Easy on the Eyes
There are two schools of thought when it comes to being overly picky as it pertains to website design. One says that there are better uses of your time and perfect never makes you any money. You will likely hear this from entrepreneurs. The other says attention to detail will make your site look professional and classy. You will likely hear this from designers. I think both are right and that the perfect balance is somewhere in the middle. Everything in moderation, right?
We have all visited websites that were horrendous looking and we thought to ourselves, who would ever buy from a place like this? An alarm was triggered within warning us that these people must not care very much and if their website is this bad, their products and service probably are, too. On the other hand, there are those overly flashy websites that appear to be trying too hard to impress us and leave us with that slithery snake feeling (think used car sales). We don’t trust them either.
The header of your website is the very first impression a visitor has of your company. What does your header say about you? What have you chosen to include and how is it formatted? Symmetry is a key component of aesthetics. You have probably seen news stories about how attraction is partially based on the symmetry between face and body. You don’t want to be turning off your visitors before they have a chance to see what you are all about.
A user’s attention is the most valuable resource available to you. Don’t ever take it for granted. This may all seem like nitpicking but it is much more than that. You need to be consistent and when things change, users will pay attention. You can take advantage of this when you want to draw eyeballs to very specific elements. However, mismatched fonts draw attention where attention is not due. You are basically distracting them from the action you desire them to take. This also lowers your credibility and professionalism.
Here are some general tips with regards to e-commerce website design.
You must be mindful of the fold. Above the fold is everything the user sees without scrolling down and below the fold is everything they must scroll down to see (think front page of the newspaper). It costs the user 5 seconds to scroll down and it is your job to convince them it will be worth their time and effort to take the action.
The big kahuna in the 10 commandments of usability is “make it easy!” The number one thing users do before they click “add to cart” is check the price. The sequence is evaluate, check price, add to cart. Check price and add to cart should be in close proximity or your conversion rate will suffer.
Ultimately, business success is defined as maximizing the intersection of your goals and those of your users. So, it is okay to be picky about your design as long as it helps your users and is not just for your ego.
Image Credit: bensonkua
