How Buyers Respond to Design

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From fonts to layouts, how buyers respond to design

You have spent hours perfecting your elevator pitch in the mirror. Your message is strong and clear, and you are ready to wow everyone you meet with your awesome product or service. People are excited…and then they see your website or brochure. Buyers respond to design, both good and bad, and a bad design could be losing you business.

What buyers want

You are in love with your product. You would marry it. Heck, after countless hours developing it, you probably see more of your product or service than you do your SO. Right?

Prospective buyers, on the other hand, could not care less about what you have to sell. Let that sink in: The business you have shed blood, sweat and tears to develop garners barely a blink of an eyelash from your prospects, sorry to say.

However, your buyers do care about something. Better yet, your business may be selling just what they need or want to make that something better. Good design can tell your prospects, in seconds, whether your product might satisfy some of their wants or needs in life.

Design is not a one-size-fits-all practice, but there are some general rules of thumb that guide the process:

How people read

f_pattern

Eye-tracking studies show that the upper left corner of a page receives the most attention, and people read in either a Z-pattern or an F-pattern.

You can view several samples of sites that employ the F-pattern to their advantage here.

Images draw people’s attention

From logos to photos, eye-tracking patterns show that most people linger longer on images than on text.

According to Shutterstock:

“Using strategically selected images has been proven to grow views and boost conversion rates. It shouldn’t come as a surprise that viewers are 80 percent more likely to consume your content if it contains engaging visuals. In addition, social media users are more likely to share images and videos than text alone, and each of these elements can quickly convey a message or mood for your brand.”

A good designer can help you choose or create images that convey just the right mood and tone for your brand.

The human element

human_element

Our brains are programmed to seek out human faces, so images of humans help draw the eye in. A friendly, smiling face looking out from a page can help create a human connection on a subconscious level. In addition, images of people enjoying the lifestyle your buyers aspire to can help them better understand your product and value proposition.

Shutterstock adds that photos of people can actually improve your conversion rates:

“Research shows that photos that include people boost conversion rates by 95 percent or more. This is partially related to capturing emotion. Images of people help viewers connect with your brand.”

In addition, how an image is used can affect how readers interact with text on the same page. In this example, a baby looking toward the text actually prompted readers to spend more time reading it.

Text size and layout matters

Although people love images, your text gives them the information they seek. How it’s laid out and sized makes a big difference in how easily buyers can read and understand it.

One Nielsen study shows that most people scan marketing content and read only 20-28% of website text. With that in mind, you want to make sure the most important information stands out and is easy to find. Your value proposition – how you make your buyers’ lives better – and your calls-to-action should leap out from the page.

This article offers eight tips for writing attention-grabbing, concise text and for laying it out for readability.

Final thoughts

Bottom line, good design is not a happy accident. Several elements work together to tell a complete story, and a good designer can help you tell that story in a way that is accessible to buyers.

To learn more about Après Creative’s collaborative approach to design, contact us. We love creating unique visual stories for our clients that help bring their brands alive.

Posted By

Sara Bess