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How Design Elements Impact User Experience

How Design Elements Impact User Experience

One of the main problems with those who’re new to online business is they easily get attracted with the design of the month. Flash was quite popular in recent times, while sliding banners were considered as the ‘real deal’ later on.

Today, many online businesses gear their efforts towards search engine optimization, but they forget that the real success lies in user experience. Visitors coming to a particular website go through thought conversations such as ‘why am I on this website?’, ‘where am I supposed to place the order?’, ‘how do I contact the owner?’ etc.

Thankfully, web design elements can be used to guide users through sequencing and create the best user experience on a blog/website. There are many web design services that have expert knowledge on how design elements work such San Diego web design and similar companies in other states.

Here are some of the design elements that are considered important when it comes to user experience:

1. Shapes

Shapes have an important connection with the visitors as they’re used to communicate and appeal to their emotions.
For example, many of the bloggers who write about making money online use dollars ($), giving the readers an impression of money. The brain also processes shapes much faster than simple text.

2. White space

A website is going to be more attractive when it’s filled with banners, ads, opt-in forms, messages, pop ups etc. This is a misconception that needs to be cleared. There should be plenty of white space in the design of a website (see Huffingtonpost).

White space makes it easy for the readers to consume the information posted on the website, while banners, forms and the likes can possibly distract them from the main content.

3. Size

Size is important for emphasizing the visual and text content on the website. In case of web design, bigger is better when it comes to shape, front or graphics.

The bigger size is used to emphasize the importance of a particular element. It also becomes easy for visitors to skim through widgets, messages, content etc.

4. Position

Position is a tricky element and text, banners and other properties of the website need to be placed carefully, as they can prove to be the difference marker in the end. For example, for some, putting advertisements above the fold is the main source of revenue, while others say it reduces the user experience and the visitor should be able to see more of the content above the fold.

A website should place the most important information above the fold, because that is the area the eyes of a search engine visitor scans first when he/she lands on a particular web page.

5. Motion

Motion can directly impact how a user behaves. The size, shape and color on the web page can be combined to make a motion to direct users towards a particular action.

A simple arrow moving downwards towards a form that says ‘pre-order now and get a free dock connector’ has the ability to tap into the will of users and prompt them to make a purchase.

These design elements come together to provide the best user experience. They also help businesses to gain the trust of the visitors and communicate their message effectively, which leads to better conversions.

Article contributed by Jenna Smith

By Ethan Theo

Abe WalkingBear Sanchez is an International Speaker / Trainer / Consultant on the subject of cash flow / sales enhancement and business knowledge organization and use. Founder and President of www.armg-usa.com, WalkingBear has authored hundreds of business articles, has worked with numerous companies in a wide range of industries since 1982 and has spoken at many venues including the Shakespeare Globe Theater in London.