Simple Sites Work

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Simple sites work because science says so according to Tommy Walker’s post on CXL titled, “Why Simple Website Designs Are Scientifically Better.” What does that mean? Well, it means that sites created with simplicity in mind, are scientifically proven to perform better for two reasons. First, visitors will determine the attractiveness of a site within fractions of a second. Second, the busier a site seems or appears complex, visitors tend to deem it less attractive. What you can take away from this is that visitors open the site quicker and are able to find what they are looking for faster with simpler designs.

Site owners who invest time to understand cognitive fluency and visual information processing theory will benefit from keeping their site designs simple which helps lead to higher conversion rates. Information to back this up can be found in Peep Laja’s online post titled, “8 Web Design Principles to Know in 2019” as well as “Research-Driven Conversion Optimization.”

People tend to imagine what something should look like when they hear about it such as a social network, an ecommerce site, or blogging websites. If the sites don’t meet or exceed what they expect it to look like, the visitor could reject the information displayed. For this reason, sites often look similar to each other to avoid deviating from potential customer expectations of the site.

Cognitive Fluency

Cognitive fluency is discussed in a column by Colleen Roller on the site UXmatters where she explains how cognitive fluency affects decision making. She informs us that the consumer makes a judgment and decides on a product based on how it is presented to them. We have all heard the phrase, “It’s the little things that count.” In this case, it apparently is true. Users are directly affected by a product or service according to the difficulty level of thinking about something. People would rather think about easy stuff rather than something difficult. That feeling they have is known as cognitive fluency. The more familiar people are to something, the easier it becomes with mental effort. Eventually, it just gets to be routine.

Websites that apply higher levels of fluency appear familiar to the visitor and helps them to feel the need to think less, finding what they need quicker and focusing on why they are on the site. Additionally, this design method isn’t only for websites but, has even influenced software suites like Microsoft Office 365 and the Windows Operating System itself. Microsoft implemented the new Fluent UI design and brought it first to Word Online so “the new ribbon is meant to provide a simpler experience, and it’s designed to help users focus on their work and collaborate naturally with others.” LinkedIn has a presentation by Dan Harrison showing the effects of a redesign for skinnyties.com, reducing page load times by 11%, boosting conversion rates by +85%, and a 30% increase of click-through-rate from cart to checkout. The site is easier to navigate, is responsive, and has a consistent design.

Visual Information Processing

A joint study between Harvard University, University of Maryland, and University of Colorado, found that websites were attractive differently to different demographics. An example noted by the study was participants with PhDs did not like colorful websites. With that in mind, no resulting standard design emerged. What did get reflected in the results was that websites which were more difficult or visually complex, were deemed less appealing to the visitor. This is the case because visitors do not need their eyes and brain to work as much to process the displayed information. The greater the number of color and light variations there are, the more the eyes and brain have to work to process the information. It does not only include colors but, also placement and font usage, such as the ability to read text due to the space between characters known as kerning in typography. The collective communication of the website can be affected by every element such as typography, logo, placement, and color selection. Here is where, “do more with less” can be effective so that the website can communicate as much as possible with in as few elements necessary.

Putting It All Together

Websites that take serious consideration to the level of visitor exposure and develop pages to allow for easy navigation open the doors to greater conversion rates. It is obvious that you cannot sit behind every single site visitor but, you can utilize ways to track their clicks with heatmaps to visualize how visitors use the site. The website g2.com lists the six best heat maps software:

1. Smartlook – Reviews and Product Details
2. Hitsteps Web Analytics – Reviews and Product Details
3. EyeQuant – Reviews and Product Details
4. Mouseflow – Reviews and Product Details
5. Quantum Metric – Reviews and Product Details
6. SessionCam – Reviews and Product Details

As you know, I am an affiliate with the (*) Builderall Business platform. Among the 30+ tools available within the platform is the (*) “Click Map” tool which is also a heat mapping tool allowing for site owners to see where visitors are clicking to better understand navigation habits. You simply need to take the provided code to put into your HEAD section of your site.

So what can you do to simplify a website or redesign a current one? First, know your audience and determine what other sites they might also be visiting (the competition?). Next, create what Lifewire describes as a web mashup for your site to show it differently. To continue, make sure to adhere to designing the layout of the site with consideration of cognitive fluency to place elements where visitors might expect them to be. Then, utilize a simple but, effective color scheme, logo, and typeface. Only use imaging to enhance a message rather than just to fill a gap. Keep in mind that less actually can mean more such as placing a larger image when possible to communicate a message instead of a large number of smaller ones. Do not forget about how fast the site loads and if it is pleasing to the eye. Finally, don’t get lost in trying to be like every other site. Keep your originality but, adjust for aforementioned elements.