UI Design

How to Design a Hero Section: Essential UI Tips

Designing a hero section is more than just picking an eye-catching image—it’s about creating an experience that resonates with users and drives action. In this guide, we’ll share essential UI tips to help you craft compelling hero sections that evoke emotion. Dive in and take your hero designs to the next level!

A website hero section with the heading 'Battle against food waste!' featuring a clean layout, a call-to-action button, and a photo of a smiling man holding a paper bag displayed within a phone mockup. An oversized 3D-style hand giving a thumbs-up, surrounded by sparkles, overlays the design, adding a playful and engaging touch. A stat box shows '12% Food saved this month.

Use Emotions

Using emotions while designing a hero section is essential.

Ensuring that the hero image matches the exact mood you’re trying to evoke makes it easier to invoke emotions that resonate with your audience.

As you can see in the example below, the hero image elicits an emotional response that drives engagement.

A website hero section with the headline 'Battle against food waste!' A subtext explains the mission to save unsold food and reduce waste. Two stat boxes are overlaid: '50% Families received food' and '12% Food saved this month.' A photo of a woman inspecting food in a rural setting is integrated into the design. Navigation links and a 'Donate' button are also present.

Hero image elicits an emotional response that drives engagement

Plan Ahead

Planning ahead is important. The hero section needs space for overlay text, branding elements, and CTA buttons.

Using an image with abundant negative space will help avoid a crowded and visually overwhelming presentation, especially for smaller screens.

A wireframe layout showcasing a mobile-friendly webpage design. The mockup highlights the use of whitespace, with an illustration of a smartphone centered within the design and labeled areas for 'Whitespace' on all sides.

Example showing how whitespace is important

Stay on Brand

To maintain brand consistency throughout the design, it is important to select images that work well with the product’s color scheme.

This will enhance visual harmony, as shown in the example below, and strengthen your hero section design.

A design guide showing a green color palette labeled 'Main Shade' and three chosen images: fresh carrots and greens in a cloth bag, hands passing a paper grocery bag, and a delivery person with a green backpack checking their phone outdoors.

Visual harmony between images and color scheme

Direct Attention With Clever Layout Decisions

A clever layout will strategically guide user attention toward critical points on the screen, such as CTA buttons or key information.

A website hero section with the headline 'Battle against food waste!' featuring a description about reducing food waste and supporting establishments. Two stat overlays display '12% Food saved this month' and '50% New businesses registered.' A visual of food scraps, including vegetable peels and stems, is integrated into the design. Navigation links and call-to-action buttons are included.

Example of a clever layout

Leverage The Typeface’s Personality

Leveraging the typeface’s personality is extremely important. Different typefaces convey wildly different personalities and fit numerous aesthetics.

It’s crucial that you play around with different typefaces to choose the right font family, weight, style, width, and more!

It’s also vital that you remember to utilize emphasis and embellishments, as well as stay on brand if there is any.

The right typeface will enhance the CTA optimization and align with your hero section design.

Comparison of two website hero section designs labeled 'Low personality' and 'High personality.' The 'Low personality' design features a basic font for the heading 'Battle against food waste!' with a clean, minimal layout. The 'High personality' design uses a more decorative font for the heading and includes subtle design enhancements while maintaining a similar structure, including a box of groceries with stat overlays showing '50% New businesses registered' and '12% Food saved this month.

Example of typeface personality

Don’t Smother The CTA

As shown in the example below, fancy visuals and design can overshadow what the website offers.

When designing a hero section, the design should clearly highlight the website’s message and draw the user to the CTA button.

It is vital to make sure the CTA button is prominent and action-oriented.

Side-by-side comparison of two website hero sections with the heading 'Battle against food waste!' The left design, marked with a red 'X' and labeled 'Too much is going on,' features multiple buttons, a background map, and a photo of a man holding groceries. The right design, marked with a green checkmark and labeled 'One clear action,' has a cleaner layout with a single call-to-action button and a simplified image of groceries in a box, improving focus and usability.

Example of a good CTA

A well-designed hero section sets the tone for your entire website. By using emotions, planning carefully, staying on brand, and ensuring clarity in your CTA optimization, you can create a hero section that captivates your audience. Use these tips to take your designs to the next level!

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Happy designing! 🤗