whether it's just being able to open a window or climb out on a fire escape, or maybe it's an entire open backyard.
Building blocks allow us the freedom to innovate in the design
[00:04:19] All homes have those spaces in common. That is kind of the building blocks. That we are using. And then you can, as the architect put onto that space, whatever design aesthetic that you like.
[00:04:36] So there are so many different ways that we can take those building blocks of space and create something that's still innovative, that's still new, that still meets our needs.
[00:04:48] And I think that is a way we can look at websites as well. So there are building blocks of every website, things that every website needs in order to function, in order to help our visitors move forward to give them the information they need.
The building blocks of a website
[00:05:06] So, every website is going to need that first page that you land on the homepage, and on that homepage, you're going to have a headline. You're going to have some options for what to do next. You're going to have a final call to action.
[00:05:20] Every website is going to have a footer of some sort with links. It's going to have policies, it's going to have copyright information.
[00:05:28] Every website is going to have a way to get in touch with the person running the site, whether that is a contact page, whether it's a button that they click, whatever that might look like.
[00:05:39] And then if you're running a business, as most of us are, every website is going to have a way for people to take a step towards working with us. So that could be a services page, it might be a sales page, it could be a product page if you sell products. But whatever that is, you are building this website with the purpose of somebody eventually a paying you money and you giving them something in return, and there has to be a space on your site to facilitate that.
The building blocks of a website allow you to then add your own design aesthetic
[00:06:09] And just like when you build a home and you've got these building blocks of different rooms, your website also has those building blocks of a homepage, a contact page, a services page, headlines and footers. And we take all of those pieces and we put them together in a way that gives life to our site, and that's where we can then, use our design aesthetic, use our brand, use our colors and our images to create something that is unique.
Building blocks are essential to design: uniqueness comes in the marriage of space and aesthetic
[00:06:44] When we think about a unique website, I want something that nobody's ever seen before. I wanna innovate. That is not really what we're doing in this space, because those building blocks are there for a reason. We have specific rooms in our home for a reason: because we need them. We have specific pages on our website because we need them.
[00:07:09] So we have to get to the place where we are marrying those two things, where we are marrying together the expected spaces, the expected experiences, the expected use of the space with the ability to innovate and be creative and showcase who we are.
[00:07:32] When you think about your website and you are trying to figure out, okay, I know that there's this checklist of things that I have to get done, I need to have all of these different pieces. I don't want you to feel like it's restrictive. Those are just the foundational pieces that you need in place in order to have an effective website that is going to support your business. And once you have that in place, you get the freedom and flexibility to create something that is unique, that does stand out.
Every design is different in look, but not in foundation
[00:08:09] So if you go to Frank Lloyd Wright's falling Water where he's got all of these balconies and overhangs and it's natural and you've got wood and stone and he's got the filled, burnt furniture built in and it's all made to fit the space and it's beautiful and it's serene and you really feel like you are one with the surrounding area.
[00:08:33] That's going to be a totally different experience than if you go to an old Victorian home with small windows and heavy wooden molding and rugs and this decorative furniture, and then it's going to be another experience. If you go to one of the modern glass homes with very minimal furniture and very clean spaces and clean lines, those are all so different.
[00:09:02] But each of them has that foundation of, okay, we have to have specific spaces, and maybe we combine them in different ways. Maybe we think about them a little bit differently, but we can take those foundations, those building blocks, and we can create something on top of it, that really fits with who it is that we are. And in the case of a website, who it is that our clients are.
Design is where your website can stand out instead of being a boring template
[00:09:33] I was recently talking to somebody about their website and they're saying, 'I've got all of these things in place. I know that my content is decent. I've got all of the pages that I need, but it's just so boring. It feels so dull. I know that when somebody comes to my website, it looks professional because that's what they are expecting, but it doesn't have any life in it.'
[00:10:00] And I told her, I said, 'we can add who you are into this design without taking it so far that the clients that are going to work with you are turned off by how personable it is, how fun it is.'
[00:10:18] We can marry who your audience is and what they're expecting with who you are and what you love and what you want to be reflected on your site.
Building blocks give you freedom and flexilibty to be creative
[00:10:28] And it's such an important point to remember that even if you've got all those building blocks, you have the freedom and flexibility to innovate and create something that is customized to your brand.
[00:10:43] And it's also important to remember the reverse. You can innovate and be creative all you want, but if your website doesn't give people the information that they need or they get lost because things are not confusing or in the expected places, it's not going to serve your business.
[00:10:59] And so it's this marriage of the two things, of the foundational building blocks that you need with the creativity and the aesthetic that you're going for that is what creates something that is beautiful and practical.
[00:11:14] We talk about this all the time in design and you will hear people joke about it, that the architect is going to come up with something that's like way over the top and out there, and by the time it goes through all the approvals and the client gets to it and it gets, goes to the builder and the architect, it's going to be boring and bland and look like everything else. And we need to get out of the idea that it has to be one or the other.
Your website needs to be both practical and beautiful
[00:11:41] In order to create a website that is not going to fall into the totally fanciful thing that can never be built or the totally boring run of the mill office park, we have to think about both the design and the practicality.
[00:12:01] How is it actually going to function? What's the user experience, which we'll be talking about in another episode? How are people using this website? How are they experiencing it? Can they get around it? Can they find what they need? With, does it look beautiful? Does it have gorgeous images? Is it reflective of this brand and the feeling that they want to convey?
[00:12:25] And those things do not need to be separate. We do not need to rely on templates that are just allowing us to fill in copy and not allowing us to play and have fun and be creative and think outside the box.
Why Squarespace if the perfect platform to combine beauty and function
[00:12:38] And that's what I love to do for my clients. And part of the reason that I love Squarespace as a platform is there are these building blocks. There's literally a grid that we work in and we use things like alignment and user experience and a standard outline of how a page flows. And then we can put on top of that all of the creativity and the brand aesthetic that they want.
[00:13:05] We can do something that's super fun and funky and watercolory, or we can go really professional and clean and streamlined. Maybe we want minimalist. Maybe we want something that seems over the top. We can do any of those kinds of designs as long as we come back to those basics that build the site that, allow people to use it .
[00:13:28] As you are thinking about your website, and as you are thinking about your business, and as you are out and about in the world, I want you to just think about how spaces are marrying together, the beauty of design and the practicality of use, and how we can bring that into the online space to best serve our potential clients and to grow our business.
How I marry design and function during a Website Design VIP Day
[00:13:53] These are the pieces that I marry together all the time for my clients, and that's part of what I do during a VIP Day. We always start with the strategy of what pages do we need, what information do we need? Do you have all of the different sections of this site? And then we get to the playground of what does that design actually look like and how can we make it into reality?
[00:14:14] So if you're interested in taking your website from a template that you bought and then put your content on or something that you tried to diy, that just feels boring and bland, please reach out. I've got some VIP Day spots open in the coming months, and I would love to help you to create a website that is warm and welcoming for your clients, and also helps them to convert into right fit leads who understand who you are and what you do as a business and are ready to say yes and be the best fit clients that they can be.
