The days of WordPress being just a blogging platform are long over. WordPress can now be used to create practically any type of website you can imagine. With all of the themes and design tools available, and the ability to expand WordPress even further by adding your own code and plugins, the sky is the limit for your WordPress design.

One question I’m often asked is where to get ideas for WordPress designs. I like this question. There are actually a lot of good places to get ideas. Here is a look at some of my favorite methods of getting ideas layout designs for my WordPress projects.

Keep in mind the idea isn’t to directly copy another design. Instead, it is to get ideas to improve on, incorporate into other ideas, expand, etc.; using them with the idea of creating something unique.

What to Look For

There are lots of places to get ideas. One thing to keep in mind is it doesn’t matter what was used to create the website. It doesn’t have to be a WordPress website. It could have been created with any builder, such as Divi, Wix, Elementor, etc. The idea is to look for layouts and design elements that you like.

Coffee – a Divi child theme

For layouts I prefer to take a step-back approach and see an image of the entire layout at once. This way I can see the individual elements and see how they work together. The layout should tell the story you want it to tell. This is easier to see when viewing a smaller image rather than seeing the website full-screen. Try to pay attention to the layout rather than the placeholder images. The two things that stand out about the theme above is it looks very different when there are no placeholder images which can draw attention away from the design, and it’s hard to tell much about it when seeing the full screen image.

Pinterest

Pinterest is one of my favorite places to look at website layouts. Just type in keywords like web design, website layout, or similar and you’ll see more than you need. You can even look for colors. It will give you a few filters across the top so you can narrow down your choices. Be careful though, once you start searching on Pinterest it’s easy to stay there for several days at a time (well, maybe several hours, but the point is the same).

• Be sure to follow the WP Design Trends Pinterest board.

Theme Sell Sites

Another great place to get ideas is from theme sites such as ThemeForest or the marketplaces. I like to select the popular themes and look at their demos. They don’t even have to be for WordPress. The image above is from a WordPress theme called Jupiter 5.

Other Websites Within the Genre

Another method I’ve found useful is to research some of the more popular websites within the genre that I’m developing in. For example, if I’m designing a website for a writer, I’ll look at websites for writers and make notes of my favorite elements. I;ll then incorporate those elements using my own styles, tweaking and making them my own.

Keep a Notebook

I like to keep screenshots and links to layouts the I find inspiring. That’s one of the benefits of Pinterest because of the ability to create your own boards. I also like to save links in a folder in my web browser. Another option is to keep a file of links in a document or use a tool such as EverNote.

Let’s Discuss

• Do you use any of these methods for getting layout design ideas?
• What other websites do you use?
• What other methods do you use?
• What’s your favorite way of saving the design ideas?

Let us know what you think in the comments. Thanks for reading. Please subscribe if you haven’t already.

Image by Tamarcus Brown