Web Design Information

Tapping Into The Visual Stimulus Of Your Web Site Visitors


"Oh, my eyes, my eyes! What an eye sore. Quick, click away! Click away!"

Suddenly I wake up in a cold sweat. What happened. Oh, then I realize: it was just a nightmare.

O.k., I'm not crazy, and no I haven't had this dream before. But think about this: what would you do if you came to a site littered with either tons of different colors, loud pinks, purples, greens and reds mixed incoherently, or more animations and graphics than the rods and cones of your inner eye can possibly absorb? If your like me I simply go "click, bye-bye".

Our visual stimulus is ever more so important on the web than almost anywhere else. Most definitely the internet is about information. But, that information is shown graphically. So, if you want to keep people at your site, first appeal to their visual stimulus.

There are a few guidelines that you should adhere to when designing your site, following known research results on colors that elicit certain psychological responses people. The bottom line is that it is hard enough to market on the internet today, why make it harder by bugging your visitors.

(1) Colors and Their Effect: I prefer blue and white. In general blue seems to elicit a sense of trust and white a sense of purity. Gold, on the other hand is the color of wealth and prosperity, something we are all working towards. So, with respect to general internet marketing, these colors tend to work the best. They are easy on the eyes and don't strike up a sense of danger, such as with the color red. Of course, the colors also depend on purpose of your site. If selling baby items, pink, which represents femininity, and baby blue, representing weakness may work quite well. It depends in part on site content. A high tech site selling electronic components may do better with greys, silvers, and black.

(2) Animations and Banners: Animations are nice, but can take time to load and be distracting. Use them to focus the attention of a visitor. Place them at a single page location, at the center or all at the left side for instance. If you use more than one and they are scattered all over the page, where can you expect your eyes to focus. Yep, you heard right - click, bye, bye.

Banners can also give you problems if there are two many and not well organized. Pay attention to the color design to ensure that it matches your site. Remember, no eye sores here. Overall, banner are known not to have the highest clickthrough rates.

(3) Flash Media: Flash media animations are steadily gaining popularity and many sites are tailoring their start-up page to include large flash animations. Beware. In online home businesses, your primary purpose is content. Only fit in flash where it is strictly meant to guide the visual stimulus to a part of your site. I know, I know, it does look cool. But cool doesn't and never will build sales out of potential prospects.

A few further resources that are of particular interest here are

(1) http://www.internet-marketing-research.net,

(2) http://www.infoplease.com/spot/colors1.html,

(3) http://psychology.about.com/library/weekly/aa031501a.htm.

As a good rule of thumb, if it hurts your eyes, it probably hurts others as well. Keep it simple, professional, easy to look at with color used just in the right place to highlight your content. Content is what will build your home based business. Elicit a visual response from your visitors to drive them to your content.

About The Author

Dan J. Fry is an independent researcher and owner of e-Kinetic.com, a site devoted to providing resources for small budget home businesses. He has a PhD in Physics, two daughters and two cats. Subscribe to his free E-Zine on home business resources at e-kinetic@GetResponse.com or by visiting his Home Based Business site.

comp@e-kinetic.com


MORE RESOURCES:

Web design firm's span reaches from Dnieper to Danbury
Danbury News Times, CT - Dec 1, 2008
... a city in western Ukraine near the country's border with Poland, got the idea to start the firm while working for another Web design outfit in Stamford. ...


Web Design Training – Spring Semester
Marywood University News & Events, PA - Dec 1, 2008
A two-part workshop in web design will be offered on Tuesdays, 1:30 – 3:00 pm beginning January 13. Part A: Introduction to Web Design (Jan 13 – Feb 24) – a ...


Corpus Christi Web Design Now Available – WebDesignRush.com is Live
PR-CANADA.net (press release), Montenegro - 14 hours ago
We’re catering to small businesses in Corpus Christi and surrounding areas to bring affordable web design to small businesses. Web Design In Corpus Christi, ...


Web design & FOSS
ZDNet UK, UK - Dec 1, 2008
Having just moved house, I had the interesting experience of being without a telephone handset. And my current mobile provider 3 [% coverage] can't always ...


Extra Cash for the Holidays or Anytime With the Launch of Diamonds ...
MarketWatch - 15 hours ago
Bayshore Solutions' award-winning Web design team utilized their Microsoft Gold Certified development capabilities along with their interactive marketing ...
Extra Cash for the Holidays or Anytime With the Launch of Diamonds ... International Business Times
Businesses Thrive Amidst a Recession Thanks to Live Help TMCnet
all 11 news articles


Mercy student 'wow's' in web design contest
Mirror, MI - Nov 30, 2008
Mercy High School Junior Michelle McCarthy was awarded first place in the 2008 Michigan Council Women in Technology Foundation web contest held at Lawrence ...


Web 2.0 principles for good web design
Bizcommunity.com, South Africa - Dec 1, 2008
Web design can be deceptively difficult, as it involves achieving a design that is both usable and pleasing, delivers information and builds brand, ...


SEO and Web Design are "Recession Proof"
About - News & Issues, NY - Nov 28, 2008
Silicon Alley Insider -- a group blog focused on the New York startup scene -- published a post today titled Recession Winners: Web Designers, SEO. ...


Three day Web design Conference will be held in Boston December 8 ...
PR-Inside.com (Pressemitteilung), Austria - Dec 1, 2008
2008-12-01 15:45:33 - December 8-10, 2008 - a tremendous event in the field of Web design and technologies will take place at Westin Copley Place in Boston. ...


David Cosgrove Los Angeles Web Design Wins Top Honors in Business ...
Press Release 365 (press release), FL - Nov 27, 2008
SIMSBURY, CT -- David Cosgrove Los Angeles Web Design has been recognized by StartupNation (http://www.startupnation.com) as one of the top businesses in ...

Web-Design - Google News

home | site map
© 2006