How Important Is A Nicely Designed Website In A Buyers Decision?
By Joel Black on 06/6/2014
Have you ever visited a website and thought that their product may be low-quality, judging only by the design of the website? I have to admit that I am guilty of doing this.
We all like pretty things, and marketers know this all so well. A great example is two products sitting on a shelf at the grocery store, one product is in a nicely designed package, and the other product is in a very generic package. Many times we will go for the higher priced item just because of the packaging. So what do users think about your product or service by looking at your website?
My dentist recently gave me three referrals for an orthodontist. Of course the first thing I did was go to Google and type in their names. First of all, I was pleasantly surprised to see that all of them did have a website. I looked at all three websites and immediately gravitated to the website that looked the best. I made up my mind with 95% certainty, entirely based on the design of the website. The other 5% was reading the credentials, and looking at pictures.
Why Are We So Graphically Oriented?
We as consumers, and as people in general, are so graphically oriented. I was driving down the interstate the other day and was looking at how basic road names are graphically displayed. A good example is a street sign or an interstate sign. We would be perfectly fine seeing only the word I-10, although it looks so much better when encapsulated in a nicely designed red and blue shield. So as I come to a split in the interstate and I’m doing 80 miles an hour, I can easily see determine the difference between an interstate and a county road just by looking at the graphics.
photo credit: “Caveman Chuck” Coker via photopin cc
So How Do Know If My Website Is Nicely Designed?
An easy way to tell what people think about your website is to ask a few people and see what they say. The problem with that is not everyone will tell you the truth, they don’t want to hurt your feelings. You can always post it in a forum or on LinkedIn and the feedback is a little more honest.
Another way is to look at your analytics, it might give you the rest of the story. If you have a lot of traffic to your site, but they don’t stay on your site very long, or you have a high bounce rate, it might tell you that people aren’t getting that warm and fuzzy first impression.
Another thing to think about is the architecture and content of the page. You could have a really nice design and really capture your audience in this first 10 seconds, but then not have the content to back it up, or it could be structured in a way where it doesn’t highlight all of the important things a user needs to know quickly.
The Blink Test!
So I challenge you to take the blink test. Open your website and see if it makes a remarkable first impression and you can recognize all of the most important content before you blink.
