There are so many resources out there to help you with the design of your own website. Just a little customization of your website (imagery, background, colors, fonts) will go a long way toward making your site look like your site.

Images

  • Pixabay – stock photos that don’t require attribution.
  • Pexels – stock photos that don’t require attribution. Pexel has also focused on being more inclusive in its representation of different racial groups.
  • Openverse – hosted by WordPress
  • Unsplash – stock photos organized by category (e.g. film, animals, work, etc.)
  • Reshot – stock photos you won’t find anywhere else.
  • Skitterphoto – another offbeat stock photo site.

Textures, patterns

  • Subtle Patterns – exactly what it sounds like – subtle patterns that make for sophisticated website backgrounds. This website uses one.
    • Pexel Textures – colorful textures suitable for bold website design.
    • Pattern8 – provides thematic patterns – use them with caution!
    • Free Stock Textures – another place to go for backgrounds!
    • UIGradients – looking for something very subtle? You might want a gradient instead.
    • Cool Backgrounds – you will love these options!

    Colors

    • Coolors – gives a variety of options to construct a palette (photo upload, random generator, customization, saving to portfolio). Also allows you to create palettes for the colorblind.
    • Adobe Color – I recommend the “explore” feature.
    • Colormind – gives you a custom palette based on any photo you upload and gives you helpful preview options.
    • Canva – search for color palettes by keyword

    Fonts

    • Google Fonts – a lot of WordPress themes rely on Google fonts, so this is a good place to test them out.
    • FontPair – helps you figure out how to pair Google fonts.
    • Fontjoy – randomly generates font pairings.
    • Typewolf – gives font recommendations.

    Content

    • Grammarly – the browser add-on catches typos and grammar issues before you will.
    • Hemingway – copy/paste your text to identify instances of the passive voice, jargon, and overuse of adjectives and adverbs.
    • Word Count – a Chrome extension that makes it easy to see how long your reflections are.
    • Cliche Finder – copy/paste in text to identify cliches that take away from the precision of your writing.
    • De-jargonizer – upload or copy/paste text to determine how accessible it is to outsiders to your field.

    *Thanks to Jessica Greene’s 2019 article for many of the items on this list.

    Other

    • Balsamiq – wireframing software that helps you plan out the layout of your site.
    • Trello – allows you to card sort electronically all day long.
    • WAVE – another Chrome extension that allows you to check your web content for accessibility issues.
    • UsabilityHub – provides a great set of free UX research tools.