We as humble human beings are, by nature, visual beings, we are driven by what’s most attractive and all of this happens subconsciously, we often don’t notice good design and we are subconsciously repelled by bad design, as a Graphic Designer, here are 15 of the most common design tweaks you can do to increase your sales and conversions, backed by psychology and science.
According to research gate, 94% of first impressions are related to design, i.e the way things look, so here are some pro ways you can use design to increase sales.
Use Bright colors on CTAs
Instead of making your ‘call to action’ button an outline or some random color, change the fill color to something bright and something that contrasts with the background. Ever wondered why Fast food restaurants use red?
Because its attractive and grabs customers like crazy, here’s an example:
As you can see, the CTA button is clear, visible and stands out, almost like its asking to be clicked on, because thats what its supposed to do!
What not to do:
While its not exactly a WRONG to do it this way, you can clearly tell the difference,If the ‘button’ could speak, its tone would go along the lines of:
“I’ll stand over here, if you want click it, I’m kinda shy, meh, whatever”
Not the least bit confident eh? And certainly not what a business would want, because business want to instill confidence to their prospective clients, obviously!
Here’s another example of when NOT to use bright colors.
Why is it bad? You might ask, isn’t it pretty common?
Well, it is common, but it is bad.
Because reading long paragraphs like these will become so tiring after like 2 or 3 lines because our eyes have to work so much to distinguish the bright colored text from the bright background, and for many people, its not comfortable.
Blue is a bit forgiving when it comes to contrast but some other bright colors are not, and they turn out to be an eyesore.
So please do this world a favor, and please stick to black text on white background, that’s the safe way, or use some color that contrasts well enough with the background.
Use Images with an actual human!
Images are an essential part of communicating your business to your prospective customers, more and more, people are yearning for a personal connection, and images that show emotions, people smiling, laughing or basically whichever emotion you are trying to convey, will have a lasting impression on your visitors, according to vwo.com Photos with people in them was shown to have increased conversions, but there’s a catch, we are trying to build trust here, so the photos should come across as ‘real’ and people can tell if its a stock photo so you gotta be careful when choosing your photo.
Here’s a quick mockup that I put up,
Things to keep in mind while choosing images:
- High quality Images
- Images relevant to your brand
- Images that don’t seem out of place
- Images that seem authentic
- Images that resonate with your audience
Infographics are a cheat code!
Infographics are an aesthetically pleasing way to convey data and share statistical information in a way which is more compelling and shareable,
why? You might ask, well,
Our brains tend to process visuals much faster than plain old words, and like I said, we are visual beings.
This is like the tip of the iceberg in Digital Marketing, just look at these statistics:
49% of marketers rate visual marketing as “very important”
And 22% consider it important in their marketing strategy, according to Search Engine Journal.
Here’s a good example I was able to find on Findstack, See how they have emphasized the numbers, making them bold and big?
And the graph-like thingy adds a visual interest to the whole graphic, and all of this keeps the audience hooked.
Some of the benefits of Infographics are:
- Improves Decision making.
- Enhances Content Shareability
- Builds Credibility
- Helps you tell a story
- Enhances Readability
Infographics can be a whole article on its own, we dove in deeper in our article on 20 tips on using Infographics.
Rounded Shapes
You must have noticed that many websites and apps have started rounding their corners lately, is it just a trend or is there a reason behind it?
I did some research, and I’ve found out that there’s some psychology to back it up.
Circles and Rounded shapes don’t have angles,
which makes them feel softer and milder,
and they commonly represent both unity and protection.
To come to think about it, in this attention deficit age, all the businesses are focusing on attracting as much of their audience as they could, and evoking these feelings with just a simple rounding off of the corners seems like a no-brainer.
According to designmodo.com Sharp, angled corners interrupt thought because the brain has to process lines as point A to point B and such, while the natural movement of our eyes is accustomed to curves.
From the above 2 examples, You can see that the first graphic, with the rounded boxes just seems much friendlier and approachable,
While the second image seems really serious and reserved, and the text inside the box almost seems like a warning,
All these different emotions with just rounding off little corners!
I do have to note that branding comes into play largely because not all businesses have rounded corners as part of their branding and thats totally okay, Angled shapes and Rounded shapes have their own sets of benefits and drawbacks.
KISS: Keep it Simple, Stupid
Keeping the design simple and minimal forces your audience to focus on what you want them to focus on, and keeps them from getting distracted.
A simple design injects elegance and confidence, it gives a feeling that the brand is confident and in control.
The navigation and getting around your website or design almost becomes intuitive because the visitors do not need to focus on how to use it, rather, they’ll focus on the actual product.
According to PracticalEcommerce, roughly 35% of US adults desire some level of minimalism, minimalism can drive an increase in sales.
Minimal and simplistic design can present products in a way which is refreshing and it can drive attention to the selling points, which is exactly what businesses want their visitors to do, right?
Here’s one website that we designed and built for a printing services company. Look how the interface is simple and just straight to the point, this page just conveys what they do, what they’ll get, and where to click, with that bright red CTA.
We are not trying to go the ultra-minimalistic route here, we are trying to simplify the design and retain only the elements which contribute to aesthetics and functionality, and getting rid of the rest, the clutter.
However, Some sites benefit a ton from detailed texts and lots of features, it all depends on your core audience.
Put you CTA above the fold
What is above the fold?
Above the fold is the section in your website that the visitor sees before they begin to scroll, its what they are immediately directed to.
Placing your call to action above the fold ensures that your visitors see it immediately when they visit your page without having to scroll anywhere.
Wishpond.com also ranked above the fold as the number 1 location to place a CTA.
This is an example from dropbox’ website where the CTA is placed right on top, the visitor doesn’t have to scroll a single time to be able to see it.
Social Proof: The secret weapon
This is not primarily a design thing, but this is way too powerful to exclude from this article. Just look at the eye-watering statistics!
95% of 18-25 year olds read customer reviews before trusting a local business. – BrightLocal
63% of all customers check Google Revies before visiting a business. – ReviewTrackers
Purchase Likelihood with 5 reviews is is 270% higher than with no reviews. – Spiegel
Social Proof don’t just need to be customer reviews, there are many types of Social Proof, what’s important is they have to be user-generated.
The most common types of Social Proofs are:
- Customer Reviews
- Testimonials with Pictures
- Numbers of people
- Social Media Feedback
- Activity Social Proof
Trust Symbols
This is an extension to the previous subheading on social proof.
Trust Symbols can be badges and certifications that you have earned.
Trust Symbols are small icons or symbols showing your audience that your business, or website is reliable, secured, trusted, etc.
These trust badges build…. you guessed it,
Trust.
According to TrustPulse.com, having these trust badges can be the difference between gaining or loosing a new customer.
White Space
Most businesses think that they should be covering the entire website with content and images, otherwise its just wasted space right,
well no!
White space is the area between the design elements, the space where you think you can fit that one more little thing, but you don’t. And leave it empty.
Here’s quip.com using whitespace to keep things breathable and these empty spaces convey the feelings of being spacious and clean.
Despite its name, white space doesn’t need to be white, it’s just an empty space with any color, texture, or even a background image.
The benefits of using white space properly are:
- Improves Comprehension
- Guides the user
- Creates breathing room
- Increases focus and attention
- Encourages interaction
Storytelling, without an actual story
Okay hear me out, you can actually tell a story without a story by using proper design that is well laid out and structured, this can be whole another article on its own but here is the nitty-gritty.
Once the visitor enters your website, tell them who you are, and what you do.
This will be their prerequisite information that will be their guiding light on what to expect in the story, which is a website in this case
The opening:
This is the section that will present them with a proble, or a solution to their problem, this will entice them to stay and keep going, keep scrolling.
The development:
This is when the story develops and the audience gets introduced to your value proposition.
After the value proposition, there comes the beloved Social Proof, this is so that your audience can have something to trust you, to make sure you are the one, the one they’ve been looking for so long, its not that dramatic, but it kinda is 🙂
The Choice:
This is the section with your bright attractive call-to-action, where you communicate what you want your audience to do.
Post-Credits:
Your audience is still not convinced, they have more questions?
This is where you put your FAQ section, answering their most common question and hopefully convincing them to take action.
We are coming back to Dropbox’s website and this fits the story line pretty much perfectly, clever right?!
Remember, these are not hard rules but like I said, most of these things are subconscious and they do play a big role in driving sales and conversion, especially as we fight for a share of people’s attention in this attention deficit age.
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