I recently had a conversation with a customer that went something like this: Customer: does it really matter what my website looks like? Me: Yes, it certainly is. Customer: why? Me: Because people judge your company based on the quality of your website, whether that's fair or not. In the end, that was a good enough response, which prompted him to give the go-ahead to redesign his site.
I recently had a conversation with a customer that went something like this:
Customer: does it really matter what my website looks like?
Me: Yes, it certainly is.
Customer: why?
Me: Because people judge your company based on the quality of your website, whether that's fair or not.
In the end, that was a good enough response, which prompted him to give the go-ahead to redesign his site.
But how do you prove that good web design makes a difference online?
Of course, every web designer will tell you that design has a profound impact, which is an intuitive answer, but what evidence is there that supports the claim?
This is what I discovered.
A study about health websites
Later in the week after my conversation with the client I came across a study. It was titled Trust and distrust of online health centers. It provided insight into web design in the health sector.
The purpose of the study was to answer this question:
How much impact does design have on trust and distrust on websites about health and how much impact does the quality of content have?
The results were simply amazing
For the test, 15 participants were asked to search the internet for health information that was relevant to them, and then asked to discuss their first impressions of the websites they visited.
Of all the factors mentioned for the rejection or distrust of a website, 94% were related to design; only 6% were related to content.
Can you believe it?
In deciding whether or not to trust a health website, participants mentioned design-related issues 15 times more than substantive issues. That is incredible.
Specific design problems that led to rejection or distrust were:
- Inappropriate name for the website
- Complex, busy layout
- Lack of navigation aids
- Dull web design, especially use of color
- Pop-up advertisements
- Slow introductions of a site (eg slow flash introductions)
- Small print
- Too much text
- Corporate look and feel
- Poor search options / indexes
Complaints like this accounted for 94% of the reasons users rejected or mistrusted a site. Here is a quote from the study that summarizes this:
"The look and feel of the website was clearly important for the participants. Visual appeal, plus design issues relevant to site navigation, appeared to exert a strong influence on the first impressions of the site. Poor interface design was mainly associated with quick rejection and distrust of a website In cases where the participants did not like a certain aspect of the design, the site was often not examined further than the home page and was not considered suitable for being visited again at a later time ... The most important reason that websites were quickly rejected was due to website design. interface. Design problems affected first impressions and could lead to distrust of a website. "
Here are some examples of what specifically some of the study participants had to say about the poorly designed sites:
"One of them didn't like the color. I couldn't wait to get away. It was a dull green background. It just kept me from reading on."
"There was nothing I liked at all. I didn't like the colors, the text, the layout."
"I thought the screen was too busy. I couldn't click on something right away."
As you can see, design has a major impact on website visitors. It not only affects them, but as this study shows, it is the most influential factor in trusting or trusting a site.
Most web designers know this without reading a report, but this study confirms that design elements as simple as color, formatting, text block size and navigation can make a difference when trying to increase online conversions.
In case this research does not provide enough evidence for you, here is more insight into design from the realm of packaged goods.
Customer perceptions and packaging design
Web design is similar to the design of packaging for consumer goods. In both cases people pay for the product or service, but they are also influenced by the 'packaging'.
This is discussed in Malcolm Gladwell's bookBlink. Chapter 5 of the book discusses the effect of packaging design on customer perception, with reference to case studies from Cheskin, a well-known research and insight research agency.
Years ago, mr. Cheskin, the founder of the company, a theory that consumers do not distinguish between a product and its packaging. Instead, the product in the minds of the consumer is a combination of the packaging and the product.
Based on this theory, packaging is of great importance because it offers the first impression of a customer with a brand. Cheskin's company continued testing this theory, and here are some of the results they have found:
If you add 15 percent more yellow to the green on 7 UP packs, people report that it has more lime or lemon flavor, although the drink itself remained unaffected. On a can of Ravioli, a photograph of a close-up of a real human face perceived quality affects more than a full-body shot or a cartoon character. As these examples show, the packaging has so much influence on the impression of the customer that the perceived quality and taste of the products can be influenced. This applies to packaged goods and it is also the truth for websites.
The application for web design
The design of a website often offers the first impression customers of a company have. If the design is outdated, disorganized, messy or uses unattractive colors, it creates a bad first impression.
Returning to the original conversation used to introduce this blog post, after I designed my client's new site, I asked two colleagues if they would be more likely to buy something from the old site, which was old and outdated, or the new site, which is built on the basis of modern web design standards. This is what they had to say:
"I would trust the new site because you would assume that if they have enough money to make a nice website, they have enough money to pay for more security."
"I would buy something on the new website. The old site looks too simple, it almost looks like it has been put together quickly, and it has too many icons in the right column, so I have a small feeling that it may not be legitimate. "
Based on these answers and the above studies, good web design and significant impact on potential customers.
If you are about to build a site or are considering creating a new design for a current website, it is not necessary that your website is the best site online, but it should look good. It must convey quality and professionalism with an organized, well-arranged layout, good use of attractive colors and text blocks that are easy to read.
These studies clearly show that it is worth investing in a good web design, because customer perception is ultimately the most important thing.