This website is designed to explain the Chinese philosophy of Feng Shui in relation to the five elements of nature and their influence on historical designs, while also demonstrating how it can be applied to website design. While there are plenty of resources on how to implement Feng Shui into interior design, there are much fewer resources that explain using Feng Shui in website design.

As early as 4000 BC, Feng Shui emphasized the maintenance of balance and harmony between people and their surroundings. It claims that certain objects and elements have an energy associated with it, otherwise known as “chi” and that the ideal interior designs would welcome as much good chi into the household while preventing the bad chi. For centuries, people have adhered to this Feng Shui practice and have claimed that its minimalistic aesthetic have assisted them in maintaining a balanced and fulfilling lifestyle. As a prospective UX designer, I thought it would be interesting to create a guide that focuses on this unique design practice and explains how it can be modernized and then implemented into website design.

Because Feng Shui has not previously been applied to website design, I created guidelines of my own based on what information I could find. This included all five of the elements of nature of fire, earth, metal, water, and wood. Not only is the symbolism and significance in website design for each element explained, but the website was also designed in accordance to Feng Shui - regarding colors, shapes, and element placement. One such example would be how the earth element is commonly associated with square and rectangular shapes, the color light brown, and the feeling of stability. Earth was therefore designed through the usage of a brown background with squares, and then balanced with circular shapes since Feng Shui constantly emphasizes an even balance between all elements and shapes.

Oddly enough, most Chinese websites tend to use almost completely opposite website design characteristics by overcrowding websites and filling pages with a wide variety of bright colors, and heavy textual information. This is partially because of the nature of the Chinese language where each Chinese character can have multiple different meanings, and thus making it hard to get accurate search results. As a result, most Chinese web designers have opted to display as much content on a single page to make it more user-friendly and provide information up-front. Western websites, however, more commonly use minimalistic designs with balanced color palettes and choose to leave lots of whitespace and carefully chosen graphics to direct attention. With this website, it’s hoped to showcase a balanced design between the minimalistic Western website and overcrowded Chinese website designs, but in accordance to the minimalistic Chinese philosophy of Feng Shui.