Science, Web Design, and Ice Cream Dripping down a model's chin.

In a recent series of blog posts 'Psychology Hacks in Web Design,' I've sought to get to the heart of what persuades on the web. The science of persuasion on the web has been my life's obsession for the last six months since I first wrote about how to get people to trust you on your website.

A Recap: Trust is everything.

If you can present your company in a professional way that elicits trust from visitors and shares your key value you're 10x closer to gaining an actual customer.  5 ways you can do this with visual elements on your site: 

• Industry recognition like awards and organization involvement
• Social networking (active on social networks that apply to your industry) and social proof (Your friends Ally and Pete looovvve Squatty Potty and you will too.)
• Testimonials - i.e. Google reviews and photos and reviews on your site of customers. 
• Don't skimp on the about page, and show real high-quality photography of your team, or you interacting with a customer or client (preferably smiling hugely as you produce a successful outcome.)
• Get specific with your claims. You didn't increase your clients leads 'significantly,' you increased their leads by 37.2% in 6 months. 

The Mirror Effect and Persuasion through Double Entendre

Why do we care if they see photography of a happy customer receiving or interacting with the product or service? Because it calls attention to the exact storyline we want to be playing in the visitors mind as they soak up clear information about your product or service and see a clear call to action for the next obvious step in the conversion funnel.

Be playful you sexy thang - Sex (and more generally sensuality) Sells

The delightful aspect of the maker market;  a handmade product lends itself well to an air of sensuality. The interaction of hand and product, or showing close ups of someone enjoying your artisan cheese-cake makes for strong imagery, the modern equivalent of ice cream dripping down the model's chin. 

Perhaps web designers are really the ones that are slow to catch up with print publications like Cosmopolitan, who has the word 'Sex' very large on almost every issue it prints.

It doesn't take an eye-tracking study or heat-mapping to see that a well put-together human body commands attention; here are some more examples of sex in advertising. 

Rules and Algorithms to make better design decisions 

In the past six months I've had the privilege to make an A/B Test on a site and watch it result in a 5k change in revenue in a couple weeks. Watching simple design changes make a company make more money helps you respect your craft more and understand the importance of making the right choices in certain design decisions. As part of my journey I've come across these 5 rules that can inform those important decisions: 

1. Hick’s Law: Increasing the number of choices, increases Decision time - "Analysis Paralysis", so as much as you can prioritize on the most important items on a site (look to what will most likely increase your revenue for help,) you should subtract as much as you can.  Have you noticed an increase in minimalism on the web? This is why. 
2. Rule of Target Size: The size of a button should be proportional to its expected frequency of use. This is a great reason you should make your one main obvious next step on a page large - but not too large as to look "spammy."
3. The Rule of Affordance: Clues as to an item's functionality.- In User Interface design an example is anything that makes a button look more "clickable". Give your buttons some kind of outline, rounded edge or gradient so people know what to tap or click  without thinking. 
4. The Rule of Dwell Time:  Google tracks 'bounce rate' or how quickly someone comes back to search results after visiting a page - Dwell Time is an indicator they got what they wanted and sends a signal to google that your page has quality. Create compelling pages with rich content to keep people using your site as a resource and increase your search engine visibility.
5. Fitt's Law - The farther away a target is and the smaller its size then the more difficult it is for the user to correctly land on that target - use this to emphasize and prioritize the most important next actions on a website. 

Combine these rules with the classics like the "rule of scarcity," (or showing that there's only 3 of a particular item left to increase urgency,) recognize fear of loss is more compelling than perceived benefit, build in some A/B Testing and User Testing into your eCommerce rhythm and you've got a recipe for success.

Why do modern websites look so similar to each other?

Have we lost creativity on the web? The homogenization of user interface design on the web may have come from an increased emphasis on "Usability," and usability is highest when people are familiar with the conventions of the design.  So as web designers we have to find ways to be creative, but still make the site feel familiar so people know where to go for important information. It's a challenge, but the best design comes from acknowledging the critical challenge or challenges in a project and focusing attention on creatively solving that challenge with focused attention.