On the massive world wide web or interwebz as people sometimes like to call it, there are TONS of website design tips. Many people have an opinion about what a perfect website looks like. This is because the design is somewhat subjective. What one person likes may look terrible to another. At the same time, web design is one of the most important factors for a website’s success. In fact, nearly half say that website design is an important factor in determining a company’s credibility. As a result, it also affects conversions, bounce rates, and more. Here are some research-based tips and tricks on how to quickly improve the design & speed of your website.
1. Website Speed is an Absolute Priority
Perhaps one of the least discussed facts in web design is that speed is important. Research shows that it affects everything from bounce rates to user satisfaction, conversions and revenue.If your site is slow, visitors will not stay. Period. Also, because the user cares, the search engine also cares and incorporates the page load speed into the ranking. For this reason, it’s important to invest in getting your website up and running as soon as possible.
2. Utilize Hick’s Law
In plain sense Hick’s Law states that the more choices an individual is presented, the longer it takes him to make a decisive decision. In fact, there is an interesting study of this phenomenon in which supermarket people try more or less different types of jam. After all, those with the most choices were less likely to buy jam than those with the few choices. You may be able to increase conversions simply by limiting the options you offer to your users. Here are couple of examples of what this looks like in practice:
- Reduce the number of menu items
- Limit form fields
- Focus on the call for action
- Show only social buttons for active networks
- Stick to one goal per page
If your website is oriented in acquiring visitors leads, by utilizing single web form templates can exponentially deliver more sustainable conversion rates for your business.
3. Remove Sliders and Carousels
Website owners love carousels. This is probably one of the most requested features from customers. Unfortunately, research shows that they are pretty useless.
One of the most exciting data comes from the University of Notre Dame. The website creator said the original slide in the carousel received almost 90% of the total clicks and the rest were mostly ignored.
90 percent! Doesn’t it sound like the other slides are worth placing in?
Tabs and accordions have the same problems as sliders and carousels. Often ignored. This is exacerbated by the fact that few visitors read the entire page. Most people are just scanning, so it’s unlikely that you’ll make any additional clicks to view the content. But what if you need to somehow include the information posted in those areas? That’s exactly what we’re doing.
4. Prioritize Scrolls over Clicks
So how do you present the information if you don’t compress it into a slider or accordion? Answer: Just put everything on one long page, including the ones that are normally stored. Seriously, it works.
There is a fascinating Crazy Egg case study that proves this. From a simple and short sales page to a page 20 times longer than the original page. As a result, conversions increased by 30%. Users seem to prefer browsing to clicking. Therefore, if you are currently distributing product information on different pages, you should revisit that approach.
5. Direct Attention With Visuals
One of the primary functions of actionable web design is to guide users. To do this, give different weights to different elements and focus on where you want them. Although, you can also utilize more direct visual cues to achieve this. One is to take advantage of the fact that people tend to look in the same direction as the people they see in their ads.
Notice that more people in the picture above are reading the text the baby is looking at while the baby is looking at the camera. This is genuine and you can use it to draw attention to your website where you want it most.
However, it doesn’t have to be so delicate to get the attention of the visitor. To be honest, it can be useful. For example, in one study, researchers tested the above effects on simple arrows pointing to things.
What Are Your Favorite Website Design Tips?
Website design is oftentimes a complex subject. We hope the above will help you improve your own web design process. Feel free to share any further tips, research, or information below.