If you’re not careful about how you lay things out, the design will become unbalanced rather quickly. This is what we call asymmetrical balance, and this is what balance is about. See for yourself by hiding the cross with your hand. It is a small but not insignificant detail.

Jason points out how the cross to the right makes up for the added visual weight that the dog provides on the left. I took this example from The Principles of Beautiful Web Design by Jason Beaird. Look at the dog in the header graphic of Khoi Vinh’s Subtraction website below. It is like the balance of weight in achieving symmetry or asymmetry. Keep your design balanced.īalance is all about ensuring that your design does not tip to one side or the other. No single element counts the most rather, the sum of the elements makes a design look good. Instead, look at Web design as a symbiosis of different elements. Also, one doesn’t have to be a great illustrator to make appealing designs.

Not to say that Flash has no merit, but Flash alone doesn’t make a design good some nasty Flash websites are out there.

So what makes something pretty? It is not Flash.

Aesthetic doodles easy