My Rules of Design
I do a lot of web development so here’ s a couple of lesson’s I’ve learned…
1) NEVER use reverse type. Reverse type is white text on a blackbackground, it looks sexy but reduces conversions by 50% - it hurts your eyes.
2) Never play background music unless its under 5 seconds or related to the content - ie: myspace or a band’s site. Nothing gets people to close a site faster then music.
3) Never use random stock photos. I hate stock photos but if they are going to be used, make them relevant (check out familyloanfinder.com - stock photos are used but its a mortgage site and its a family in the photos thats fine. Stock photos of people with headsets is not cool. People can see the photos are stock.
4) Keep things simple. Content can be long but formatting needs to be simple. Bullets are good, photos are good, long paragraphs are not. People are lazy.
5) Your site should never reload. if people are going to a different page, the whole site should not reload, just the center content thats interacting with the user. Reloads cause dropoffs of 10%+ per reload. You can use Ajax, dynamic html, iframe, jquery/kphp i dont get care. Just dont refresh the whole site.
6) Don’t layer images. Using a background is fine but laying images over images is not. It’s confusing and hard to read.
7) Use positive colors and avoid negative/hard colors. Avoid sharp blacks and reds. Use bright greens and blues.
Example of a horrible site that i did: zenfinancial.com
- the site looks sexy and has a design that is still ahead of the curve but it is useless at driving client leads b/c
- irritating repeating music
- tickers in general are bad, this one is really hard to read
- content is in the center and not formatted well and moving
- used all hard colors
- used reverse type
9) When people leave send an exit popup to try to save the sale. A very aggressive exit pop is seen on theLeadfirm.com = it works though. Upsell services such as upsellit.com are useful if used right.
10) Testimonials are great, pictures testimonials are better, audio are even better and video is the best
11) use of video increases sales if its relevant
12) when collecting data, start on the first page of the form with only dropdown boxes (1-5) and no actual data collection. The second page should also be only drop downs, by the third page you can collect actual information. Why? people are lazy start with the simple stuff and drag the user in, it increase conversions a lot.
13) A sexy and relevant logo is important
14) Creating a brand behind the site, either a personality or as seen on tv or something that the person can recall helps a lot. Such as in all those home based business programs - it makes it so that the user can relate to the site. Personal testimonials, showing how you used the product yourself are amazing.
15) personally address the user if you have the data such as first name or at least location if you have their location
