The Ultimate Guide To Web Design (Ebook)

Adrian K
SmartBank Landing Page UI Kit included

@uiadrian
DESIGN LIKE A PRO
a UI Professional’s
Ultimate Guide
to Web design
Sold to
cornelpetre@gmail.com
Table Of Contents
About this e-book 03
The Freelance Guide 10
Why should you consider Freelancing & My Story 11
How to find freelance work 18
Pricing your services 43
A simple equation to price your web design work 47
Project prep - starting a new project, calls & documents 54
Design contract & project kick-off 64
The Design Basics 69
The principles of visual perception (Gestalt) 70
Foundations of visual design 76
Typography in Web 98
Colors in Web 113
Designing for the web 133
Figma - the designer ’s superweapon 136
The perfect resolution 140
Layouts & Grids 145
Responsive vs Adaptive design 156
Designing for mobile - best practices 176
Motion and interactions 186
Optimizing for conversions 193

The Web Design Process 207
SmartBank Landing Page UI Kit 209
Intro to the project - project brief, questionnaire, research 211
The UX - SWOT, UX analysis, sitemap, sandbox 221
The recipe for the perfect “Landing Page” 230
The UI - Inspiration boards, mood boards, style guide 234
Wireframes 254
Putting it all together 261
The “Perfect” Landing Page Framework 266
Understanding the box model 287
(BONUS) Intro to no-code 292
No- code development 293

Elementor Pro - a great starting tool 295
Webflow - the ultimate no-code builder tool 296
WordPress themes, plugins, and hosting 298
Website speed optimization 301
Pre-launch checklist 308
The project wrap-up 310
Design handoff 311

What’s next? 328
Your action plan 330
Final words 342
Introduction
Nice to see you here!
Hey, thank you for grabbing a copy of my ebook. You just made the
right choice! Before you venture any further, please, let me tell you
about the idea behind this ebook and show you what to expect.
The general concept behind this ebook is to show you the ins and
outs of being an ultimate web designer, from learning the basic web
design principles to creating your very own web design project.
The future of the web lies in your hands, literally.
I hope you’re as excited as I am!
the future of web is in your hands
The new state of web design.

Like it or not, the no-code revolution has taken the creative industry
by storm. Now, everyone can be a web designer. You watch a video
or two, create your own website, find a fancy name, and boom - you
own a design agency.
All you need is a working computer, an internet connection, a little

bit of know-how, and a desire to make it happen.
Introduction 04
While this opened up doors for so many people, it also created a lot
of misconceptions around the web design industry.
I remember starting out, thinking about how on earth people are

charging upwards of $5000-10000+ for websites that look really
plain and simple. I had a hard time justifying such high price points
looking at sites other people or agencies designed (a lot of them
using no-code tools), and I was clueless as to what clients were
really paying for. I remember one site in particular, someone was
boasting on a Facebook forum he charged $5000 for a 5-pager. I
looked at it and saw 5 pages of copy, a few shapes, images and
design that was pretty tasteless. I knew I could create better looking
sites but I didn’t know what the secret to charging that much was.
Fast forward 6.5 years, and I know that behind the visuals, there’s a
myriad of other complex things that build the entire web experience,
and I’m here to talk about them with you. The real value of a website
is in good design and things you can’t really see, like the UX research
or dozens of UI guidelines and principles.
There are a few important areas of design (and not only) you need to
master to charge what other successful designers and agencies are
charging. I’ll simplify this for you as much as possible and help you
progress in your career by letting you follow my exact steps when
designing web experiences for commercial clients.
Introduction 05
What is this ebook about?
This ebook is divided into 6 main segments - The Freelance Guide,
the Design Basics, Designing for the Web, The Web Design Process,
Intro to no-code tools, and Project Wrap-up.
Before we even discuss the design basics, visuals, and design

processes, we’ll start by addressing the things most people forget
(or deliberately omit) when talking about freelancing, which is the
business side of things.
The emails, client calls, briefs and questionnaires, deposits,

invoices, setting up payments, contracts, managing client work, and
finally, kicking off new projects. That’s one major thing I had to figure
out all by myself, and I’m here to help you figure it out for you. (You’ll
receive my favorite templates too!)
no-code intro
freelance guide
design basics
web design process

project wrap-up
Introduction 06
Next, we’re going to discuss the design basics, specifically applied
to website design, the spacing, containment, typography, colors,
etc., all you need to know to be considered a good designer.
After we cover the basics, we’ll go into more advanced design
techniques, and explain how to setup our Figma files and grids.
Layout & Grid - SmartBank Landing Page Style Guide
We’ll talk about responsive design, the box model, web design best
practices, and css properties. I’ll also share the template/framework
I use to design a high-converting landing page.
Next, I’m going to show you my exact web design process I
follow with every new website project I take on.
Introduction 07
After that, I’ll introduce you to no-code development tools like
Elementor and Webflow.
And while this is not a mandatory skill to master for a designer, it can
easily double your project salary (and rates) and make you much
more sought-after as you can design and “develop” an entire
website from start to finish - a real full-stack designer.
Lastly, we’ll finish our ebook with a short guide and checklists to
ensure you carry out a design and website handoff the right way!
Who is this ebook for?
Simply put, we wrote this ebook as a complete web design guide for
everyone interested in web design. It covers everything from the
business side of things through design basics and guidelines to
design process and handoff. This ebook is for you if you want to:
improve your web design skills and overall knowledge of designing
with development in mind (box model, responsive design, etc.)
increase your rates and make a better living
learn how $10k+ websites are created and what goes on behind the
scenes, from getting your first lead on a call, closing them, and
sending out contracts, invoices, and briefs.
streamline your web design process
Introduction 08
What this ebook isn’t about.
This ebook is not about web development, and it’s not about no-
code tools. It has an introduction to Elementor and Webflow,
hosting, plugins, and website optimization, but it does not cover the
technical aspects of building a website.
It’s primarily about web design and Figma.
I’m currently recording a larger technical introduction to no-code
development on Elementor. It will be published (or has been
published) on Skillshare and Youtube in the upcoming weeks or
months, depending on when you’re reading this ebook.
My message to you
I hope this ebook will answer all the questions you might have about
web design, running a freelance business, and becoming a better
designer overall. With that said, our little introduction is over.
Thank you again for grabbing a copy of my ebook and supporting
my work - it really means the world to me!
Without any further ado, jump to the next page and get immersed
into an exciting world of web design, freelancing, and kickass
websites. You’re in for a treat!
Introduction 09
The Freelance Guide
Freelancing
Why should you consider freelancing
Freelancing is awesome! And it has never been this easy. It’s
become extremely and increasingly popular in recent years,
especially among designers. What has made it that way?
For one, every single aspect of our design work has been simplified
through use of an appropriate app.
We have Slack for project communication, Zoom for client calls,

PayPal, Wise, Stripe for taking payments, Notion for organizing our
project documents, Youtube, Instagram, Skillshare, and a bunch of
specialized forums and Discords for learning and solving problems.
We have Fiverr and Upwork for outsourcing work, Linkedin,

Dribbble, Behance for finding clients, and of course, Figma for
designing our beautiful websites.
We are truly blessed with new technologies.
The Freelance Designer 12

Back when I star ted, even way back before I switched my career to
web design, still as a student, we didn’t have this many courses on
Youtube, and educational niche was pretty much non-existent. And
that was only around 8 years ago.
The life of a freelancer is much dif ferent now. In fact, it’s much
easier in every aspect of the work. You can very easily earn $3-5-10k
in your first months of being self-employed, even with little to no
experience. Designers with very poor design skills are charging $5k
and upwards from clients that simply don’t know any better. What’s
the secret you may ask? There’s no secret and we’ll talk about that in
this ebook, don’t worry. But for now, let’s get the full picture and ask
this - what are the alternatives to being a freelance designer?
Your alternative is a career. If you decided to star t a new career in a
design agency, you’d most likely find only entry-level jobs. Not to
mention the fierce competition you’d have to beat to get these jobs.
Building a career is not as easy as it may seem.
And so is freelancing. Frankly, not everyone can or want to be a
freelancer. Obviously, there are a few pretty major drawbacks.
As a freelancer, you are responsible for yourself. How much you
work, as well as how much you can earn, is all dependent on you. You
need to find your own clients and onboard them.

You need to have them trust you with their hard-earned money,
collect all the important information about the project, send
invoices, get paid, carry out the handoff processs, and be available
for all your clients in all the different timezones. You need to know
when and where to set boundaries, so you’re not getting
overwhelmed (like I did many times before).
A typical freelancer
website broke down no sleep
lots of stress
clients calling you 24/7
milestone is late
Web design, simplified.

That’s why in this book we’re not only going through the design
basics, principles, and best practices for web. We’ll go through the
entire process of web design; starting from finding clients, sending
out questionaires, pricing websites, moodboarding, wireframing,
iterating, and carrying out a website design/development handoff.

How I got started as a freelancer
Before I started working as a freelance designer I was a freshly
graduated engineering student building Shopify stores for my failed
ecom brands. I couldn’t care less about a career in design.  
This all changed when one of my marketing  
clients saw my agency website and asked  
if I could create a website for them.  
I said yes without knowing much.
That’s when I fell in love with design.
In retrospect - was it hard to find new clients?

If I had to say, gun to my head - if it’s hard to find clients, I’d say it
isn’t. But it wasn’t always like that. Like every rookie designer, I
struggled a lot with that. Finding enough work to earn as much as I
wanted (which now seems like pocket change) was surreal. Where
on earth will I find someone willing to hire me to make them a
website, let alone pay me money for that?
First few months as a freelancer I didn’t know what do to so I started

simple, locally, and cheap. I made my first few websites for
$300-400, and I did spend close to 50-100+ hours on each one of
them. Was it worth it? Hell yeah. I still felt blessed that I could do
something I wanted to, and it wasn’t for free.

Humble beginnings
Let’s face it, when you’re starting out, you don’t have any experience
or designs to show, and still, people need to trust you. How do you
have them work with you? You design for pennies or for free.
While it sounds counterintuitive, that’s how a lot of designers start

out. And even though I didn’t have to design for free, I pretty much
started from 0. To be precise, I even had -$4000 in my bank account
when I got my first client and had to sell half of my equipment to
keep my “business” going. And it was the best decision ever.
See, the good thing is, once you get past that first obstacle and
reach a healthy cashflow, there are no boundaries when it comes to
freelance work, literally. I know designers who don’t speak
communicative English and earn a lot of money, a lot.
What they do is they outsource the client-facing work to project

managers and sales reps and just focus on the fun part - designing
websites and posting their results online. And these results gain
momentum and bring enormous exposure after a while.
They know one important thing, once your snowball starts

rolling, you’re unstoppable.

Personally, it took me close to 3 years to get my own snowball rolling
because I had to figure everything out myself. In September, I moved
back to freelancing again. And now, besides my social media, I’m on
a trajectory to reach over $180k/year combining my lead designer
earnings and a couple of freelance gigs on the side. All that with
working between 4-6 hours per day.
And you know what the best thing is? I live in Poland, and I’m still
able to earn a steady $10-15k/month from my design work. With my
current cost of living, it is a lot of money
Not to mention how good it feels to wake up at whatever time I want
to, work with clients I choose to work with, have enough freedom to
go to a 9 am workout when most people clock in to start their
stressful 9-5s, and have naps in the middle of the day.  
Ahh, the sweet life of a freelancer. Is it still considered working?

I’m sure you can do the same for yourself. And you don’t have to
work your a$$ off and learn from your own mistakes for 3-4 years as I
did. I’m here to tell you that you can get your snowball rolling in 3-6
months, and I’m almost certain that with enough consistency, drive,
and dedication, you can kickstart your career and save yourself a few
solid years of your life.
Now, how should you start your career? Let’s talk about that.

How to find freelance work
Finding freelance clients is hard when you’re starting out and gets
increasingly easier as you get more experienced with more projects
to back you up.
As a new freelancer, you basically have two options:

Actively look for design work, send proposals, and pitch your services
to cold audiences or...
Create concept works and case studies, post them online, be active
on platforms where your clients hang out, and let them find you first.
As a beginner with no cash flow, you’ll feel more pressured to accept

every work that comes through, and that’s normal. Every client is
good when you’re not in a position to be picky.
As you progressively get more experienced, not only the quality of

your work is speaking volumes - your clients are “getting better” as a
result. It might take you a little bit longer to build the momentum you
need to attract better clients, but it’s so, so worth it. Trust me.
It’s the easiest way to “find” clients.
But here’s the catch - you need to be at least better than an average
joe designer to be chosen first. It’s not that hard, btw.

The competition is fierce for all beginners, but here’s the truth - you
attract the type of client your work is speaking to. Clients will come
if you can show off your skill and work on your presentation.
Where to show off your skills is another story - here’s my take on it:
Fiverr - the platform most beginners start from
I’ll be honest - I don’t really like Fiverr.
It’s overcrowded, super competitive, and clients that look for

designers out there are looking for someone inexperienced and
most importantly, inexpensive.
That’s what the name stands for - Fiverr, as in five bucks, the
starting (and very often average) price you can pay for a given
service on that platform.
I know that people in less developed countries are willing to work for
much lower prices than, let’s say, Central Europe or the better-
developed West, but if you can find people who design websites for
$10, how do you want to be competitive?
We’re not even going to discuss the quality of that kind of website
but let’s be serious, someone who wants to pay $10 for a service of
this size is simply trying to take advantage of others.
You don’t want to work with people like that.

I, for one, would never choose someone based on a lower price but
rather on the quality of work.
And that’s what you need to be considered for.
Your quality, not your rates.
Starting fresh on Fiverr

For that reason, starting fresh on Fiverr and trying to work for at
least reasonable prices is tough. You’re going to compete with
thousands of other designers willing to work for less.
I’m not saying it’s impossible to get through that mess of an

audience, but it’s hard. There are better and easier ways to get
experience and earn money than sticking with Fiverr.
I tried to make it work there. I remember adding two or three

services, one for web design (starting at $50) and one for design and
development (starting at $90). I got nothing.
I even asked two friends to purchase each of my services through

their accounts and leave a review for me. I would, of course, give
them those 50 bucks (and a little kickback) to buy it back from me.

I know it wasn’t necessarily a fair move, but hey, you got to do what
you got to do to make it work. I tried applying for a few jobs, but the
lower-priced designers always got the gigs in the end.
After a while, I left Fiverr for good.
Bye bye, Fiverr

Upwork - is it worth it?
Short answer - yes, longer answer - it depends. What I mean by that
is that it’s perfectly fine if you can invest some extra time on that
platform. First, you need to work on your profile, and have something
to show in order for Upwork to even accept you as a freelancer.
They’re a bit more strict than Fiverr, and you have to show them at
least some of your completed work to be accepted. Then, there are
credits that you either earn or purchase.
Credits? What are those?

You use these credits to apply for posted jobs. To get these jobs,
you need to send a proposal, CV, and very often, motivational letters
to sell yourself better than the rest. For some of these projects,
hundreds of people directly compete with you.

What I did was I got my first 3 or 4 websites created for local clients,
then I sent my application to Upwork and got accepted the next day.
I was even awarded a “Rising Talent” badge next to my profile which
meant that the quality of my work was above the average designer
on that platform. This really helped me get more exposure.
How I got my first client on Upwork

I spent a few days working on my portfolio, updating, polishing it,
and adding new projects. Then, I started sending proposals.
I got a few replies and one or two calls, but nothing solid. Until one
day, I got an invite to apply for a website redesign gig. A German
client needed a landing page for their upcoming urban photography
ebook. We set up a 30-minute Zoom call, I asked my questions, they
replied, we decided it’s a good fit and I got the job.
I liked that project, and the client too. It took me around 30-40 hours
to design and build their website on Elementor. They were thrilled
and paid me $1800 for the job.
I was amazed how easy that money felt.

Later, I landed 4 more projects from the same client and, if I
remember correctly, earned around $10,000 just from that single
lead on Upwork. After a few projects, we took it outside of the
platform as they needed more direct contact, and the Upwork fees
were killing their wallets, and so they did mine
I got around 6 or 7 projects through Upwork, and I’d say it’s worth a
try. Although, as mentioned before, you will need at least a few
projects created before joining Upwork. Give it a try, for sure.
I’ll let you decide for yourself.
Pro tip: I recommend trying Upwork once you have completed at least 2-3
commercial projects. Otherwise, they might decline your application.

Linkedin or Linked Out?
Linkedin is awesome. It’s one of the best places to get hired for a
full-time job. Well, it was created for that very reason. Is it good to
get freelance work, though? Yes and no. It all depends on your offer.
Your offer matters, a lot

Right now, my main call to action is to check out my latest design
ebooks but it used to be more service-based. I ran all Linkedin traffic
to my old agency website. I used a chatbot and a simple chat flow to
collect visitors’ contact information and try to close them on design
subscription services. These were great!
Design retainers were the perfect offer for Linkedin. I charged my

clients around $3000 for design and no-code services each month.

Linkedin was a platform that brought me the most amount of leads.
At one point, I had 5 concurrent subscription clients and a dozen

more in the pipeline. They all came from Linkedin.
My mailbox was full every day.
See, Linkedin is great if you’re already a professional with enough

experience to show and attract the right type of client.
My offer was perfect for early-stage startups and design agencies.

Instead of hiring a full-time employee for $6000-8000+ per month,
they were paying me $3000 and between 40-60 hours of my time,
during which I worked on projects that really mattered.
We all know that half of the 140 hours you spend at a job is spent on
meaningless chores, talking with your friends, having PlayStation
breaks, or drinking 5 coffees a day. This was all focused work.

If I had 5 clients at 60 hours each - did I have a life?
If you’re thinking about how I could work close to 300 hours per
month and not go insane - Well, I wasn’t working 60 hours on every
single subscription.
In reality, the offer was based more on value, rather than time.
I needed a good price to package my deal. I knew I worked fast and

could easily deliver a $3000 value over a 60-hour-long period of time.
That’s why even though some months I spent 40 hours working on a
single client, the next I might have spent 70 or even 80. I’d still use 60
hours as a reference price for every single one of them.
Whatever the design services I was doing for my clients they far
exceeded that price anyway and they were happy to pay the amount.
The alternative to that was hiring a full-time designer and that was
way pricier and carried more reponsibility. If you need to know one
thing about hiring a designer full-time it’s that it’s much easier to
find a couple of clients than onboard and retain a good designer
good designers are like superheroes

I was confident in my ability to work fast and knew that the $3000
price was more than fair for my clients. Nowadays, I’d charge $5k for
the same service and I know it’d still be very popular.
All my clients stuck with me for 6-12 months until I switched to a full-
time position. This model is still easily sustainable, and if I had to
start over, I could have the same system running in a few weeks.
We’ll talk about how to find retainer clients too.
Maybe this could be the approach for you, we’ll see :)
What changed the most for me on Linkedin?
I simply changed my title from a WordPress designer to a UX/UI
designer - I was already studying design and had 4 years of web
design experience by that time. I immediately saw the difference.

And then, after a while, I changed it to Product Designer. At that
point I was designing entire digital products for startups, all stages
of UX and UI process included. It was more fitting.
I also started reposting all the content I shared on my Instagram,

and that alone brought me 7000+ followers and over million
impressions. As a result, with all the eyes I’m bringing on to my
profile, I’m being bombarded with job offers. Startups, agency
owners, and HR reps find me somehow.
Every time I log in to my profile, I see 2-3 unread messages. Some of

these offers are pretty crazy - $100k+ remote jobs with crazy
benefits, free tickets to Las Vegas, equity packages, 401s, paid
workstations, etc.
Some of them are from companies like Meta and challenger banks.

So, is Linkedin really worth it?
No doubt! Linkedin is the place to be if you’re looking for a full-time
job, a nice freelance gig, or a partnership with a startup, agency,
studio, etc. It’s also perfect for whitelabel agency work.
I haven’t had much interest in one-time projects, and I wanted to

create lasting relationships with my top clients. If you’re struggling
to find new design work, or if you’re tired of looking for new leads
each time you finish a project - try to increase engagement with your
existing clients, like I did. I found design retainers to be the best-
tailored offer for that, and Linkedin turned out to be my number one
source of higher-quality leads.
I would spend more time on Linkedin if I were you. Even if you’re not
looking for a full-time job, it’s a great place to find connections and
build your network much faster.
If you know a guy who knows a guy who happens to be looking for a
designer - you’ve increased your chances of getting new work. Don’t
underestimate the power of the network.
Your network = Your net worth.

Dribbble - my honest opinion
When I got introduced to Dribbble, I had mixed feelings. At first, I
was full of hope and motivated to make it work, but I soon found out
that the algorithm only favored the old, well-established accounts or
profiles that were extremely active and I didn’t have time for that.
No matter how objectively good your work is, it’s hard to get through
the top-performing posts, and your concepts get buried quickly.
Whenever you check out the top page, you see the same profile
names, over and over, 100 or so creators that pop up all the time.
And if you can invest a few months or a year of your life into building
a similar following - you’ll do great over there.

After a few years on this platform, I know how it works now. I bought
a few ebooks, read hundreds of blog posts, watched several courses
on how to grow on Dribbble (there aren’t many, to be honest), and I
started posting daily.
During the first few weeks, I didn’t get much traction. A few
followers here and there and some likes, but not too many; I think I
even got one job inquiry in the first 2 weeks. Then, I picked it up a
little bit, posted 2-3 times a day, spent around an hour commenting
on other profiles, and started seeing results. And I’m not talking
about followers (these grow suuuper slow) but clients.
My posts suddenly blew up with one getting over 100k+ views
After that I started seeing job offers appearing every 1-2 days.

Dribbble also has a paid subscription for professional users,
enabling you to search through and apply for project offers. If you
know what to say and how to say it - you’ll crush your competition.
Dribbble Job Board

Speaking good english? You could have leverage
When I worked at the London-based agency, Dribbble was our
number one source of high-quality clients. We quickly found out that
while the concepts that top agencies post on Dribbble are amazing,
people running these businesses most often don’t communicate
well or know how to sell their services. And so we outbid them.
If you’re good at selling, you’ll have a huge advantage.

Apart from producing great designs, good communication is crucial
for a successful project. With some clients it’s a deciding factor.

The secret to grow on Dribbble
Dribbble is one of the best places to find good design work.
All you have to do is post, post, and post your work. If you’re just
starting, your best bet is to constantly practice your design skills by
creating designs. And I mean, creating them like a maniac. That’s
pretty much the biggest secret to growing on any social platform.
Consistency + quality work = huge exposure and bigger
Turn that concept work into a Dribbble shot and post it online. Keep
repeating the process until you build good momentum.
Remember, though, posting once a week isn’t going to cut it and get
you in the game. You need to be consistent.
Make it a challenge for yourself to post daily for a 100 days,  

200 days, or even a full year. I kept posting for over 40 days,
and it landed me my lead designer position and several high-quality
projects that turned my freelance career around.
See for yourself what 100 days could do for you - you’ll be
amazed what being consistent rewards you with.
And one more thing - what’s great about Dribbble is that you don’t
need to design fancy, time-consuming projects to get a few leads
per week. There’s actually much simpler and time efficient way.

Most of my designs are reiterations of the apps I built for my
commercial clients under NDAs (work I can’t share) or concepts I
created in 30-40 minutes at most.
If your work follows the basic design principles and visual guidelines
I’m going to share with you in this ebook, you’ll attract the right set
of eyes to your projects - clients that appreciate and recognize good
design when they see one.
What I think about Dribbble
To sum up. Is Dribbble worth it?
100% it is.
All you need to do is create concepts, interface components, hero
sections, and landing pages. You need to transform them into
Dribbble shots, and post them online. Keep it up for as long as
possible, be consistent, grow, and generate traffic.
As a results you’ll get leads. Guaranteed.
That’s exactly what I did and I’m here to confirm it for you.

Behance - should you give it a try?
I’d say Behance is pretty similar to Dribbble. It’s similar in the sense
that you need to actually spend some time on this platform to get
enough exposure and a good amount of traffic. With one small detail
- it’s way more time-consuming.
It’s not enough to post one shot on Behance and expect it to blow
up. You need to spend much more time on your presentation. It’s an
amazing place to show your case studies.
But as we all know, case studies take a ton of time to prepare, and
you need good material to make a good case study. Your local yoga
instructor’s website might not be the ideal topic for a full-blown
case study, but you know what they say - fake it till you no longer
have to fake it

You should sprinkle a little bit of fiction to make your project more
interesting and engaging. It’s all for good measure.
Have I had much success on Behance?
I landed one really cool agency partnership there and one project I
regret accepting to this day - a young Italian hostel owner who kept
suing everyone he worked with for no real reason.
So many red flags I didn’t see back then... we live to learn from our
mistakes, though. We’ll talk about what clients to avoid soon.
If you’re freelancing, you should consider posting on Behance too.
Every time I didn’t have any new projects lined up for the next
month, I posted daily on Dribbble and Behance, which then got me
enough exposure to find new leads, to the point where I had to stop
posting again. And I went on like that for a while.
If you repeat this loop a couple of times, you’ll end up in a spot
where you no longer have to look for clients, and you get a steady
influx of new of fers every few days.
That’s where we’re headed, so buckle up
We’ve got two more ways of getting clients to discuss, and then
we’ll go over my pricing systems and explain how to set up your new
projects for success.

Facebook - my secret lead-gen platform
You should try me!
This might surprise you, but Facebook was the platform that
changed everything for me. Let me explain.
The first year of my web design journey I haven’t made any client
website. All of the websites I created were e-commerce stores I
made for myself trying to launch my clothing merch (I used to run a
fitness channel on Youtube) and a few other businesses. I created
like 10, maybe 15 different e-com sites - all failed miserably.
And even if it wasn’t strictly design knowledge, I did learn a lot during
the process. Next year, completely by random, I had my first local
client breakthrough. The project was successful, and I created 4 or 5
more websites for them. I kept designing locally for over a year.

During that time, I was actively searching Youtube and Facebook
groups looking for solutions to new problems I was faced with - how
to create a page transition, animations, preloaders, how to link
products from two stores, how to set up marketplaces, etc.
I stumbled upon the official Elementor group on Facebook and

noticed many people posting their completed projects online.
I remember thinking their work wasn’t even that good, and they were
still getting tons of engagement and comments from people asking
to create a website for them.
That’s when it clicked for me. I’m going to do the same.
I posted my personal portfolio site - it blew up.

After 2 days I got over 200 likes, tons of comments, and lo and
behold - a few private messages asking for my project availability.
Yup, it was that simple. 3 or 4 leads from posting a simple screen
recording of my personal site.
I was able to close one of these first few Facebook leads, and it was
an 8-page website for a mindblowing $5000. She (the client) didn’t
even negotiate the price down. I was shocked.
The site took me two months to design and build. The website was
successful, and my client was very happy with the result. My first
successful international project brought me not only my biggest pay
day till that day, but most importantly, it brought me much-needed
confidence. I knew I could definitely close more leads like this one!
I continued to post my work on that group which every time I did, got
me two or three new leads. And these leads were steaming hot ,
much easier to close.
I finally struck gold and found a contact that had over 40 websites in
their company portfolio, all ready to be redesigned by me! I designed
over 30 websites the following year and a half.
All of them came from a single Facebook group.
It was a crazy time.

Is Facebook still relevant in 2022/23?
Absolutely! It was my secret (and my first) way of getting
international, quality leads, that each paid between $1500-5000. It
was good money back then. It still is.
So, yeah, Facebook really sped it up for me, big time.
It got me a ton of portfolio-worthy projects. The idea was stupidly
simple - design a website, post it online for feedback, close at least 1
lead, design, post, close, rinse and repeat.
After a while, referrals started kicking in. I was occupied with
constant work for the next 2 years before I started my design
subscription services.
Facebook was defintely worth it

A word of advice
There are a few things you need to know before you go and conquer
similar Facebook groups.
You need to follow the Community Guidelines of each group,

meaning you can’t directly sell your services.
What you should do instead is post your work with a caption like:
“Hey guys! I just recently finished a new project, and I’m
looking for feedback” then add a description of whatever you’ve
designed/developed, and finish it off with something along
those lines, “I appreciate any comments, thank you!”
You need to be ready for a lot of criticism, though. The better your
work looks, the more people will criticize it. They won’t jump on
beginner designers, rather encourage them to post more. However,
they will point out mistakes (sometimes very subjectively) if they see
you’re a bit more experienced than a newbie.
Don’t get discouraged by this, and don’t try to start fights with
random people online. Some of them are waiting to troll someone.
Be helpful, answer their questions, and show your expertise. Clients

will notice that and reach out to you. That was one of the reasons my
first client reached out to me - I was actively helping others.
Pricing your services
Pricing your services
Pricing your services is one of the most difficult aspects of running a
freelance business but one that could easily decide of its success.
You need fluid cash flow to run your business and have a soft pillow
to land on when your sales that month aren’t too high, and you’re
struggling to find new clients.
The biggest question lies in how should you price your services.
You don’t want to aim too high to scare off your clients, and you
don’t want to aim too low to struggle with cash flow.
That’s especially tricky when you’re not in a position to say no to a

client, and every potential lead is a godsend. No matter what you’re
thinking of yourself right now- don’t sell yourself too low.
Imagine this - you’re on a sales call

Suppose you spend 40 minutes on a call with your potential client.
You listen to their problems, present solutions, talk about what you
can do to help them, and then the time comes to say your price.
You’re stressed and afraid of the outcome. “Am I going too high? I’m
probably going too high. They’ll find someone else if I say I want
$2000 for the job. Ahh, screw it. I’ll say $1500 before they turn away
and take this project to someone else.”

And then - you say it out loud - $1500! 
Even though speaking from experience, you could have probably
closed them on twice as much, and you will never know if you would.
That’s the wrong way to do it.
There’s more to pricing than throwing random numbers around.
Don’t throw random numbers at people just because it feels right.
And don’t ever negotiate the price down without negotiating the
scope of work. Period.
If a client negotiates the price by dropping your estimate by over
50% - don’t bother working with them. These are trouble. Seriously,
forget about them.
That’s a red flag if you see a client pushing you for a much lower
price. There are clients who, no matter how low the price is going to
be, will still try to negotiate it down.
Stay away from them.
If you can’t afford to lose a lead that tries to negotiate a huge
discount, there are a few ways to go around it.

Client driving a hard bargain? Try this
When they try to throw you off your game and negotiate like this,
here's what you should do:
You should tell them - "I can bring the price down but that will come at
the cost of a reduced scope of work. When pricing all projects I always
give clients the most accurate project estimates I can give, and this
price for that scope of work is final.
If you can't afford this price I can reduce the scope of work. I’m also
more than happy to refer you to my fellow designer who's a bit less
experienced than I am but his work is much more affordable.”
That's where they usually go into full defense mode and try to justify
your budget one more time, and they might negotiate again but
much less aggressively. That's why a good idea is always to give a
price that's 30-50% over the minimum you're willing to work for.
Why minimum engagement fee (MEF) might be a good idea
Whenever I receive a new project inquiry, I always mention my
minimum engagement fee to avoid getting involved in long calls
that, in the end, lead to no work at all. After a few years in busines I
had to learn the hard way to respect my time as time is the only
resource we can’t recover.
Let’s take a look at an example.

A simple equation to price your web design work
The price of a project should be a result of many different factors. If
you’re a solo freelancer and want to do everything yourself, it’s
actually pretty easy to estimate.
After working on over 100+ projects I developed my own pricing
method that works great and allows me to have an effective hourly
rate of $130 and above. It wasn’t easy to get there, though.
At first, I used to charge one fixed price for everything. This works
great for larger projects or when you’re confident in your skills and
you can, from your own experience, accurately estimate the time
needed to complete the project.
However, if you’re a newbie and don’t know these things (yet), you
might also be digging your own grave.
Here’s why.
Let’s say you set a price of $1500 for a 5-page website redesign and
development on WordPress. Work goes smoothly; you’re 20 hours in
and think it couldn’t be easier. Then you go into the development
and realize that what you’ve just designed is not feasible with your
current skill set.
What do you do now?

You can’t replicate the design or functionality, and you can either tell
your client you’re not able to build it or you can look for a solution
and spend another 20 hours on trying to fix the problem.
Your solution doesn’t work, and your client is pushing you because
your expected milestone delivery is late by a few days. You don’t
know what to do now. Things start to get complicated.
What are your options now?
Be honest with your client and offer him a discount because you
can’t deliver what you promised, lose the 20 hours of your time you
didn’t foresee, or spend extra money out of your pocket, hire help,
deliver the project, and call it a day. Out of that $1500, you had to
outsource extra work for $300, spend 30-50% on taxes, and
ultimately, you’re left with an effective hourly rate of $12.
Not bad for a beginner, huh?
Seriously though, there’s a better, beginner-friendly way to come up

with an accurate price than just throwing random numbers around.

A simple equation to price your web design work
Ok, so let’s go back to the drawing board and price it again.
We’ve got a 5-page website to redesign and develop on Elementor.

I’d roughly estimate that, in order to do the UX research and design
the 5-page website I’d take me around 30 hours.
(We’re talking about a rather simple project here, priced anywhere

between $2000-8000, not a complex web app that requires hours of
research, interviews, testing, iterating, validating, etc.)
I’d estimate the development to take around 25 hours.  

That’s 55 hours total, and this is the amount of time I think it’d take
me to deliver the complete project without any hiccups.
Now, I’m not multiplying this by my hourly rate, not yet.
I take that total time and add 30% to the estimate to give myself
some extra room if I ever need to spend more time researching
something or hiring extra help. It’s very important to outline your
design work in the agreement, and it’s best if it’s sent in a written
form, not agreed on verbally. Therefore when you go out of scope,
you can charge accordingly for your extra time.
So, we’re at 71 hours total now. Let’s multiply that amount by our
most recent hourly rate and see what we come up with.

When I was a beginner, my hourly rate was in the $25-35 range, and
I suggest you go for a similar number. Your work is definitely worth at
least that much, even if you’re a newbie.
We multiply 71 * 25-35 = $1775 - $2485.
That’s our new estimated budget. We don’t want to stop there yet!
We’ve got taxes to pay, remember?
I add additional 30% to the estimated quote to cover my taxes.
Let’s see how it would look like on the lower end:
1775 * 1,3 = $2307,5, rounded down to $2300
I would round that up or down to the nearest full number, so for a 5-
page redesign, if my rates are on the lower end, I’d charge $2300.
If I’d be a little bit more experienced that would be:
2485 * 1,3 = $3230.5 , rounded up to $3250.
Worth noting that these rates apply to most western markets. If
you’re actively working in a low PPP country, rates will go down
appropriately depending on the client budgets you’re dealing with.
We just re-evaluated the project price and brought it up from our
initial, random $1500 quote to a much more realistic $2300.

Don’t ever tell yourself your work is not worth whatever amount you
want to work for.
Speaking from experience, I know I could have charged my

clients at least 30-50% more, and they’d probably still accept it.
I didn’t, though. And that’s why I struggled with keeping a steady

cash flow. That was one of the reasons my agency stagnated for a
little over a year until I started charging how a business owner
should, not a kid playing a monopoly game. You have to step it up.
Let’s be real. Your clients are getting so much more from your work
than you are from the money they pay you.
Here’s a true story to explain it better
One of the companies I redesigned a website for doubled their
revenue in 2 months. They went from earning $100k/mo to over
$200k/mo because I increased their average conversion rates from
1,8% to 3,7% on an e-commerce store.
Do you know how much I got for that redesign?  

I got paid $5500, and I was ecstatic about that. But, while logging
into that website to update a few things, I noticed these big, bold
numbers on the dashboard - $200,000 in a single month.
And then I realized their yearly revenue increased by 1M+. Insane!

After that, I never really felt bad about asking for higher prices. I ask
the right questions at the discovery call to get a better estimate of
the value I could bring that client.
I ask about budget, MRR (monthly recurring revenue), LTV of a

client, conversion rates, bounce rates, time spent on site, and all
the data I can get to come up with an accurate value-based price.
Don’t get me wrong. I still use the pricing method I shared with you. I
just do it for smaller websites in the $5000-8000 range. I also apply
the same logic to projects that don’t have any of these data points
available, like new product launches for example.
With larger projects I usually split the work into several milestones
but apply the same logic. Here’s how I priced one of my recent app
redesigns (the website would be similar) - jump to the next page.

Pricing of a $10,000+ project
For my latest app project I estimated:
5 milestones spaced out over the next 10 weeks.  

Each milestone taking anywhere between 10-30 hours 
Total time of work evaluated at 100 hours.  
With the 30% on top of my estimate that put me at 130 hours 
My hourly rate for that project was $100 
I came at price estimate of a total of $13000.  
Added 30% on top to cover taxes,  
ended up with $17000.
And while it sounds like a lot of money, it’s extended over 2 months
with each milestone worth around $3500. An agency would charge
at least double the amount.
And the outcome would be the same. Except in an agency, a client

would speak to a PM, a design lead, and a designer tasked with the
design job. Some clients prefer to work with an agency for the added
feeling of security and confidence. It’s easier to trust someone
knowing that more people are involved in your project and the
responsibility lies on the entire team, not a single individual.
That’s why as a freelancer, you need to build enough trust and

experience to demand higher prices with confidence.

So, remember this pricing model when budgeting your new projects.
Find the ef fective hourly rate (af ter expenses and taxes) you’re
willing to work for by applying all the factors I mentioned.
Your work is usually worth much more than what you give yourself
credit for. To become the best designer you can be, you must
demand higher prices. Higher prices will help you work less and
invest that extra time into learning a new skill, finding a new client, or
simply enjoying life.
If you’re worried that you’re pricing your services too high,
you’re probably pricing them too low.
Double those prices!

Project prep
Starting a new project
Let’s say you started posting your concepts online, you keep at it for
a few days, weeks, a month, and then you log into your Dribbble or
Linkedin, and finally, you see a new notification. A new lead has
reached out to you and he’s considering to hire you as one of the
designers for his new project!
What should you do next?
When every client is worth its weight in gold, you want to jump on a
call as soon as possible. Don’t prolong this part. Reply politely, say
you’re interested to hear more and suggest connecting at his/hers
earliest convenience.
I’d also recommend you start a new Calendly account, optimize your
profile, and send Calendly links to book calls with you.
Open a professional Calendly account
You need to be quick with setting up sales calls
Project prep 56
This way, you’ll look much more professional, and besides, it’s good
to have a booking app ready whenever you need it. It syncs with your
Google Calendar, so you can easily organize your schedule.
If you have the freedom to choose your clients and you’re a busy
individual, you might send a quick intro message to inform them
what working with you looks like, and what’s your minimum fee when
star ting a new project, etc.
I receive between 2-3 inquiries per day, and if I were to connect with
every client, I would spend at least 40-50 hours each month
chatting. And I have no guarantee that any of these prospects will
become my paying clients.
Therefore, I politely thank them for reaching out and send a
message saying something along those lines:
“Thank you for reaching out! Please, don’t take it the wrong way,
but before we jump on a call and decide we’re a good fit, I’d like
to, hopefully, save us both time and send you a quick info about
my availability, rates and my design process.
My minimum engagement fee is $5000. I can invest 40-80 hours
per month on an additional project. I track every hour through
Clockify and send weekly repor ts for your review.”
Project prep 57
I communicate through Slack or a platform of your choice. I’m
familiar with project management tools like Trello, Notion, Jira,
Asana, and Monday.
Depending on the scope of work, I split the deliverables and

payments into time-restricted milestones or two equal
increments, 50% charged as a deposit and 50% upon project
completion.
The scope of work needs to be specifically outlined in the

agreement, and any work outside of scope will be charged
separately.
If that sounds good to you, please, let me know about your

availability for the following week, and I’ll set up a new meeting.
Thank you!
Best Regards, 
Adrian”
Yup, that’s a lengthy reply. And one important thing to note - I would
NEVER send this message as a beginner freelancer looking for work.
I would try to schedule a call and handle these leads very carefully.
I’m in a different position now and I send such messages because I

used to spend hours on calls only to find out the budget wasn’t right.
Project prep 58
Besides, no one has ever replied aggressively, and it says two things
about me. I’m honest and transparent; I’m explaining my process
and saying upfront what working with me looks like, what my rates
are, and how much time I can invest into a project.
And two, it shows that I’m a busy person and I’m not trying to “win
them over”. If you’re good and they want to work with you for your
skills, they’ll appreciate your honesty.
I always appreciate if someone’s being transparent, as lost time is

impossible to make up, and some clients can waste a lot of it.
If they reply back that it sounds great and they want to schedule a
call, you’re already in a different position.
You come to the meeting as equals.
Sure, they will be the ones paying you, but you’re delivering them
value. You’re both business owners, and you both value and respect
each other’s time
If they reply saying they’re not interested, you’re good anyway since
you don’t necessarily need the extra work at this point.
But that’s if you’re already in this position. If you’re not, then we’ll
need to do some more work. Let’s skip to the next page :)
Project prep 59
You scheduled a client call - what now?
Client calls can be very stressful. Especially so when you’re new to
freelancing and you’ve never had a successful client call before.
We tend to visualize ourselves in the most shameful situations. We

stress how we’ll look on a call. We’re worried that clients will sense
that we desperately need to close them and we’re often afraid that
we’re just going to sound like an amateur not having a clue what the
heck we’re doing here.
I got you!
How should you prepare for a call?

Even though I’m a person that would rather have direct face-to-face
communication over a video chat, online conversation has its
benefits, closing leads is one of them. Let me explain.
When you’re trying to close someone over a Zoom call, you can have
as many windows and notepads open as you wish.
Project prep 60
You could even read from a teleprompter if you wanted to, and they
wouldn’t even notice
That’s almost what I did myself with my first US-based client. I had
written a 3-page document with every question I wanted to ask
them and every potential answer they could ask me.
I had my notes
and a script I followed

I followed my script to a single word, added force stops, uhmms, and
ahhms, and changed my intonation to make it look like I was thinking
about the words I wanted to say. But I had it all written out anyway,
and guess what, they couldn’t tell.
I did record the conversation to play it back to myself, and I couldn’t

even tell I was reading from a script all along. That’s a huge help if
you’re stressing out about what you’re going to say and how you will
say it. Control the conversation; you’re there to ask questions, and
they’re there to answer
If you haven't yet, you'll soon find out that discovery calls are all
about the client, not you.
Project prep 61
You’re contributing to about 20% of the entire conversation, and
they’re the ones talking most of the time.
I don’t want to go into too much detail about closing leads as this is
not a sales book but I did include the script I used to close my first
few international clients.
Later, I got much more comfortable and could freestyle most of my
calls, coming to a call only with a list of questions and a notepad.
You scheduled a client call - what now?
Once you follow the script, name your price, confirm a budget and
briefly discuss the project needs, it’s time to close the lead, request
all the information you need, and send them a follow-up message.
Before you hang up the call and proceed to the next step
Try to get a verbal confirmation of the budget
Confirm the scope of work
And explain what the next steps are.
For a web design project, the next steps are to send a discovery
questionnaire. You can send it prior to the conversation, but clients
don’t like to engage this early into a project. A typical questionnaire
should ask about everything you might need to start working, i.e. the
brand story, information about the company, direct and indirect
competitors, style direction, etc.
Project prep 62
I include all you need to ask your clients in a separate file called
“Discovery questionnaire”. Get familiar with that file as soon as
possible because this will help you get a better understanding of
what kind of questions to ask before your start a new project.
Along with the discovery questionnaire, I send short information

about the payments. I ask for the business information needed to
create the invoice and then explain how the payments work.
For payments I use Wise (It’s the best banking app ever) 
I talk about the deposit and how it’s required for me to start working.
I reassure them that the second payment will be collected only after
the project is completed, they’re 100% satisfied with the outcome,
and website is ready to be transferred to their domain.
You don’t want to pressure clients to pay you as soon as possible

not to scare them away, but you don’t want to start working without
receiving a deposit either. I included a similar email in the
documents folder, so make sure to read them all.
Make that clear that you will begin work as soon as they send you
a confirmation of the transfer.
Apart from all that, you will also need a design contract.
Let’s talk about that.
Project prep 63
How to write a design contract
A good contract will not only protect you from a scope creep, it will
also make your most difficult (not that you’d want to work with
them!) clients slightly more reasonable to deal with.
A solid contract will help you set the right expectations and
outline your work exactly as described.
Without one, you’ll end up in a hell of constant design iterations,

revisions, and updates, and that’s not a nice place to be in.
Which revision is this already?
It just keeps on going
F$@#!!
A well-written contract is a must. It will protect both sides of the

agreement, you and your client, in case of any disagreements or
problems. If you have everything written on paper, there’s no way to
outsmart each other.
Project prep 64
I once had a client who never directly agreed on anything. Email
communication happened through his assistant, and all important
agreements were verbally agreed upon on Zoom or through a
Whatsapp call.
Back then, I didn’t even realize how unprofessional that was but long
story short, the same client was trying to abuse us by extending the
scope all the time. Once we said we’ll have to increase the budget to
accommodate the new changes, he was avoiding any sort of
confirmation, only to call me once on my Whatsapp and say we’ve
got a green light. He’ll transfer the additional funds over the next
weekend once he’s back from holidays. He didn’t pay.
Out of a $5000 project, we only received a $1000 deposit since I’ve
also agreed to split the bill in 3 parts - $1000, $2000, and $2000. It
wasn’t a good move. With a contract in place, this wouldn’t happen.
That’s why I almost never start another project without a written
contract and a 50% deposit. The only exception is when I’ve worked
with someone a couple of times already, and I’ve built up enough
trust with them. That’s why sometimes we might skip the contract,
but we’ll never skip the deposit.
Even if your client is someone you know, it’s worth securing your
time investment and send a contract to sign before you start.
Project prep 65
All the design contract essentials, timelines, milestones, pricing,
payments, penalties, the scope of work details, and work conditions
are included in the Design Contract file included in this ebook.
Read it, edit it, and use it for your own personal needs.
It’s time for the project kickoff!
How to kick-off a new design project
Once the project is approved and you’ve got the money in your
account, it’s time to open up a new Slack channel.
Name it your #projectname-site, invite the team members on your
client’s side and let them know that you’re officially starting the
work on the first milestone/step of the process.
Open a new Slack channel as soon as you receive a deposit
Project prep 66
Right af ter I open a new Slack channel I list out all the expected
milestones and the time of their delivery. I also jump on a quick call
to explain how the feedback will look on client’s end, showing the
Figma’s commenting tool, version naming, etc.
You just kicked off a new project - what’s next?
So, let’s say you kick-off a 5-pager website. Your first order of
priority is to create a style guide, suggest new fonts, colors, visuals.
You start with an inspiration board, create 2-3 mood boards and
have a review session to agree on a specific brand direction.
And you take it from there. Just make sure to follow the steps from
the 3rd chapter of this ebook if you want to learn my exact approach.
You shouldn’t overthink kicking off your projects too much. You
shouldn’t overthink any processes we’ll follow in the later chapters.
If your approach is systemized and you follow the same steps every
time you start a new project, you’ll soon find yourself working very
efficiently and it’ll feel like a breeze.
The same website that used to take you 60 hours to deliver will take
you 30 hours, not to mention your prices will go up as you get more
experienced with each successful project.
It’s extremely rewarding.
Project prep 67
You got this!
Ok, let’s sum up what we know already.
I’ve shared my personal story and told you what worked for me best
when looking for clients. If you’re struggling with leads, try this:
Start a 100-day content plan and post new concepts everyday on

each of the platforms I explained, day after day.
Once you attract new leads, you now have the scripts I used as your
reference point when replying and setting up sales calls.
You also have the script I used to close my first 5 international

clients. And you have the email template I used to make sure they
convert into paying clients. It’s all in there.
We’ve covered what you should do right after your sales call ends,
and you also have the premade message templates, so you’re not
missing out on anything.
You’ve got the discovery questionnaire, the invoice templates, the

contract agreement template, and the kick-off message templates.
The project prep is over; we’re ready to discuss the visuals now.
Roll up your sleeves, and let’s go!
Project prep 68
The Design Basics
The principles of visual perception
Before we delve into color theory and typography, there is one more
topic we need to cover: the Gestalt laws of visual perception -
proximity, similarity, continuation, symmetry, and closure.
Gestalt principles (German for "shape") result from analyzing human
visual perception and developing a set of principles to describe how
we interpret what we see. They all have an important place in web
design. Let's briefly go over these principles and explain how we may
use them for our advantage.
Proximity
We perceive objects that are close to each other as similar - objects
or shapes that are close to one another appear to form groups
Looks like one shape! Looks like 3 groups!
The principles of visual perception 70

This technique can be used to group related information, such as
sections on the same page/web application or navigation buttons.
Due to the proximity, the white space is essential in providing a
relaxing experience for the eyes. When things are close together,
they look like a group, even if they are very different in terms of
shape, size, and composition.
When different interface components are maintained close
together, a sense of 'harmony' and clarity is established between
these elements.
Capchase.com
Even though the cards on the Capchase website have a slightly
different design, through color consistency and proximity of the
cards, they all form one cohesive group.

Similarity
We perceive objects with the same characteristics (color, shape, size,

texture, and orientation) as part of a set, even when they are not
adjacent or closed positions.
These are the same

I can see the pattern here
These are similar
We can identify groups of elements by looking for elements with

similar traits. The picture above demonstrates how this works.
Even though the forms in the middle are distinct from the shapes on
the outside, the image still appears as a single entity because to the
similarities among all of the shapes.
Because of their similarity in size, color, and proximity to one

another, the squares and circles create uniformity.

Continuity
We perceive movement and direction according to some elements,
even if this is not explicit.
we can clearly distinguish two lines
Continuity is used when there are hints that we should look in a

certain place or in a certain direction.
This idea can be used in design by using lines, arrows, or image

subjects to point at buttons, videos, and other content to direct the
viewer's attention towards them.
look at how Gusto uses this principle

Symmetry
We tend to group objects that are symmetrically equal, which allows
us to generate patterns based on that symmetry to easily structure
the information.
When something is asymmetrical, the viewer spends time trying to
solve the issue rather than focusing on the message or instruction.
Understanding how to properly integrate symmetry allows us to
arrange graphic components in a way that is harmonious and simple,
providing stability and structure to what we want to express.
Beacons.ai with their symmetrical hero

Closure
When we see a complex arrangement, we look for a single,
recognizable pattern.
CLOSURE
Since the human brain strives for consistency, it will often "fill in the
blanks" to create what it thinks is a whole picture. The illustration in
the example below demonstrates how closure can be used to form a
picture of a woman peeking through her hands.
Another clear example of that principle in action are icons. We view

icons that, without being labeled, clearly express many types of
actions, situations, or features in any website or app.
A clever use of negative space on Alike.health!

Foundations of
visual design
Foundations of visual design
A good website should fulfill its function by sending the right
message and, at the same time, engaging the visitors to achieve the
business’ end goal. Apart from its function, it should also have the
right form so that those same visitors are not finding themselves
lost and overwhelmed.
And while it sounds straightforward, there’s actually a lot of

different factors contributing to website’s success.  
These can be defined by applying the basic UX design laws and
principles, following the UI design best practices, and of course,
understanding the basics of visual design like imagery, typography,
and color. Here are some numbers for you:
46.1% of individuals feel that a website's design is the most

important factor in determining whether or not a business is
legitimate, according to Stanford University research.
Therefore, it's crucial that your design appears refined.
According to Adobe, when given 15 minutes to read the material,

two-thirds of users prefer to read beautifully designed content
over simple text, thus your website should be visually appealing.
Let’s talk about that.

Attractive UI will make your business stand
out and attract potential customers, and
good UX will keep you in business for longer.
To start with, here’s a handful of important principles and guidelines
that will help us define those key factors.
Don’t forget to analyze the visual references to help you
understand these principles applied in action.
Where do I start with all this theory??

Usability is crucial
Usability of a website determines its success. Your design should be
centered around the user, and every design decision you take should
support the goal of both the business and the user.
I’m not going to go into detail on how you should design

components like cards, buttons, search boxes, etc. This will be
covered in my How to design better UI components book.
In this chapter, we’ll focus on the main design principles and show
you their implementation in real-life scenarios.
First things first. To properly understand design principles, we need

to understand the basic patterns of user behavior - we need to get in
their shoes and walk a mile or two.
How do you do that?
Walk with me!

Make it about the user
Nowadays, website browsing is fast-paced, and internet users are
increasingly more and more attention-deficit. We look for something
on Google, click on a few first results, glance at the hero section,
scroll a little bit down, scan for anything useful, and click on
something that catches a glimpse of our attention.
Then, we decide if it’s worth investigating further, or if we just
bounce out of the website and continue looking.
That’s why first impressions are so important. You only get one
chance to capture someone’s attention, and to do that, you need to
design your sites in a way that captivates and invites to explore
more. Let’s see what a regular users look for on a website.
I only have 1-5 seconds to capture your attention!
and usually that happens with the hero section

Follow the patterns
When browsing through a site or reading an article, users tend to
look for anchor points to guide their viewing experience. They will
rarely read a new page, but rather scan it to determine if it’s worth
their longer focus.
One way to determine what parts of the website users are most
interested in are by introducing heat maps.
Hot areas that are viewed the most appear in red, and the ones that
are viewed much less are represented in blue.
By looking at the example above, we can see two typical scanning

patterns unfolding - “Z” and “F”. These show us exactly how an
average user views the website, and it can help us define the
structure of our website based on the outcome we want to achieve.

In the "F" pattern, users' eye movement begins in the upper left
corner and moves across the page before searching down the page
for an engaging feature. Placing elements in the F pattern allows the
users to notice the essential content.
In the Z-pattern visitors begin scanning from top left to top right,
creating an imaginary horizontal line. They then search down and to
the left, forming an imaginary diagonal line. Finally, they return to the
right, forming a second horizontal line.
To focus the user's attention first, you should place the main
elements at the top. Information related to the CTA should be
located on the diagonal line, and the bottom line should underline
and highlight the secondary call to action.
Look at Frame.io and how they structure their hero.
the perfect example of the Z-pattern hero

Meet your users needs
I’m not talking about the visuals here. You need to cater to users’
needs by providing valuable content and solutions. How often have
you landed on a forum brimming with life, where people are ready to
compromise the received value with an outdated design?
If your work centers around the users’ experience, you might

even get away with a few visual design flaws.
2.5 Billion users each month and design looks like this
On the other end of the spectrum, we have super visual, full-of-

motion website designs built on the most exquisite and complex
design frameworks that forget about their function - to provide real-
life users with good experience and are rather made to impress
fellow website designers.
Valuable content > Beautiful design

While work like that is beautiful and truly impressive, I can’t tell how
often I’ve landed on a similar website and left with a dizzy head from
all the rapid motion and fluid transitions.
Beautiful site but almost burned my laptop
Bornfight.studio
There’s a reason why huge tech companies tend to go for more

toned-down and universal designs.
While motion can enhance the experience, adding too much of it

might distract users from taking action and even annoy some
individuals, leaving them with a headache and an overheated laptop.
Find balance in your designs and focus primarily on your audience.

Simple is (always) better
As web users, we are extremely impatient, always looking for instant
gratification, and if a website is not giving us what we need, we tend
to lose interest.
That’s the reason why Social Media platforms are so addicting. 
They give us a quick shot of gratification whenever we log in - new
like, new comment, new share, we’re hooked on that model.
At the same time, the more information we throw at a user without
giving him a clear structure to follow - we’re bound to lose their
interest. Simplify the navigation, make it intuitive, optimize your site
for clicks, and most importantly, don’t make users think.
A website should be self-explanatory. You make sure about it by
using clear language, the layout structure, and navigation.
Relume nailed it with their hero section!

Consistency is key
When designing a website, you should design each page with
consistent elements and patterns to follow a clear brand identity.
You should use the same font styles, sizes, and color
Your color palette should be defined by exact value
You should keep the same amount of spacing between element
You should use the same layouts for dynamic pages
You should use the same headers, footers, buttons, forms, etc.
Consistency will help your site look well-balanced and professional.
Acorns Website

Watch your Type
Typograpny plays a crucial role on every website. It’s an extension of
your brand voice and next to negative space, typography creates the
content’s visual hierarchy. The scale and color can really enhance
the experience and create a design that seamlessly flows.
decodable.co
Some sites consist only of text and colored backgrounds and still
command a lot of attention. That’s the power of good typography.

Use the right imagery
Images create more visual impact than typography. They are often
used together with typography to increase emphasis on a given
content. Let's look at an example of a heat map showing how good
imagery can influence users' action and decisions on a website.
Using an image of a baby that looks directly at a user directs all the
attention towards it. However, when we use an image of a baby
facing the text, users tend to look at the same direction.
This makes the text the focal point of the composition.
That’s a little-known trick used by a few designers. There’s a lot

more happening behind the scenes, on a subconscious level, that
we’re not even aware of, and that’s part of the reason why people
with a background in psychology happen to be very good at UX
design - they know a lot of this stuff already.
Remember this when designing your next hero section. Use images
wisely and purposefully do not choose them by random.

Visual hierarchy
Visual hierarchy, in its simplest sense, means the arrangement of
elements in order of importance. Designers create hierarchy by
manipulating the size of certain elements, applying color, changing
contrast, adding visuals, or increasing/decreasing negative space.
Hierarchy through size

Sizing is a simple yet important concept that can help attract the
viewer's eye to a specific area and create a level of importance.
Increasing the scale and size of certain elements immediately
attracts the user's attention. Look at the example below and read it
without thinking much.
and you will read this last
You will read  

this first
And then you will read this
Then this one
If you’re like most viewers, you probably read all the text in the order
of importance. Pretty cool, huh? That’s how we designers can
manipulate the order in which users read content.

Using purposeful placement
If your visitors have to play hide and seek to find your call-to-action,
they will not be amused. Imagine visiting a movie website to book
tickets and not being able to locate the “Book now” button
anywhere. It would be very frustrating.
Placing your conversion Call-To-Actions and surrounding them with

enough whitespace makes it easy to locate them.
Whitespace in itself is an important design element, but too much

whitespace between the supporting content and your actionable
area can create a sense of disconnect. That’s why purposeful
placement ties it all down.
Settle.com

Using color and contrast
Stronger, brighter colors are more likely to grab attention than
bland, non-saturated ones. Colors with higher contrast appear
closer to the viewer, giving them a greater sense of value.
No matter the feature positioned in the design, using one accent

color as a focal point will help attract attention to that element.
Bright CTA color stands out here the most
Appraisd
It doesn’t mean you shouldn’t use black or white as your CTA color. If
you can make these colors stand out and make it clear that they are
in fact, the highest in the hierarchy, by all means, use them. You have
to remember that it’s much harder, though.

Using (not so) negative space
Negative space, also known as “whitespace” refers to the areas of a
design that don’t include any design elements. Many new designers
feel the need to fill every pixel with visual elements, ignoring the
importance of whitespace. Even worse, they garner huge attention
from beginner designers on sites like Dribbble, giving unrealistic
expectations of how a good design looks like. Beginners start
copying “popular” designs and post them online without realizing
that what they do is wrong.
And then the loop of unrealistic designs begins.
It results in an overwhelming experience and a lot of confusion.

Content has no room to breathe, there’s no focus on any particular
design element, and the main functionality is lost.

Leverage the Rule of Thirds
Rule of Thirds is a well-known photographic rule that has found its
use in web design. According to the Rule of Thirds, a picture (or web
page) should be visually divided into three equal squares. (both
vertically and horizontally).
You end up with nine identical squares that look like this:
According to the rule, the four middle intersections are strategic

points of interest. When objects are placed at, or near these points,
they create the most impactful design composition. You can also
use the rule of thirds to place your object(s) off-center by putting
them into one of the thirds sections, either left or right.
Let’s look at more examples on the next page.

For example, on the Maki website, the main focal point is in the first 3
squares on the left, off-center, overlapping two intersection points.
Or as on Webflow’s site, off-center, in the middle-top right
intersections.

Slack on the other hand, places their Call To Action button at the
first top left intersection.
Notice how these websites never place their navigation bar near the
intersections. This helps to keep visitors focused on the main call to
action and heading.
You don’t need to design your entire website strictly by the rule of
thirds. Use it to help you place your most important elements on a
grid. It only takes 2 minutes to set up.
Try taking a screenshot of your website ( just above the fold or just
your header section, not the entire page length because nobody
looks at a website that way), and divide it into nine equal squares.
Then, you can decide if you want to make any tweaks.

Maintain the balance
Balance in design refers to the relationship between design
elements and the harmony they bring out in a composition. We
create balance through symmetry, shapes, colors, patterns, and
space in relation to the visual weight of a given component.
Let’s look at the Greenbridge website. Notice how they use

rectangular shapes to create a well-balanced and harmonious look.
The symmetry these shapes create draw your attention to the
content that’s inside the white container.
In practice, you achieve balance through the use of a grid-based

layout. When you divide your content into columns and sections, it is
much easier to create order and align your elements to create an
aesthetically pleasing and well-balanced website.

Chapter summary
Study the Gestalt laws of visual perception - proximity,
similarity, continuation, symmetry, and closure. Analyze
different websites on Saaslandingpage.com and try to find
these laws in use.
If your work centers around the users’ experience, you might
even get away with a few visual design flaws. Value > Looks.
While motion can enhance the experience, adding too much of it
might distract users from taking action
A website should be self-explanatory. You make sure about it
by using clear language, the layout structure, and navigation.
Images create more visual impact than typography, often
used together to increase emphasis on a given content.
Stronger, brighter colors are more likely to grab attention than
bland, non-saturated ones.
Use Rule of Thirds to create more impactful design
compositions
Take some notes!
oundations of visual design

F 97
Typography in Web
Typography in Web Design
Simply put, typography is the art of arranging text for optimal
legibility, readability, and accessibility.
It’s one of the main factors contributing to how easy a website is to

navigate since it ensures how comfortably we can read and
understand all of its text-based content. Because of this,
understanding its importance and using it according to best
guidelines and practices will help your website stand out in any niche
and give your customers a better online experience overall.
Why is typography important in web design

Good typography establishes an appropriate level of visual
hierarchy, provides aesthetic harmony, and creates the atmosphere
for the entire digital product. Besides being easy to read, digital text
must be easy to understand. Users visit a website looking for
something specific and want to find it quickly.
You'll lose their attention if you make it hard for them to read. The
text needs to be accessible. You havet to remember that not every
internet user views or uses text on the web in the same way.
Text should be readable on all digital platforms, regardless of

device type or screen size.
Typography in Web Design 99

Typography types
When there’s a website there’s a text, and wherever there is text,
there is good and bad typography. We can all agree to that.
By paying close attention to how your words look and how easy they
are to read, you make sure that your text will be easily understood.
By carefully and purposefully choosing fonts, sizes, colors, layouts,

alignment, and other elements that influence the text style, we aim
to create a deeper meaning.
Typography differentiates between two main types - serifs and sans

serifs, and a number of secondary types like script, slab, display, etc.
There are various ways in which typographers classify typefaces;

nevertheless, the following are the most common:
Serif – A serif is a small ornamental projection off the main stroke of

a letter. Fonts with this styling are called serif fonts. Primary used in
printed medium. Examples: Times New Roman, Sentient
Sans Serif – “Sans” is French for “without,” and fonts without these
ornaments are labeled as sans serif fonts. Mainly use for digital
mediums. Examples: Arial, Inter, Roboto, SF Pro

Monospaced – Every character in a monospaced font takes up the
same width. Created at a time when typewriters were popular, these
fonts have seen a revival due to their use in text editors (and some
fancy oldschool-themed websites). Example: Space Mono
Cursive – Cursive fonts imitate handwriting. They are more

appropriate for titles and headings than body text since they favor
aesthetic attractiveness above readability. Example: Dancing Script
Display – Display fonts tend to be biggest and boldest of the type

used for main headings. Because of the attention they draw, they
work best as headlines. Example: Satoshi Variable
Typography terminology
Each piece of text you read on a screen uses a typeface that affects
the mood, voice, and visual structure of a website.
Many people confuse typefaces and fonts, and there are certain
misconceptions about the differences between the two.
To better understand how to introduce effective type to your

website, let’s first cover some fundamental terminology.

Typeface vs Font
A typeface is a group of alphabetic and numeric characters that
have been given a particular appearance and feel. Inter, Arial,
Roboto, SF Pro, are all examples of common typefaces.
Fonts are specific implementations of typefaces. A typeface may
have multiple fonts, each of which may have a different weight
(bolder or lighter), size, be italicized or non-italicized, capitalized,
underlined, etc.
To give you a better example - Inter is one of the most flexible,
variable typefaces with many available fonts like Light, Medium,
SemiBold, Bold, etc.
Inter - typeface
Inter fonts Inter Thin Inter Extra Light Inter Light Inter Regular
Inter Medium Inter Semi Bold Inter Bold
Inter Extra Bold Inter Black
Thin Italic Extra Light Italic Light Italic Regular Italic
Medium Italic Semi Bold Italic Bold Italic

Tracking
Tracking is simply the spacing between letters. It refers to the
overall spacing between all characters in a line or block of text rather
than just two specific letters (that’s Kerning):
Low tracking
Medium tracking
High tracking
While slight adjustments are allowed, too much tracking may make
the text harder to read. Designers typically adjust the tracking to
match the typeface so that it matches a specific line length.
Higher tracking values are perfect for captions

Leading
Leading is the vertical spacing between lines of text. It’s expressed
in units of pixels or points.
Want to
Want to
know more?
know more?
Again, the right amount of leading helps readers navigate text — too
much or too little can equally make it hard to read.
Each text layer has different leading for better hierarchy

Hierarchy
The majority of web pages divide content into topic-specific
sections. Headings are used to designate and identify these
sections. The hierarchy of the page is determined by order of text
from most prominent to least prominent.
Making pages easily navigable and consumable requires

good hierarchy. The titles alone should allow readers to navigate to
the part that interests them the most.
Pipedrive.com
Look at how cleverly Pipedrive uses hierarchy to explain their

product’s core functionality and top features.

Best principles of web typography
You should follow several best practices when using typography in
your website designs. Here are some of them:
Limit the number of typefaces
Use no more than two different typefaces on your website to
maintain visual consistency. Many websites are doing just fine with
one typeface. Especially if they opt for a legible and variable font
with many different styles for headers, body text, button text, etc.
Cartloop.io
Cartloop is a great example of a website with one typeface but with
a variety of fonts in use. As you can see yourself, you don’t need
many typefaces to build great looking sites.

Fix your font sizes
A common practice is to set regular body text to a minimum size of
16px. This is roughly the size of body text in printed media, and is the
smallest font that most people can read without needing to zoom in.
It also has it’s uses for responsive web development were 16px is
the font’s root (base) size. We’ll talk about that in later chapters.
Mailchimp using 16px for the body text
Mailchimp.com
To further establish hierarchy, you can and should increase or
decrease the size of your text, all depending on the context.
Don’t go overboard with massive or too small fonts, though, it rarely
looks good, and besides, you’ll have a hard time designing a
responsive experience with your font sizes all over the place.

Limit your paragraph length
You should keep your paragraph length between 40 and 80
characters long since that’s about the most optimal setting.
Anything less requires users to look ahead too frequently, which is

really distracting. And anything above that will make it too hard to
read, and fatigue eyes much quicker. You will need to look for anchor
points for each new line as it moves back to the left side of the text
block.
These length constraints give some leeway when creating different

web layouts. Remember to include around 60–70 characters in
each line, and don’t go over that. Your users’ eyes will appreciate it.
Look at the clever use of paragraph lengths here
Joinditto.in

Increase the leading space
Having adequate whitespace between lines of text and after line
breaks makes it easier for readers to follow the text, which is very
important. Accessibility standards usually allocate a specific
amount of vertical space to text based on the font size.
For starters, set the spacing between lines of body text to 1.5.
This will result in leading that is half as tall as each line of text.
For headings, it’s recommended to make this space a little bigger.
You should start with a spacing of 2.5 between heading

paragraphs, then increase or decrease it as necessary.
If you don’t want to edit this manually, look up Material 3 type scale
guidelines. Don’t worry, though, I’ll show you how to do this later.
Joinditto.in

Text Contast
The contrast between text and its background is essential for
legibility.
The ideal color combination for legibility, however, is dark grey text
on a light grey background, not pure black (#000) on pure white
(#fff), contrary to popular belief.
The contrast these two colors create is very high and its found to be
tiring to look at after longer periods of time.
Hello, Friend! Hello, Friend!
Dark gray on a very light gray background might be a bit easier on the
eyes than pure black text on a pure white background
Hello, Friend! Hello, Friend!
This also works the same in the opposite direction, with pure white
text on a pure black background, and light gray text on a dark gray
background. These differences are subtle but can make a difference
when users spend longer time reading the content.

What units of measurements to use in web design?
The standard unit of measurement for online content is Pixel (1 px).
We use pixels to describe the base values of shapes, text, distances,
etc. However, when creating responsive designs, it is preferable to
set all size and spacing settings using relative units like ems and
viewport width percentages rather than absolute, non-scalable units
like pixels.
A relative unit of measurement called an em corresponds to the
current font size of the HTML element that’s set as a default size of
16px for paragraphs. Following that logic, 2em would therefore be
twice this size = 32px and 2.5em would be = 40px.
When font sizes change, spacing requirements need to change too.
When the font size is set to 16px, a line height of 24px might work
perfectly fine, but at 32px tall, that height would be far too small.
Root size = 16 px
Root size = 32 px
Leading = 24px
Leading = 24px
Designing responsively means using relative units. If you create your
site so that everything is relative to the root font size, you can
modify the root size without affecting the rest of the site.

Chapter summary
Typography differentiates between two main types - serifs and
sans serifs, among other secondary types like script, slab,
display
You should keep your paragraph length between 40 and 80
characters long
A typeface is a group of alphabetic and numeric characters that
have been given a particular appearance and feel.
Fonts are specific implementations of typefaces.
Tracking is simply the spacing between letters.
Leading is the vertical spacing between lines of text.
The standard unit of measurement for online content is Pixel (1 px).
when creating responsive designs, it is preferable to set all size
and spacing settings using relative units like ems
Take some notes!

Colors in Web
Importance of color for Web
Color is one of the most effective tools in website design. It can be
used not only to get people's attention, make a point, and make
them want something but also to drive conversions and earn their
loyalty. The choice of color in website design is influenced by many
more factors than just aesthetics.
Because color theory blends science, psychology, and emotion,
color is a remarkably potent design element.
When color is used effectively in web design, it plays a
significant role in branding and product messaging.
Colors are important in physical and digital contexts because they
help users navigate your website and improve the overall experience.
Because of this, every designer must have a really good grasp of
color theory and all the intricacies associated with it.
In the following chapter, we'll explore all there is to know about color
theory and explain how to use color to create compelling, high-value
websites for your clients.
We need to cover the foundational knowledge about color theory,
color wheel, and psychology before we dive into the web design
theory and show you the real-life examples in use.
Color in Web 114

Anatomy of colors in design
It’s best to start by grasping fundamental color theory. While the
level of detail and complexity may put some people off, it is essential
to understand how it works and what it consists of.
Color wheel
yellow
chartreuse amber
green orange
teal vermillion
blue red
violet magenta
purple
The color wheel shows the relationship between colors and it’s an
excellent resource for learning the fundamentals of color theory.
The basic color wheel consists of 12 primary colors.
Secondary colors are made up of a combination of two primary

colors. They are green, orange, and purple. Tertiary colors are
created by combining the secondary colors with primary ones.  
There are 6 tertiary colors.
Color in Web 115

Primary color
The spectrum of colors begins with the primary colors and these are
red, yellow, and blue (RYB). They can’t be mixed from other colors.
Secondary colors
We create secondary colors by combining two primary colors.
There are 3 secondary colors and these are purple (red + blue),
green (blue + yellow), and orange (red + yellow).
Tertiary colors
The tertiary colors are combinations of primary and secondary
colors (i.e. red-purple, yellow-orange, blue-green, etc.)
Color in Web 116

Tints and shades
Besides their pure form, primary, secondary, and tertiary colors also
have their tints and shades. Tints are created by combining pure
colors with white. This results in pastel shades with gradually
reduced saturation. Shades, on the other hand, are generated by
adding black to pure colors.
Last but not least, we also have tones. There are created by mixing
black and white with pure colors. These create tonal palettes.
Tints
Shades
The relationship between colors

Color palettes are classified into four types: analogous,
monochromatic, triad, and complementary.
Any of these can be used to develop a successful color scheme.
We'll look at a few instances of these color palette types used in
website designs on the following pages.
Color in Web 117

Analogous featuring three colors that are next to each other on the
color wheel. Using colors close to each other creates vibrant, bold,
and natural-looking compositions.
Appointlet.com and their natural-looking color palette
Monochromatic color palettes are based on a single color paired

with various shades and tints. They appeal to the eye, producing
interesting, appealing, and harmonious designs.
Joinditto.in with their clever use of one color
Color in Web 118

Complementary color palettes consist of colors located on
opposing sides of the color wheel. These color schemes are
fantastic for making websites look balanced and exciting..
buildwithflow.io using complementary colors - loving it!
Triadic palettes consist of three colors evenly spaced apart on the
color wheel, forming a triangle, like red, yellow, and blue. Typically one
color will act as the primary, while the other two will act as accents.
earlydog.com and their vibrant hero
Color in Web 119

Complementary color combinations Analogous color combinations
Many designers find it easier to work with analogous or
complementary colors. The first is better for a more subtle effect,
while the second is best if you want to create a strong contrast.
Color warmth
Warm colors Cool colors
Colors can be described as either “cool” or “warm”. Warm colors
evoke emotions from passion, health, and strength to danger and
rage. In contrast, cool colors create a calming sense of relaxation
and calmness but can also evoke melancholy and sadness.
Color in Web 120

Warm colors
elementor.com and their warm color palette
Warm colors can also convey energy, sociability, and happiness.
Take, for example, the Elementor ’s Birthday Sale site. It speaks of
youthfulness, energy, and happiness. Pretty powerful composition.
Cool colors
chroniclehq.com with their cool color palette
Cool colors contain higher amounts of blue and purple. These colors
induce feelings of calm, stability and productivity.
Color in Web 121

Hue, Saturation, and Lightness
Hue
Saturation
Lightness/Brigthness
Hue is, in other words, color. It describes the degree of similarity

between different colors. Primary colors such as red, green, and
blue serve as a reference point. For example, when you describe a
hue of turquoise, you’re thinking of mixing green and blue hues.
Saturation refers to the intensity of color. Colors with increased

saturation will appear much more vibrant while decreasing it
gradually will make the color fade away until it’s gray and pale.
Lightness, also known as value or tone, defines the perceived

brightness of a given color compared to pure white.
Color in Web 122

Proper use of contrast
Contrast is crucial for every website’s readability. If the contrast
between your foreground color and background is too low, users are
more likely to have trouble reading your site.
Higher contrast Medium contrast Low contrast
When working on your site's contrast, you must look at the

contrasting colors and their tone. If you need help deciding whether
your site's contrast values are enough, you can use tools to help you
estimate their legibility.
You can either type WCAG contrast checker in Google, open the
WEBAim website and input the foreground and background values
manually, or you can run a Figma plugin like A11y Contrast Checker
which we'll cover in later chapters.
Ideally, you want to use higher contrast colors that pass the AA
requirements for digital use for their improved legibility.
But too much contrast is no good, either. It strains our eyes much
faster, and we don't want that either.
Color in Web 123

Higher contrast website example
Black text on white background will give you the highest contrast values
Rideshur.com
Lower contrast website example
The purple text is not that easily readable
Prevalent.ai
Color in Web 124

Psychology of color
Color psychology studies how color affects our moods, emotions,
and behaviors. It can influence website visitors feelings and actions
in significant ways.
All in all, color psychology is super important for marketing and
brand design. Think of Coca-Cola and Twitter, and the first thing
that’ll come to your mind is probably red and blue, and the feelings
associated with these brands and colors.
All colors have different associations with their feelings.
Color in Web 125

Here’s a breakdown of all the primary colors’ perceived meaning:
Red: Love, danger, anger, rage, passio
Orange: Energy, vitality, warmt
Green: Nature, money, luck, growt
Yellow: Fun, creativity, youth, wealth, optimis
Purple: Royalty, luxury, creativity, spirituality, nobilit
Blue: Wisdom, calmness, reliability, trust, corporat
Black: Elegance, power, strengt
White: Purity, elegance, calmness
Apart from understanding color psychology, we also need to know
how to choose colors for a project and apply them to our interface
so that everything looks cohesive and consistent.
To use color in website design to convey certain emotions, we need

to use it consistently with all elements on the page, including
typography, imagery, and interface elements.
How to choose colors for your project
Now that we know the basic terms and a general idea about color
rules, we can choose a strategy and define our color palette for our
website design. Remember, understanding the theory behind colors
is one thing. Choosing a successful color palette is another.
Start with what you know.
Color in Web 126

Step 1: Start with your brand
If you have an established business, start with colors that are on
brand and then try and introduce complementary colors (if needed).  
Example: Organic shop websites might use green as a primary accent.
Step 2: Think about emotions
You should also think about what kind of emotional response you
would want people to have when thinking about your brand.  
Example: Luxury furniture might use black to convey emotions of
elegance instead of, let’s say, pink, red, or green.
Step 3: Mind the color balance
Think about how harmonious your color palette looks. Choose one
dominant color and find your secondary and tertiary colors by
following one of the four color harmony rules: analogous,
monochromatic, triadic, or complementary.  
Tip: Star t with darker colors and make your way out to lighter ones
since darker colors carry more visual weight.
Step 4: Know your audience
You need to know your target demographics and research what
colors they best respond to.  
Example: A military shop audience might react best to green and
ear thy tones rather than bright magenta accents.
Color in Web 127

Where to find color inspiration?
Choosing a primary brand color is a challenging task. Coming up
with an entire color palette might be even more confusing. Apart
from establishing your brand language and researching your
audience, you can use tools to help you get there a bit faster.
Here are a few places to start looking for your new palette!
Coolors.co – It’s a neat color palette generator that automatically

suggests the best color combinations.
Adobe Color Wheel – A little bit more advanced tool that requires
more manual input. Commonly used among web designers.
Huemint – AI-generated color palette generator. Creates really

impressive and cohesive combinations.
Dribbble – Used strictly as a color palette inspiration rather than a

tool itself. Look up similar brands by keywords and take note of the
color combinations they use.
Material 2 – A super useful color palette generator provided by the

Google Material Design team.
Figma plugins - We’ll cover the most popular ones in later chapters
once discussing the web design process.
Color in Web 128

Create your color palette
Here are the best principles for finding the best color in web design:
1. Find your primary color – The first step in choosing the right
colors and pairing them correctly is choosing one dominant color.
Knowing the perceived meaning of each color is essential when
selecting the dominant color for web design - study this.
2. Decide on the number of colors - using a three-color
combination (60/30/10) is usually recommended for beginners.  
3. Use secondary colors when needed – to underline a secondary
call to action or add to the overall visuals. Use analogous,
complementary, monochromatic, or triadic color harmonies. 
4. Create tonal palettes - create tones, shades, and tins of your
colors to add more flexibility to your design choices, and make grays
and blacks cohesive with all your hues.
Color in Web 129

Applying the color palette
If you’re confused about where to start, I’d recommend choosing
three colors for your palette: a primary, secondary, and tertiary
(accent) color. Then, I’d go ahead and apply the 60/30/10 rule.
This rule means that 60% of the colors should be used for the main
color, 30% the secondary color, and 10% the accent color.
Now, let’s see a few life examples so you can better understand
what it looks like in practice. Here’s several beautifully designed
websites that implemented the 60/30/10 color rule.
60% 30% 10%
Gigs.com uses Mint-like color as their main brand color, white as

secondary to highlight different segments and black as accents.
Color in Web 130

Hellolanding.com using black and white as primary and secondary with green accents
60% 30% 10%
If you want to practice your eye for design - go to onepagelove.com

and try to find more website examples using this rule. You’ll be
surprised at how many sites follow the same principle.
Gusto.com using green as primary, beige as secondary with white accents
60% 30% 10%
Color in Web 131

Chapter summary
The basic color wheel consists of 12 primary colors.
Secondary colors are created by mixing two primary colors.
Tertiary colors are created by combining secondary colors with

primary ones. There are 6 tertiary colors.
Color palettes are classified into four types: analogous,

monochromatic, triad, and complementary.
Ideally, you want to use higher contrast colors that pass the
AA requirements for digital use for their improved legibility.
When choosing colors for your brand think about what kind of
emotional response you would want people to have with your
brand.
If you’re confused about how to create your color palette,  

go ahead and apply the 60/30/ 10 rule.
Create tones, shades, and tins of your colors (tonal palettes) to

add more flexibility to your design choice
Take some notes!
Color in Web 132

Designing for the Web
Designing for the web in Figma
Designing for the web is different than designing for any other
medium. There are several constraints and best practices you’ll
need to know to design development-ready, responsive websites in
Figma. Before we discuss the web design process in detail - we’ll
have to go through the Figma basic setup first.
Designers and developers need to consider both visual appearance

(how the website looks) and functional design (how the website
works). With so many things that you need to take into account, the
process of designing a website might be tricky and overwhelming.
Questions like - “what resolution should I design for?”, “how do I

make sure my designs are mobile-optimized?”, “how do I name my
files, pages, frames, and layers?” - they’re all very confusing for
many designers.
Worry not, we’ll answer them all in this chapter
Let’s start from the beginning.
Designing for the Web in Figma 134

One disclaimer before we start
One thing to mention before you continue reading. This is my
personal approach to website design in Figma that worked for me
very well and continues to work.
Some designers might use different settings for their Figma
setup, and that’s perfectly fine.
As long as the designs they produce are readable and make sense
on a logical level, developers will be able to interpret them and
develop them without going back and forth too much.
The setup I’m about to share works for myself and the developers I
worked with.
Read the disclaimer!

Figma - the designer ’s superweapon
Figma.com
This tool needs no introduction, which is so for a good reason.
Figma is a collaborative interface design powerhouse that has
changed the game of design forever.
One of its main benefits is the collaborative functionality, which you,
as a freelance or an agency designer, will use a lot.
There’s also the responsive resizing part, constraints, easy design
library syncing, fluid implementation of vectors, dynamic
components, prototyping capabilities, inspect tools, and most
importantly, huge support of community plugins, UI kits, icons, 3d
models, and graphics.

Team work makes the dream work
It’s a collaborative machine that makes the team work extremely
efficient and super streamlined. You have the ability to leave
comments, voice memos, and work on one file simultaneously.
designim.com
Vectors, styles, components, and thecommunity
There’s also the responsive resizing part, constraints, easy design
library syncing, fluid implementation of vectors, dynamic
components, prototyping capabilities, and most importantly, huge
support of plugins, UI kits, icons, 3d models, graphics, and so on.
Version control
In Figma, everything you do is automatically saved in history for free.
You can also manually commit (Command + Option + S) versions to
keep things in a neat timeline.

Team library
Team Libraries allow you to share your components, styles, and
assets across your whole team. You can enable and disable these
libraries by clicking the ON/OFF toggle anytime.
File sharing & inspect tool

All Figma files can be shared. What’s even better is that developers
can come in and inspect design elements, select any asset and
export them to PNG, SVG, or in code using Swift, Java, or CSS.

Figma vs Adobe Xd vs Sketch
Nowadays, design tools are similar to each other. The layout is
similar, and you’ll find the same essential features such as
components, libraries, and developer handoff in all of them.
While Sketch is rich in plugins like Craft, Abstract, and Zeplin, Figma
has all those tools embedded by default.
On top of that, while Sketch requires macOS, Figma works

seamlessly with Mac, Windows, and Linux devices.
Also, you can run the Figma editor directly in your browser.
As for Adobe Xd, it’s a decent design tool, especially paired with
other CC programs like Photoshop and Illustrator, but it lacks where
Figma excels, and that is the collaborative features, plugin support,
and dynamic libraries.
For our needs, Figma is filling in all blanks.
our ultimate weapon

The perfect resolution
Resolution plays an important role in web design. Choosing the right
frame to design on is essentially your first step in Figma.
My go-to resolution is 1440x1080. Let me explain why.
One of the smallest desktop resolutions in use albeit still very

popular (8% of the web users) is 1280x720 (or 1280x1080).
Whenever you’re designing you should aim to design for the lowest
resolutions first. You want to ensure that your layout is contained in
the smallest frame and that all the design elements fit nicely
without feeling cramped. If you go lower than 1280, you’ll get into
resolutions that resemble the latest tablets. We’ll use constraints to
show our developers how the designs should behave and at which
desktop-tablet breakpoint the layouts should adapt to.
The users expect a great user experience, regardless of the device

they’re using, and our job is to provide them with that.
What happens when your design is not responsive?

The interface will be distorted, spanning from end to end, looking
super wonky, buttons will be too small to use, and the necessary
elements, such as headings, links, and contact forms, will all look
super small and out of place.

This leads to a negative impression and may significantly impact the
website’s conversions and, as a result, the business’ income and
reputation. That is why we can’t let that happen.
To avoid situations like these, we must design with responsiveness
in mind. Responsive design is a design that adapts to whatever
screen resolution we’re using. You don’t have to design for every
single resolution there is. You just need to design for each main
breakpoint and set layout constraints in between.
Here are the most used resolutions as of 2022.
gs.statcounter.com
It doesn’t mean that you should design for all screens. We should
try to design for the most common resolution to see if our designs
are scalable between all major breakpoints.

Scaling up
It’s always easier to scale the designs up than scale them down.
That’s why we design for the smallest screens in the first place.
Now, let’s take our 1440x1024 resolution as an example.
Knowing that 1280 width is the smallest resolution I should be

designing for, I’ll set up my safe design area to reflect that.
I want to have at least 20-40px of margin set between my interface

elements and the edge of the screen. If I subtract 40 from 1280. I’ll
be left with a 1240px box width to work with.
This will be much clearer when we set up our column grid layout. In
the meantime, let’s see how it looks like so far.

I can’t stop there, though. I have to think about larger screens too.
How would my 1240px design look on a 2k or a 4k monitor?
Let’s see an example of that below:

You’ll have to add one more breakpoint for 2k resolutions to combat
that. I design (and develop) for a maximum width of 1920px.
The idea remains similar.
I’ll make the 1920px my maximum box width. The margins on larger
screens need to be a little bit bigger for the design to be easily
readable.
Unless you’re designing for a full-width experience (which I don’t
recommend), having a maximum box width will help you contain your
designs and make your site look neat and much more organized,
even on the largest of screens.
This is our starting point when setting up frames for web design.
We’ll talk about layouts and grids in the next chapter.
Let’s jump to the next page, shall we?

Layouts & Grids
Layouts & Grid systems
To help you design clean and organized websites, you’ll need to set
up a solid Grid System. It’s good practice to set up your grid
systems both for desktop and mobile devices.
Layouts & Grids 146

Before we discuss our grid system of choice for desktop and mobile
designs, let’s cover the terms and explain what they mean.
Uniform grid
A standard and default grid in Figma is the uniform grid. An evenly
spaced set of rows and columns that span across the entire frame.
You can freely change the grid size by changing the “Size” value. I
rarely use this grid as it’s too detailed for web development and
might cause more issues than benefits.
However, it’s very useful when creating icons or designing logos.
Layouts & Grids 147

Column grid
Column grids consist of any number of columns evenly spaced out
on a frame. The number of columns depends on the design's
complexity and the screen's size.
For website resolutions, you’ll most likely choose 8 to 12-column

grid, while for mobile designs, you’ll probably go with 2 to 6.
Grids can stretch and resize responsively based on the frame same
(that’s what we’ll use) or be centered and take up the same amount
of space regardless of the frame size.
responsive grid
fixed grid
Layouts & Grids 148

Row (baseline) grid
A row/baseline grid is a type of horizontal grid that lets you space
out your elements on a vertical axis.
This type of grid finds its use for dashboard designs, tables, and
elements with multiple sets of rows. As far as the number of rows
goes, you’re free to use as many as your design requires but usually,
these are based on an 8pt grid, meaning that each row takes up 8px
of height, with 8px of space between each row.
I rarely use this type of grid as, when it comes to development, these
values will differ depending on the size of the screen, and it’s easier
just to space out your elements in 8px increments instead of
aligning them exactly on one baseline.
Layouts & Grids 149

Responsive grid layout
Responsive (fluid) layouts adapt to the width of the screen.
Let’s look at the example below.

I’ll set up my grid for 12 columns, 100px margins, and 20px gutters.
The design on the left shows a screen width of 1440x1024, while the
design on the right shows a screen with of 2560x1440.
The margins and gutters remain the same. The thing that changes is
the size of the columns. You can’t really set % values for margins in
Figma. Therefore this type of grid is not ideal for responsive website
development. It serves as a good reference point, though.
If you can manually set the margins for the bigger breakpoints or if
you intend to design a full-width website - it will still work great.
Layouts & Grids 150

Fixed grid layout
Fixed layouts retain the same width and position regardless of the
screen size changes. The interface elements are contained in one
set width, making it easier for development where our box widths
are also fixed for each major device breakpoint.
Let’s look at the example below.
We’ve set up our 1440x1024 grid for 12 columns, 85px width, and
20px gutters. We’d be able to use the same grid for resolutions up
to 2k+, at which point we’d switch to a more appropriate box width
of 1920px. To achieve that, we’ve set our gutters at 20px and
redacted their total width (11*20=220) from 1920. That gave us 1700px
of space, and we divided that by 12 columns = 142.
If this sounds complicated - jump to the next page!
Layouts & Grids 151

Let’s set up our website grid
Open Figma, add a 1440x1024 frame (Click “F” to open frame menu)
Step 1: Go to the Properties Panel on the right and click on the “+”
icon next to the “Layout Grids” (1)
Step 2. Switch from the default “Grid” type to the “Columns” (2)
Layouts & Grids 152

Step 3: Change the Count to a value (ideally) between 8 and 12
Step 4: Change the type to Center, column width to 85 and  

gutters to 20.
Step 5: Click on the “: :” icon and save the grid style to your global
styles and re-use it later on if needed.
Layouts & Grids 153

Saving and reusing global styles is crucial for creating a consistent
design, so I’d suggest you set your layout grids up before you start
designing your website pages.
You don’t need to have your grids visible at all times.
Turn them off (control+ G on mac or shift + ctr + 4 on windows)

if you need to look at your design without columns obscuring the
view, and turn them on (same shortcut) if you need to align a few
elements and balance them out.
Layouts & Grids 154

Chapter summary
My go-to resolution when designing website is 1440x1080.
I design layouts (and develop) for a maximum width of 1920px.
A uniform grid is an evenly spaced set of rows and columns that

span across the entire frame.
Column grids are simply columns evenly spaced out on a frame.  

The number of columns depends on the design's complexity  
and the screen's size. I design on a 12 column grid myself.
A row/baseline grid is a type of horizontal grid that lets you

space out your elements on a vertical axis.
For responsive grids I use 12 columns, 100px margins, and  

20px gutters.
For fixed grids I use 12 columns, 85px width, and 20px gutters.
Click on the “: :” icon and save the grid style to your global styles
and re-use it later on if needed.
Take some notes!
Layouts & Grids 155

Responsive Design
Responsive vs Adaptive design
Since the invention of mobile devices, the web has gradually
become more mobile-focused. It is said that nowadays, 50-60% of
website traffic comes from mobile phones.
Especially now that the majority of commercial content is being
advertised on social media platforms like Instagram, TikTok and
Twitter that direct the traffic to marketed websites.
Browsing the Internet on your phone is much more convenient
because you can do it anywhere, on your daily commute to work,
waiting in line for a pretzel, walking your dog, washing your teeth, or
lying in your bed.
What does it all mean for us, designing website experiences?
It means that we need to meet our users' needs and design the best
possible experience regardless of the device people use. We can
even go futher and say that some websites that rely heavily on
mobile traffic ought to be designed mobile-first and adapted to
desktop later in the design process.
It's not an easy task, by no means.
But with Figma, it's possible.

Adaptive design
Adaptive web design (AWD) is simply designs adapted to a certain
screen resolution. In practice, you design your main screen
(1440x1080 for example) and replicate this design for each major
(and minor) breakpoint manually.
This offers a lot more design flexibility since every screen is custom
designed, but, at the same time, it results in more manual work.
Main advantages
More flexible design
Better performance since web experience is tailored to a devic
Designs are optimized for all devices
Main disadvantages
Much more manual wor
Each device needs a separate design (it could mean 100+ designs
Necessary to design new experiences for new devices
How to approach adaptive design?

The number of devices you choose to design is entirely up to your
needs, budget, and project requirements.
The best practice for designing adaptive layouts is to start from the
smallest breakpoint and scale the design up, ensuring it’s contained
within a certain breakpoint and the usability isn’t lost.

Responsive design
On the other hand, responsive web design (RWD) uses relative
measurement values like % of the viewport width, ems, or rems to
ensure designs automatically adapt to the device's size.
The content is being reorganized and resized to offer a better

experience based on the device's resolution that's being used.
RWD is a very time-efficient way to design websites as you pretty

much design one layout for your site and adjust it for different
screen sizes, mobile included. All content and functionality of a
desktop website is adjusted for the mobile experience.
Main advantages
Consistent experience across all device
Easy to design and maintai
Easily scalabl
Requires less time to design
Main disadvantages
It might be a bit less customized than the adaptive desig
Lacks optimization for specific device
Might be harder to design in Figma

Which one should you choose?
We’ll go for a bit of both. We’ll design our experience responsively for
mobile breakpoints, going from the lowest to highest resolution,
jump to a tablet breakpoint, design responsively for all tablet
resolutions and then jump up to a desktop breakpoint, design up to
1920x1080, and finally finish it off at 2k+ resolution.
An existing site can be optimized for mobile devices with the help of
adaptive design. You can then take charge of the site development
and design for certain different viewports.
Naturally, the user experience should also be taken into account.

Pay close attention to the visual hierarchy of the design as it
transforms, as responsive design rearranges the content to fluidly
match the device window.

Main device breakpoints
Defining the right breakpoints will help us plan the layout much
better. I start designing for three major breakpoints, and these are
1440+ for desktop (sometimes also 1920+
768+ for tablet
360+ for mobile devices
Responsive design in practice
As we mentioned, when designing for web, we need to design for
several devices. Our design must adapt to screen size changes to
contain all the important information.
What that means in practice is that the horizontal desktop layouts
will need to be switched to a vertical layout. You can do that easily by
changing the direction of the auto layout group.

I always repeat that auto layout is one of the first things you should
master when learning design. You will save hours of manual work by
switching the layout direction and positions.
Look at the example below. I was able to adjust the desktop design
to a mobile view in just a few clicks.

Adjusting the text size
The type scale you will use for your desktop devices will differ
greatly from your tablet and mobile counterparts. You need to scale
the text sizes down accordingly to make it more legible and readable
on smaller devices.
An H1 heading might have a size of 62px on a desktop resolution but

at the same time - 32 or 34px on a mobile screen. Paragraph text
might look good as 20 px on a desktop, but on mobile, using 16 or
17px might look much more suitable.
To find the suggested font sizes for desktop and mobile devices go
to Material 2 website and look up the text properties. You can
also use Tailwind CSS as your reference point.

Auto layout 1:1
Auto layout is a dynamic property you can add to your static frames
and components. It lets you create designs that grow or shrink to fit
your container and readjust their size as their contents change. This
is helpful when you need to add layers, make room for longer text
strings, or maintain one alignment as your designs evolve.
The importance of auto layout in design
If you use auto layout properly, you won't have to keep resizing the
elements every time a change has been made, or new items have
been added. Turning your designs responsive is now a breeze as the
layout changes based on the direction you choose.
Let’s cover the basic terms and settings to help you get familiar with
auto layout in Figma.
Jump to the next page!

Auto layout terms
Frames with auto layouts have entirely different properties than
regular frames. Changes appear in the right sidebar panel when you
apply an auto layout. Let’s see what these properties mean.
Spacing
Direction describes the way auto layout elements align within the
dynamic container
Choose a vertical direction to align your objects within an auto-

layout container along the y-axis. We’ll be using this for mobile
mainly
Choose a horizontal direction to align your objects within an
auto-layout container along the x-axis. We’ll use this a lot for card
groups, navigation items, and desktop devices.

Spacing between elements dictates the amount of margin left
between two elements within the auto-layout container.
Padding controls the space between the boundary of the auto
layout frame and its child containers. You can set padding values all
at once or edit them on each axis, horizontally or vertically.

Alignment lets you choose how to align child objects within an auto
layout frame. When you want to align your auto layout selection
group to the bottom, top, left, or correct, look at the alignment and
padding property on your properties' panel on the right.
Unlike objects in a regular frame, you can't control the alignment of
the objects individually. For that reason, you set the alignment of the
child objects on the parent auto layout frame, similar to how it works
in web development. Children inherit their parent's properties.
Use the interactive grid to select nine layout options for the children
in a frame. Align your children elements to left, middle, right, top,
center, and bottom, depending on your needs.

Distribution property let’s you set how objects in an auto layout
frame will be distributed within that frame.
Click the three dots to open advanced layout settings. Next, go

to Spacing mode, use the dropdown to choose:
Packed: Objects in a frame will be grouped together. Use this option

to keep objects in a frame as close as possible and aligned together.
You can also switch between Distribution modes by clicking “X” with
the interactive grid being selected.
Packed distribution is best used for items that need to align to

either side of the container like web navigation items.

Space between: Objects in a frame have the space between them
equally distributed along the direction and alignment set for the
frame. Use this option to stretch objects across a frame.
Auto layout and responsive resizing

One of the biggest strengths of auto layout is its ability to adjust the
dimensions of the objects in an Auto layout frame, depending on
their resizing properties set for each child element and parent
container.
You can choose the resizing behavior for parent auto-layout frames
to adapt to changes to their children's elements.
Resizing settings can be applied individually for objects on both axes

using the dropdown menus in the right sidebar.

Fixed width and height
If we set our auto layout frame to Fixed width or height, the frame's
dimensions will remain the same no matter the size of the content
we place within them. The frame size won't react to changes in the
objects within them.
Fixed dimensions are helpful in setting constraints for content

like images, avatars, and vectors.
You might also find some use for fixed width when setting the size of
your text containers in certain breakpoints.

Hug content
Set it to hug contents if you want your auto layout frame to resize
itself according to its child objects.
Hug container will keep the smallest possible dimensions

surrounding the objects while respecting the padding values set
simultaneously.
Best to use Hug properties for groups of text layers within an auto-
layout container. This will ensure that your text containers adjust to
each other’s heights and align themselves within a container.

Fill container
Every object in an auto layout container set to fill container
adjusts to its parent container's maximum width and/or height.
You should always try to set either fill or hug container properties on
your auto layout elements.
Why not fixed values?
Because we need all elements to be responsively adjusting to the
changes in size of the frame. We’ll have to set constraints for all our
design elements later on, and setting the containers to fill and/or
hug will make sure our elements automatically resize.
Learn more about auto layout here. (it’s a link to official Figma file)

Auto layout and website development
Master the proper use of auto layout, and you’ll understand the
structure of the flexible website grid layouts. Here’s an example:
You put a text layer into a container and that container is nested into
a column div along with the description, a button, and a few icons.

The column is nested in a section consisting of two columns.
You’ve got the block on the left containing all your text layers and
the block (column) on the right with the main image. That image is
also put in a nested container in the right column.
The entire hero section is a part of the page that consists of several
sections like a hero.
If you structure your designs the same way and consciously think
about how the columns and grids you’ll use later in Webflow or
Elementor - you’ll be a step closer to understanding web
development and other developer’s work.

Chapter summary
Adaptive web design (AWD) is simply designs adapted to a
certain screen resolution.
Responsive web design (RWD) uses relative properties to

ensure designs automatically adapt to the device's size.
The type scale you will use for your desktop devices will differ
greatly from your tablet and mobile counterparts.
Auto layout lets you create designs that grow or shrink to fit
your container and readjust their size as their contents change.
Fixed dimensions are helpful in setting constraints for content

like images, avatars, and vectors.
Hug container will keep the smallest possible dimensions

surrounding the objects while respecting the padding values set
simultaneously.
E very object in an auto layout container set to fill container

adjusts to its parent container's maximum width and/or
height.
a e some notes!
T k
Layouts & Grids 175

Designing for mobile
Designing for mobile - best practices
When we design with responsiveness in mind, we must always
remember to design a mobile version of the website.
Mobile means not only phone devices but also tablets. For both
versions, you’ll need to properly rearrange the layout of each
desktop page and make sure it fits right in the contained space.
It’s not hard, no. It’s relatively easy if you ask me. There are, however,
a couple of things you need to keep in mind when designing for
mobile devices.
The right screen size

As mentioned previously, we will need to design for one of the
smallest resolutions for most popular devices like  
iPhone 13 Mini (375x812) or Android (360x800).
From there on, we scale the design up.
Designing for Mobile 177

Keeping a simple navigation
Navigation on mobile devices is quite tricky as you don’t have much
space to implement a tailored solution. You need to go simple.
One way to do it is to hide the additional menus behind hamburger
icons that sit atop of the page next to the business’ logo.

Try not to overcomplicate it
I’ve seen a few sites adding a navigation menu resembling the tab
bar in mobile applications.
I’m not 100% convinced about its functionality since I think it might
get in the way of scrolling, and if you’re using an iPhone, you already
have the Safari search bar at the bottom.
While this might work for simple one-pager websites, I can’t see it
working well for e-commerce stores or more content-heavy sites.
A better way to simplify the navigation would be to offer the main

areas of a site in the nav menu and add search fields for more
specific keywords.

Don’t change the content - adapt it
While designing a desktop experience, you always need to have a
general idea of how your content will look on mobile devices.
responsiveness first!
Imagine you design a portfolio website masterpiece, where
everything animates and changes position, and flows from lef t to
right, and then you try to adapt the same design to mobile devices.
Yup, your content is not accessible and doesn’t make much sense.
Ok, that was a little bit of an abstract example. Seriously though, you
shouldn’t worry that your content is stretched out to infinity when
you lay it out below another. It’s normal, and users are used to
reading long-form content on their mobile phones.
Just try to make the scrolling experience enjoyable, and don’t take
too long to explain an idea or a feature. Keep it concise for your own
good and remember about the attention spans!

Remember about the ratios
Whenever you include videos or images in your designs, you might
need to consider adjusting the ratio on mobile devices.
While 16:9 on desktops looks great, it will look crunched down and
really small on the phone. Therefore you might need to edit your
videos to adjust to a more fitting ratio like 9:16 or at least 4:3.
The same goes for all images. It’s not necessary, but it’s a good
practice to change the ratios so that everything fits nicely into a
frame and is not squished or obscured by other elements.

Scale the text down
This is a big one. When creating a type scale for your website, don’t
forget to add one for your mobile.
You’ll quickly get the hang of what size your headings should be on
phone devices and tablets but if you’re ever in doubt about what size
to use, refer to Material 3 or a popular library like Tailwind CSS.
Remember to scale the line height and letter spacing along with
the size of your text.
You should be aiming for maximum legibility at all times.

A few good mobile design examples
Before we move forward and start another chapter, I'd like to show
you a couple of perfect mobile design examples to get you more
familiar with different design patterns and solutions.
I will add several comments about each of these screens, but I

encourage you to grab your phone and start viewing these websites
yourself. We learn the fastest by replicating and analyzing the work
of others. Whenever you’re browsing an app or a website you should
always think about what you’re looking at. Look at the fonts they use,
the spacing, the visuals, how menus look, where’s the CTA, is there
any motion, etc. Always be exploring.
Navigation is extremely simple
Text is hard to read
Visuals are adjusted perfectly
Lots of white space around
CTA is a bit hidden here

Simple font, extremely readable
Very clear CTA
Beautiful animations!
Grid layout used perfectly
Big and bold social proof
Simple Header with a big CTA
Clear benefit section
Clever use of tabs
Interactive component

Tabs for pricing table
Clear CTAs
Big, visible CTA
Strong social proof section

Sticky CTA on scroll
Simple Header
Clear CTAs
Highlighted benefits section
Another strong social proof section

social proof

Motion and interactions
Motion and interactions
As the name implies, motion design refers to visual effects and/or
graphics that appear in motion or movement.
In design, their primary goal is to assist people by making interface

elements easier to read and adding additional visual cues to certain
actions so that they carry more weight and meaning.
What’s the purpose of motion in web design?
Minh Pham on Dribbble
Motion provides more information in a simpler and usually more

impressive manner. Take Apple, for example. Look at any of their
landing pages promoting new products. Websites with motion are
much more immersive and exciting than endless walls of text.
However, not every website needs this amount of motion.
Motion and interations 187

Some sites will work great with only simple hover states and page
transitions. It depends on the site’s context, the budget, and the
target audience. Just because you can animate everything doesn’t
mean you should.
The purpose of motion in web design is to offer a more dynamic,
memorable experience, improve storytelling, draw more attention,
and make interacting with web interface more engaging
What should we use motion for in design?
1. Status change - This is the most common use of motion, and it
reflects the users’ interaction with the website’s interactive
elements, like a button, an image, or a link.
2. Emphasis - This type of motion should draw attention to a
specific piece of information like a call-to-action, a video, or an
important interface element we want to highlight.
3. Reveal - This type of animation is implemented in elements that
appear from outside of the canvas, like video overlays, menus, or
popups.

Effective use of animation in web design
The kind of websites you see on Awwwards are beautiful, true, but
some of them have animations so intense that they almost set your
laptop on fire.
RLY Network - Awwwards.com
They are, of course made that way purposefully - to awe fellow

designers and showcase their impressive skills.
With regular users and most businesses, you’ll be working with,

using animation like this would be overkill.
Users land on a website, find what they need, take action (or not),
and get out. And our job is to make it easier for them. Not make
them stop and stare at endless animations that look great, sure, but
don’t add anything beneficial to the experience.

To make an effective use of an animation in web design you should
make all interactions:
Feel natural and subtle. Animations should enhance the

experience, not overwhelm the users
Good animations should also be meaningful. Use motion to
provide additional visual cues and add context to the users’
actions. If a user hovers over a button or a set of menu links, add
a subtle hover state, maybe even change the color to make it
more prominent
They should also be swift. Don’t make your animations a few
seconds long. They should be quick and brief, just enough to
direct the attention
They should match the overall tone of your brand. If you’re
building a website for a luxury marble furniture brand, your
animations should be slick and minimalist. If your project is about
pet toys, you can get away with introducing more playful
interactions
Lastly, they should be used in moderation. If all the interface
elements are floating around where should I look at? If an
interaction doesn’t add to the overall experience, don’t add it.

A couple of sites with interesting motion effects.
I know it’s hard to wrap all that theory around your head without
seeing practical examples.
To ease the transition into the world of good motion design, here’s a
list of websites that do it really well. Open each one of them, notice
how they behave, what kind of interactions they use, and think about
what emotions they bring in you.
Framer.com
https://www.framer.com/
Wealthsimple
https://www.wealthsimple.com/
Elemental
https://sendelemental.com/
Glide Apps
https://www.glideapps.com/
Aaply
https://aaply.app/
Createwithplay
https://www.createwithplay.com/
Setpoint
https://www.setpoint.io/

Chapter summary
Hide the additional menus behind hamburger icons that sit

atop of the page next to the business’ logo.
While designing a desktop experience, you always need to have a

general idea of how your content will look on mobile devices.
If possible, change the ratios of images and videos for mobile

screens, so that everything fits nicely into a frame.
Remember to scale the line height and letter spacing along

with scaling down the size of your text for mobile devices.
The purpose of motion in web design is to offer a more

dynamic, memorable experience, improve storytelling, draw
more attention, and make interacting with web interface more
engaging
M otion design provides more information in a simpler and

usually more impressive manner.
Take some notes!
Layouts & Grids 192

Optimizing for conversions
Optimizing for conversions
Websites should serve one purpose - to convert. Conversion rate
optimization is an important step every web designer should know
about and do. It does not only allow you to lower your customer
acquisition costs but also increase the average revenue per visitor.
More customers = more reveune. More revenue = faster growth.
Let’s take an example of a landing page with a conversion rate of 3%

and around 20000 visitors a month. This would mean that this
landing page would generate around 600 conversions per month.
If by following the optimization protocol, we’d be able to increase the

conversion rates to 4.5%, then our conversions per month would
jump up to 900 - a 33% jump in revenue.
Let’s say the AOV (average order value) is $50, this would mean that
by optimizing the site’s conversion rate, we increased the monthly
recurring revenue (MRR) by:
300 (increase in conversions) * $50 = $15,000
That’s an increase of $180,000 per year. Imagine how much you

could charge someone for that service. Probably a lot, right?
Let’s talk about what you need to do to increase the conversions.
Optimizing for Conversion 194

Know your customer journey
While a landing page may be the final destination of a campaign or
online experience, users still need to get there somehow. The
customer journey is not a straight line. Viewers drop of f, come back,
bounce around from page to page, and of ten look for help (reviews,
testimonials, forums) outside before taking the next step.
You should focus specifically on applying design elements that
reduce friction and guide users along the way, step by step. When
the customer is ready to take action to learn more, take the next
step or join a newsletter list, the landing page should facilitate their
action with the least possible friction and dif ficulty. It should be
immediately apparent how to do so.
Notion’s CTA is clear and direct
The more ef fective your website visuals and copy are, the less they
will need assurance from online reviews, friends, and relatives.

Follow Hick’s Law
Named after British psychologist William Edmund Hick, the law
states that the time it takes for an individual to make a decision is
directly proportional to their possible choices.
Can you summarize your offering in a short headline, short

description, and clear, non-confusing call to action? Or perhaps you
need to include multiple CTAs, outbound links, popups, and videos
to explain your offer. Simplify the choices.
Is this where I should click?
Or perhaps here?
Is this the main CTA?
Don’t overcomplicate the design. Simplify your navigation bar, use

one main CTA, and limit the number of links that go outside of your
site. You don’t want to have too many links to click on otherwise, the
user might leave your site and get distracted by another shiny thing.

Include social proof
People want to know that a product they’re considering purchasing
has made other customers happy. Social proof is one of the best
ways to provide that reassurance.
Pipedrive using extremely powerful social proof in their hero section
There are a few ways to provide social proof.
One is to include testimonials or reviews prominently on the landing
page. Another one is to include logos of companies you worked or
partnered with. You can also add videos and press releases.
If you can’t use any of these - include logos of the software you’re
using. Any industry-relevant and recognizable company logo will
help with social proof. It’s a common trick new brands use to
promote their products. If you put a watch next to a Porsche logo,
you’ll make it appear more luxurious simply by association.

Simplify your for email forms
An excellent landing page must have a specific and quantifiable aim.
Asking for too much information can be a quick way to make visitors
lose interest and click away. Don’t ask about too many things before
you qualify a lead - I personally like to go simple - with name,
business name, email, budget (or any relevant question to filter out
the leads), and an optional message field.
If you ask for too many details and the value you provide in exchange
for all that information is hard to justify - they will leave. Ask for the
bare minimum and qualify them later in the funnel.
Barva (this site is no longer live)
This form on Barva’s website requires just the right amount of
information from anyone wanting to get a free quotation.

Use the Gestalt similarity principle
People have certain expectations when visiting websites. They want
to read about the benefits, the features and results, and they want
clear, easy-to-understand call-to-actions. They expect to find
certain elements in places they are used to seeing them - the
navigation bar at the top, the CTA at the top right, the footer at the
bottom, and so on.
When designers stray too much from the established design

patterns, they risk alienating the user and interfering with the
completion of the task at hand. Experimental designs are great, but
they must be thoughtfully created by experienced designers.
For example, Webflow went with a more experimental hero design

with a big bold heading that demands most attention, description
that’s disconnected, and a smaller but vibrant CTA. It oddly works!

Avoid clutter!
Landing pages should only include the information necessary for the
person who landed on that page to complete the desired task. The
more investment is needed on the part of the visitor, in most cases,
the more information will be required.
A newsletter that doesn’t ask for payment information is a low-risk
offer and wouldn’t require as much information to be presented.
However, a page requesting a user to make a purchase will generally
need to provide more information to the user. That amount of
information only goes up as the price point increases.
setupfied.com
Newsletters or waitlist sites are the best examples of that. Low-
effort and low-risk offers with a potentially valuable return.

Go even further, remember to K.I.S.S.
“Keep it Simple, Stupid” - a design principle coined in 1960 by the
U.S. Navy that’s very much applicable to web design.
Simplicity is super important when it comes to driving conversions.
Whenever you’re creating a page, ask yourself whether there’s a way
to make it simpler and more aesthetically pleasing.
Simplicity is more than just limiting the options. It’s about creating a
clean, uncluttered design that minimizes distractions. Creating a
great user experience on your website means removing anything
that isn’t absolutely necessary to the design.
Apple Store - iPhone 14 Pro page
Apple is one of the greatest examples of simplicity in web design,
and it is so effective that countless other brands have followed suit.

You only have seconds, yes, seconds.
A general rule of thumb is that you have between 1-5 seconds to get
a visitor’s attention. That’s roughly the length of a human attention
span. Yes, it’s shorter than the attention span of a goldfish!
You only have a very tiny window of opportunity to engage a user

when they first land on your site, so make those seconds count!
Here are a few quick tips to keep your users engaged

Use large, benefit-driven headlines that are easy to understan
Use eye-catching visuals that add context to your landing page
and draw attention toward the CTA (images and videos
Add hover effects to your interactive elements (buttons, links
Make sure your CTAs are prominent and easily clickable
Try to include the main value proposition in the hero section
Use high-quality images
Instead of boring images, you should source high-quality photos
that develop positive associations with the content and that feel
more personal than random.
Remember: people tend to connect with brands that they feel are
similar to themselves. If your imagery is too “stock-like” and
“corporate”, you’ll turn your visitors away.

Which image do you relate with more? The top or the bottom one?
Ask yourself this question when choosing images for your site.

If you can, show faces of people
This brings me to another point - people like to see human faces.
Connecting with a product or service is easier if you see other
people happily using or recommending it. That’s why we started
putting more trust into influencer recommendations than celebrity
ads with the rise of social media. Connecting with people who feel
much closer to us is much easier.
Incorporate faces into all sections, case studies, testimonials, opt-in
pages, and forms to boost conversions. Point happy faces towards
your CTAs to direct extra attention.
Withjuno.com uses this trick in almost every section of their landing
page. The subject is always directed toward the copy or CTA.//f///

Where to find good quality images and illustrations?
Here are some of our favorite places for finding free stock photos
that are high quality and free for commercial and personal use
Pexel
Unsplas
StockSna
Picjumbo
If your budget allows for that and you’re looking for a little bit more
premium and custom images, visit the Adobe Stock.
If you need to look for illustrations - check out the sites below
Ls.Graphic
Icons
Freepik Premiu
UI8.net
That’s about it for this chapter! Let’s move on to the next one.
The web design process is coming in 3, 2, 1...

Chapter summary
You should focus specifically on applying design elements that
reduce friction and guide users along the way, step by step.
You don’t want to have too many links to click on; users might
leave your site and get distracted by something else.
People want to know that a product they’re considering

purchasing has made other customers happy. Social proof is
one of the best ways to provide that reassurance.
Asking for too much information can be a quick way to make

visitors lose interest and click away.
Landing pages should only include the information necessary

to complete the desired task.
People tend to connect with brands that they feel are similar to
themselves. If your imagery is too “stock-like” and
“corporate”, you’ll turn your visitors away.
If you can - show faces of people
Take some notes!
Layouts & Grids 206

Web Design Process
SmartBank Landing Page UI
Before we dive into the next chapter and explain the entire design
process of the landing page, I wanted to spend a minute and tell you
how I would approach studying this chapter.
I designed this landing page to show you first-hand what my
standard website design looks like. There are a few stages that I’ve
given less attention to because it would be impossible to explain the
entire UX and UI process in one book and describe it in an easy-to-
learn manner.
I will release a series of video guides to talk about each stage of
the UX process in more detail.
In this chapter I’ll explain my personal web design process that let
me design over 100 websites in the past 3 years, all successfully
received and launched live.
As with the Design Manual, while designing this LP I assumed many
things. Normally, I’d spend much more time on researching and
analyzing the market, have a few stakeholder interviews, maybe run
a UX workshop and get more context about the product.
I will show you all the UX stages I follow when working on a new site
and share with you the templates I use for each of them.
SmartBank Landing Page UI 208

It’s the same app we created in the Design Manual ebook.
If you haven’t purchased the Manual yet and are also interested in
mastering mobile design - click this link to get 50% off the regular
price. Cheers!

A few words before we start
The material in this ebook is meant to show you the best practices
when designing high-quality landing pages for commercial clients (in
the $5000-15000+ price range).
I’m not saying that this is the one and only approach to designing
websites; it’s one that I have been successfully following for the past
few years, working with multiple teams, developers, companies, and
corporations where the prices of a single website reached $50k+ in
billables. This process will not cover building and maintaining
extensive design systems, branding work, nor version control, but
for a team of 3 and projects up to $15k will work just great!
Sincerely, treat it as your reference point to start designing from.

Intro to the project
Intro to the project
In this part, we’ll design a landing page for a Fintech startup. You will
find the Project Requirements document in the official SmartBank
Landing Page figma file on the “Project Overview” page.
I wanted to give you an example of a landing page that includes all

the important segments every successful LP should have.
Unfortunately, due to limited resources and time allocated for this
project (it was a spontaneous decision to include a UI kit in this
ebook and we only spent a couple days on it) it’s not the direct
equivalent of a $10,000 website that I’d normally spent around
80-100 hours working on. Please, treat it as your reference and a
framework as far as the landing page structure goes.
We will design a number of most commonly used segments - a hero

section, problem-solution segments, social proof, testimonials,
CTA, newsletter, and a few more. Designs will be broken down into
small and extra -large viewports for desktop and mobile views.
We’ve also used dynamic components and created global styles
so that, if need be, you’re free to modify and edit every single
segment of the landing page and create your own concept. Kind of
like your dynamic mini-UI system kit.   
That’s it for the intro! Let’s discuss our design process now!
Intro to the project 212

The web design process
There is no single web design process that everyone uniformly
follows. On the contrary, I’d even risk it to say there are as many
processes as there are designers. It doesn’t matter what design
process you follow as long as you include all these major steps.
In this chapter, I’ll explain my personal web design process that let
me design over 100 websites in the past 3 years, all successfully
delivered and received.
To better visualize each stage of the process, I’ve included a

custom-designed landing page for a fintech app - SmartBank.
A word about UX
Once again, this ebook is meant to be a handbook for web
designers. It covers UX design and research on a really high level, the
kind of research I would do for a commercial client that needs a
refresh or a rebrand. More in-depth UX analysis for higher-ticket
clients would require a much different approach, budget, and
possibly a bigger designer team.
I wanted to make this ebook valuable to everyone, regardless of their

level of experience and expertise.
We’ll have to cover the higher-ticket projects (team projects) in a

separate video course if more people are interested in that.

Client Project Brief
Usually, before you start any design work, client needs to provide
you with a project brief. Either a formal Request for Proposal (RFP) or
an email with a simple Client Brief attached.
It typically outlines the project's initial goals, as well as many of the

client's expectations for the final product's functionality, aesthetic,
and project deliverables. Deliverables include documents, branding
and marketing material, sketches, wireframes, style guides, and
anything else that a client expects you to provide.
The client may also specify due dates for each deliverable
(milestones), however, whether they meet those dates is a whole
different story. It’s good to make your clients accountable for it too.
nuclino.com

Discovery Questionnaire
A designer will, in turn, analyze the project brief and either come up
with a discovery questionnaire to cover areas of the project that are
not well defined or create a project backlog to agree on specific
deliverables, the scope of work, and the milestone deadlines.
Design is often a lengthy and complicated process and needs a lot
of attention in the initial stage - the project preparation.
Once you and your client have a good overview of the project’s
requirements, you define the SOW (scope of work) and agree on
milestones - you create a contract, and you both sign it. Then, you
send the deposit invoice, collect the payment, run a kick-off session
on Zoom (not necessary), and you begin your research. Good job!

Project research - what do you start with
Good research will determine if your project is successful or not. A
designer should know everything there is to know about the
business they're designing the website for.
There are many techniques to conduct research, many of which I'll
discuss later in this chapter. The following research's findings
provide many important deliverables for the design process:
Insights to generate the ideas (audit and competitor ’s research
Market analysis (interviews, SWOT analysis
User problems applied in a real-life context (user persona, use
cases, user journeys, and user flows)
Although it’s not mandatory for designers to participate in the
research itself, they need access to the research findings.
If you’re working in an agency for a bigger project, it of ten happens
that another research-focused agency performs the market
research and compiles all findings in a document for you to read and
analyze. If you’re a solo designer working on a lower-ticket project
($5k-15k) you might be required to conduct the research yourself.
In this chapter, you’ll find my personal suggestions on what you
might want to consider when carrying out project research.

Ask questions
Your design should solve the problems of your clients and their
users. And to do that you need to define a good solution.
There's no way of defining a good solution without first
understanding the company behind the product or the website for
which you are providing a service for.
You must fully understand the business of the organization that
hired you as a designer. You may obtain this information from
various sources, including reading briefs and company documents
and speaking with important stakeholders.
The real term for these conversations is a "stakeholder interview,"
but it may seem slightly too formal. These conversations have a
more casual tone. Stakeholder interviews are one of the best ways
to create trust and build rapport with your new client.
Competitor’s audit
The first thing I do before I start creating my site’s architecture is I
start by auditing the competition. This will help me do two things -
one, I will be able to find common design patterns used by the
competitors and analyze things I like and dislike about each site.
Two, it will serve me as a foundation for the SWOT (strengths,
weaknesses, opportunities, threats) analysis in the next step.

For a successful audit, I will need to analyze at least 2-3 direct
competitors (same product, same niche) and 1-3 indirect
competitors (same niche, different product).
I note things like copy, visuals, CTAs, sitemap, etc. I also like to get
immersed and look at everything from a user's point of view.
That's also why creating a couple of user journeys might also be a

good idea since you'll be able to track all the steps needed to
accomplish a goal from a users’ perspective. I also track the time
needed to complete each goal to identify the weak spots and find
ways to improve the time-to-completion and overall experience.
How do you choose a goal? With some products, there might be

several different actions a user could take.
Which one should you consider? Well, most, if not all of them.
You will need to come up with different use cases for your product.
And to come up with use cases, you will need to conduct a number
of interviews with stakeholders and users of the product. It requires
a lot of back-and-forth communication to do it right.
Do you now see how the entire UX phase is connected? In the

perfect environment, you go from one step to another to create an
entire backbone of your product before you even start visual design.

In practice, that’s rarely the case. You’re limited by budget and time
constraints, and if you’re a solo freelancer, you’ll rarely work with
bigger teams and UX phase will be much simplified.
That’s why you’d have to modify and adjust your scope of work
depending on the budget and time you have allocated for a specific
project. For most lower-priced projects, I start with the audit, create
a SWOT analysis, create 1-3 user journeys to understand the flow
better, create a sitemap, and start drawing a few sketches.
Once I have the initial research ready, I analyze the results and start
with a really rough low-fidelity template to build the page’s structure.

Chapter summary
Usually, before you start any design work, client needs to provide
you with a project brief. Either a formal Request for Proposal
(RFP) or an email with a simple Client Brief attached.
Once you and your client have a good overview of the project’s
requirements, you define the SOW (scope of work) and agree
on milestones
Good research will determine if your project is successful or not.

A designer should know everything there is to know about the
business they're designing the website for.
Stakeholder interviews are one of the best ways to create trust

and build rapport with your new client.
Competitor audits will help you find common design patterns

used by the competitors and analyze them. They should also
serve you as a foundation for the SWOT analysis.
Take some notes!
Layouts & Grids 220

The UX process
SWOT analysis
SWOT analysis is a traditional marketing method used in strategic
business planning to specify internal and external factors that could
influence the company’s goals.
SWOT is divided into four main categories: strengths,
weaknesses, opportunities, and threats.
They allow the company to develop the strengths and alleviate the
weaknesses. For example, the strengths can refer to an easy to
navigate website, weaknesses to a design that is not responsive.
Finding a weak spot of a competitor gives an opportunity to improve
it and turn it into the biggest strength of the business.
Traditional competitor analysis in the marketing field concentrates

on adjusting the marketing strategy to the vision of business
development by defining the scope and the character of the
industry, pointing out the direct and indirect competitors.

The UX analysis
The UX analysis is not just about comparing websites and assessing
the diversity of a design but rather about how the site is used and
whether the user enjoys the interaction or not. Participation in the
flow of information, filling out forms, subscribing to newsletters, and
using chatbots, all these components contribute to the usability of
the website and the impressions associated with using it.
When analyzing a competitor, it may be tempting to directly copy

the design and the functionality of a competitor's website or
strategy. It is important for you to strive for a unique UX, as not every
solution that is advantageous for the competition will also serve a
different brand.
A typical UX analysis of a competition should include 2-4

competitors. A number that’s higher than that may complicate the
entire analytical process and lead to unreliable results
Direct competitors: with the same products, services, or users.

Indirect competitors: with similar products, services but
targeting different users.
The criteria used in the UX competitor analysis vary depending on

the brand and information needed. Below is a list of criteria that
serves as the basis for any competition.

A typical UX analysis consists of:
• Content – The site must be useful and structured to allow the
user to find all the essential information in an easy to
comprehend way. It applies to arranging pages within the
website, layout of the navigation menus, header naming.
• Aesthetics – The aesthetics must be consistent with the

brand identity and, at the same time, be innovative and eye-
catching.
• Heuristics – it refers to the key aspects of usability (Usability

Heuristics for UI by Norman and Nielsen Group) that need to be
included and completed during web design.
One of the factors that may disrupt the results of UX analysis is

delegating it to an inexperienced person that does not know the
brand or market.
Therefore, I repeat, it’s crucial for you to understand the product

before you start the analysis. Take the time to learn all there is to
know about the brand you’re working with.
Competitor UX analysis should be conducted on a regular basis to

gather the most up to date information.

Creating a clear sitemap/Information architecture
Milanote.com
A sitemap serves as a foundation for every new website. In the web
development world, sitemaps are used to let search engines know
about your website's page structure and the relationship between
pages on your site. As web designers, we'll refer to UX sitemaps which
will serve as a reference for building our XML (HTML) sitemaps.
UX sitemaps are created to understand users better and offer them a
much better experience on the site while bringing companies closer to
their business goals. Treat it as your starting point before any visual
work can be initiated.
In the context of UX, the sitemap has transformed into a key
component of the website's design process, so we'll start from that.

With every sitemap, I simplify the navigation as much as possible.
Include the main pages at the top level, branching out to mid-level
pages from there. These are usually placed in the header.
I put all the lower-level pages (that don’t carry as much importance)
in the footer navigation. I try not to hide any pages and offer a way to
browse them all either through a header menu or the footer.
Not knowing where to find information about a page is one of the

most common UX mistakes one can make. It’s annoying and leaves
users frustrated. If your site has a lot of pages - add a search input
field and let your users search your site’s depository by typing
keywords or browsing through a category page.
I don’t overcomplicate this part. One branch of a sitemap covers one

page and shows the top-level navigation, with lower-level navigation
being segmented that redirects to a dedicated page.
Optimizing Intro to the project 226

How should you create a sitemap?
1. Define the purpose of the website - you start by defining the
website's main goal - the unique value proposition (UVP). You create
the UVP together with the stakeholders by running several internal
interviews, carrying out a UX workshop, or proposing it yourself after
the competitor’s research and analysis. It will clearly indicate what
the website should focus on.
2. Conducting the necessary research - collecting user data based
on target markets and what information your potential customers will
look for on the website. They should be directly related to the
purpose of the website.
3. Specifying types of content - after indicating what content the
user needs to see on the website, one must specify in what form it
should be provided to him. Depending on their nature, contents may
take the form of videos, podcasts, questions, answers, etc..
4. Creating global navigation - the sitemap is a hierarchical
structure, so navigation should be presented as its first level. All
pages on the site should be logically related to the main navigation.
5. Creating content sections based on global navigation - content
should be structured on the second and third levels so that all
material is organized in a logical sequence and available at all times.

How to visualize the sitemap
Sitemap, in its simplest form consists of blocks with names
representing pages and showing relationships between them.
I’ve included a sitemap template I would normally use in the

SmartBank Landing Page Figma file, so check it out later if you need
some guidance.
Now that we have our sitemap let’s move on to discuss our initial
sketches and the importance of having a “Sandbox” page.

Sketches/Sandbox
Once I have the competitor ’s research carried out, got my notes
about what I like and dislike about my competitor ’s site, I have my
SWOT analysis and know exactly what needs to be improved, and I
know how my site’s architecture will look like - it’s time to brainstorm
ideas, grab a pen, and transfer all of my initial thoughts onto a paper.
I either create a new Sandbox page in my project file and star t
designing a few quick hero mockups, maybe create a section or two
and see how I feel about them.
At the same time, I grab a piece of paper and a pen, and I star t
drawing boxes and lines that resemble my site’s sections - a header,
a hero image, headline, description, CTA, and progressively move
down the page, roughly outlining each section.

The recipe for the perfect “Landing Page”
How do I know how many sections to include in my landing page
design? I had to come up with and follow a SaaS Landing Page
template framework. I modified it slightly over the years by analyzing
how other successful product sites are structured nowadays, and I
took inspiration from that.
After many years of designing websites, I developed a theory on

what every successful website should include.
The number of sections depend on how much information I have

available for a given product but usually, I try to include the following:

Heade
A standard header with a logo, a menu, and a CT
Hero section with:
a strong visual (video or a product image
actionable CT
SEO-optimized heading and descriptio
Social proof/Benefits section
Client/partner logo(s) or key benefits of a product
Problem - Solution statement
To highlight an important user problem and offer an
immediate solution - this should be their biggest concern
Either “How it works” or another Problem-solution statemen
To explain the process and reinforce the positive emotions
associated with solving the issues a user is faced with
Benefit-driven section(s
To show more benefits coming from the use of the product
Incentive sectio
Any sort of gamification to incentivize the potential customer.
This could be a freebie, a trial, a gift in return for a simple
action like leaving an email or inviting a friend
Testimonials/Social proo
To reinforce the sense of trust and build social proof.

Pricing sectio
Be as transparent with the customer as possible. Hiding prices
behind a login wall feels cheap; don’t do that
Main CT
Put CTAs next to each problem-solution and benefit-driven
sections of the landing page to add more context
And offer one main CTA segment at the bottom of the page.
Secondary CT
Add a secondary CTA, either to learn more about the product
or offer some high-value/low-effort freebie like a free guide or
an ebook in order to capture emails
If your customers are not ready to take action yet, they need
more convincing, and you can’t do anything if you don’t have
any point of contact with them - try to capture their email
Foote
Lastly, you need a footer to host the remaining pages, add
important quick links for easier access. You also need to
include legal pages, terms, and privacy policies - all must be
present as they are required and regulated by authorities.
You will also find this template in the “ Landing Page framework”
page located in the main Figma file “01. SmartBank Landing Page”.
Check it out and feel free to use for you own needs!

Chapter summary
SWOT analysis is a traditional marketing method used in
strategic business planning to specify company’s goals.
The criteria used in the UX competitor analysis vary depending

on the brand and information needed.
In the web development world, Sitemaps are used to let search

engines know about your website's page structure and the
relationship between pages on your site.
Sitemap, in its simplest form consists of blocks with names

representing pages and showing relationships between them.
The number of sections on a Landing Page depend on how

much information you have available for a given product
A typical Landing Page would consist of sections like header,

hero, social proof, problem-solution statements, benefits,
incentives, testimonials, main CTA, secondary CTA, and a footer.
Take some notes!
Layouts & Grids 233

The UI process
Inspiration boards and moodboard
A default definition of an inspiration board is “a collage of various
items, as photographs, drawings, words, fabric swatches, paint
chips, and textures, used to visualize specifics in the design of a
project or an event.” What it’s usually is for us, in the UI design
space, is a collage of app screens and website shots used for visual
inspiration, and the creation of mood boards.
What I always do after I get the initial direction from a stakeholder’s

discovery questionnaire is go over to Dribbble and spend a good 30
minutes browsing different designs for visual inspiration.
How do I decide which designs to consider when creating my

inspiration board?
I collect the initial feedback and project specification from

stakeholders. The discovery questionnaire I send out goes over the
visual expectations for the brand’s appeal, asking questions like
website inspiration, the brand’s perceived look and feel, the main
keywords that should describe the brand in question, and things my
clients dislike about their competitor’s brands.
This gives me an overall understanding of what I should look for. My

client’s preference lies more in neo-brutalist designs? I try to find
sites that resemble that look and feel.

If they want something more professional and minimalist - I turn to
that direction and begin my search for these kinds of visuals.
If they have brand identity guidelines, the work is different - I move

on to create the style guide for digital use.
Design Manual - SmartBank Brand Guidelines
Where to find inspiration

My main visual inspiration source is Dribbble. A site that gets a lot of
hate from the UX community for indirectly promoting bad “good”
design examples and non-commercial ready work.
For visual inspiration, though, it’s perfect. You won’t find this many
examples anywhere. And remember, we don’t need the user-
centered masterpieces here, we just need as many colorful designs
as possible to come up with the visual direction for our new project.

Dribbble
Dribbble is the first place I star t my search, but it’s not where I end it.
The two other sites that are as inspiring as Dribbble are
saaslandingpage.com and onepagelove.com.
They are much higher quality as the sites being published on these
sites are commercially approved sites developed by professional
design teams. Similar to Dribbble, I open each site I like, screenshot
it and drop it into my file.

I spend no more than 30 minutes on this part. Once I have a good
number of visual inspiration collected, I end up with an artboard that
looks similar to this
The next step I take is I give my visual inspiration a high-level overview

and group all the similar designs into visually similar groups.

Mood boards
Mood boards are an invaluable tool for designers to develop a visual
language. They are an important step in the design process that
helps guarantee the project will produce the brand appeal and
visuals our stakeholders are looking for.
I normally begin by creating the inspiration board and organizing all the
sources of inspiration into distinct groups that share a common color
palette and pattern of design.
Some people consider mood boards as a waste of time or pure

entertainment. But here’s the thing - they take very little time to
create and are an amazingly useful resource.
How are mood boards created

I normally begin by creating the inspiration board and organizing all
the sources of inspiration into distinct groups that share a common
color palette and design pattern.
That’s the first step we explained on the previous pages.

Once they are all grouped, I organize them into a presentation
template and add a title and a description to explain the color
selection and the overall visual direction.
It pays to give this stage of the process more attention than it
typically receives.
Having a mood board in place and receiving verbal confirmation
from stakeholders about the visual direction will save you countless
hours on modifying and “fixing” the style of fonts, changing accent
colors, or switching to completely different visuals.
Really, it’s a huge time saver, don’t skip it!

How many mood boards should you create?
I’d say don’t create more than three. The more options you give your
clients the harder it is to decide. Especially when dealing with many
decision makers. It’s just not a good idea.
Try to keep the number of visual directions to 2-3 at most.
Once you have all mood boards created, prepare for a presentation.
Show your findings to the client, and share your thoughts.
Remember, you’re the person they came for guidance, and they
should trust your judgment. If your client decides he wants to “mix”
different styles instead and create a frankenstein-like, tasteless
blend of a brand, you should be the one to put a stop to this.
You need to “push” them towards making better choices.

You’ve got a winner - what now?
Let’s make a few assumptions now and theorize the outcome -
looking at our brief, we see that our brand should be modern and
clean, with a fresh design that attracts younger audiences.
After sharing our results with stakeholders, we decided that mood

board number 3 captures these feelings the best. So, we go with
that option.
What should we do now?

We say our goodbyes, end the call, and jump straight back into our
beloved Figma. It’s time to create the Style Guide .

Style guide
A style guide is an organized collection of design elements like
fonts, colors, imagery, and icons, along with their usage guidelines.
It ensures that each website page will have a consistent appearance,
look and feel. Style guides are the main information source when
designing web or mobile applications.
Styles guides typically cover the use of fonts, colors, grids, and
spacing. It helps ensure people adhere to a very rigid and precise
design style that is coherent across all platforms and media rather
than just making things up as they go.
Imagine a company or a design team not using a shared file that
details a product's desired feel and look.
What would happen then? Users would be lef t confused and
irritated by all the visual inconsistencies. We all like consistency, and
we’re drawn to aesthetic and harmonious things.
Note: Most website style guides include guidelines for typography,
iconography, layouts and grids, color palette, and main components
like buttons, input fields, and selectors. More detailed
documentation of all your components in all their states falls
under a design system definition.

Color palette
By choosing colors from our mood board and showing our
stakeholders a presentation of the color choices, you should both
come to a conclusion about choosing the primary color.
Now, you need to continue developing the full-color palette.
There are many ways to do it, some fully automated, and some
requiring a little bit more work. If we’re limited by time and/or
budget, we should opt for the easiest, most time-efficient way, i.e.
using a sof tware or a Figma plugin.
Let’s start with option number 1 - Material Theme Builder
This is by far the easiest and most automated way to create color
palettes that align with Material UI guidelines.

You can create a color system by either uploading an image (of your
mood board, for example) or manually selecting primary and
secondary colors. The rest of the palette will be created for you.
What’s good about this plugin is that you’ll have global styles auto-
generated that are WCAG-compliant. You’ll also generate a default
typography system. This plugin really is amazing!
Your color palettes will be generated in multiple tones (tints and

shades) , and that’s what the 50-100-200 next to the typography
style means. 500 is the main color value you should use for your
primary, secondary, and tertiary default colors.
50 is the lightest tone you get before turning to pure white. 900 is
the darkest before turning to pure black. You’ll most likely be using
50, 100, 500, and 700-900 tones. Rest is there for added flexibility.

I like to take all the X-500 values and create the main “Color palette”
style group that hosts all my main colors.
You most likely won’t need all of your tonal palette colors to design.
That’s why i try to keep it simple and design with around 6-8
colors total, including light and dark backgrounds.
Let’s take a look at what colors were generated for us by uploading
the mood board image to the Material Theme Builder plugin:
If you’re ok with the suggested colors - roll with it. If you want to
change the tint of your primary or secondary color, do it now and
then generate the tonal palette again. It will update the values.

Apart from the Material color palette generated by the Theme
Builder plugin, I might also use Ant Design or Atlassian color profiles.
To do that, I use the “Foundation: Color Generator” plugin, choose
a pre-made profile, click on “Create Styles” and “Palette”, and add
the generated frames to my “Style Guide” page.
This approach requires more manual work, especially when selecting

your secondary and tertiary colors.
I usually want to aim for a pretty vibrant primary color but with
enough contrast between its background and text foreground that
it’s perfectly accessible across all digital platforms. I might go for
blue, purple, orange, pink, or whatever matches the brand’s language.
I like to use the psychology of color to determine what colors my

client should go for.

Typography
In terms of typography, I usually suggest and present 1-3 fonts that I
feel work best with my client’s brand. However, I’m not too stressed
on this part. Changing fonts is as easy as using a simple plugin
(Batch Styler) and updating them in the global styles.
We can always update our fonts later on with little to no effort.
As my top choice, I went with the Avenir Next for the headings and
Inter for body-styled text. I wanted to have beautiful geometric fonts
that are readable on all sorts of devices and perfectly legible in
different font sizes, both very big and very small.
Let’s say that the client agreed on the first try, and we were able to
move on to create the type scale.
headings Avenir Next

body Inter

Here’s what a standard type scale would look like for a web project:
Display 1 and 2 sizes are the highest in the hierarchy which means that
for web development purposes, I would tag them as my H1s.
What’s the difference between display 1 and headline 1? Depending
on the layout, I might use 72px display style for my main “Hero”
heading, but on the “About us” page, the same style could not work the
same, and I might need to reduce the size to - let’s say 56px and use
the headline 1 style instead.
Apar t from the display, h1-h6 tags, you will also need a subheading type
of text, a button text, caption, chip, and dif ferent types of body text.
You will also need more flexibility on mobile devices and scale down
desktop styles from h1 to h3 or h4 when designing the mobile views.
You will need to be more thoughtful and precise on smaller devices.

Typography system
The typography system is fairly easy to build. I use the styles
generated by the Material Theme Builder or refer to Tailwind CSS
guidelines. For my paragraph text, I will use the default 16px size. This
will come in handy in web development, where 16px will be my root
font size to design responsive layouts.
As for the rest, I structure my headings with web development in

mind. That means I want to follow a semantic structure going from h1-
h6. For example: my main hero heading will be an h1 heading, next
section will have several h2 headings.
If a section under h2 heading contains a number of columns with

titles, these titles will have an h3 tag, and so on.
H2
H3
H4
A standard H2-H4 text hierarchy

Layout grid - desktop
We already covered this, but to reiterate - I build websites on a
standard 12-column grid. I start designing on a 1440x1024 frame and
left around 100 px of margin on the sides. I leave gutters at 20px, and
that’s pretty much it.
When I build my site on Webflow or Elementor, I use a 1240 px box

width as my website’s container and increase it to a max width of
1920 px. I design both resolutions in Figma to see how my design
would scale up with responsive sizing on Webflow/Elementor.
When you go into development, you might want to switch to a more

responsive-friendly way of setting up your margins using
percentages, EMs, or viewport width values.
We’ll cover that in a video series on Youtube in the following months.

Layout grid - mobile
For mobile website views, I start designing on an iPhone 13 Mini
frame (375 x 812) and use a standard 8 px grid with 16-20 px side
margins. I set up a grid of 4 columns with 8-16 px gutters. Then I
simply toggle it on and off if I need a quick reference and realign
elements (“Control + G” on Mac and “Control + Shift + 4” on Win).
I also design one mobile view on a larger device - iPhone 13 Pro Max
and depending on the needs, I also design a tablet view.
I generally don’t start designing mobile-first unless my project is

designed to be used on mobile devices primarly.
Usually, what I do is I start designing for desktop, design my dynamic

components and adjust them to a mobile screen. I use dynamic
sections to, if needed, make changes across the entire website.

Imagery and visuals
When choosing my project imagery I always aim to use one style or a
library. I don’t like mixing different illustration styles. It just doesn’t
look good. I find one library (ideally the bigger the better) to create
consistent visuals. It’s best if they’re in a vector format. This gives
me more flexbility as I can easily edit all colors, and mix and match
them with each other to create new compositions.
For our web project I chose the Bento 3d models from ui8’s library.
Bento Matte Fintech
Their 3D renders look cartoonish with a nice clay-like texture, with

visible roundness and playfulness matching our choice of fonts and
colors for the project. At the same time, they’re not going overboard
- just the right amount of playful I’m looking for.

Chapter summary
For visual inspiration I use Dribbble, saaslandingpage.com and
onepagelove.com.
Styles guides typically cover the use of fonts, colors, grids, and
spacing.
i try to keep my color choices simple and design with around 6-8
colors total, including light and dark backgrounds.
In terms of typography for a style guide, I usually suggest and
present 1-3 fonts that I feel work best with my client’s brand.
For type scales use the styles generated by the Material Theme
Builder plugin or refer to Tailwind CSS guidelines.
I structure my headings with web development in mind. That
means I want to follow a semantic structure going from h1-h6.
W hen choosing my pro ect imagery I always aim to use one
j
style or a library. I don’t mi different illustrations styles.

x
Take some notes !
mart ank anding age I

S B L P U 254
Wireframes
Wireframes
Once we’ve got the base for our visual style established and our
research completed, it’s time to sketch up some wireframes. How
much fidelity is enough for this stage? It all depends on your
preference, the client’s budget, and the time allocated for the
project. Some designers skip low fidelity altogether and jump
straight into mid or (not recommended!) high fidelity.
Which one should you choose? Let’s talk about that.
Low-fidelity wireframe
I’m not the biggest fan of low fidelity. It’s not that I don’t find it
valuable. A general overview of what needs to be included on a site
or a page is crucial and will save you a lot of time.
You shouldn’t freestyle this stage.
What I like to do is create a rough sketch, either on paper or by using

a ready-made wireframe kit and add sections that would resemble
my high-fidelity design. This is different from the copy and the type
of visuals I will use in my end design. It’s an overview of the sections I
want to include, and that’s it. I’ll play more with the concept in later
stages. Right now, this is all created for my future reference.
Here’s how I like to do that (next page)
Higher fidelity work 256

Such wireframes represent a general idea of what I’d like to include
in each section. How I’m going to display that will be shown on my
mid-fidelity and high-fidelity designs. I treat my low-fidelity
wireframe as a blueprint to lay the foundation for my project visuals.
This wireframe should also serve you as a framework for building

product-oriented landing pages. I wanted to include every section
that potentially increases the conversion rates and offers the most
complete browsing experience.
You’ll see me include a hero, social proof sections, problem-solution

segments, benefits, testimonials, pricing, CTAs., newsletters, etc.
Anyway, I steer away from the main topic. Let’s take our designs up a
notch and go into mid-fidelity. Next page!

Mid-fidelity wireframe
They depict the layout much more accurately and detail individual
components like buttons, text, and links.
Depending on the approach and client requirements, it usually

includes the correct spacing and font sizes. Colors are either in
grayscale or by the style guide's color scheme.
This version is the closest to a high-fidelity prototype; it may or may

not strictly follow the exact font styles and colors as the prototype,
which typically excludes final photos, illustrations, and other visuals.
They are fantastic if you want to develop and showcase an idea

before getting buried in the details. While designing in mid-fidelity, I
create dynamic components to modify them later.

High-fidelity wireframes
These represent the closest iteration to the final product. All layers
are named appropriately, and all spacing values are fixed, colors as
well as all visuals are finalized. Copy is replaced with the final text.
Once I have the high-fidelity wireframe, I create 4-6 designs:
small and large phone (375x812 and 430x932

small and large desktop (1440x1024 and 2560x1440
and sometimes, a tablet view (744x1133).
With these frames ready, I create a very simple clickable prototype

and use “Breakpoints” plugin to show how the designs should look
when resized depending on different screen resolutions.

Design Iterations - how many is too many?
Creating a high-fidelity design is technically the end of the visual
design process. Well, maybe apart from creating a prototype.
You shouldn’t be doing design iterations at this point. Clients like to

take their time, sometimes an eternity, to make you make design
changes that have little to no impact on the visuals or the UX at all.
I can’t say how many hours I wasted on making design changes due
to misunderstandings that occurred earlier on in the process
because the requirements hadn’t been properly addressed.
Problems most frequently result from improper expectations
management on the part of one or both parties. That’s why having a
contract and/or SOW (scope of work) document is so important.
What if they want to make constant changes to a design?
First, if you have to run design iterations, do them in the low or mid-
fidelity stage and limit them to a certain number, 2-3 at most.
If you sign an agreement for ongoing design work, a monthly

retainer, for example, have as many design iterations as your client
wishes to. Otherwise, offer 2-3 rounds of iterations and that’s it.
Be vigilant about the amount of feedback you receive, and always try
to collect as much information from your clients as possible. This
will make the design process much more fluid.

Putting it all together
A client has come to us with a proposal to design a landing page for
their upcoming fintech app. The website should show the main
advantages of using the mobile application, showcase its benefits,
show how it works, and what problems it solves for the user.
The brief, project requirements, SOW, contracts
We already received the client brief, sent the questionnaire,
established the project requirements, suggested a timeline, outlined
the scope of work (SOW), and signed the contract.
We ran a few stakeholder interviews, a competitor’s audit, and a
market analysis. Using these insights, we created the SWOT analysis
and designed our sitemap/Information architecture.

Foundation for the wireframes
We brainstormed multiple ideas on paper and on our “Sandbox”
page. We shared them with stakeholders and created a low-fidelity
wireframe to show the page’s future structure.
After confirming the layout, we moved on to the visual work.
Low-fidelity wireframe - LP Framework
Choosing the visual direction

After a fairly extensive research phase, we’ve scouted the web for
visual inspiration and compiled our inspiration board.
We organized and grouped all visuals and used them to create 3

mood boards showcasing different visual directions.
After a short presentation and a Zoom call with stakeholders, we

were able to choose our winning mood board.

Style guide for web use
Using our mood board as a reference, we were able to create the
color palette and using the existing project documentation, we
suggested the best typography, iconography, and imagery to use.
We also created our color and type system, grid layouts, and
guidelines and updated the global styles in Figma.

Wireframes
After all the research and visual work we were finally able to create
the mid-fidelity designs. After a couple of rounds of revisions and
receiving verbal confirmation on the structure, flow, and overall feel
of the designs, we updated them to high fidelity using the right
visuals, fixed spacing values, and applied global styles.
Presentation
The next and last order of business (if needed) would be to create a
prototype and show the interactions between the website’s pages.
In our example, we only created a landing page so we didn’t really
have to show any interactions. However, for regular projects I’d
connect each link, button, and anchor to the respective flow.
To better explain the entrance animations, I’d definitely annotate all
visual references, example sites or codepens.

Chapter summary
Wireframes fidelity depends on the project, the client’s
budget, and the time allocated for each milestone.
Low fidelity wireframes represent a general idea of what I’d
like to include in each section.
Mid-fidelity wireframes depict the layout much more accurately
and detail individual components like buttons, text, and links.
High-fidelity wireframes represent the closest iteration to the
final product. Spacing values are fixed, colors as well as all
visuals are finalized. Copy is replaced with the final text.
If you have to run design iterations, do them in the low or mid-
fidelity stage and limit them to a certain number, 2-3 at most.
Be vigilant about the amount of feedback you receive, and
always try to collect as much information from your clients as
possible.
T ake some notes !
igher fidelity work

H 265
The “Perfect” Landing
Page Framework
“Perfect” Landing Page framework
The landing page we will be taking as an example in the following
chapters will be a landing page for a Fintech app. It doesn’t mean
that the framework we’ll be using couldn’t be applied to local
businesses or personal brands. The idea behind it is rather universal.
My job will be to show you how I structure a “Perfect” Product

Landing Page, and you can apply it in whatever context you need for
your own product/service (in any industry).
To see how these sections translate to a live example, refer back to

the Landing Page UI Kit Figma file and analyze it. I’ve also included
the practice file for you to try and replicate my design or modify it if
you feel confident enough and create your own version.
“Perfect” Landing Page framework 267

If you continue reading this chapter, you’ll see how I structure my
typical product landing page, broken down into separate segments.
I’ll include both sections of popular sites, as well as our landing page
kit, to give you a better reference.
As mentioned previously, the following design shouldn’t serve you

as a 1:1 equivalent of a $5-10k+ website as it’s not as polished as a
$10k project would be in terms of visuals, documentation, research,
and copywriting accuracy.
If you’re designing and developing websites yourself, you won’t need

to be as detailed in terms of layer or file naming since you’ll be the
only one doing all the work. And while this is true, and a lot of full-
stack designers don’t bother being super detailed with their
application of global styles, pixel perfect designs, or naming for that
matter, it’s still a good practice to follow.
Regardless, everything you read about the design process up until

this point, from research to mood boards, style guides, and
wireframes, is the exact order in which I approach my web projects.
Please, take all the teachings you’ve learned from this ebook, and re-
read the chapters if you’re feeling lost. Try to apply these principles
and guidelines when creating your future projects, and stick to my
design process if you’re unsure what the next steps should be.

The Typical Landing Page Structure
The structure is important when building pages focused on
conversion rates as it allows you to have a clear and repeatable
process to present anything you want to sell in the best way possible.
We’ve already covered this on the previous pages, but to reiterate
one more time - the structure of a conversion driven Landing page
should contain the following (in this particular order):
The Hero with CTA and a social proof segment right belo
Problem statements & context - main problem users are facin
Features/Solutions
How it works/How to start segmen
More benefit
Additional Social Proof (Testimonials/reviews
Final CTA (main action
Alternative CTA (ideally freebie to capture emails)
The number of these segments may differ from site to site,
depending on the amount of information I’m working with and the
project requirements. A simple brochure landing page might only
need 4 segments, while the sales page funnel might need over 30 to
deliver the final message.
With our example, we went for something in between the two.

The Hero section
Your hero is your best chance to leave the best first impression.
In a world of super short attention spans, you need to summarize

your value proposition and in a bold and visual way, explain the
problem you’re solving with the product.
That usually happens through big, bold, and catchy headings, a

small paragraph describing the solution, and hopefully a matching
image to show what the solution might look like.
What should you include in a hero section?

There are a couple of things you can’t really miss on your hero. Jump
to the next page to learn about them.

Main Headline — this title needs to be clear and catchy, answering
the first question that comes up “What is this website about?”. 
Descriptive text — use this paragraph to support your main
headline explaining how the solution works or what problem it solves
for the user. 
CTA’s (main and alternative) — you should always include the main
call to action. Ideally, a vibrant button that stands out with a clear,
actionable text. Alternative CTA invites users to learn more about
the product or capture users’ details.
Basecamp,com
Basecamp is known for notoriously A/B testing its hero sections.
From the shape of their buttons to copy and social proof, if you visit
this site every few weeks, you might see a completely rearranged view
of their hero. Apparently, their conversion rates are also ridiculously
high - that’s the power of constantly improving your designs.

Main Visual — a video, screenshot of your product, or a visual to add
more context to the entire messaging.
Spline.design
Requirements for a good hero section:
Explain the product/service and show the main benefit
Have clear benefit-driven CTA’s that have a lot of contrast and
stand out from the rest of the compositio
Add an alternative CTA to explore more or download a freebi
Emphasize benefits over features. This is a great strategy if your
product is difficult to visualize or too nuanced to condense into a
few catchy word
Consider videos for the main hero visual if your product or
service is hard to explain with static images and text

Social proof segment
The goal of the social proof section is to establish credibility early on
in the page. Visitors need to trust not only the solution you are
proposing but also see that there are established companies or
regular folks backing up your product, not just your words.
Don’t just throw in the logos without any context. It’s best to explain
why these logos are here. It’s easier to make the social proof sound
more powerful if you say “trusted by 1,000+ companies”.
Usually, the logos of the biggest companies in your niche using the
product or the best press releases are the best options to create
that quick boost in authority you need. If you can’t use logos, try
reviews, or the (recognizable) software you’re using, expertise in
numbers (clients, team size, years in business), Google reviews, etc.
Look for any social proof you can provide.
Just don’t try to squeeze testimonials in at this point. Avoid big
blocky segments early on. Show only a sneak peek of your results
and build up the social proof as they scroll further down the page
until they find testimonials and CTAs close by.

Problem statement & context
The problem statements should be universally applicable to the user
target groups. If your product fails to deliver the solution to the main
problem your potential customers are facing, they will lose interest
in exploring more about it.
The problem needs to be addressed direcly and if you can follow

that with an immediate solution, that’s ideal.
You have to be very good at capturing attention with your content as

you might easily lose their interest if you carry on for too long.
We’re trying to address the problems by offering immediate solutions.

Features/Solutions
Usually, features and solutions are presented together with problem
statements to create more impact.
We use these segments to show how our product can help users in
different areas of their life/work.
With our product, we wanted to address concerns like security and

problems with money management and savings.
We’re once again using the problem & solution format to talk about the features - we want
to paint a positive picture of all the benefits coming from using our product

How it works/How to get started
This section should show how potentially easy it is to start using
your product. The CRM for sales teams won’t have to use the same
structure and copy as a dating app, but remember, we’re designing
for specific audiences with different needs and expectations, and
our website’s design should reflect that.
We should use simple designs - columns, cards, and visuals that are
easy to understand at first glance. I like to show the process of using
a product in steps (if applicable). It’s easy to follow and
straightforward.
Let’s look at how we built this segment on our landing page.
With finance apps, the account setup and management is usually the most complex
process, and we wanted to highlight how simple it is with our “how it works” segment.

Benefits / Incentives
These sections are meant to be short benefit-driven segments
showing the many benefits of using your product.
Your copy should be user-focused because that’s what they really

care about — what’s in it for them. This is a common mistake of
many product landing pages - all they talk about how great their
products are instead of focusing on the user.
It should always be about the user.
While features explain your product, benefits tell visitors how their
situation will be improved as a result.
If you can introduce incentives, go for them! It’s another great way to
engage your users and help them take the desired action.

Testimonials/Reviews
People seek emotional comfort and approval. We all like to feel safe,
and we like to know what to expect before we take action.
Purchasing a new product or service is very often a tough decision,

and we need external confirmation to make it easier for ourselves.
Whether it’s our friend’s recommendation or someone whose
expertise we trust (an influencer or a celebrity), even reading
positive reviews of complete internet strangers might change how
you feel about a product.
From a psychological standpoint, testimonials provide customers

with a feeling of security, giving them the confidence to take risks.
You NEED to use social proof. Period.
The more social proof you can show, the easier it is for your potential
customers to trust you. Big tech companies know that, and they like
to use social proof wherever possible.

Final CTA (main action)
The call-to-action (CTA) is one of the most important elements on
your landing page. Be clear about what you want visitors to do and
use action verbs like “get started,” “download,” or “send email”.
A good CTA links back to your main value proposition and directly
communicates what your users should expect when taking action.
Dedicating an entire segment to the main CTA near the bottom of
the page might help you increase conversions.
You want to warm the leads up as they gradually scroll down the
page and explore more about the product. That’s why following a
landing page framework that first explains the solution to the main
problem, showing many benefits, social proof, testimonials, and
incentives before introducing a final CTA, is a good idea.

(Optionally) more social proof
If your product or service has many different forms of social proof
that might steer the users’ decision in a positive direction - use it.
The more social proof you can include, the better, just make sure not
to exaggerate these sections.
A short full-width segment of bold, easy-to-read headings will do.
You want to include this segment somewhere near the main call to
action. When users are about to make a decision, they often need a
quick impulse, and another social proof section might do just that.

Alternative CTA (ideally freebie to capture emails)
Regardless of the industry you operate in, the visitor of your landing
page should know a few things almost straight away: what the offer
is, why should they use your service or a product, and what are the
next steps to get started. We already covered that.
What if they are not ready to jump on board and purchase your
top-of-the-line service? Do you just let them leave and forget?
If your main CTA isn’t a free trial or a free consultation, you might
want to introduce an alternative CTA. Whether that’s a newsletter
form or a freebie in exchange for their email; use an email magnet
attractive enough to capture your users’ data.
You can also use online chat bots to initiate another point of contact
for your support team to pick up the conversation later on.

End on the Right Foot(er)
The purpose of a website footer is simple - to help visitors by adding
information and navigation options at the bottom of web pages.
Your job as a designer is to know what to include, intending to help
visitors and businesses meet their goals.
A good footer should include the following:
Copyright notice to protect you from plagiarism (yes, it’s a thing!
Sitemap (for those uncle G crawlers
Legal links (Privacy, Terms, T&C
Quick links (to help with navigation
Contact informatio
Social icon
Your branding - logo and business descriptio
If you’re feeling it - another CTA or a newsletter form
I tend to keep my footers simple - adding just the essentials, legal pages,
copyrights and social media accounts.

Congrats! You’re ready to start practicing!
Good job for making it here! You should have enough info to follow
my design process and design your “perfect” Landing Page by
looking at the reference Figma file I provided you.
If you read through all the previous chapters you’re now equipped
with more knowledge that the majority of your web designer friends.
You know the Gestalt principles, basics of visual design, and main
design laws and principles, and you’ve got the documents, briefs,
contracts, and invoices to run a successful freelance business,
You also have the framework to design high-performing landing
pages. Remember that I also included the complete Figma file with
our site framework and multiple UX and UI design stages so that you
can have a good reference for designing your pages.
Now, feel free to fire up that framework template or the practice files
anytime! You can open up the SmartBank landing page, add your
own twist, change fonts, and colors, replace the text, try out new
visuals, switch around a few sections, columns, create new buttons.
If read the remaining chapters, you’ll find one more called “Your
Action Plan” and see my suggestions on what you should do next!
Either way, let’s continue.

Chapter summary
Everything you read about the design process up until this point,
from research to mood boards, style guides, and wireframes, is
the exact order in which I approach my web projects.
Designing according to a landing page framework is
helpful as it allows you to have a clear and repeatable
process to present anything you want to sell in the best way
possible.
The number of landing page segments may differ from site to
site, depending on the amount of information you’re working
with and the project requirements.
Your hero should summarize your value proposition and in a
bold and visual way explain the problem you’re solving with the
product.
You should add social proof segments is to establish
credibility
If your main CTA isn’t a free trial or a free consultation, you might
want to introduce an alternative CTA to capture users’ data.
The more social proof you can show, the easier it is for your
potential customers to trust you.

Understanding the
box model
Understanding the box model
The box model explains how layouts work when translated to web.
Web layout is based on content stacking vertically, like layers in a

Figma file. Every element is contained a box, an invisible container
with boundaries around it. These boxes are either spaced out next to
each other horizontally or stack on top of each other, depending on
the properties set on them. Here’s what our hero section looks like:
Auto layout and box model

When designing, you should always remember this. That’s one of the
reasons why you need to master auto layout and name your layers.
It’s a good practice that will help your developers to understand the
layout they need to build.

By switching to an “Inspect” view you’ll be able to look up the CSS
settings of all the layers you created which should help you set up
your Webflow and/or Elementor elements.
You can use auto layout to group layers inside other layers and set
properties on them. You can do the same in web development with
each container. This practice is called nesting. All the web elements
are boxes that can be nested inside each other.
Looking at our example above, we placed our heading, paragraph,

buttons, and ratings inside a bigger container. This container groups
all the elements together, and whenever you make changes to it,
your nested layers with adjust. And that container is sitting next to
an image container, and both of them are nested within even bigger
container that’s nested in a section. Phew!

Are there any limits to this?
You have to remember that with web development, you can’t just
put elements in random places and expect that developers will be
able to develop your crazy ideas. That’s why under every “ambitious”
design, you see someone commenting, “developers will be like ”.
Masud Rana’s work on dribbble
Even though I could build this layout in Elementor, it’s unnecessarily

complicated, not to mention the complexity of the responsiveness.
You’d have to create at least 20+ boxes here, and set minus margins
to position the elements in the right places. It’d be a mess to adjust.
You need to build your layouts using logical structures. That’s why
mastering box model is crucial for your future web design work.

Margin vs padding in web development
Margin means a space outside the box. It determines the distance
between two elements that are next to each other.
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Padding is the space defined inside of the box.
Manage subscriptions
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Organise subscriptions in one place
Block unwanted subscriptions easily
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That’s how the box model looks in web development:
margin
border
padding
element
That’s pretty much how every website development starts.
From creating containers and nesting them inside each other. You
style your content by changing its position, changing the properties,
and adjusting padding and margin values.
Of course, there’s so much more to building websites than just
designing them, but that’s not what we’re doing here. We want to
understand the basic principles of web development to create
logical structures that developers will understand.
I’ll create a separate video series on Youtube for a more in-depth
look at website (no-code) development. Coming soon!

Chapter summary
The box model explains how layouts work when translated to web.
Web layout is based on content stacking vertically, like layers in
a Figma file. Every element is contained a box, an invisible
container with boundaries around it.
By switching to an “Inspect” view you’ll be able to look up the
CSS settings of all the layers you created which should help you
set up your Webflow and/or Elementor elements.
You have to remember that with web development, you can’t
just put elements in random places and expect that
developers will be able to realize all your ideas.
Margin means a space outside the box. It determines the
distance between two elements that are next to each other.
Padding is the space defined inside of the box.
Take some notes!

Intro to no-code
No-code development
Look me up on YT soon!
Intro to no-code 293

I never hand-coded websites from scratch by myself. I’m good with
making smaller visual edits and adding a few JS scripts that can’t be
designed in a builder like Elementor or Webflow. For more complex
functionalities that go outside of my expertise, I hire a developer to
create and implement the scripts for me.
As far as the no-code options go, I choose between Webflow and

WordPress. I don’t like Wix, never tried Editor X or Framer, so I can’t
say much about these.
I can, however give my 5 cents on Webflow vs. WordPress.
What’s better?
Elementor?
or Webflow?

Elementor Pro - a great starting tool
Elementor is a visual website builder plugin for WordPress with a
super user-friendly interface and a drag-and-drop functionality.
It comes with a number of features, including a robust templating
system, interactive animation tools, and access to all WordPress and
Woocommerce plugins and functions.
Why should you consider Elementor?
It’s relatively easy to learn and use (much easier than Webflow) 
It’s compatible with all WordPress themes 
It’s built on a WordPress CMS (easy blogging features) 
It supports a number of 3rd party dedicated Elementor plugins 
Allows to easily set up and configure e-commerce stores 
Supports an extensive version history 
Offers a lot of visual flexibility 
Simple pricing model
What are the disadvantages of Elementor?
️ Requires external hosting (unless you choose the Cloud version) 
Not as safe and secure as Webflow 
Slightly more complicated handoff process (still relatively easy) 
Can be pricey if you intend to build a lot of websites 
Need more maintenance (plugin and theme updates) 
Third-party integrations can cause many issues

Webflow - the ultimate no-builder tool
Webflow requires much more technical knowledge than Elementor.
You need to understand how the box models work, what’s CSS grid
and flexbox, and how to use them to your advantage. And while it’s
also a drag-and-drop builder, it’s more complicated than Elementor.
Why should you consider Webflow?
It’s an all-in-one website solution (hosting + CMS) 
Amazing learning resources (YT channel + Webflow University) 
It’s much more secure than WordPress 
Produces clean and lightweight code  
Ability to export the CSS and JS code 
Very simple website handoff process 
Easily integrates with services like Zapier, Mailchimp, Lottie, etc. 
Webflow gives practically endless visual possibilities  
It’s easy to use once you understand the basics
What are the disadvantages of Webflow?
️Complicated pricing model (can get pretty pricey) 
Takes time to learn the user interface 
It’s limited to 100 pages (you need a custom plan to add more) 
You can’t switch templates. Different template = new website 
The e-commerce features are fairly limited 
It’s more suited for experienced rather than web design novices 
Customer support is email-only
Beginner choice: WordPress + Elementor Pro
My personal favorite combo. Not only because I spent over 2000+
hours working with Elementor in 2021 alone but also because 90% of
the agencies and clients I worked with preferred WordPress CMS,
something they’re more familiar with.
Elementor.com
It’s the most beginner-friendly combination there is. You can create
beautiful websites in mere hours. I increased my productive output
by at least 60% by switching over to Elementor, and working with it
seems like a breeze.
Also, you can use pre-made templates to edit them with global
styles, setting up your entire site in just a few hours is really
astonishing. I can’t wait to share these tutorials with you!

My favorite WordPress themes
Wpastra.com
I like themes that are lightweight, clean, and simple. I tried working
with more robust themes like Phlox and Ohio, but they tend to be
bloated and limited in terms of how the components are designed.
Usually, I switch between Astra Pro and Hello (for Elementor) and
create all components, interactions, and animations myself.
Which plugins I use the most

I limit the number of plugins I use in a single project to an absolute
minimum. It helps to keep the website running fast and reduces
code bloat.
Besides, having too many plugins running simultaneously might

cause a lot of trouble when maintaining and updating all of them.

Trying to cross-check them for plugin issues, which, by the way, are
extremely common whenever Elementor decides to upgrade to a
new version. You need to always be ready for some trouble!
Over the past 4 years working with Elementor, I tried almost every
single premium (and free) Elementor plugin.
Here are the ones I can truly recommend:
Essential Addons for Elemento
Piotnet Addons for Elementor (PAFE)
Ultimate Addons for Elemento
OoohBoi Steroids for Elemento
JetPlugins for Elementor by Crocoblock
I aim to use, at most, 2-3 plugins from this list, at the same time.
Apart from strictly Elementor plugins I also install the following:
YoastSE
W3 Total Cach
Dynamic Content for Elementor
Elementor Custom Ski
Advanced Custom Fields and Custom Post Type
All in One WP migration
I’ve tested hundreds of plugins over the past few years, and these
are my top choices for any fresh WordPress install.

My personal top hosting choices
Here are my top hosting choices, all for different budgets:
Low budget clients
Hostinger ($9.90/mo - $60/mo) - My number one choice for lower
ticket projects. Fast and inexpensive servers.
Get up to 80% discount - click here
Mid-budget clients
Namehero ($9.90/mo - $60/mo) - I used Namehero for a couple
of smaller client websites. It’s doing a decent job. It’s relatively
cheap when combined with a discount but can get very
expensive once your plan renews af ter 1-3 years.
Mid to higher budget clients
Kinsta ($30/mo - $60/mo) - Kinsta is one of the fastest hostings
I’ve ever tested and tried. It;s cloud-based WP plans are one of
the best on the market. A bit expensive but worth it nonetheless!
Get 2 months free on a yearly plan - click here
Disclaimer: These are all affiliate links, and if you purchase through
them - you will receive a discount, while I will get a little kickback.

Website speed optimization
Website speed optimization refers to a series of strategies and best
practices to make a website load as quickly as possible.
Optimizing a website's speed contributes to other important

benefits, like increased conversion rates, a lower bounce rate, and a
better user experience overall.
How to Optimize Your Website Speed
Images, JavaScript and CSS files, and web fonts are just a handful
of the variables that can slow down your website. Follow the steps
below to optimize all of these factors and make your website as fast
as possible. This list is incomplete, but it will serve as the foundation
of a very extensive optimization strategy.
Start with the Audit

It's important to evaluate your site's performance before making any
changes that may affect how it loads and serves the contents.
You can use free tools like PageSpeed Insights and GTMetrix to get
started and check your loading speeds.
As part of your evaluation, you should also view your website using
various devices to understand how it performs.

GTmetrix.com
PageSpeed Insights by Google
The more information you have regarding the functionality of your

website, the easier it will be to find and apply important measures.

Optimize your images
Even though images can enhance the visuals and, to some extent,
the usability of your website, they can also slow down the loading
times, especially if they are high resolution. Your job is to optimize
them. There are a couple free online options available for
compressing popular image types like .JPG and .PNG. Compressing
these images before adding them to your site can save weight and
loading time. Tiny PNG is one of them.
TinyPNG.com
You should always compress your images, no matter how small they
are. For images with transparent backgrounds - use .PNG. For the
remaining images use .JPGs or .WEBP formats to save as much file
weight as possible.

Consider using a CDN
Content delivery networks (CDNs) store copies of your content in
different places on different servers. To maximize content delivery,
the CDN selects the server (or servers) closest to the user's location
when they visit your website.
For my web projects, I tend to use the CDN provided by Cloudflare.
It’s free to use and does its job perfectly fine. If I remember
correctly, you can also apply for a free SSL certificate using a
Cloudflare account.
You can find the link to this CDN here. You need to create a free
account before you can use it.
TinyPNG.com

Reevaluate your hosting provider
As we already mentioned briefly, hosting is crucial for a high-
performing website. Bad hosting is one of the main causes of
speed-related issues.
While several elements, such as your provider's physical

infrastructure, location, and total network connection capacity,
could affect speed, the kind of web hosting your website uses can
also have an impact.
There are three types of hosting servers - shared, VPS, and

dedicated.
Shared: Although shared hosting choices are the most

economical, they degrade overall performance by dividing
hosting resources across numerous sites. This will be a concern
in particular if the traffic to your website fluctuates or is
consistently high
VPS: Virtual private server options conceptually divide services
on a common physical disk to boost performance, but they still
experience speed problems when resource loads are high
Dedicated: Dedicated servers will dramatically increase your
speed, regardless of resource demand, but they are more
expensive than shared or VPS solutions.

Install caching plugins and run quick fixes
It's tempting to attempt to address every issue with website speed
once you've recognized them. I wouldn't spend too much time on
fixing them all. To help you prioritize your optimization efforts, use
testing tools like PageSpeed Insights to receive recommendations
on how to optimize your site.
The easiest way to do that is by installing caching plugins like W3

Total Cache and/or WP Optimize.
Use the default optimization settings or watch a quick video tutorial

on youtube to get started faster.
PageSpeed Insights by Google
Follow these few simple suggestions and try to get your site loading
speed under 3 seconds, ideally aim for 1.5-2s. Good luck!

Chapter summary
Elementor is a visual website builder plugin for WordPress with a
super user-friendly interface and a drag-and-drop functionality.
Webflow is a drag-and-drop builder that requires a bit more of
the technical web development knowledge and front-end
understanding than Elementor.
WordPress + Elementor Pro is (in my opinion) the most
beginner-friendly introduction to no-code there is.
Limit the number of plugins in a single project to an absolute
minimum. It helps to keep the website running fast and reduces
code bloat.
Optimizing a website's speed contributes to other important
benefits, like increased conversion rates, a lower bounce rate,
and a better user experience overall.
You should always compress your images, no matter how
small they are.
Take some notes!

Pre-launch checklist
Pre-launch checklist
Every time you’re about to launch a new site, you risk forgetting
something important. How to make sure you’ve got everything you
need for a successful launch? Keep reading.
Before becoming a design lead, I worked as a freelance web
designer for 4 years, and during that time, I quickly realized that
every website required a series of tasks to be completed before
going live. And no matter how many websites I had designed,
remembering all of them took time and effort.
Back then, I discovered that other designers follow design checklists
to ensure their sites were ready for launch. It was extremely helpful!
Here’s an awesome article by Elementor going over what you need
to have before you push that website live!
Website Launch Checklist by Elementor
And, if you need more - check out the Checklist figma file included in
one of the ebook folders.
These are the type of checklists I’d follow myself before launching
any new sites, saving me from having to try to remember all of the
steps. There’s always something missing!

The project wrap-up
Design handoff
The design handoff
If I had a penny for every DM, email, and comment asking me about a
design handoff, I’d have... 2 dollars. I’ve been asked about it at least
200 times, no kidding. So what’s the deal with the design handoff?
The design-to-development handoff often frustrates even the most
experienced product teams. And every team probably handles
handoff differently than others, and that’s cool. As long as you
communicate with your devs, and your devs communicate back with
you and know exactly what needs to be done - you’re good.
Historically speaking, designers and developers have had quite
distinct roles to play in the product development process, and this
has been a major cause of tension between the two groups and has
sparked a huge amount of extremely accurate memes

What’s the design handoff
The design handoff happens when developers are given the design
documents and, from that point onwards, are responsible for
putting them into action and delivering a final product.
A successful handoff requires effective designer-developer
teamwork, and there’s no way around it. Let’s talk about what you
need to make it successful.
A recipe to a successful design handoff
In reality, this stage of the design process rarely goes off without
any issues. On the contrary, it often causes misunderstandings
between the developers and designers.
How to avoid handoff failure? Follow these steps:
Good communication - It makes sense that effective
communication is necessary for a design-to-development handoff.
Misunderstandings in communication can lead to several problems,
and contributes to an efficient project time allocation.
Remember to schedule 1:1 calls with your developer(s) whenever
needed. I’d suggest doing it before committing to specific design
solutions, somewhere in the middle of the process, and by the end,
before the official handoff. Avoiding mistakes early is much easier
than fixing them when your deadline is around the corner.

Communicate frequently - Once you’re on those calls, explain your
ideas and solutions. It's not uncommon for designers and
developers to approach the same problems from completely
different perspectives due to their professional backgrounds. It’s
recommended to engage developers early and talk frequently.
Explain the solution - In addition to communicating frequently,

designers and developers must communicate well. This entails
staying on the same page throughout the process.
Intercom’s article
Apart from designer-to-developer communication, you also need to
spend some time on organizing and setting up your file. Some would
say it’s the most important part of the design handoff process.
How to make sure you’ve got everything your developers need to

proceed and they won’t bombard you with questions afterward?
We’ll let’s talk about the technical part of it.

Document everything
Making the appropriate choices early in the design process will help
you produce the desired result. This includes setting up your style
sheets properly, exporting elements in the appropriate form and
size, setting up component libraries and design systems (if
applicable), and documenting responsive grids and layouts, color
systems, and type scales.
File naming, design system, global styles - document everything.
We want to gain a general understanding of what a development
team actually needs from us before handing off the designs.
Making a list of the things we must prepare is a good place to start if
we want the best results.
This list includes the following:

Color system
You will need to create your color palette and explain the use of each
color - primary, secondary, tertiary, neutral, and all their tones and
shades. You do that by naming your styles appropriately.
Look at our Figma files to see how we’ve approached it.
Color system - SmartBank Landing Page UI Kit
Consider including primary and secondary (buttons, inputs, fields,
etc.) interface elements in different states - active, inactive,
focused, etc. - and show how the color system applies to them all.

Typography and type scale
Typography system - SmartBank Landing Page UI Kit
Document your typography choices, fonts, weights, spacing values,
and sizes, all depending on their specific purpose.
That includes the display, h1-h6 headings, buttons, subheadings,
captions, paragraph texts, etc.

Flowchart or a prototype
You should link to a quick decision flowchart to better illustrate the
user journey and interactions between each page.
Credit: Ivana Stojanovic
My client’s licensing software dashboard wireframes
Or prototype all interactions and show them live. Neither of them

would work, but I feel a prototype is more beneficial.

Global styles
Make sure your design decisions are well-documented in a style
guide or design system. This comprises the previously mentioned
elements of colors, typography, graphics, icons, and grid structure.
It is critical to update all of your file colors and font styles with
dynamic global styles rather than using regular text attributes with
static values.
This way, you can easily make global changes and have them
mirrored throughout the entire design, all at once, if you want to.
SmartBank Global Styles

Design system
Since this project required only a landing page to be built, we didn’t
include a design system.
However, coming up with a well-documented design system might

be your best bet for more complex projects.
Design Manual design system
Be on the lookout for my upcoming Skillshare classes and Youtube

videos. I’ll share more info about the design systems there.

Grid system
As part of your grid documentation, you should include an example
screen that illustrates the margins, gutters and describes the
nearest breakpoints to which your design should adjust to.
Usually, that’s two desktop sizes, large and small, tablet breakpoint,
and a mobile, landscape, and regular view.
Grid System - SmartBank Landing Page UI Kit

Components library
Compiling components into a library helps programmers inspect
individual parts and determine their specific properties.
To make it easy for developers to find all the files and materials, your
components should be properly categorized and named.
In areas where Figma’s capabilities are limited (like animations),
annotations might be needed to provide more context to describe
the expected functionality.
Additionally, we need to personally guide developers through the
documentation so a couple of catch up calls between the designers
and developers will definitely be needed; that's just how it is :)

Naming conventions
With website projects, the naming conventions are usually a bit
easier as you don’t have to prototype hundreds of screens as you do
with apps. However, the general idea is the same as in my Design
Manual ebook.
I follow a simple rule where I label my screens the following:
#1.1.1 - Log in - what do these numbers mean?
The first number is the iteration or the release version number - in
our case, that’s the first one; the second number is the number of
the flow, which is our first flow - Log in. The third number is the step
of the flow. These might be relevant when you need to prototype an
exit popup or a page that’s part of the main flow. It’s all situational.

Sometimes, the third number can include letters like “a,” “b,” “c,”
etc. that’s when you have to split the flow to show two states like
empty, finished, successful, etc.
My client’s licensing software dashboard wireframes
Establish explicit guidelines for the naming and labeling each
component, asset, and file for designers and developers.
Even though it's time-consuming, doing it now will save you a ton of
time and effort down the road.

Prepare all design assets
Setting the developers up for success is every designer's
responsibility. Giving the developers access to all the essential
design files and assets should also be on your list.
Did you decide to use Google Drive, Dropbox, or another platform for
everything? Keep the lines of communication open and share where
those assets are located so that any missing pieces, queries, or
worries may be addressed.
If you really want to make it easy for your developers, you should
export all your (named!) visual assets, compress them, and group
them into separate folders labeled by each website page (Home,
About, Contact, etc.).
This will really make the asset prep much faster for your devs.

Make a checklist
Even if you design a really small project, messing something up with
the handoff is bound to happen. Missing a text style, using a wrong
color for one button, not adding a header, or not annotating an
interaction; mistakes happen all the time, and it’s normal.
You can avoid most of these mistakes by maintaining a list of all the
requirements (a checklist) for all possible scenarios and product
features. The checklist will indicate whether your design job is done
or if you need to revisit the Figma file and add a thing or two.
What should you include in a design handoff checklist?
Don’t worry, my friend. I’ve included a very comprehensive design
handoff checklist as one of the files in this ebook. Check it out and
make sure to follow everything from the top of the list to the bottom
before you move to cross off the next step.

Chapter summary
The design handoff happens when developers are given the
design documents and, from that point onwards, are
responsible for putting them into action.
Avoid handoff failure by communicating frequently,
explaining the solutions, and documenting everything.
Create a color system and a type scale
Create a grid system and document it
Set up a components library
Remember about logical naming conventions
Prepare all your design assets
Make a checklist and cross everything off the list
Build and maintain design system if applicable for your project.
Take some notes!

What’s next?
What’s next?
Whoa, you’re here already. Great job!
By writing this ebook, I wanted to show you the basic principles of

design, and practical tips when designing websites. And most
importantly, show you the ropes of being a successful web designer.
But, for you to succeed, reading about theory is not enough. You
need to use this knowledge and put it into practice.
It’s just the start of your new journey.

I want you to succeed, seriously. I’m rooting for your success. And I
know you got this, I’m sure, but there are a few steps left for you to
do before you can truly use this knowledge and start applying it.
The sooner you realize that design work is based on observing,

iterating, and improving, the quicker you’ll improve as a designer.
Learning theory is one thing, being skillful at visual design is another.

And you skill up the fastest by designing. The more concepts you
design the faster you learn to recognize design patterns and the
faster you start to develop your own design style.
All you need now is a plan. And I have it laid out for you.

Your action plan
If you spent a good amount of time reading the theory and following
the design process you’re in for a good start.
What’s left for you do to is finish the practice file.
Yes, if you haven’t noticed, there’s a practice file in one of the ebook
folders. Read the instructions on the first page, and jump on to the
next one. This is where you’ll use all the knowledge from this ebook
and create something new.
You can be as detailed as you want to, you can follow the UX stages
and conceptualize the results, you can simplify the research,
assume the results, and skip the UX phase altogether.
What you should do, is you should design a landing page yourself. 
Depending on your experience, here’s how you should approach this:

If you’re a complete newbie - start here
If you’re a complete newbie to web design, or if you’re not feeling
comfortable enough to go out there and create your own sites, fire
up the Practice file, open the “Tracing” page and just start tracing
the designs. Replicate the text, buttons, paste the images, look up
the size values, the spacing between elements, look at how auto
layout frames are built. Dig deep and analyze the design.
SmartBank Landing Page - Beginner practice file
This exercise aims to familiarize you with the design tool, recognize
design patterns, understand the grid layout, spacing, etc.
If you’re feeling more comfortable, open the “Copying” page and
start replicating the designs with the use of Rulers. Modify the
colors, update the images, and see what you can create by simply
playing around with the file properties. Get creative! :)

If you’re a little bit more advanced - do this
If you’re more familiar with Figma and web design, but you’re not
feeling comfortable enough to go out there and create sites for real
clients, fire up the SmartBank Landing Page UI Kit first and start
changing the global styles, update the copy, and replace the images.
Just have a play around and see what you can do with it.
The goal of this exercise is to get you familiar with different design
patterns. Even by following the landing page framework template
and making changes to the UI kit, you’ll be able to create some
pretty cool-looking websites. See the examples below to see what
I’ve come up with in 5 minutes of work.

Follow the same approach for all sections of the landing page.
If you don’t know where to get the inspiration from, open up the
sites we mentioned previously, saaslandingpage, onepagelove,
or simply, dribbble.
You’ll find a tremendous amount of inspiration just from these three

websites, no need to look anywhere else.
Immerse yourself in this practice and design as many concepts as

possible. This way, you’ll start recognizing different design patterns
and styles, slowly coming up with your own style.
Dribbble is an amazing site for concept designs. Don’t focus on

having perfect UX just yet - work on your visual skills first.

Time to present!
Now that you have a few dozen concept works, you need to get
noticed. You do this by really taking the time to create a beautiful
presentation. Need help figuring out how to do it?
Once again, replicate whatever ’s working.
Open Dribbble again and find the most popular posts on the home
page. See how they’re being presented, download a few shots.
Use a similar presentation format like these popular guys on
Dribbble. Once you have a few concepts ready - post them to
Dribbble, Instagram, Behance, Linkedin, everywhere you can!
Halo Lab’s shots are always so carefully craf ted and super balanced.
Try to come up with patterns that are similar to grab more attention.

This is an example of how I would go and present the templates I
created by modifying the Landing Page UI Kit
This took me literally 10 minutes to prepare and just like that I could
have created two concept shots for my social media. I would of
course spend more time on it, polish the designs, make sure
everything’s looking neat and tidy. And you should do too, take your
time with it.
Presentation really differentiates the beginners from pros.
Anyways, if you open up the Practice File and go to the Creating page,
you’ll find a landing page reference design and a number of frames for
you to practice the designs on.
I’ll also add another small bonus, the Dribbble and Instagram
templates just so you can quickly take your new concepts, drop them
onto the frames, and dynamically create a series of ready-to-post
shots. It’s coming soon as the next update!

Next, you need to get noticed
You need to publish your work on Dribbble, Instagram, Behance, and
Linkedin. These are the top places your clients hang out.
The more often you post your work, the higher your chances are of
getting noticed. Consistency is your best friend here.
Unless, you want to send countless of cold emails, calls, and pitches
to people who have no clue about who you are and what you do

Like Natalie and I used to. We recorder about 30 free website audits
and sent them to random blokes on Linkedin only to be left on read
and ignored by the majority.
People just don’t care. And convincing them to do something they
didn’t think about in the first place is hard. You’re better off just
practicing and posting your concepts. They will eventually find you!
Cast a wide net and start fishing

You need to attract clients that appreciate good design.
If you attract them by the quality of your work, you’ll also be able to
dictate higher prices. That’s just the way it is. If you outreach first,
you’re in the lower position, you need to fight for their attention. If
they reach out to you, they’re already interested in YOU and your
expertise. It’s so much easier to close a lead like that.
Really, a night and day difference.
And the truth is, you don’t need to rack in 1000’s of likes and millions
of reach on any of the aforementioned platforms.
You just need to be consistent. I know it might feel weird at first to
post your work ready to be judged by random people online.
Don’t worry, though. Words can’t hurt you. If it’s constructive
feedback, take it and improve.

If it’s just a sad troll trying to offend you and diminish your work,
whatever, you’re out here doing something that matters, and they’re
just letting go of their frustrations and bad emotions.
Block them and continue doing your thing.
Consistency is key
As with any platform, you just need to be consistent and post at
least 3-4 times per week to get the right momentum. I just showed
you how to become a concept machine.
Make it your habit to create at least one shot in the morning or

evening, and post it on every platform.
You need exposure, and you need a community. However small or

large it will be, you need friends in the industry. By posting online,
you’ll start to become recognized by your fellow designers, leaders,
agency owners, software developers, the list goes on.
White labelling is an option too

Remember that there are other ways to get a steady influx of work
apart from business clients. One of my favorite ways to earn good
income was through whitelabelling design work for bigger agencies.
This business model is pretty simple and easily scalable.
So, how does white labelling look like?
No-code development 338

I simply agreed on fixed quotes (between $2000-5000 for a project)
and set specific deadlines and just focused on working.
I didn’t have to look for and win clients.
I was so occupied with agency work that I created custom design
subscription services and started charging my partners fixed
packages priced between $3-5k/mo with set amount of hours.
If a new client reached out to me I was able to dictate higher prices
because I didn’t have to worry about being rejected; whatever their
answer was, I still had work to do and it wasn’t going away.
I started pitching the same services to everyone and it took off.
My no longer active design agency website

$10k/month was a breeze
Within 6 months of introducing the new design retainers I was
having steady $10,000 months with some of them going as high as
$20,000. Not to mention the immense amount of practical
knowledge I gained during that time having worked with dozens of
designers, developers, and corporate clients. It was a great time.
And I’m here to tell you, it’s all possible. Anyone can do it. Really. All
you’re missing is a plan, and I just gave it to you.
Design, present, post online, rinse and repeat. When a client reaches
out to you - use my email templates, send them the questionnaire I
gave you, set up a meeting, use my Zoom call script, close them,
send the contract, send the invoice (you can use my template),
collect a deposit, send a confirmation email, hop on a kickoff call,
and start designing!
Now, go out there and start earning $$$

A word of advice: This framework is here to help you get started.
Once you close the first few higher-ticket clients you’ll quickly start
developing your own framework, like I did. Everyone has their own
approach to certain things and you might find yourself going a
different route at some point.
Know this, though, all that I’m sharing with you today, worked for
me, and enabled me to live a life I never imagined I could live.
I hope that the contents of this e-book will help you achieve the
same things I achieved.
If you need more professional guidance on any topic, design, running

a freelance business, growing on social media, or releasing
products, feel free to reach out to me and let’s hop on a consultation
call - I’m opening up new spots for 1:1 consultations in 2023!
send me a msg at hello@uiadrian.com!

Final words
Final words
You made it! Congratulations on finishing this ebook. I sincerely
hope you got a ton of value from the theory, the UI kit, templates,
and all the bonuses. I’m also hoping that it will help you progress as
a web designer and get you much closer to your dream life.
Initially, I wanted to make this book short and concise but it turned
out to be quite lengthy and comprehensive. Therefore, after you first
read it, don't pressure yourself to know everything. Revisit it
whenever you need help with the design process, or want to learn
more about the design principles, want to look up the tips, or check
the landing page framework. It’s all in there.
Consider this as your web design reference guide whenever you

feel lost or confused about a certain process.
If you made it this far and you’ve enjoyed the reading, I would much
appreciate it if you could rate this e-book (ideally 5-stars ) on
Gumroad. It’ll take you 2-3 minutes, but it will help me greatly to
create better products for you in the near future.
I really, really appreciate it. Thank you so much!

Go to Gumroad and leave a review
Final words 343

Videos are coming soon
Even though, this ebook is over, there’s a lot more coming! As I’m
writing this, I’m already working on a new video setup and I plan on
storming YouTube the same way I stormed Instagram this year
And all I can say is that I want to completely change the Youtube
design landscape and share valuable and free content that you can
follow and understand easily.
We’ll cover web design and practice on real examples. I’ll show you
my approach to no-code tools like Elementor and Webflow, post
longer format video tutorials you’ve seen on IG and Twitter, as well
as share my personal story, tips, and take you behind the scenes of
my life as a creator and design lead.
I’m so excited I can’t wait to share all this new content with you!
Final words 344
Missed my Design Manual sale?
A quick word to everyone who got this ebook without having the
chance to grab my Design Manual on promo. If you’re interested in
mobile design - click on link below, download the free sample and
wait for my next email - I’ll send you an exclusive coupon code as an
“Ultimate Guide to Web Design” ebook owner
️5.0 AdrianK
@uiadrian
$44 only
Design Manual
the UI professional’s full version
the ultimate guide to master mobile design

Learn and practice mobile design on a real Figma project with
auto-layout and responsive constraints.
100+ High-quality app screens included
Grab a 50% OFF discount!
One more time, thank you!

Thank you again for supporting my content. Even though I don’t
know your name (yet!) I really appreciate your support. Don’t be a
stranger. Say hi on my Instagram if you’re reading this.
For now, take care, and I wish you a happy designing!
Best, Adrian
Final words 345
The End.
See you around, Friend!
Final words 346

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Adrian K

SmartBank Landing Page UI Kit included

DESIGN LIKE A PRO

The Freelance Guide 10

Why should you consider Freelancing & My Story 11

How to find freelance work 18

Pricing your services 43

A simple equation to price your web design work 47

Project prep - starting a new project, calls & documents 54

Design contract & project kick-off 64

The Design Basics 69

The principles of visual perception (Gestalt) 70

Foundations of visual design 76

Colors in Web 113

Designing for the web 133

Figma - the designer ’s superweapon 136

The perfect resolution 140

Layouts & Grids 145

Responsive vs Adaptive design 156

Designing for mobile - best practices 176

Motion and interactions 186

Optimizing for conversions 193

(BONUS) Intro to no-code 292

No- code development 293

The project wrap-up 310

Design handoff 311

The future of the web lies in your hands, literally.

I hope you’re as excited as I am!

the future of web is in your hands

The new state of web design.

All you need is a working computer, an internet connection, a little

I remember starting out, thinking about how on earth people are

Before we even discuss the design basics, visuals, and design

The emails, client calls, briefs and questionnaires, deposits,

web design process

to website design, the spacing, containment, typography, colors,

etc., all you need to know to be considered a good designer.

After we cover the basics, we’ll go into more advanced design

Layout & Grid - SmartBank Landing Page Style Guide

practices, and css properties. I’ll also share the template/framework

I use to design a high-converting landing page.

Next, I’m going to show you my exact web design process I

follow with every new website project I take on.

Elementor and Webflow.

more sought-after as you can design and “develop” an entire

website from start to finish - a real full-stack designer.

Who is this ebook for?

everyone interested in web design. It covers everything from the

business side of things through design basics and guidelines to

improve your web design skills and overall knowledge of designing

with development in mind (box model, responsive design, etc.)

increase your rates and make a better living

sending out contracts, invoices, and briefs.

streamline your web design process

code tools. It has an introduction to Elementor and Webflow,

technical aspects of building a website.

It’s primarily about web design and Figma.

I’m currently recording a larger technical introduction to no-code