Does a Website's Visual Design REALLY Matter
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The entire world can learn about you through your website, but they can learn about your competitors that way, as well. Do you know if they're all stopping to look at your site, or are they simply skipping by to instead study your competitor? When a visitor can move on to a competing site with two clicks - the back button and the next link on Google - your website needs to grab visitors in seconds.
Have you ever looked for a company online, visiting site after site? You leave most of them almost immediately, simply because they took too long to download or didn't have the look of a company with which you would want to do business. So how do you differentiate your site enough to invite visitors to stay?
Let's start with your brand. The word brand is thrown around a lot these days, and thus is perceived differently by most people. But I think brand is simply this: the total experience your customer has with you. It's far more than a company's logo or tagline. The company's brand is encompassed by what its customers think about them as a company. If you accept this definition, then the challenge of the company is to deliver a great customer experience, starting with the initial contact, and continuing throughout the relationship.
If I asked a roomful of people what the Starbuck brand means to them, every person would have a different answer, based on their personal experience. That experience might have started at the door, with the logo on the outdoor signage. The continuity of the logo on the indoor signage, cups, napkins, and the rest is important, because when we see the encircled green mermaid, associations enter our heads. Depending on your past interactions and preferences, these associations might be sugar plums dancing in your head, or the green monster that pops up everywhere you go. Either way, the point is that seeing the logo conjures different associations for every person. Starbucks' challenge, then, is to influence people so as to have the most possible positive associations.
Recently, due to lagging sales, Starbucks decided to do something dramatic to improve business. I assume the leaders first spent a lot of time looking at their prices, marketing, the atmosphere of their locations, and other variables. What the CEO decided to do was to close all the locations for three evening hours and re-train the staff. This training focused on creating a staff of coffee experts to ensure consistent quality of product, knowledge and service. One of the cornerstones of any successful brand strategy is that all customers should have a consistent experience with every employee. Why? Because consistency is a good foundation upon which to build trust with customers, and trust is an important part of a long-term relationship.
So what does Starbucks have to do with your website? Actually, plenty: both involve elements such as visual image, consistent experience, trust and long-term relationships.
When you get a new visitor to your website--someone who has no idea who you are or what you do--you have only a few seconds to make a good first impression and to introduce them to your version of the green mermaid. Design is a crucial part of the impression you'll leave in these critical seconds. The visuals must convey who you will prove yourself to be, to the audience to which you want to appeal. But remember: you don't need to spend time trying to appeal to everyone. Instead, you should only care about the visitor who might eventually become your customer.
How do you identify good design? It should accurately reflect your company, stand out from the competition, and appeal to your audience. Unfortunately, as content management systems become more prevalent, we are beginning to see an abundance of websites that all look the same, a result of their designers conforming to the software rather than to their clients' unique needs. Beware of these cookie-cutter, templated-design solutions: they don't allow you to convey who you are, and you won't differentiate yourself if you look like everyone else, however professional the design might look. There are content management systems that will instead conform to fit custom designs, and you should find design shops that use these more flexible software tools.
Imagine walking through a trade show and seeing an auditorium full of exhibitors. They all have nice, professional display booths behind the table that contains some candy, giveaways and brochures. They all seem good to work with. But where do you start, given your limited time and energy? Let's say you come across a vendor who has an open, well-decorated space, with café-style tables and chairs, and you think, boy, my feet are tired. Once you sit down, you notice there's soothing music playing in the space, a pleasant contrast to the blaring noise coming from other booths. While you're sitting, someone brings you a water bottle that you subsequently take with you. The bottle has a label attached, with a headline that reads "You can relax when your water has been purified by XYZ water purification system." All the booths were professional, but one stood out from the crowd. Professional, custom design can help your website stand out from the virtual crowd, too.
Trust starts to develop when your website's visual design exceeds expectations. Now, you'll need to deepen that trust on several levels. The message, especially what you say on the home page, should explain what you do, and be designed in such a way that the visitor reads the most important words first. The words and visuals need to work together. The navigation must blend well with the design and the words, so as to allow the visitor to quickly and easily decide where they want to go. That navigation should be consistent throughout the entire site, providing a logical, comfortable experience for the visitor.
Finally, you want the visitor to become a customer, and you want your customers to become life-long customers. The website is a tool that can deliver an outstanding experience online and reinforce the brand to build or strengthen relationships with customers.
Remember the Starbucks lesson: the total customer experience is the brand. Whether your website is about e-commerce, e-communications or some blend of the two, think of the customer's total experience. If first impressions were good, and visitors stayed on the site, you can then motivate them to purchase something, sign-up for regular communications from your company or at least come back again, and perhaps tell their friends how much they like your organization. You can help them do any or all of those tasks with a well-designed, well-executed website. Like the smart person or persons behind that aforementioned trade show booth, offer to help them rest their tired feet, and help them remember who provided that comfort station.
