Web Design is a State of Mind

Fall is my favorite time of the year.  While many people prefer sitting at the beach in ninety-plus degree weather, I prefer wearing a light jacket while there is a slight chill in the air and watching the New England foliage transform the landscape.  For reasons which I cannot explain thoroughly, I am most at peace this time of the year.  I am a motorcycle enthusiast also, and a Sunday ride through the New England landscape during the fall season clears my head, relieves my stress and brings me back to simpler times.

So how is this in any way affiliated to a topic that is appropriate for a blog for a technology company?  It is about something called “flow”.  The psychology of the conscious and subconscious patterns of the mind influence top website design techniques and style.  Believe it or not, the events that provoke human emotion and “flow” are considered and implemented throughout top web design and development.

Video game developers understand this well.  How to incorporate suspense and the desire to achieve goals to reach the next level are the subconscious, addicting components built into the top-selling video games.  These components keep gamers coming back and spending countless hours to reach the desired outcome of the video game.

These concepts should be incorporated into your website.  It is your virtual storefront to the world.  You must keep them engaged and wanting to accomplish the “tasks” you have set up to drive them to the ultimate goal – taking action.  Psychological components such as emotion, trust, respect and persuasion are the key components to achieve high conversion rates online.  You must first understand the state of mind you are looking to achieve with your website.  Are you looking to excite, relax, sadden, scare, or humor your target audience?  Depending on your industry and online goals, you may need one or more of these emotions incorporated into your design to achieve your desired outcome.

So how do you design for emotion and create the proper flow?  Consider the fact that your visitors are on your website for a reason.  They have a purpose for being there.  The website should allow them to find that reason as quickly as possible and engage them once they have found that reason for being on your website.  Walk them through the benefits of your products and services and display examples and case studies.  At strategic locations throughout the website, place call-to-action features.  Do not distract them with non-essential information or links that will take them away from the desired outcome.  Keep them engaged and focused on the task at hand, and encourage them to contact you by offering a variety of contact options such as live chat, email, a phone call and even SMS messaging. 

Lay out your website foundation according to interaction framework best practices.  Put your most important information in-line with F-pattern readability design.  Do not up-sell too early; only showcase add-ons or complimentary features at key locations within the workflow of the website.

Another important statement is this:  just because you could, does not mean you should!  I see some well designed sites aesthetically; however, the functionality is very poor.  Some design firms implement animation and “cool” techniques that hinder usability and only confuse the user.  Do not be too savvy for your own good!  Also consider that Flash ® does not render on any mobile device and there are no plans for it to do so.  Leverage a firm with newer design techniques such as HTML 5, jQuery, Ajax and other implementation technologies that allow for an interactive design without losing a large mobile or iPad audience.  You must leverage your analytics and stay on top of the usage trends of your website.  These statistics are the lifeline for your website.  They are telling a very important story about your current and future success.  Read them, understand them, and take the appropriate action where necessary using the aforementioned techniques.