How Graphic Design Enhances Visitor Engagement & Conversion
Posted by Ricky Rocha Loures on Jul 29, 2013 in Da Blog! | 0 comments
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About Ricky Rocha loures –
Senior digital designer for ADMAX, Ricky is a Brazilian presently residing in South Florida where he received his Bachelors of Science in Digital Arts & Design at Full Sail University. Currently pursuing his masters degree, he is “inspired to be inspiring.” Ricky has received accolades for his agency and independent design work from several notable clients. Review more of Ricky’s portfolio here.
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For a company branding and logo, and its website presentation, to work synergistically, both must have the potential for invoking increased confidence and interaction from the very first moments of the initial visit. This in turn produces measurably increased sales for e-commerce sites, and increased inquiry-lead flow for B2B sites.
“So you refined your keywords, optimized your bids, and written AdWords text ads that pull in tons of targeted clicks. But after looking at your Google Analytics reports you realize that your landing page has a bounce rate of 91 percent. This means that 91 percent of the users coming to your site are quickly glancing around and leaving deciding this site isn’t for them.” – Google Adwords
Veteran pro-designer Bill Haig explains –
Like most perception at an early stage, this is a visual thing. We make judgments based on first impressions of surface traits, from a person’s looks to his or her dress. The same holds true with the company logo and home page design. It is all about trusting the company behind the website from a few visual cues at first glance. This is called “surface credibility”.
Here is how it works.
At the upper left corner of most websites is the business logo. It has design elements that communicate trust or should. The landing page also must communicate trust. This conveyance of trust will help a visitor to move deeper within the site. Any impression of distrust will cause the visitor to leave.
Enter credibility-based logo and website design. Credibility means “expertise” and “trustworthy”. If a company logo is designed to symbolize the company business, the assumption is that the company is an “expert” or is “knowledgeable” about the business. Like the barber pole at the barber shop. If it is important to know that the company is on the cutting-edge of the business, say an aerospace company, then the design form of the logo is contemporary. This gives the “trust” communication to the logo.
Download Free: Source Credibility Theory Applied to Logo and Website Design
Decades ago, advertising genius David Ogilvy researched the use of picture images. He wanted to confirm that images indeed increase ad response rates. The reigning wisdom of the time was that any imagery was better than no imagery, but Ogilvy wasn’t so sure.
As reported by Joe Cunningham at Cowley Web, here is what Ogilvy’s research uncovered and how it fundamentally differs with current, conventional or even historic design opinion …
1. Images can often reduce readership.
Yes, they catch people’s attention. But without some very specific conditions in place, that attention does not translate into people reading the body copy—or coughing up cash.
2. Placement matters—a lot
The natural sequence for reading involves a very specific order. First we look at the image, if there is one. Then we scan the headline. Then we read the body copy (if the headline is interesting enough).
An image at the top of the page is a common practice, to catch people’s attention and draw them into the article. But if you’re doing this, you’d better be sure it’s above your headline.
3. Captions get read more than body copy—four times more
An image placed somewhere in the middle of text draws the reader’s attention more than the text itself. It might even draw him out of the copy (see the next point). For that reason, it’s extremely important to have a caption under every image—to press your main point home, and hopefully to get him back into the copy.
4. Don’t break the left margin
When we read, we rely on the left margin always being there as an anchor, to give us a place to return our eyes to. Without a consistent left margin it’s exceptionally difficult to follow the text. (The reverse is true for text read right-to-left.)
5. Images without clear relevance are a waste of space
If the images you’re using are not clearly tied to your value proposition, or to the central theme of your page, then they will only confuse your readers. At best, they’ll be pointless distractions. At worst, they’ll give the wrong impression and lead readers to feel tricked or disappointed.
Certain types of images are best avoided
These image types to be avoided will otherwise tend to distract your website visitors with an overly visual dominance, without any added benefit of engaging your visitors. These image types may even convey the negative impression that you are incompetent, thoughtless about your page content, or just unable to come up with anything of real quality.
1. Stock photographs that are obviously stock photographs—Their generic dullness and lack of imagination rubs off on you. Just because a stock photo is attractive doesn’t mean it will be effective.
2. Poor quality images of any kind—better to not show anything than to show something pixelated, over-compressed, badly resized, of a low resolution, or otherwise shoddy-looking.
3. Crowd shots—Try to use photos that have a single main subject—people find crowd shots boring because there’s no one to focus on.
4. Bigger than life-size images of faces—According to Ogilvy, readers avoid them because they seem slightly grotesque.
5. Historical subjects—unless you’re catering to an audience of history enthusiasts, it’s a safe bet your readers will find historical shots boring.
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About Ricky Rocha loures –
Senior digital designer for ADMAX, Ricky is a Brazilian presently residing in South Florida where he received his Bachelors of Science in Digital Arts & Design at Full Sail University. Currently pursuing his masters degree, he is “inspired to be inspiring.” Ricky has received accolades for his agency and independent design work from several notable clients. Review more of Ricky’s portfolio here.