Sometimes it is hard to choose between making mood boards and difficult mockups for clients. That’s where the style tile design comes in. This visual language helps you show the look and feel of a website or app before building it.
In this guide, you’ll learn about style tiles, why they matter, and how they make working with others easier. We’ll tell you the key parts to include and share style tile examples. Get ready to create a design everyone agrees on with our tips.
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What Exactly is a Style Tile?
A style tile is a design document that shows the style a designer intends to use for a brand or website. According to Samantha Warren, a style tile creates an emotional connection. It shows a preview of a brand’s online look and feel. This is a game-changer for web designers!
You can use it to create a visual direction for a project and get all stakeholders on the same page. When everyone agrees, you can then make full-page layouts or high-fidelity mockups. You won’t create mockups that your client dislikes.
Think of it as an interior designer presenting paint chips, fabric swatches, and material samples. They don’t have to decorate three different rooms or spaces for their client to pick a suitable style. Similarly, style tiles do the same in web design.
Style tiles are a nice transition between mood boards and full compositions. They show real interface components and are more detailed than mood boards.
However, they don’t contain as many details as compositions and are easier to make. That’s because they focus on the visual brand language. They don’t include page structure and layout.
Key Characteristics of Style Tile Design
It’s important to note the parts of the style tiles and how they work. Here are some major features:
- Focused: Style tiles only show aesthetic elements like fonts, colors, buttons, and icons. They also show textures but omit layout.
- Efficient: Style tiles are faster to make than full mockups. As a result, you can collect feedback on time and begin working on the visual design.
- Collaborative: Style guides are great visual aids. Interior designers and clients can refer to them while working on ideas.
- Flexible: There are no specific rules or limitations. So, interior designers can try different ideas and design principles, themes, and shapes.
- Contextual: They show how all elements will appear on a screen. You can see how fonts look in headings, body text, and the buttons’ style.
Why Use Style Tiles? The Benefits for Your Workflow
The core advantages of style tiles are better communication and saved time. Using style tiles improves the entire design process. You’ll enjoy greater collaboration and efficiency, which increases your chances of success.
After deciding on the basics at a kick-off meeting, a style tile helps you gain perspective. Below are more advantages of using a design tile.
Streamlined Communication and Collaboration
Style tiles help designers and clients communicate with a common visual language. Instead of using complex terms, people can point at features on the tile to explain ideas. Having a visual reference makes design conversations clearer and more productive.
If everyone agrees on the look and feel, there will be no major changes later. That means less risk of canceling designs and starting new ones.
Style tiles also keep feedback focused. Clients and team members can decide on the aesthetic details. Since design tiles exclude layout or content, the team can address them at the right time.
Efficiency and Flexibility in Design
Style tiles help the design team save time. It’s faster and easier to make 2-3 style tile options is much faster than creating full web page designs. Spending less time on tasks helps the team work more efficiently.
Since designers have extra time, they can try out new ideas and test different styles to see what fits the brand. Style tiles also make it easy to get client feedback from the start. Thus, designers can adjust styles without recreating full layouts.
They also show how design pieces work together on different screen sizes. This display helps support responsive design early on. Hence, you won’t have to create separate mockups for different devices immediately.
Building a Visual Language Foundation
Style tiles build a strong foundation for design concepts and projects. The style tile components, like colors and fonts, form the basis for design systems.
This system helps keep the look of the website or app consistent during development. It serves as a framework for developers.
Style tiles also help manage expectations. They give the client a clear and simple preview of the design and the project’s scope.
When are Style Tiles Most Effective?
As a designer, you need to know when to use style tiles. The best time to use them is during the early to middle phase of the project.
It comes after the team has learned about the project’s goals and audience. You can use it after making a mood board before starting full wireframes or mockups. Consider using style tiles when:
- A mood board template is too abstract and can’t offer sufficient direction.
- Full website mockups need too many resources at the current stage.
- An existing brand identity needs to transition into a digital design.
- The project needs several responsive designs.
- You need to try different visual styles before selecting the best.
- Clear, collaborative decisions on aesthetics are necessary.
Style tiles are helpful if you need to agree on a design’s main look and feel before building full pages.
Essential Style Tile Components
Style tiles have a set of specific core elements. They work together to show the visual direction of a project. However, using all of them in your design is not compulsory. While adaptable, most effective style tiles incorporate a standard set of core elements.
The major parts of a style tile are:
- Branding: It features the logo and shows its integration with other visual elements.
- Color Palette: Includes primary, secondary, and accent swatches to help choose website colors. The specific hex codes help designers select the right shade.
- Typography: It shows how fonts look in headings, body text, and links. It covers all font information, including size, weight, and scale.
- Interface Elements: Key interactive elements like buttons, form fields, and examples of icon styles.
- Imagery Style: A photo or illustration that shows the tone. You can use notes to describe any picture you haven’t finalized.
- Textures/Patterns: Examples or swatches of background textures or patterns in the design.
- Descriptive Adjectives: 3-5 guiding keywords that explain the mood and aesthetic.
When you combine these elements, you’ll get an overview of the style.
Creating Your Style Tile: A Step-by-Step Guide
To craft a style tile, you need a structured process. It’s important to understand the requirements before creating concepts.
Step 1: Listen, Research, and Define
Start by learning all you can about the project and its context. Find out what the brand wants to achieve, its users, and its identity. You can review the brand’s previous materials to get a clearer image.
Next, gather ideas and inspiration from other websites or businesses in the industry. Study the industry’s aesthetics to find styles that match the brand’s look or message.
Combine all you’ve learned and identify repeating patterns or ideas. Select key themes and words that fit the industry to describe the brand’s personality. These keywords will serve as a direction for your design.
Step 2: Develop and Assemble
Begin building your design ideas. A design style tile guide suggests starting with 2 to 3 style directions. Each one should look and feel different. Don’t just make small changes to one design. Instead, use different fonts, moods, buttons, and colors.
Next, build a style tile for each option. Use your web design program to arrange all style tile components on a canvas. Ensure everything is easy to read and complements each other.
Step 3: Get Client Feedback and Iterate
Present the style tiles to the client or stakeholders. You can call a kick-off meeting for the presentation to guide them through the options. Explain the inspiration for the design of each tile. Clarify how the visuals connect to the project’s goal.
Ask stakeholders specific questions to get constructive feedback. Frame questions that will reveal their opinion on all style tiles and show you what to adjust.
Use the feedback to make changes. Most often, the final direction combines elements from all options.
Design Principles for Effective Style Tiles
Following these best practices will help you create remarkable style tiles:
- Style, Not Layout: Place emphasis on the individual aesthetic components.
- Offer Genuine Variety: Your options must represent different style choices and moods.
- Keep it Concise: Limit each style tile to one page.
- Use Realistic Text: Use real sample headings instead of placeholder text.
- Show Interaction States: Show visual changes when users interact with elements.
- Articulate Choices: Explain the reason for your font, color, and style choices.
- Early Accessibility Check: Ensure the typography and background have enough color contrast. Also, pick fonts that are simple and easy to read.
- Maintain Flexibility: Make it clear and detailed. But leave room to make changes based on feedback.
Style Tile vs. Mood Board vs. Style Guide
It’s important to know the difference between these three tools. This way, you’ll know when to use them in your design process. Each one is a great option in different circumstances.
Mood Boards
A mood board is a visual combination that shows the mood or feel of a project. It contains inspirational images, textures, and colors. You can use it at the first stage.
It’s broad and focuses on setting the tone of a design rather than user interface (UI) elements.
Style Tiles
A style tile shows a brand’s visual design without using full pages. It has concrete UI components like icons and fonts that can express mood. Its specificity level is medium as it focuses on core web elements but avoids layout.
Style Guides / Design Systems
These are the rules for creating a brand’s visual identity. After selecting a final design, you can use it to maintain consistency. They contain design principles, instructions, guidelines, and code snippets. They are highly detailed.
You can use mood boards, style tiles, and style guides progressively. The mood board inspires, and the tile gives visual direction for mockups. Finally, the style guide is like a rulebook.
Creating a Website for Your Design
After selecting a style tile, you can focus on design and development. Your next step should be to create a website, host it on a reliable web host, and launch your design. Your choice of web host provider plays an important role in how your website functions.
Choosing the best web hosting service influences performance, security, and reliability. These technical aspects are as important as the style. A good host provides the necessary security measures, server uptimes, scalability, and support.
Conclusion
Style tile designs are useful in the design process. They turn ideas into visuals so that everyone can understand the style. Style tiles help web designers and clients choose a look by focusing on the visual language.
Reaching an early agreement prevents several changes before launching the full design. With style tiles, projects run smoothly and produce better designs for a consistent look. Create a style tile before launching a website for any project you handle.
Next Steps: What Now?
Before you begin to create style tiles, here are things to note:
- You can use many design tools, but Figma, Canva, and Adobe XD are among the best.
- Align your design with the customer’s visual brand identity.
- When building your style tile, focus on the color palette, texture, and other UI elements.
Further Reading & Useful Resources
Read these resources to learn more about design:
- Learn how to make a graphic design portfolio.
- Explore these website design ideas.
- Comparing a web designer vs. a UI designer.
