Having a good design that attracts and engages people has always been up for a debate. With the changing times, the audience and the trends are changing as well. The way people have their conversations, social media, the numerous forums everyone has their own views on what a good design looks like. But maybe that’s the beauty of the whole concept of design. It is free for interpretation.

However, as a UX/UI Designer, you have to be careful with what you create. You have to pick a sample for your audience and then create something that engages them and gets your clients some profits. While we agree that there can never be one particular form of design that can fit everyone, the concept of “golden ratio of Design” can help us get somewhat closer to perfection.

What Is Golden Ratio In Web Design?

Golden Ratio in web design is also called the golden section, golden mean, divine proportion and the Greek Letter Phi. It is a unique number that equates to 1.618. The golden ratio of design comes from the Fibonacci sequence which is the natural occurrence of the number that can be found within nature itself. The Fibonacci sequence can be found in the number of the leaves in the tree or even the shape of a seashell.

The Fibonacci sequence is the sum of the two number before the other number. For example, in the numerical line, 1 (1+1), 2 (1+2), 3 (3+2), 5 and so on. From this pattern emerging in the nature, the Greeks developed the golden ratio of design to explain the difference between the numbers.

How Does The Golden Ratio Relate To Design?

The golden ratio of design actually is the most essential part of the entire process. It can be seen when you divide a line into two parts. The longer part (a) divided by the smaller part (b) is equal to the sum of both a and b divided by a, which is 1.1618

a/b = a+b/a = 1.1618

The formula for the golden ratio of design helps create shapes, logos, layouts and pretty much everything for the design aesthetics. It creates balanced and organic designs that are aesthetically pleasing to the eye and helps in the better design structure. The golden ratio of design majorly comes into the picture during the UI processes.

Golden Ratio In UI Design

In the design process, the User Interface (UI) plays an equally important role as the User Experience (UX). UI focuses on how the website will look to the audience. It focuses on the logos, the shape of the buttons, pictures, colours and everything that has to do with the aesthetics of the entire website. This makes the golden ratio in UI design even more critical.

The golden ratio of design is all about mathematics. As a designer, you’d need to calculate everything in the perfect setup and ratios to finalise the design. Similar is the case with the golden ratio of design. Your calculations to balance things within the design should make one conclusion i.e., 1.1618.

While it can seem tedious, the golden ratio of design can actually do wonders for your design. The ways in which it works is as follows:

Balanced Content

When a designer is creating something, and there is vast data that needs to be put, and none of it can be left, it can be a tassel. But in such a case, the golden ratio of design can be used. All you have to do is, divide the layout in different sections so that the end results is in the format of 1:1.1618. This will help you in organizing the content from the most important to the least.

Perfect Typography

The content on a website is not restricted only to the visual elements. It also includes the written content on the website. When you are adding articles, blogs or descriptions to the website, you need to have the perfect ratio between the headings, subheadings and the body of the content. This where the golden ratio of design comes into the picture.

Once you choose a size for your heading, divide it by 1.1618 and you’ll get the right size for your sub-headings as well.

First Impression

When a user is trying a new product or a website for the first time, they will consciously/unconsciously check the aesthetics of the website. A psychology principle called the visceral reaction says that the people will decide what they like or don’t within the first few seconds of looking at it. It means that the reaction towards a product is much faster than we realise. This means that the first impression of a website is crucial.

The golden ratio of design is the perfect way to improve the first impression. It organizes the content and the visual elements in a way that ensures that the user’s are impressed the first time they see it. The organized content of the website is aesthetically pleasing to the users and ensures a better first impression at the first sight.

White Space

White space is the area between the elements of a design composition. As a UI Designer, you must understand that the unity of the composition relies heavily on the white space. Applying golden ratio of design makes it a million times easier and faster to make the composition of white space better.

How To Use Golden Ratio In Design?

Now that we know how important golden ratio of design is, it is important to understand how to use golden ratio in design. Below are the four ways in which you can use it while creating designs:

Typography and Hierarchy

The golden ratio of design can help you understand what font size you should go for your website. You can use the formula on your website, landing page, blog post and even in the print campaigns.

For example: if your body copy of your content is 12px. So if you multiply it by 1.1618. You’d get 19.416. It means your header size should either be 19px or 20px as per the golden ratio of design.

Similarly, if you want to check the font size for the body of your content as per your heading, do the opposite. If your header size is 25px, divide it by 1.1618. Your body text would be either 15px or 16px.

Resizing Images

When you are cropping images to fit into the website, its easy to cut out the white space and make it look better. But it can be tricky to ensure the perfect balance of the elements when you resize it. The golden ratio of design will assist you in creating the perfect image composition.

For example: When you work with a golden spiral over the image of a flower, the idea is to focus on the middle of the spiral.

Golden Ratio Design in Form and Layout

Applying golden design in form and layout can assist the UI Designers in drawing the users attention to what matters the most in the visual element. When you are creating a website, you will feel that everything is important. But in reality, your users will focus only on a few things.

For example, when you have a huge block of content on the left side of the website, you can apply on the golden ratio of design on the right side of the website which will help you understand the most important components that you want the users to focus mainly on.

Logo Making

When you are creating a logo and you are confused about the proportions, golden ratio of design is the perfect solution. Many famous logos like that of Twitter, Apple, etc have used the same technique.

Tools For Golden Ratio Of Design

Applying golden ratio of design can be a tricky business. Its too much mathematics to deal with and can be a bit boring too. But the good part is that you don’t actually have to do the calculations all by yourself. There are many tools available for you to use that will make your job easier and much faster to do.

Below are the tools that you can use to calculate the golden ratio of design:

Golden Ratio Calculator

If you want to calculate the shorter side, longer side or if the combined length of the two sides to get the perfect golden ratio of design, use the Golden Ratio Calculator. It works perfectly and easy to use.

goldenRATIO

It is an app for the designers and developers. It makes the job for designing websites, interfaces, layouts and a lot of other things easier and faster. The app goldenRATIO helps you to get the right golden ratio of design with it built-in calculator along with visual feedback, store screen position and other features.

Golden Ratio Typography Calculator

As we have said earlier, website is not only focused on the visual elements but also the written content. The perfect typography will include the perfect font size and width. With the golden ratio typography calculator will calculate the right font size, line height, and everything else in respect to the golden ratio of design.

PhiMatrix

This software offers customizable grids and templates that you can use to fix any image. It applies the golden ratio of design in product design, logo development, composition, etc.

Conclusion

In the end, any website or a business is successful only if the users are happy with their interactions and the experience of the whole process. When it comes to the perfect website, users want something new and exciting. They want something they have never seen before. And applying the golden ratio of design to your website will help you in pleasing the viewer’s experience.