A lot depends on what the first impression of the site will be. A study by the University of Science and Technology of Missouri tells the attention of website users was attracted to design in 94% of cases. Studies have also shown that 88% of people did not return to the site they had visited once because of usability problems. 88% is too big a number, so today, UX/UI design agencies need to pay close attention to user experience. Otherwise, the site will lose to its competitors.
It may seem that it’s enough to create a site with a beautiful design and proper functionality for it to become well-known. Yes, aesthetics are critical, but this is only one of the success factors. Usability is also of great importance, so when creating a site, you need to remember the user’s psychology and be guided by several rules that will make the website more convenient for viewing. What are these rules?
Rules to Follow If You Want Your Website’s UX/UI to Be Successful
Here are four things you need to know to be able to build User Interfaces for websites that are simply great:
Rule #1: Context Decides Everything in UX
You’ve undoubtedly seen optical illusions and visual puzzles. Sometimes vision deceives us, and we perceive the content a little differently than intended. To correctly identify the picture, context is needed.
For example, there is a well-known optical illusion – “Rubin’s Vase.” What do you see? A vase or a face? Our perception sometimes depends on our previous experience. If before viewing a picture, a person was in contact with people or just saw something similar, for example, a portrait in profile, then he would see a face. If he thought about the dishes, say, goblets, vases, or jugs, then the chance that he sees a vessel increases significantly.
It is the same with websites. The user expects one effect, but receives something completely different, for example, unnecessary information. It might be funny when looking at optical illusions. However, if it happens when a user wants to purchase something or get valuable information, the site is usually not visited repeatedly.This is how context works.
Tip: According to psychology, people tend to perceive information in a certain way, based on their expectations and previous experience. The perceptual set appeared under the influence of culture, user experience, visual preferences, and situations a person has been in.
But how does all this relate to web design? That’s how.
UX Rule: Do not give up on well-designed User Experience models that the visitors of your website are used to. Implement them, but make the design cooler or funnier.
Rule #2: Images Must Be Correctly Placed
The placement of visual content in web design is critical, you can not argue with that. However, the images need to be organized correctly, and it’s not as simple as it seems at first glance.
For instance, a brand that produces beer posts on their landing page a photo of a semi-naked attractive girl holding a bottle in one hand. That’s a common trick among marketers because somebody once said that sex sells. Of course, it attracts the attention of the visitors but doesn’t push them to take valuable action. If your goal is to sell beer, put your product at the center of attention.
Using poorly selected images can distract people from the message that the designer wants to convey. It is especially important to work with images when designing e-commerce sites carefully. Here, error can be fatal. But correctly positioned images will increase conversion. When working on posting pictures, a professional UX/UI agency must use heat maps and test the design on focus groups.
Rule #3: Avoid Fundamental Changes in Design.
Have you ever wondered why the largest and most successful sites rarely make a severe redesign? And why, whenever design changes dramatically, does this lead to massive user dissatisfaction?
Weber’s law explains everything on the threshold of discrimination. Weber’s law states that the intensity of sensation is directly proportional to the logarithm of the power of the stimulus. That is, if you replace a chandelier in which there are four bulbs, with a chandelier in which there are eight bulbs, the difference will be very noticeable. But if you add one, the fifth light bulb to four, then a person may not notice the changes. And if he does notice, he will hardly feel the difference.
Weber’s law can and should work in web design. Sites such as Facebook or Google shows that serious design changes cause negative emotions for users. Not so long ago, Google changed its logo, and only the logo, but networks of users could not calm down for several days, even though the new logo turned out to be a lasting success. Users do not like changes, especially large ones. A study by Scott Adelman in 2010 showed that people prefer things that have existed for a long time and have become familiar. Strong resistance to change may be due to evolution: our ancestors survived because they found constancy safe and were afraid of the new and the unknown.
Changes should be small and gradual. If the site is very outdated and needs a radical redesign, then you should not tempt fate – it is better to test the new design on a small audience of users and look at their reaction. Of course there will be negative reviews – there’s nothing you can do about it given the above. But the percentage of negativity is essential here. If you manage to minimize it, then a radical redesign is perfectly acceptable.
Rule #4: Use Readable Fonts
Our impression of the site also depends on the fonts used on the web page. More precisely, on their size. Studies show that font size is essential, and more considerable characters evoke strong emotions in users. Experts argue that the best for a positive perception are texts in fonts with a minimum size of 16 pixels.
However, studies did not find any difference in understanding of the texts. Users understood everything correctly, only their mood changed. People who had a legible font were more comfortable to read, so they experienced positive emotions.
It would help if you also remembered such a phenomenon as the scanning path. When we read a text, our eyes do not scan letter by letter, they perceive the copy, making small leaps, called saccades. Then eyes pause. This moment is called fixation, after which the cycle continues. The simpler the scan path, the easier it will be for users to read.
UX Rule: People are actively viewing textual content, so there is no need to create difficulties for them. It is best to use simple fonts that do not cause negative emotions. The font should be readable, which means it should not be too small; this is bad for usability. Given the previous rule, it is best not to make drastic changes to the fonts. A heading in a font that is very different from the font for the main content can be annoying, so for all essential elements, you need to use fonts that will not affect the user’s mood.
Conclusion
Some of the tips above might seem obvious at first, but then you notice how powerful they are. If you look at websites that are visited by millions of people per day like Facebook, Google, Youtube, and so on, you will notice that they respect these rules in every aspect of their web UX/UI. You can also apply them to create better designs and make the websites of your clients more successful.
