Web designers take care of appealing framework conditions for the content of a website and have to reach and control the attention of page visitors. However, page visitors are more interested in the content than in the form. According to a study by HubSpot, 76 percent of the users surveyed consider easy-to-find information to be the most important factor in web design. The fast and target-oriented provision of intuitively findable information is therefore what website visitors expect from the design of a website.
The HubSpot study
In design, in addition to a sense for beauty, scientific knowledge and thus objective data play a role in the process of graphic design. The following web design tips are based on the results of scientific studies.
The loading speed has priority
Illustration – Test your mobile Speed Google – Speedtesting Tool mobile WebsiteTest the loading speed. If your website does not load fast enough, visitors will jump off after a few seconds.
Nobody likes to wait
If the website is not loaded within three seconds, 40 percent of potential visitors leave it again. Research by Google and Microsoft found many years ago that loading speed affects all areas such as visitor satisfaction, bounce rate, conversions and revenue. As a result, slow-loading pages rank worse on search engines. Always make sure that the page loads as fast as possible. Google can test your website and give tips for optimization.
HICK’S LAW
Increase the conversion rate by a smaller selection
Hicks’ law says that the more choices a person has, the longer it takes to make a decision. An interesting test was carried out in a supermarket for this purpose, and test persons were able to try out more or less varieties of jams. The result: people with more choices were less likely to choose and buy a jam than people with fewer choices.
As a result, you can easily increase conversions by limiting the choices of site visitors. For example, you can reduce the number of menu items, focus on one target and one call-to-action per page, and display only the social media buttons of the networks you are actually active in.
The order: Important at the beginning and end
The attention span of the site visitors is getting shorter and shorter. Short paragraphs are read, longer paragraphs are flown over and long paragraphs are skipped.
The primacy-recency effect means that readers remember information presented early and late in texts better. This effect is important for optimal marketing: the important information belongs at the beginning and end of the website.
Note: The Primacy Recency effect does not play a role in the menu.
As a study published in the Journal of Usability shows, the order of menu items is of secondary importance for success. The Home button should be on the left, followed by the items of your choice. To the Journal of Usability Studies
Web design and science
A study by EvaQuant on the colours of buttons confirms the importance of colours in attracting attention. However, coloured buttons are not always effective – the following tips will help make buttons stand out prominently:
The button color should be in contrast to the background.
The color of the button and the text it contains should be different.
The button color should stand out from nearby objects.
Tip: Select an action color for all links and buttons that is different from the (passive) corporate colors. Only use the action color for clickable objects.
Simple language and short paragraphs with limited number of words per line. The easier the text is to read, the more successful the website. Avoid long sentences with more than 20 words, nested sentences, particularly clever words, the meaning of which hardly anyone knows: even professors prefer a simple language.
Long paragraphs are skipped by the readers.
Paragraphs should be a maximum of three to four lines long. Long lines make reading more difficult.
Photos of people are attractive and an important tool in web design. The presentation of faces and quotations increases attention and conversion at the same time. A case study by Basecamp has come to this important conclusion. Important: Do not use stock photos!
According to a study by the NN Group, visitors look at pictures of real people and filter out stock photos of people. It is also important where the people look: When the eyes look into the camera, visitors only see the person.
The studies and tips presented are only a selection. There are many more studies, whose findings web designers can use for a better page design. We look forward to hearing from your experiences and which scientifically founded or from the gut hit changes have led to more success with you.