the art of Feng Shui in web design
Since the early 1990s, more and more companies around the world have turned to Feng Shui in a bid to create a balanced, more productive work place for their employees and clients.
Unfortunately, many companies forget about the Internet. As intangible as it may seem, a company’s internet presence is also a place of business in need of harmony and balance.
A (very brief) Feng Shui Overview:
Feng Shui (pronounced Fung Shway) is the Chinese art of placement. Feng Shui, literally translated to mean “Wind and Water,” is a centuries old practice whereby man creates harmony between himself and his surroundings by placing the elements within his office or home in such a way as to balance the flow of energy.
Our lives and our businesses are in a never-ending state of flux. This flux is created by the flow of energy (or to use the Chinese term, “Chi”) through the space in which we live and work. Through the use of Feng Shui, we organize our surroundings to allow for the Chi (energy) to flow smoothly, and with purpose, into areas of our homes or offices that will influence the areas of our lives that need the most attention. To put Feng Shui into the simplest of terms, it helps to balance the tangible and intangible; the permanent and the impermanent. It allows the energy that surrounds us to move freely, eliminating bottlenecks so to speak, to prevent the energy from stagnating and turning negative.
Feng Shui in Web Site Design:
You are probably wondering what this has to do with web site design; or more specifically “your” current or future web site. Well, let’s look at a web site in relation to an office space:
- Most office spaces have a foyer, an entrance where you greet your clients. Following Feng Shui principles, this area should be open and bright; but not so devoid of objects as to let the Chi flow too quickly through the space. Your web sites main (Home) page should also follow the same principles. It should be open, (in the design industry we call this “white space”), but it should have enough quality content to keep the viewer interested so they do not move on to another site.
- Your office cubicles are normally laid out so that people can easily move around the entire office space. You also notice that cubicle walls are now normally between 3 to 4.5 feet high. This allows people to easily see the path to their intended destination. Any higher and the average person would feel like they were going through a maze. Again, following Feng Shui principles, you should do your best to eliminate any dead-end aisles or corridors within your office area. Dead-ends allow for the stagnation of Chi energy which turns into bad Chi, causing confusion and often a depressed atmosphere.
Your web sites pages are like cubicles in your office space. The visitor should be able to move smoothly from page to page without ever getting into a position where their only option is to use the back button on the browser, which causes confusion for the visitor and stagnated interest. Viewers should be able to determine a route easily (look over the cubicles) to get to the desired information. A simple navigation, using words and terms that the viewer would understand along with a clean sitemap, will allow for the flow of energy (your viewers) to move smoothly throughout your site.
- The text, pictures, navigation and main graphics on your web site pages are the same as the furniture in your office. Your web site is (like your office) an accumulation of elements placed within a space. Feng Shui encourages simplicity so that Chi energy can flow around the elements within your surroundings. Too much clutter causes energy to stagnate and creates confusion within that area. As with your web site, if you put too much information or visual content on one page, you create confusion (clutter of the mind) within your visitors. On the other side of the spectrum, Feng Shui also does not encourage a lot of straight lines. Too many straight lines can cause Chi to flow too quickly through the space, thereby reducing the ability to create balance between opposing elements.
Have you ever gone to a web site with so much content on the main page that you don’t know where to start or which button to push first? How do you think a client would feel if your foyer was a large maze of furniture? Do you think they would spend time trying to find their way through to the receptionist? Conversely, have you ever noticed the uneasy feeling you get when you come across a web site where the text, graphics and images are all centered in the browser window? How do you think a client would feel if they came into your office and all the furniture, decorations and light fixtures where centered in the room?
Some Basic Principles:
Here are some basic principles of Feng Shui taken from tangible life and put into the intangible world of the Internet.
Placement:
In web site design terms, we use the art of Feng Shui placement to organize and align your web site pages to maximize your visitors experience through the use of simple navigation systems that make sense to your viewer.
We also use the art of placement in arranging the content within each page. This allows for maximum flow of energy and makes the content easy for the viewer to digest.
Simplicity:
Feng Shui emphasizes simplicity in design; whether it is interior design, landscaping design or web site design. A minimalists approach to design allows for the proper amount of open space (white space) to allow for a level flow of positive energy around the elements within the space.
Color:
Bright, clean web pages will bring good Chi from your visitors. A bold use of color stimulates positive energy and emotions. Bright colors promote excitement and positive feelings, while dark or heavily muted colors bring about mellow emotions, subduing the visitor’s ability to be excited about your company or product.
The color principles also apply to images. Images that are bright and crisp have a much greater impact on your viewer and promote positive energy better than those images that are over-optimized (dithered), causing a washed out or blurry effect.
NOTE: Keep in mind, when we mention “White Space”, it refers to areas void of content. It does not necessarily mean void of color.
Movement:
In real life, Feng Shui uses elements such as water falls, fish tanks, or plants that easily move with wind to create stimulation in an otherwise stagnant area. Long walls or hallways without windows or sharp angles like the corner of a room are great places to incorporate something that gives the feeling of movement. This encourages the flow of positive energy throughout an area. In web design, the use of fluid lines, curves and imagery of natural elements give the impression of movement within the restrictions of the angular browser window. The roundness of graphic elements, photo imagery that is cut out of its background so that the full image is not that of a box, simple non-distracting Flash animated elements and the placement of text, headers and photos all increase the fluid movement of the elements within a web page, promoting the flow of positive energy throughout your web pages.
Straight Lines:
Our life is full of straight lines; the lines of the walls in our homes and office spaces, the square shape of everyday items such as the computer screens, books, Post-It Notes, picture frames, street signs and the list goes on… The funny thing is that in nature, there are practically no straight lines at all. Have you ever noticed that driving on a windy road is much more exciting than driving on a straight freeway? This is because our energy, and earth’s energy, flows much better on that curved road. Humans created the straight line and Chi does not flow well on straight lines. While our lives and structure are based around straight lines, the incorporation of “Movement” allows us to use them without much detriment in our flow of energy. By following the principles of movement above, we can use straight lines in our design and still create a fluid web site. But a web site, using straight lines as the core to its design without the use of movement elements, will cause Chi to move too quickly creating an uncomfortable atmosphere for your viewers.
Stillness:
An important controlling element of Feng Shui is the sense of stillness; or to use another word, consistency. Similarly, the flow of energy in a web site is dependent on some consistencies. A company logo, a contact link or a shopping cart button in the same place on every page creates a sense that the viewer is still looking at the same site. It also slows the flow of Chi so that the viewer has a chance to focus on important elements within your web site.
Stagnation:
Stagnation is another controlling element in Feng Shui. You want energy to flow through your web site as you do with your life, but it shouldn’t flow too fast or too slow. When chi flows too slowly, you create areas of stagnation; where the energy stops moving. In real life we use things like mirrors to create a sense of continuing space or movement to keep Chi flowing. Unfortunately, mirrors don’t work online, so as web site designers, it is our job to try to eliminate stagnation wherever possible. This is accomplished by creating simple navigations; using words and terms (not necessarily corporate terms) that viewers understand to allow them to move easily throughout the web site. Another main element is the site map. Creating a site map that is well organized will allow viewers easy access to the content they need and create a positive flow of Chi.
Using these principles to create, or even upgrade, your web site will provide a pleasant experience for your audience. This in turn means more sales and leads for your company.
