Thursday, February 26, 2009
Consider this: You move into a new house. The main bathroom has a toilet, decent sized shower recess, bath tub – what more could you want? It’s certainly functional, the only problem is it’s decorated with gaudy floral wallpaper, gold sink fixtures and shower doors, elaborate mirrors and tacky lighting. It’s like stepping back into the previous decade whenever you enter the room.
To makeover the bathroom, you could just rip off the gaudy wallpaper and paint the walls - but is this a solution? It will make a difference but it’s really only part of the solution. If you do this and just leave the other stuff, you still have an outdated bathroom!
Whether it’s a website or bathroom makeover; “good design is about the relationship between the elements involved, and creating a balance between them”. You can only do so many minor updates before the time comes to scrap what you have and start over.The initial impact of your website design, the “first impression”, has become far more important nowadays and plays a much greater role in your website conversion rate (number of visitors who make an enquiry, sign-up, purchase etc).
Web users are nowhere near as unsophisticated as they were a few years ago. They’ve seen the best and have much higher expectations of what a valuable website should look like. Visitors will make a split-second judgement on a website’s quality and relevance and if it’s not up to scratch, you can lose them forever.
If your website gives a positive first impression with an elegant and eye-catching design, your website visitor will be more open to your offer and place more value on your company versus a competitor with a low quality website.
So why take the risk with a poorly designed site – is it time to update your website design? Maybe the bathroom analogy will help you make a decision :)
Reference: The Principles of Beautiful Design (Jason Beaird)
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