About our Portal Web Design Inspirations
When building most websites, trying to ensure you have something for everyone is usually a recipe for disaster. However, when it comes to creating a portal style website, that’s often exactly what you want to do! Whether you’re planning to build a portal focused on a specific niche, or you’re looking to create a platform like Yahoo! that combines a variety of rich features with search functions to effectively people a lifestyle dashboard for anything they could possibly need, choosing a portal website design will help you achieve your objectives.
What design styles work best for portal website designs?
It depends on what you’re going to use your website for. If your website is a fashion portal, then you might want to make it look like an eCommerce website, especially if your business model is to generate revenue through affiliate sales. In contrast, if you’re creating a news or information portal, you might make your website look like a traditional news website or rely primarily on a search function for users to generate content themselves.
In general, it’s best to have a design style that fits both what you’re looking to provide and the information you want to communicate, alongside any branding that you’re looking to use.
What color schemes should I use for a portal website?
Along with relevant design styles, the best color schemes for your website are those that reflect the type of content users can access through your site, will engage your users, and that showcase your brand.
In general, it’s best to keep your color schemes simple and limit the number of colors you use. Search engines are typical examples of portal style websites. Think about how many colors you see when you’re looking through Google, Yahoo!, or Bing search results. You’re typically looking at a white background with black or blue text. If you’ll include images in your design, then opting for simple color schemes will make it easier for those to stand out, so from an engagement perspective it’s a win-win!
What are the most important elements in a portal website design?
By nature, a portal website design will typically feature a significant volume of information. As such, the most vital aspects of your website design are those that help users find what they’re looking for and take any action they may wish to take. Informational design elements themselves are particularly crucial. For example, if your website is a portal for finding images, you may need to include design elements that help to highlight and separate free to use images from those where users will need to pay a royalty fee.
How many sections should I have on my portal website?
How many do you need? Look at your website through the eyes of your ideal user. What will they come to your website to look for, and how will they find it easiest to find it? If you’re creating a portal website for a focus such as sports, it’s easy to break up your sections by sport, for example. Think about the best ways you can categorize everything that can be found on your website, and go from there.
