Your website is often the first impression people have of your business. Because it’s important to make a good first impression, your site’s design is essential. It needs to be visually appealing, convey your brand’s personality, and help sell your products or services. This is where the web design mood board comes into play.
A web design mood board is exactly what you’d expect it to be. It’s a visual tool designed to communicate your website’s look and feel. It paints a picture of the user interface (UI) and layout, steering you toward what your website should look like. So, it goes without saying that a mood board should be created before the design process begins.
Trust us: having a mood board for your website will save you lots of time, stress, and effort. While some people use design boards instead, we think mood boards are more beneficial. They’re easier to navigate and way more effective at communicating your website’s overall aesthetic.
Mood boards give you clear guidance on what to expect and work towards. Also, it’s reassuring that you’ll roughly know what the final outcome will look like. In this case, having a mood board might also save you some tears — unless they’re happy tears!
Creating a mood board is a lot of fun; there are many elements you can incorporate to make your design special and exactly to your taste. Here are a few to spark inspiration:
Another great thing about a mood board is that it’s flexible. Just because you add a new idea to it doesn’t mean you have to do it. Remember, the purpose of a mood board is to collect inspiration and ideas for what you want your website to look like. Nothing is set in stone. You can make changes if you think of something to change or add — but discuss it with your designer, and again, make sure you do this before the design process kicks off.
When brainstorming ideas and inspiration, ask yourself what you want your website’s overall tone to be. Light? Dark? Serious? Fun? Dare to venture onto other websites — especially in your industry — for inspiration, to see what you think looks good and how something similar could be translated onto your website.
It’s not about copying your competitors but finding your creative flow, and making your competition business stand out. What you find can be a great conversation starter with your designer.
We already mentioned that a web design mood board establishes your website’s aesthetic and style direction. That’s the main point of a mood board, but it serves more than one purpose.
A mood board:
Establishing a clear visual direction for your website early on will improve your efficiency. It’ll reduce time spent pondering what you want and don’t want to include on your website and ultimately help deliver your website’s design faster.
Since a mood board is a collection of visual references, it ensures that everyone involved in the design project is on the same page about your website’s aesthetic, tone, and style. This makes the whole process quicker, effortless, and even more fun!
Mood boards are like the North Star. They always guide the next step in the design process, acting as a reference point. Without them, you wouldn’t know what your website would look like; its consistent look and feel would be non-existent, or lacking at best.
Remember, mood boards are adjustable. They can be used to explore different design ideas and styles, allowing you to play with and perfect them before committing to a final design. This is helpful; mood boards give your creativity space rather than restricting it. You can create as many as you like, if you think it’ll help you reach your final design.
This brings us to our next point. Web design mood boards are an excellent tool for collecting visual elements. It can inspire your creativity and perhaps give you an even better idea of what you want your website to look like. Let your ideas flow, and if you’re collaborating with a web designer, let them know your thoughts. Speaking to them can provide fresh ideas, too.
Possibly one of the most crucial purposes of the web design mood board is to help avoid misunderstandings between you and the designer. Even if you struggle to verbally explain your expectations for your website, your visual design will express your vision for you.
Plus, collaborating on a mood board helps you, the client, feel heard as the designer works to bring your vision to life. Nothing beats feeling understood and seen, right?
Creating a mood board may sound simple, and in many ways, it is, but if you want to do it right, there are a few steps you need to take.
If you have an established brand identity and style guide, review these before creating your web design mood board. They can serve as inspiration, and, as we’ve learned, inspiration is necessary for mood board creation. Knowing your brand identity and having set style guidelines can help give you — and your designer — a clearer perspective.
Whether you need advice on what visual elements to include, what tone to choose, or how to best visualise your brand, these resources are a good starting point. They ensure consistency and that your mood board (and website) match your brand’s existing guidelines.
Now it’s time for some fun stuff. If you’ve already established a brand identity, you’ve likely got an idea of what mood, tone, or vibe you’re going for in your mood board and, ultimately, your website. If not, that’s okay. We’re here to help.
You must consider your users and products when choosing the right mood. Ask yourself: ‘What mood do I want my products/services to deliver? How do I want my users to feel when they use my products/services? How do I convince them to make that purchase?’
Write down specific words or phrases that stand out as you answer these questions. Look them up in a dictionary to check if they really are a word or phrase that fits your brand — it’s better to be safe than sorry! Group specific words that convey the same mood into a few (maybe around 3-5) clusters. Choose around four words per cluster; these will serve as the foundation for your mood board creation.
Great, you’ve identified the vibe for your mood board. Now it’s time to choose its style.
You’ll want its style to evoke the mood you’re trying to create.
Are you following?
Okay, good, because we’ve got a strange request. We want you to ask yourself: ‘If my mood board were a person, what would their style be? How would they dress?’
Brainstorming always helps, so to stimulate your creativity, here are some words you can use to describe your mood board’s style:
Have you figured it out?
This step requires you to make an important decision: What tool will you use to create your mood board?
You also need to decide whether to make your mood board physically or digitally. Do what works best for you, but if you go digital, there are many free customisable templates available on various platforms (like Canva).
Let’s simplify this decision for you.
Physical mood boards are good if hands-on activities spark your creativity and help you develop new ideas. But — and it’s a big but — if you’re working as part of a remote team, this isn’t ideal. Physical mood boards are harder to share and collaborate on, and they can also be quite time-consuming to make, despite bringing lots of joy.
Digital boards, on the other hand, are less time-consuming — and yes, still good fun. You also don’t need that much to get started (no glue, paper, pins or tape!). All you really need is a tool that can collect, store and move your visuals easily, and in any way you want. For this, we wouldn’t recommend using MS Word. If you’ve used MS Word before, you know how hard it can be to move images around. Instead, opt for Canva, or other digital whiteboard tools like FigJam, Miro and Mural. Or, hey… maybe even Zap?
Find and gather any visual material you think will be of use to you. Images, illustrations, videoframes, text, patterns… there’s so much possibility — but where to look for it all?
As you collect these visuals, strive for unity and consistency between them. Although ‘chaos’ might be what you’re going for in your mood board, it might confuse you with its contradictions. This is counterintuitive to the board’s purpose, as it won’t provide you with any explicit directions. So, ensure the visuals you pick all convey the same theme or mood.
If you have several visually distinct ideas, create separate mood boards. Some ideas may come into use later. Just don’t mesh it all together — you’ll thank us later!
To arrange your visuals effectively, give your mood board a clear visual hierarchy. Decide which assets are the most important and organise them as such. Prioritise the ones that deliver the mood you want to communicate the most — make them bigger than the other visuals and place them in the middle of the board. Let them be the centre of attention!
Also, group similar ‘ideas’ together on the mood board to help people navigate your board more easily. You can use white space to create a clear separation between each idea and visual item.
If you created the mood board yourself, ask your colleagues for feedback and suggestions — this will only help you improve, and might even give you new ideas.
If you worked on the mood board with a team, share it with the rest of the department. Communicate your rationale for choosing the moods and visuals so they can see and understand your meaning and offer their feedback based on this.
…And if you don’t know where to begin with mood boards, don’t worry. We’ve got an alternative method. It’s only one step, and it’s pretty simple: Contact us.
With our specialised tools and talent for matching design to your needs, that’s exactly what your website can be: Zap-tastic. A scalable, data-driven and thriving website. What business wouldn’t want that?
