Website User Experience Tips

Sometimes Looks Matter

When asking people do looks matter a lot of people will say no, but sometimes looks do matter. When it comes to the design of a website, I couldn’t think of anything more important!

It’s enough for your website to be found on Google and have traffic sent to the site but do you think users will stay on your site if it doesn’t look good?

There are certain factors that turn people away from websites, these issues are the following:

• Inappropriate website name.
• Complex, busy layout.
• Lack of navigation.
• Boring design/colour.
• Pop up advertisements.
• Too much text.
• Poor search facilities.

All of the above problems account for 94% of the reasons why users reject or even mistrust websites. So if you find your website includes any of these, it may be time for a new design or an update because it just goes to show sometimes looks matter.

If your website doesn’t appeal or attract people then this is going to give you a high percentage bounce rate which in this case is a bad thing! Bounce rate is simply the percentage of visitors who navigate away from a website after only viewing one page.

So if your bounce rate is a low percentage that is a good thing as it shows users are actually staying on your website and not just clicking on and off it after only seeing one page.

In life people make snap judgements. It takes only 1/10th of a second for someone to form a first impression on someone, same goes for a website. It’s just like when trying to find a boyfriend or girlfriend, looks are a part of the decision making process. Do they look good to you? Would you like to be with them? Just like how a website looks to you, do you want to stay on the website or leave the page?

Positive factors that attract users to a website are:

• Logos.
• Main navigation menu.
• Search bar.
• Sites main image.
• Sites written content.
• Bottom of the website.

First impressions last for years therefore a positive first impression of a website leads to a high satisfaction rate and leads to users returning to the website. This is why looks sometimes matter, if you want users to return to your site you need to ensure you have a good looking site which users can trust and be satisfied with.

Georgias ‘Final Thought’

It’s pretty simple, a good website appearance equals good marketing. If you’re website looks the part, has easy navigation and generally is interesting enough – visitors will become leads and….you know the rest.