Websites
Does it matter if your website’s good looking?
It goes without saying that everyone wants their website to look good.
But is a good-looking website actually more effective?
Well, the short answer is “yes”!
The long answer is that numerous studies have shown that people will judge your website first and foremost on how good it looks.
How usable people think your website will be isn’t directly correlated with how usable it is
Let’s start off with going way back to 1995 and a study carried out by Masaaki Kurosu and Kaori Kashimura at the Hitachi Design Center in Tokyo.
They explored whether there was any correlation between the ‘apparent usability’ of an interface and the ‘inherent usability’. The study showed a stronger correlation between apparent usability and the perceived beauty of an interface, compared to the correlation between apparent usability and inherent usability.
They concluded that:
“This suggests that the user may be strongly affected by the aesthetic aspect of the interface even when they try to evaluate the interface in its functional aspects and it is suggested that the interface designers should strive not only to improve the inherent usability but also brush up the apparent usability or the aesthetic aspect of the interface.”.
In short, if it looks nice, users will assume it’s easy to use.
You have 50 milliseconds to make a good first impression!
Fast-forward a decade and we come to research at Carleton University in Canada. The purpose of this study, in 2006, was to calculate how quickly users form an opinion about the visual appeal of a website.
They found that displaying a website homepage to participants for just 50 milliseconds (0.05 of a second) was enough time for them to make a reliable decision about whether or not they liked what they saw.
The study concludes with:
“It is clear from these studies that the first impressions form quickly and are consistent. The strength of the results presented here suggests that designers should be very interested in finding out what, if any, effect the immediate first impression has on subsequent behaviours, such as selecting a site or buying from one.”
So, a website doesn’t need to just look nice, but that “above the fold” content which users see first is critical.
Beauty also influences usability for mobile phones
In 2010 Swiss researchers turned their attention to mobile phone interfaces. They created two functionally identical mobile phones but changed their visual appearance so one was highly appealing, the other less so.
The phones were given to a group of 14 to 17 year olds. Despite the functionality being entirely the same on both phones, those using the visually appealing phone rated it as being more usable than the participants using the less attractive phones. But the results didn’t just show a difference in perception, those using the more appealing phones needed fewer clicks to complete tasks and committed fewer errors.
“The findings showed that perceived usability was higher for appealing products than for unappealing ones, even though there was no difference between the two appliances in the objective quality of usability… These results provide further confirmation of the positive influence of aesthetics on perceived usability observed in previous work”
This suggests that once you’ve created a visually appealing website, users don’t just think it’s easier to use, they might actually find it easier to use.
Forget 50 milliseconds, you actually only have 17 milliseconds to make a first impression!
This research by Google and the University of Basel in 2012, is similar in format to the 2006 study that told us people make up their minds about a website in just 50 milliseconds.
The research added in a new element; assessing how the visual complexity of the website and the prototypicality of it (how familiar the design principles are) influenced the first impression of the website.
They discovered that, in as little as 17 milliseconds, we make a judgement about whether we like a website, although at that short speed the visual complexity has a greater influence on our perception than prototypicality. However, at 50 milliseconds the effect of each one is balanced, with people overall preferring websites which have low visual complexity (simpler designs) and high prototypicality (layouts they’re more familiar with).
They summarised their findings:
“In this study we present initial results showing that visual complexity as well as prototypicality play a crucial role in the aesthetic judgment formation process. Users prefer websites with low visual complexity and high prototypicality. Websites of low prototypicality are generally judged as being unattractive– in fact, this counts for websites of high as well as low complexity. Both factors already influence the aesthetic judgments after a very short presentation time of 17ms.”
The takeaway from this? Create beautiful yet simple website designs which follow the accepted layout norms. One caveat though – some brands, particularly cutting-edge, design driven ones, might be willing to compromise on accepted norms in order to make a visual statement about themselves. A great example of this is the website of web developer Bruno Simon, who has created an interactive driving game where you cruise around a map, discovering his projects, his background, how he works – there’s even a cookie oven where you can accept his cookie notice!
In summary
So what does all this research (and plenty more not mentioned here) tell us?
Obviously, there’s the fact that first impressions count. People will make up their mind about your website, and therefore your business, in milliseconds.
When users look at a visually pleasing website they will assume that it’s going to be easier to use than a less attractive one.
And it goes even further than that. After using the website, people perceive that the good-looking websites were better to use, even if the actual task performance is the same on a less pretty site.
Users are also more forgiving of minor flaws when the website looks nice.
Plus, the positive impression they get from an aesthetically pleasing website, rubs off on the product or service it’s promoting.
What should you do about it?
Well, firstly, accept that people can be as shallow when they’re looking at a website as they can be about everything else in life!
But, more importantly, it tells you that investing in your website’s aesthetics is going to make it more attractive to potential customers, reduce the abandonment rate and add perceived value to your product or service.
If your website needs a facelift, our scalpels are ready!
Let’s start growing your business together
