Web page layout makers are powerful tools that can help you create stunning and functional websites with ease. With the right tool, you can design a layout that perfectly suits your needs.
There are many web page layout makers available, ranging from simple drag-and-drop tools to advanced coding editors. Some popular options include Figma, Adobe XD, and Sketch.
For beginners, a user-friendly interface is essential, and many layout makers offer intuitive tools and tutorials to get you started. For example, Figma's intuitive interface and drag-and-drop functionality make it a great choice for beginners.
Experts, on the other hand, may prefer more advanced features and customization options. Adobe XD, for instance, offers a wide range of features and plugins to help you create complex and customized layouts.
Ultimately, the right web page layout maker for you will depend on your specific needs and skill level.
Key Features
To make the most out of a web page layout maker, look for tools that offer drag-and-drop functionality. This feature allows you to easily arrange elements on your page without needing to write code.
A good web page layout maker should also have a user-friendly interface that's easy to navigate. This will save you time and frustration as you work on your project.
The ability to customize layouts is crucial for a web page layout maker. This means being able to adjust the size, shape, and placement of elements to fit your design vision.
Responsive design is another key feature to look for in a web page layout maker. This ensures that your website looks great on all devices, from desktops to mobile phones.
A good web page layout maker should also allow you to export your design as HTML, CSS, and JavaScript. This makes it easy to share your work with others or use it as a starting point for further development.
Popular Options
Figma is an excellent choice for web design, offering a free version with unlimited drafts, commenters, and editors, as well as real-time collaboration with team members.
It's also worth noting that Figma has built-in AI tools that can help you generate wireframes and prototypes more quickly.
Figma is available on multiple platforms, including Windows, macOS, iOS, Android, and even has a web version available.
Design and Customization
Divi's visual design controls can be easily combined with custom CSS, making it a flexible tool for web designers.
Divi offers 8 cart and checkout modules that can be customized to match the look and feel of your website, giving you complete control over the design of your WooCommerce pages.
With Divi, you can design your page in real-time and see the results instantly, thanks to its true visual editing capabilities.
Building beautiful responsive websites is easy with Divi, which is responsive by nature and gives you full control over how your website looks on mobile devices.
Divi provides various templates for you to create a site that looks and feels the way you envision it, making it a great option for beginners and designers alike.
Lunacy is a free user interface design tool for Windows users that offers all the standard features of a UI and screen design tool, including full support for Sketch files.
Good web design builds consistency, which is crucial for generating brand awareness and attracting new business leads.
Divi's WooCommerce modules allow you to build product layouts with full control over the design of your product pages, giving you the power to create and customize any individual WooCommerce element.
Divi gives you complete design control over your website, with the ability to design and customize every part of your website from the ground up.
You can transform elements right on the page in Divi, just like in graphic design programs like Photoshop and Sketch, giving you a super slick interface to make each transformation easy to perform and understand.
The builder interface in Divi comes with a lot of options that allow you to customize your building experience, giving you the freedom to create websites the way you want to.
With Divi, you can manage your entire website's design using global elements and website-wide design settings, making it a website design system.
You can make sweeping changes across your entire page instantly with Divi's find and replace styles feature, saving you hours upon hours of editing time.
Divi's extend styles functionality brings design efficiency to a whole new level, allowing you to update hundreds of elements at once.
Divi elements come with a huge array of design settings, but you can quickly search and filter through these settings and to jump to your already-modified settings.
You can enjoy dozens of unique page elements and thousands of design options with Divi, giving you full design control over your website.
You can add borders to any element using Divi's robust border editor, creating rounded corners and controlling border sizes, colors, and styles.
You can freely switch between different view modes in Divi, choosing the one that best suits you or your current project, including wire-frame mode.
Advanced Features
You can apply advanced display logic to any element using Divi's condition options, allowing you to hide or display elements based on a set of conditions such as user role, date and time, post information, and website location.
With Divi, you can display product info to customers based on which products they have purchased, or show different content to users when they log in. This feature opens up a world of possibilities for creating dynamic and personalized content on your website.
Divi also gives you the power to transform elements on the page in ways that would typically only be possible in graphic design programs like Photoshop and Sketch, allowing you to move, scale, rotate, skew, and adjust the transform origin with ease.
AI
AI can be a game-changer in the web design process. It's not yet capable of building an entire website from scratch, but it can help with various parts of the process, such as generating images, text, code, and basic layouts.
AI website builders can speed up the web design process, making them a great jumping-off point. However, it's best to use AI-generated designs as a starting point, rather than relying on them as the final product.
Galileo AI is a powerful tool that can generate AI-powered interface mockups for websites and mobile apps. It's ideal for UX designers who want to focus on design ideas rather than a workable website.
Galileo AI has several pros, including being simple and easy-to-use. It can convert an image or text prompt into an actual user interface, and even export it straight to Figma.
Here are some key features of Galileo AI:
- Simple and easy-to-use interface
- Can convert images or text prompts into user interfaces
- Option to export interfaces to Figma
Advanced Animations and Effects
Advanced Animations and Effects are a game-changer for websites. With Divi, you can create stunning motions effects that interact with your visitors as they scroll up and down the page.
These animations aren't static, they're alive and change based on user interaction. You can craft truly stunning designs that grab your visitors' attention and keep them engaged.
Divi's animation presets make it easy to add animations to any element. You can also build your own animations by customizing the animation type, speed, and direction.
Transforming elements is also a breeze with Divi. You can move elements around, scale them up and down, rotate them on three different axes, skew them, and adjust the transform origin with ease.
Divi's hover options allow you to create stunning hover effects and transform modules into fun and interactive elements. The hover option interface is unique and amazingly easy to use.
Making responsive websites is easy with Divi, as it's responsive by default. However, Divi takes responsive design a step further by giving you complete control over every design setting on each mobile device.
Advanced Display Conditions
With Divi's advanced display conditions, you can apply complex logic to any element on your website.
You can hide or display elements based on user role, date and time, post information, website location, and more.
This feature allows you to display different content to users when they log in.
You can also create content that appears for the duration of a sale and then disappears automatically when the sale is over.
Displaying product information to customers based on which products they have purchased is another possibility.
Critical CSS
Divi automatically detects the CSS needed for content above the fold, and it defers everything else, giving your visitors a super-speed highway directly to your content.
This feature is a game-changer for website speed, and it's one of the reasons Google gives Divi sites great scores. The content shows up right away, which is exactly what users want.
By using this feature, you can ensure that your visitors don't have to wait for unnecessary CSS files to load, which can slow down your website. This is especially important for users with slower internet connections.
Google's PageSpeed Insights tool will love you for it, and so will your website's visitors.
Extendable Styles
Divi's extend styles functionality is a game-changer for designers. With this feature, you can update hundreds of elements at once, saving you a ton of time and effort.
You can extend a design style you've created to specific elements on the page, such as extending a box shadow and border style to dozens of images instantly.
This feature is incredibly useful when you have a design style that you want to reuse across the page or even the entire website. It's like having a magic wand that makes all your design elements look consistent and polished.
By extending a style, you can apply it to multiple elements, such as headings, buttons, or text blocks, making it easy to maintain a consistent design throughout your website.
Built in Split-Testing
Divi's split testing system is incredibly powerful, allowing you to test different designs and content against each other.
With Divi, you can choose unique goals to see how each variation performs, giving you a clear picture of what's working and what's not.
Divi gives you powerful insights so that you can pick the best version and increase your website's conversion rate using proven results.
Testing different designs and content is a breeze with Divi's split testing system, making it easy to optimize your website for maximum impact.
Productivity and Performance
Divi's speed and efficiency can take your team's workflow to the next level, making it a game-changer for web design professionals.
Divi eliminates bloat by removing resources you aren't using automatically, which means it only loads the necessary CSS and PHP functions to render your page.
This results in a light and efficient design system that can do a lot without slowing you down.
System Compatibility
System compatibility is crucial for a seamless web design experience. Your web design software should be compatible with your current website builder or CMS.
Using a compatible software ensures that you can export and import design elements easily. For instance, after using Sketch, you can export the prototype's CSS code and import it into your chosen CMS.
Having a compatible system saves time and reduces frustration. It allows you to focus on creating a great design rather than dealing with technical issues.
Exporting CSS code from Sketch can also help you import design elements into other systems. This flexibility is essential for maintaining a consistent look and feel across different platforms.
Incompatible systems can lead to design inconsistencies and errors. By choosing a compatible software, you can avoid these issues and create a professional-looking website.
Being able to export and import design elements is a significant advantage of using a compatible system. It streamlines your workflow and makes it easier to manage your website's design.
Durable
Durable is a great option for those looking to speed up their web design process. It's intuitive and easy to use, making it a perfect solution for beginners.
One of the standout features of Durable is its custom domain name, which you can get with a subscription. This is a great perk, especially considering the affordable price of $12/month (billed yearly).
However, if you're looking to build a more advanced website, Durable might not be the best choice. It has limited features and is limited to three pages with a free subscription.
Here's a quick rundown of the pros and cons of Durable:
- Intuitive and easy to use.
- Custom domain name with subscription.
- AI copy included.
- Limited features if you want to build a more advanced website.
- Limited to three pages with a free subscription.
Overall, Durable is a great option for those who need to get a website up and running quickly, but may not be the best choice for more complex projects.
Build Faster
Building a website quickly is a top priority for many, and Divi delivers. With its speed and efficiency, you can create websites faster than ever before.
Divi's advanced design system can take your team's work flow to the next level, making it a game-changer for web design professionals. This means you can build websites in no time.
Divi eliminates bloat by only loading the resources you need, making it light on its feet despite its capabilities.
E-commerce and Online Presence
With a web page layout maker like Divi, you can build and sell stunning products online using its specific WooCommerce integrations. Divi is compatible with WooCommerce and offers a seamless shopping experience.
WooCommerce is free, which means you can start selling products online at no additional cost. This is a great option for entrepreneurs and small business owners who want to establish an online presence.
Divi's integration with WooCommerce makes it easy to create an online store, but if you're looking for a website builder specifically designed for restaurant and retail-store owners, another option is available. This builder provides free hosting and is especially easy to use.
WordPress
WordPress is an open-source content management system that makes it easy to set up a website in minutes. Thousands of free plugins are available to download and install, extending the functionality of your site.
WordPress is free to use, but there are other costs associated with building and running a site on the platform. You can either host your own site or use a hosted solution.
WordPress has a large community of users to help troubleshoot problems, and an extensive library of plugins that makes extending your site really easy without needing to know how to code.
Here are some of the core functionalities of WordPress:
- Content Management
- Blog Design
- Website Structure
- Extensible (Plugins and Themes)
- Code Editing
To make building a website easier, WordPress offers a visual editor called Divi, which is a completely new website building platform that replaces the standard WordPress post editor.
Build WooCommerce Product
Building WooCommerce products is a breeze with Divi. It's compatible with WooCommerce and offers specific integrations that make the two a perfect pair.
You can start selling products online at no additional cost since WooCommerce is free. This means you can focus on designing and building your products without worrying about extra expenses.
With Divi's custom WooCommerce Modules, you have full control over the design of your product pages. You can create and control any individual WooCommerce element anywhere on your website.
You can decide what shows up on your product listings, move things around, and even mix WooCommerce modules with standard Divi modules to create just about anything. This level of customization takes WooCommerce to the next level.
Using Divi's Theme Builder, you can create site-wide post and product templates that change the structure of posts across your entire website. This saves you from designing each post one at a time and allows you to display post information automatically using Divi's Dynamic Content system.
Custom Cart Checkout Pages
Creating a seamless checkout experience is crucial for converting visitors into customers. You can build your own WooCommerce cart and checkout pages with Divi, which comes with 8 cart and checkout modules.
Each of these modules is packed full of design options, allowing you to completely customize your cart and checkout experience. With Divi's cart and checkout modules, you can create a checkout process that matches the look and feel of your website.
You can style each input individually using a full range of design options, making it easy to create a consistent and professional-looking checkout experience.
Square Online for Retailers and Restaurants
Square Online is a great option for retailers and restaurants who want to create a simple online presence. It's free, and you can get started right away.
Square Online is designed specifically for managing inventory and showcasing featured products. You can add modular elements like text boxes, photo galleries, and maps to your site.
One of the best things about Square Online is its e-commerce tools. You can list items to sell and add or edit them without leaving the page. This makes it super easy to manage your online store.
For restaurants, Square Online lets you add or edit menu items directly in the editor, which is a big plus. You can also upload a PDF menu to your site.
The administration section of Square Online covers most of the basics, including inventory management and order reporting. If you use Square for in-person sales, you'll find that the website reports are integrated into Square, making it easy to keep track of your business.
Square Online is free, but if you want to remove the branding and get access to more advanced features, you can opt for one of Square's paid plans, which start at $29 a month.
User Interface and Experience
Marvel is a great tool for creating prototypes and refining an interface exactly how you want it to appear. It offers a truly innovative way of creating pages and enables you to simulate the design via a prototype.
Divi's interface is incredibly fluid and adaptable, allowing you to move interface elements around and reposition your tools to create a workspace that suits you. Its visual editor and hundreds of pre-made designs make it perfect for website owners who want to bring their visions to life.
With Marvel, you can also centralize feedback and integrate your designs into the project workflow. This makes it easier to collaborate with team members and stakeholders.
A Fluid Interface
Divi's interface is truly one of a kind. It's unobtrusive and incredibly fluid.
You can move interface elements around and reposition your tools to create a workspace that suits you. This flexibility is a game-changer for anyone who's ever felt stuck with a website builder's layout.
The interface adapts to your screen size and never gets in your way. It's a thoughtful touch that makes working on your website a breeze, even on smaller screens.
With Divi, you can switch between different view modes to find the one that best suits you or your current project. This means you can zoom in and out, toggle through mobile device views, or switch between unique interaction modes.
Divi Quick Actions
Divi's quick action system is an all-in-one finder and doer that makes your life easier.
You can type to search through help videos and available Divi options, eliminating the need to navigate through menus.
It's super fast and a huge time saver, allowing you to quickly jump to different parts of the builder with a few keystrokes, or even jump to different pages and different WordPress admin areas.
Divi's quick action system also lets you perform advanced actions like adding elements or loading layouts, making it an indispensable tool for users.
Social Following
Having a social media presence is a must, and it's great that Divi makes it easy to promote your social media profiles. Divi's social follow module is a powerful tool to help you build your social following.
You can use Divi's social follow module to help build your social following. Having a strong social media presence can help you connect with your audience and promote your brand.
Divi's social sharing system, Monarch, makes it easy to share your content on social media. This can help increase engagement and drive more traffic to your website.
Navigation
Navigation is a crucial aspect of a website's user interface and experience. A well-designed navigation menu should be intuitive and easy to use.
Consider using breadcrumbs to help users understand where they are in the overall website. This can be especially helpful for complex sites.
Breadcrumbs can display filters used to search for products or information about the exact location of the page. For example, a website might show you the categories you've navigated through to reach a specific article.
A good navigation design can make a big difference in user experience.
Google Sites
Google Sites is a straightforward platform to build a basic website. It's especially easy to use, making it a great option for those who want to create a simple site without getting overwhelmed by design options.
With Google Sites, you can select from about a dozen templates, which cover a wide range of website needs, including events, projects, restaurants, service businesses, and hobbies. The templates are pretty basic-looking, but they get the job done.
Once you choose a template, Google Sites creates relevant pages and features for you. For example, if you select the restaurant template, the site builder adds a press quotes or customer reviews section on the home page, a menu page, an about page for your chef's bio, and a contact page.
The interface is simple and easy to navigate, with a drag-and-drop feature that allows you to move elements or resize them. However, you don't get as much control here as you do with Wix.
Google Sites is barebones, which means it's missing some features that other website builders offer. However, you can add other Google apps to your site, such as Google Calendar, Google Forms, and Google Maps.
One of the best things about Google Sites is that it's completely free, with no ads or "powered by" branding. This means you can host your site with a Google subdomain or bring your own custom domain name, all for $0.
Content Creation and Management
Content Hub is a comprehensive content management system that makes it easy to create and manage your website's content. It's free, and you don't need to know how to code to use it.
With Content Hub, you can create unlimited custom designs and easily reuse them to jump-start new pages. It also includes a robust collection of templates and a visual drag-and-drop editor.
Here are some key features of Content Hub's content creation and management capabilities:
- Free!
- No coding is required.
- A healthy selection of templates.
- Seamless integration with the rest of the HubSpot CRM platform.
- Hosting is included.
Content Hub's drag-and-drop editor makes it easy to customize every part of your website, from landing pages to homepages. You can even use its AI website generator to get up and running with your basic website quickly.
Save and Manage
You can save and manage unlimited custom designs with Dorik AI, making it easy to re-use them to jump-start new pages.
Dorik AI's feature allows you to save and manage unlimited custom designs, which is perfect for creating advanced design systems and streamlining your workflow.
With Dorik AI, you can easily re-use your saved designs to create new pages, saving you time and effort.
Divi's design system is also highly efficient, allowing you to build websites faster and take your team's workflow to the next level.
By using Dorik AI's "Regenerate" button, you can regenerate any specific section or the full layout in just a click, making it easy to make changes and updates to your designs.
This feature is especially useful for web design professionals who need to make frequent changes and updates to their designs.
Contact Form Building
When building a contact form, you have the flexibility to create custom form fields to collect any type of information from your visitors.
This means you can tailor your form to gather the specific details you need, whether it's a name, email address, phone number, or any other relevant information.
With advanced conditional logic, you can even hide and display input fields based on the visitor's responses, making it easier to collect the right information at the right time.
This feature allows you to create a more streamlined and efficient form that saves your visitors time and effort.
You can also style each input individually using a full range of design options, giving you complete control over the look and feel of your form.
Information Architecture
Information Architecture is a crucial part of designing a website layout, and it's all about organizing information in a user-friendly way.
It's a part of a website designer's scope of service, but as the website owner, you're in charge of creating content. Experienced web designers can help you understand web users better and suggest ways to present information, like turning some bits into an infographic.
A wireframe, which is the draft of your website layout, should help you decide on positioning key elements and focal points, including navigation bars, content sections, and call-to-action buttons. This will also help you establish the basic logic of your site and design a site journey map.
Dividing the web page layout into sections like header, body, and footer is essential, and using appropriate heading and font sizes will draw attention to the most important information.
Blogging and HTML
Blogging and HTML is a powerful combination for creating engaging content.
No other site builder we tested offers as many controls or as much flexibility for blogging.
For bloggers, having a site builder that can handle HTML is a game-changer.
This flexibility allows for customization and creativity, making your blog stand out.
However, if you're a beginner, it can be overwhelming to navigate these controls.
Our top pick offers a more user-friendly experience for customizing sites, making it easier for beginners to get started.
Best Practices and Tips
To create an effective web page layout, keep it simple and uncluttered, just like the minimalistic layout of the "Grid System" example. This will help your visitors focus on the content.
Use a clear hierarchy of elements, such as the "Prioritization" example, to guide the visitor's attention to the most important information. This will make it easier for them to scan and understand your page.
A well-designed layout can greatly improve the user experience, as shown in the "Responsive Design" example, where the layout adapts to different screen sizes and devices.
For Beginners
As a beginner, you'll love that Content Hub is zero-coding required, providing everything you need to launch a website.
Content Hub's visual drag-and-drop editor makes it easy to create a website without needing to know how to code.
The platform's robust collection of templates gives you a wide range of design options to choose from.
You can pick between some landing pages, an about, a contact, and a homepage, making it easy to get started.
Content Hub's customizable timer widget is a great feature that adds a nice touch to your website.
With Content Hub's AI website generator, you can get up and running with your basic website even more quickly.
The platform's integration with all other products in the HubSpot platform, including CRM, marketing software, sales software, and service software, makes it a comprehensive solution.
Knowing how your customers are interacting with your content allows for seamless data management and automation across Sales, Marketing, and Customer Service.
Freelancers
As a freelancer, it's essential to set clear boundaries with clients to avoid overcommitting and ensure timely completion of projects. Set specific working hours and stick to them.
The average freelance rate varies by industry, but the most in-demand skills, such as writing and programming, can command rates upwards of $100 per hour.
Effective communication is key to successful freelancing. Regularly schedule check-ins with clients to discuss progress and address any concerns.
Freelancers can deduct business expenses on their taxes, including home office expenses, equipment, and travel costs. This can lead to significant savings at tax time.
Developing a strong professional network is crucial for freelancers. Attend industry events and join online communities to stay connected with other professionals in your field.
Iterate and Test
Your website's success depends on its performance results. This includes metrics like time spent on the site, ranking, or conversions.
You'll need to test your website layout with real users to gather valuable feedback. This can be done by paying professionals to test your site or by collecting feedback from actual users.
Marvel is a great tool for user testing, offering a free plan and three paid options, including Pro, Team, and Enterprise. It also provides an integrated user testing feature.
It's essential to centralize feedback from your users to refine your design. Marvel's user testing feature allows you to do just that.
You can also consider using other tools or methods to test your website, such as gathering feedback from real users or paying professionals to test your site.
A simple and effective way to test your website is to create a prototype using Marvel. This will enable you to simulate the design and gather feedback from users.
Here are some key takeaways to keep in mind when testing your website:
- Use tools like Marvel to gather feedback from real users.
- Centralize feedback to refine your design.
- Consider paying professionals to test your site if you can't gather feedback from real users.
Types of Web Page Layouts
A full-page layout can be truly effective if done well, and it's all about packing all the information in one single page view without needing to scroll. This layout is a type of minimalist design that's not as common nowadays.
Marie Claire's homepage is a great example of a magazine layout, which is essentially a mix of other types, such as cards, single-column, and zig-zag. It combines sections for a full-screen view and groups of cards around a similar topic.
The single-column layout is probably the most common type of website layout, and it's very simple: all the content is arranged in a single column. Big blogs like Medium always employ this layout, as it mimics the experience of reading on paper.
Zig-Zag
The zig-zag layout is a great way to guide users through a website. It's called zig-zag because our eyes move across the page in a zig-zag pattern, starting from the top left, moving to the top right, and then down diagonally to the bottom right corner.
This layout is perfect for landing pages, as it leads users through a logical sequence of design elements, usually ending with a CTA button. Our own homepage uses this layout, and it's one of the best website layouts for SaaS websites.
The zig-zag layout helps users understand what the product or service is about and how to use it.
Asymmetrical
Asymmetrical layouts are all about breaking the rules, and each one is unique. NewFlight, a film and digital agency, uses asymmetry in their web design to create a more dynamic visual experience.
Asymmetrical layouts often look messy and unconventional, but that's what makes them effective. They intentionally bend the rules of traditional grid-based layouts.
The proportions of split-screens and grids in asymmetrical layouts are often just a little bit off, which can make a big impact on the overall design.
Full-Page
A full-page layout is a type of minimalist layout that can be truly effective if done well. It's a layout where all the information is packed into one single page view, without needing to scroll.
This layout is not commonly seen nowadays, but it can be a great way to present information in a clear and concise manner. For example, a website's home page, About Us page, and Services page can all be presented in a full-page view.
To make a full-page layout work, you need to be creative with motion design to keep users engaged. As seen in the example, a full-page layout can provide all the necessary information without overwhelming the user.
8. F-Pattern
The F-pattern layout is a type of web design layout that's commonly used for blogs and publication sites. This layout is focused on how users consume web content, starting by reading horizontally from left to right.
Users then move onto scanning the website vertically, scrolling down to take in more information. This layout is particularly effective for text-heavy sites.
Medium is a great example of a site that uses the F-pattern layout, making it ideal for businesses that want to highlight two major points.
Frequently Asked Questions
How do I create a website layout?
To create a website layout, start by defining your goals and audience, then follow a structured process of research, wireframing, and design iteration. Begin with a solid foundation and refine your design through testing and feedback to create a user-friendly and effective layout.
Is Canva good for web design?
Canva is a suitable option for simple websites, but for more complex and high-end designs, consider upgrading to a more advanced tool or professional designer. For a strong online presence, you may need to look beyond Canva's capabilities.
Sources
- https://blog.hubspot.com/website/free-web-design-tools
- https://www.hubspot.com/products/cms/drag-and-drop-website-builder
- https://www.elegantthemes.com/gallery/divi/
- https://www.manypixels.co/blog/web-design/website-layout
- https://www.nytimes.com/wirecutter/reviews/best-website-builder-for-small-businesses/
Featured Images: pexels.com