4 (surprisingly common) Reasons Your Website Feels ‘Off’
Have you ever thought “my website just doesn’t Feel like me…” and wondered why? Let’s fix that.
I’ve spent thousands of hours designing posters, websites and creative assets. And for the first couple years, my design quality felt inconsistent. I was stuck wondering why my websites look bad and never fully felt like me.
This post shares the 4 biggest reasons why.
These are the biggest reasons why a website ends up feeling disjointed, bland or just off. I hope I can save you a couple years of trial and error.
Alright, let’s do this!
Timid Brand Clarity
If your brand isn’t confidently defined, your website won’t be either. Vibe and style-drift pop up in subtle ways.
A lack of brand clarity creates slightly off designs.
For example, one section from a page might look cool on its own (maybe it was inspired by a layout you found online), but if the next section below it follows a different vibe, then the two sections won’t work together or support your bigger brand story.
This can be subtle but it’s a big reason why a website feels off.
And I get it, it’s hard to ‘choose your lane’, especially if you’re multi-passionate. And there’s no shame if you’re still in an exploratory phase.
But if you are still unsure about your website or identity, try testing out one thing (one design theme) at a time. Wear it around for at least a month. See how it feels.
A Loose Creative Direction
When you go off script, your theme breaks. This creates a disjointed feeling that’s sometimes hard to pinpoint. But you know that something ‘just feels off’.
A loose creative direction means your image edits aren’t cohesive, your vibe drifts, and your style meanders.
When you know exactly who your site is supposed to be, you end up with a bag of principles to pull from with each new page, section, or piece of content you publish. This creates guardrails and keeps your site feeling cohesive and branded.
Here’s how to nail your creative direction:
Lock in your what, who and why
Clearly identify your values, audience, POV, mission and vision
Actually create a brand kit
Color palette, typography, image rules, logo, style guide
Create a hyper specific vision
For example, don’t just make a ‘minimalist website’; make a ‘minimalist artist rebrands an editorial fashion magazine’
Curate a stylescape
Mood boards are general, stylescapes are curated
Curate inspiration based on your hyper-specific vision
(accidentally) Breaking Design Principles
“Learn the rules like a pro, so you can break them like an artist.”
I learned something after years of designing websites. There’s a pretty big difference between intentionally breaking a design fundamental and accidentally doing it.
Accidentally breaking design principles makes a website feeling off. There’s a reason for this.
When you do it intentionally, it’s controlled and focused. When you do it unintentionally, it’s usually a pattern (something that keeps happening, which amplifies the problem).
I include grid layouts and UX inside of design principles too. So here are some things to know for all that:
Design fundamentals
Balance, contrast, hierarchy, proximity, spacing, depth and layering, repetition
Grid layouts
How pages and individual sections are organized
For example, bento grids, manuscript/single column, masonry, broken or anti-grid, full screen, etc.
UX
For example, make your site scannable, have clear navigation, compress images for site speed, make your site accessible, and design for mobile
Trying to Do Too Much
This one is hard. As a multi-passionate artist, I totally get it. I mean, I have art, music, websites and travel thoughts to share, each with their own goals.
But trying to cram that into one place creates dissonance. There’s a way to expand and stack your domains so it makes sense. But if your website isn’t immediately clear what it does, it’ll feel off.
Check out my post on multibranding for more on that.
But here’s the brutal fix: choose one core thing you want visitors to do on your site.
Again, you can expand later or branch off to different side projects, but what’s your current site’s one main purpose?
