- July 21, 2015
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How Inspired Web Page Design Inspires More Conversions
A strong web presence comprises numerous marketing channels, from social media and pay-per-click ads to your YouTube library and, of course, your website. One of today’s hottest online marketing topics is how to design web pages that maximize conversions.
Control the Page, Control the Action
The better your page design, the more effective you’ll be at influencing visitors’ behavior, says author and designer, Steven Bradley, writing for Smashing Magazine. In the sixth of his Design Principles series, Bradley covers compositional flow and rhythm, essential components, he says, in optimizing conversions.
The article gets a little artsy-geeky in places, which our designer friends won’t mind in the slightest. But overall, Bradley’s advice is sound for integrated marketers who want the company website to work harder at converting.
Cues Create a Path
“Flow is about movement and direction and leading the eye from one [place] to another,” he says, beginning with your most dominant visual element (like the big colorful image at the top of this page), and providing ‘directional cues’ the lead the user’s eye in and through your design.
The most obvious cues include an arrow or person whose are face and/or eyes are pointing in a specific direction. Others include repeated design elements and, of course, lines of any kind, which give the eye a clear and directed path to follow. Along the way, conversion points (click, download, learn more, contact, etc.) must be obvious and plentiful.
Use Rhythm to Set the Pace
In page design, rhythm is simply patterned visual movement created by combining elements with the intervals with which they’re displayed. Varying or emphasizing either can influence the speed at which users visually ‘consume’ page content, what Bradley calls ‘pace.’
Bradley concludes his explanation of visual rhythm by offering three different types, along with some examples:
- Regular rhythm: features regular, predictable intervals between elements or similarities in element size or length
- Flowing rhythm: occurs when either elements or intervals are organic or evoke a feeling of organic or natural movement, like stripes on a tiger or zebra
- Progressive rhythm: revealed in a stepped or progressive sequence of forms or shapes, like in a color gradient
For more insight into how design affects user behavior and experience, read our posts “What Shapes Reveal about Your Company” and “Color on The Web: Its Many Shades of Meaning.”
