The Psychology of Website Design

It may surprise you to hear that the most successful websites employ elements of psychology in their design. If you’re the owner of a business, it’s worth looking at how using psychology in web design can not only help increase user engagement, but can give your website an advantage over competitors. Here at Mintcake Digital we’ve put together a few simple psychology principles that are commonplace in good web design …

Encouraging trust

If you know your demographic, you can add an element of trust between you and the user simply by making considered changes to the design. Think about the type of imagery that’s on display, would your key audience engage and share them? It’s important to remember colour too: every audience is different and they react differently to certain colours. If, for example your site is aimed at children then yellow might be a good colour to employ, but if your key demographic is men over 30, then studies have shown the colour yellow could put them off. Finally, people will trust an individual or company that they can put a face to, so if you’ve got a team of employees, include their faces on your site. This helps create a layer of security for the user as they can trust that they’re dealing with an actual person.

Repeating elements

Using repeating elements throughout your site can help create a better user-experience. If you use the same headings on different pages for example, it signals to the visitor’s subconscious that they will be able to quickly and easily identify similar content. By doing just that, you are assisting them through your site, and we all know that sites which are easy to use are far more likely to have better conversion rates.

Negative space

Often overlooked, negative space can actually attract the user to a particular element or button. By using negative space in web design, you can easily attract a user to a product you want to showcase. For an even greater impact, you can use contrast between the element itself and the negative space around it.

Use of colour

A website’s colour scheme isn’t just thrown together, it can be one of the biggest influencers of user behaviour on your site. If you’ve got a local business in Cumbria, you can really set yourself apart from competitors by utilising colour as a tool. A good example of this is using contrasting colours with the goal of increasing click through rates. You have to consider everything from the colour on your landing pages to creating a visual path for your users to follow towards a purchase.

For further advice and guidance, contact us at Mintcake Digital Cumbria. Our team can help you take the steps you need to create a well thought out and effective site.