From informing users’ first impressions to impacting load speed to shaping its mobile functionality, design does more than any other aspect of your website to determine whether your digital presence is a hit or a miss. Good design can be the doorway to success, high conversion rates, and increased revenue. Bad design can mire you at the bottom of search results, slow down your users’ experiences, and drive customers into the arms of your competition.
But don’t take our word for it. We’ve assembled thirteen statistics about the impact of design on business websites.
Overall Design:
Your site’s design prompts 94% of visitors’ first impressions
The adage says that “content is king,” but it’s apparent that content takes a backseat to design when making those vital first impressions. Design is the “curb appeal” for your website – your users will see the design and consciously or unconsciously make countless judgments about your business before they ever read a word on the page.
Given 15 minutes to browse, 66% of people prefer to look at a beautiful design over a plain one
This statistic seems like a no-brainer, but read it again. 66% prefer a beautiful design over a plain site – not over an ugly one. It’s no longer effective (if it ever was) to design a barebones site with the thought that “plain beats ugly.” As technology has improved and bandwidth has increased, users don’t just expect a functional experience when they visit a website; they expect something attractive.
Well-designed sites can convert at up to three times the rate of poorly designed sites
It’s easy to say that an attractive design leads to more conversions, but at what rate? Research suggests that good design can increase conversions by up to 200%! Can you think of any other project you can undertake that could triple your sales without modifying your business model? Neither can we and growing business is literally what we do.
Images, color, and videos are the design elements consumers most appreciate (40%, 39%, and 21%, respectively)
It should be no surprise that we prefer to look at pictures and videos more than we enjoy reading dense blocks of text, the wails of our poor copywriters notwithstanding. How much do we prefer it? 100% of web users appreciate visual elements more than textual elements. (Sorry, copywriters.) That’s not to say that you can ignore your copy entirely – it’s still a vital part of your site’s overall UX. And search engines simply will not rank a page that doesn’t contain useful, legible content.
39% of users are more attracted to color than any other design element – 46% prefer blue, 30% prefer green
Color is the design element that leads to the most emotional, visceral response in viewers and is an easy way to convey a brand’s tone. It’s also an easy way to create appeal – we’re drawn toward attractive color combinations and naturally repelled by clashing colors. While we’d never suggest that every website adopt blue-and-green as their color scheme, it’s clear that choosing a color scheme should be done with intention.
About 57% of the time on a page is spent above the fold, 74% on the first two screenfuls
These numbers have been trending down in recent years, suggesting that more and more users are becoming accustomed to having to scroll to find the content they’re looking for. Still, over half of your users’ time is spent on that first screen, so keep everything BLUF (Bottom Line Up Front).
Trustworthiness:
About 75% of a website’s credibility is drawn from its design
Your customers need to trust you before spending their hard-earned money on your products and services. With about three-quarters of that trust coming out of your site’s design, you should do everything possible to ensure your site looks reputable. Clean, easy-to-read pages with straightforward navigation and minimal intrusions from ads and other secondary content goes a long way toward building trust.
Bad design elements can cause 94% of users to mistrust a site
People have been surfing the web long enough to have built an image in their head of what a spammy, untrustworthy website looks like: busy, crowded, tons of pop-ups, fine print everywhere, and design elements that scream “Don’t think, just click ‘Buy!'” Don’t be those guys. When you build your website so that navigation is straightforward, product descriptions are plainly written, disclosures and disclaimers aren’t hidden, and users “have time to breathe,” you’re building user confidence.
Loading Speed:
Up to $2.6 billion in revenue is lost each year due to slow-loading sites
Billion. With a “b.” If oversized image files, bloated code, and bandwidth-wasting dependencies increase your site’s load time, you will lose customers. Online shopping is an attention game, and nothing is less attention-grabbing than a website that stalls and leaves you staring at that infuriating “loading” icon.
83% of users expect sites to load in 3 seconds or less
In the days of dial-up, few of us could have imagined an entire webpage loading in less than three seconds but oh how the times have changed. Today’s web users demand speed, and if your site’s not up to the challenge, they’ll find somewhere else to take their business. Designing for speed optimization isn’t just a best practice; it’s an inescapable primary consideration.
Mobile:
74% of users are more likely to return to mobile-friendly sites
Not only that, but users are considerably more likely to find mobile-friendly sites. Since 2020, Google’s search crawlers have crawled the mobile versions of websites first, looking at desktop versions only if crawl time permitted. If your site’s not mobile-friendly, you’ll lose both return and first-look traffic. How much traffic? Keep reading.
Mobile devices generated 54.8% of global traffic in 2021
Not being mobile-friendly can cost you as much as 55% of your potential traffic. And as more users step away from a keyboard and use their mobile phones as their primary web platform, that number will increase. Fortunately, with responsive design, businesses no longer have to maintain two separate versions of their site – one set of well-designed pages can serve both desktop and mobile users.
Mobile commerce is expected to comprise 44% of all digital commerce in 2023
Can you afford to lose 44% of your online business? Of course, you can’t. Ensuring a mobile-friendly design tells your mobile customers that their business is just as important to you as your desktop customers.
Is It Time for a New or Improved Website? Talk to the Web Design Experts at M&R Marketing.
Our in-house team of copywriters, designers, and web developers all work together to create a winning strategy that integrates quality content with beautiful design, making your site an attractive, effective online presence for your business. Tell us about your website or website needs today: 478-621-4491.