It's now widely accepted that any business's online presence can be a deciding factor to whether it would thrive or perish. So, it follows that having a good website design is imperative to the success of the business. But is having any website design enough or do you need something more?
If you are a small business owner who has few technical skills or is dealing with cost challenges, spending money on a professional, stylish, and elegant website may be a bit disheartening. Or you might have a working (ancient) website and do not see the need to update it.
Nevertheless, having a good website design is vital to a business's success as shown by various studies and tons of evidence. It has a profound effect on the customer experience, lead generation, and in the long run, the entire outlook of your business.
Why web design matter?
It is no secret that human beings are drawn to aesthetically pleasing things. Your web design matters for this very reason. It's important because your customers care about the design. The research indicates repeatedly that customers will judge your entire business based on the outlook of your website and would not use it again if it is a badly designed website.
A few startling facts on why should we have a good website design:
75% of users judge a company's integrity based on the visual design of the website alone.
A company that is using an archaic website immediately puts you in doubt. You question their credibility, you are in doubt about their products, customer services, and it leads you to find an alternative (a competitor's website) for a better solution.
94% of users' first impressions of healthcare websites were design-related.
While saying that the first impression is the last is not entirely accurate, it holds mostly true in website design impressions on the users. Your website's design can either draw users to it or make them leave. Even though this particular study is about healthcare websites, it still holds for other trades.
50 Millisecond is all it takes to form a first impression of your website design.
Again, drawing attention to the first impressions in regards to websites, users form them promptly. It only takes 50 milliseconds (0.05 second), a mere split second for users to make up their minds and disregard your website, and it entirely hinges on the visual design of your website.
38% of people will extricate from your website if they find your layout and content unattractive.
An unattractive website doesn't just ruin your reliability; it pushes away any would-be customers. Given our proclivity for visually pleasing websites, you'll lose more than one-third of your customers if your content is unappealing to them.
WHAT WE MEAN BY "GOOD WEBSITE DESIGN"
You might be aware of this common phrase, "Beauty lies in the eyes of the beholder."
And it's true that on some personal level, there is a preference on how we perceive design, on a larger scale there's a lot of consistency on what we find aesthetically pleasing in terms of design. As a matter of fact, both science and psychology are in favor of the idea that human beings are drawn to visually attractive things and it's no wonder that the same would hold true for a website design.
From: (occreates.com)
The difference between 'any' website design and a 'good' website design lies in the use of standard elements like shape, color, and size. A good website design uses these elements in such a way that it creates a harmonious visual language.
There's 'Good design' and 'bad design' in terms of website design, and while most of us are unable to properly express ourselves in visual language, web designers are. Therefore, it's necessary to invest in a good website design.
WHY YOU NEED GOOD WEBSITE DESIGN?
Now that we have established in detail why website design is important, we are about to discuss ways a good website design improves users' experiences.
Usability
The easiness of users search depends largely on your website design. According to research, 86% of the users are looking for a product of service information, 65% are in search of contact information, and 52% require an ‘about page’ of your business.
To avoid frustration, these things should be readily available on your website, otherwise, you risk losing your customers. To make things easier for everyone, use standard conventions like main navigation should hold chief services you provide, and the contact information should be available in the upper-right-hand corner of your website.
Navigation
One of the critical aspects of the website design is Navigation. Here, Psychology's Hick's law comes into play while creating the design.
Hick's law states that the more choices one has, the more time one takes to make a decision. To put it briefly, "keep it simple, stupid." Using this law in our web design to make the life of our users easier, we make the choices as simple as possible. Try to keep the choices to seven or fewer.
Conversion:
A sign of a good website design is that it draws attention to the information you want your client to see. Highlighting the special offers, calls to action, clickable features can help you drive the client in the direction you want.
Let's take a look at some of the websites to draw the point home.
One of the most efficient ways to draw attention is to use white space. Take Apple, for example, there's nothing to distract you from looking (and buying) their iPhones because it's surrounded by white space.
Amazon on the other hand does have a lot of information but the yellow 'add to cart button stands out from the rest of the page.
Brand Professionalism & Trust
Professional and modern website design tends to improve the credibility of your business, whereas a badly designed website casts doubt on your validity. Take these two websites for example; which one would you buy your car from?
Another thing that helps, especially if you are a renowned brand, is consistency. Using your brand logo, colors, and style consistently on your website assures your customers that it's a legitimate source.
Mobile Friendliness
With Google now promoting the mobile-first approach, and the majority of online searches being done on mobiles, it makes sense that mobile-friendly apps and websites are going to be more successful than only desktop ones. 85% of users put more value in good mobile-friendly designs than desktop apps.
Sometimes the web designers are more caught up in developing good desktop websites. But truth is that a good website has a responsive design and performs well on all devices.
SEO
In the end, a good website design isn't just about the visuals designs of a website, what happens behind the screen also has an impact on search engine optimization. If the large images are impacting the loading time, or unwieldy coding affects the website functionality, it will push away the customers and has a bad bearing on SEO marketing.
IS YOUR WEBSITE DESIGN MAKING THE RIGHT IMPACT?
All things considered, your website is the most powerful tool you have at hand to make or break your business. While a great website is more than just visuals, visuals do influence how customers view your business.
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