GM Pixel Factory

Shiatsu Website Design | Designing websites for Shiatsu #01

Designing Websites for Shiatsu Practitioners

This is the Griffen Mill design guide to designing websites for shiatsu practitioners, part of our website design guide series. Over the years, the individual designers within Griffen Mill have created websites for many shiatsu practitioners, via our key client WebHealer. As one of the therapies that are usually referred to as a traditional alternative medecine, a shiatsu website must, in our opinion, convey a professional and health oriented identity, yet avoid coming across as too clinical. The designer must also be mindful of the target audience and colour choices. In general, for shiatsu websites, warm colours tend to work better than cooler ones.

Guide Structure


This guide, like most in this series, has the following key sections.

  1. Typical design requirements for shiatsu websites
  2. Choosing colour for shiatsu websites
  3. Shape and related aesthetic decisions
  4. Images and photographs for shiatsu websites

This guide continues with section one, and you may use the above links to read more about later sections, which will go into more detail. In each case, the approach used to communicate our ideas leans towards examples, such as examples of images useful for a shiatsu website or palettes that often appeal to shiatsu practitioners.

Shiatsu Website Design | Designing websites for Shiatsu #02

Typical design requirements for shiatsu websites

Shiatsu is a traditional form of massage that comes from China and Japan. It is referred to an alternative healthcare treatment, which often takes on a warm, yet professional appeal within the website design. Shiatsu treatment is deeply relaxing and has an overall calming effect to allow the body’s self-healing processes to work more effectively. This is a very hands on body therapy, whereby a shiatsu practitioners website design will aim to emphasise a safe and effective practice by use of a calm and professional outlook. This can be achieved by using a warm and healing colour palette that uses natural shades and skin tones, such as yellows and greens. When done well this will help evoke a sense of security and comfort.

When choosing the colour palette, the designer should be mindful of the images used and the tones used within them, so often there will be natural tones to complement. To help with a harmonious colour scheme, the photographs used can involve a composition that includes the range of colours in the palette, or one that emphasises one natural colour that complements the overall scheme. The images used within a shiatsu website will include those of treatments taking place. Images that show the hand-on approach can be clear and effective at explaining their work. e.g. Shiatsu massage position.

Finally, shapewise a shiatsu website will tend to be more geometric or solid than, say a reflexology website. The designer should be mindful though that a human, inviting and welcoming appeal is important as well as a professional image.

Example Shiatsu Websites


On 13 July 2010 Breathing Space relaunched their website www.shiatsuhealth.com after an A La Carte redesign by our designer Amanda. The client was looking for a professional design, slightly understated and was prepared to let our designer suggest options. See full press release

click
©2024 GM Pixel Factory is powered by PHDi Websites
Cookies are set by this site. To decline them or find out more visit our cookie page