Landing page design is not an easy task. It’s often about more than just looking nice and adding some content, but understanding your users so you can cater the right message for them in order to get results! Let’s explore some helpful principles of psychology that web designers should know before diving into their work day – or even better yet- let me show you real life examples from clients who have already seen success with this approach.
Web designers have a lot of options when it comes to designing websites. However, no two target audiences are alike. Luckily, some psychological principles can be used as a general rule to make sure your web design is successful for all types of users.
In this article we’ll go through many helpful rules that will give us an edge when designing our interfaces today; after reading about them I hope it becomes much easier to make effective use of their tools because who wouldn’t want their product seen more often than others?.. Let’s Dive-In.
Jakob’s Law
There are plenty of proven and tested design solutions out there. The best option might be to stick with what works. When you try to be overly innovative, you might end up misunderstood.
Many times, the solution you come up with may not fit all your users needs or preferences perfectly and in some cases they might prefer an older version over something newer. This principle raises questions like “why reinvent the wheel?” If there are proven designs out there that work for what most people need then why go through more trouble? The answer could lie within realizing how misunderstood innovations often end up miscommunication between clientele who cannot agree about whether something functions well enough compared to its predecessor – leading them both
The law of Jakob, as it’s known in the UX world, says that people spend most of their time on other websites and are thus already used to certain design patterns. When you stick with these familiar looks for your landing page experience will be more intuitive than not following suit.
Some common examples include
The navigation: On the desktop versions, The company’s logo is on the top left, followed by a navigation bar. The right-hand corner of every page contains an area for login and signup buttons which are occasionally found in search bars as well. On mobile versions of the website you see the common hamburger menu. These three lines of text are widely understood by the vast majority of users. There’s no need to reinvent this wheel.
The layout of textual content and image: The layouts of these landing pages echo the left-to right reading direction for latin languages. This makes it easier to read and process information this way, since our brain processes visual images before text ones naturally! The first column has all main points written in large font size with underlining as emphasis (elegant). Every subsequent page repeats what’s on previous one but also adds its own unique details that help build context or provide additional perspective depending how you’re using them.
The mental models: People are experts at scanning websites, and this is why Jakob’s Law works so well. The user has their mental model of what they expect to find on any given website already in mind which means that when it comes time for the experience with your site or call-to-action (CTA), you can be sure there will always be some sort of recognition point along one edge where users naturally focus next due do context clues like color schemes & font types used within design choices! This usually plays out as people tend to scan the website in a Z-pattern.
XImageX
The pages we’ve used as examples follow this design quite closely. The logo and the login button remain in the same place, yet the strategy has slightly changed for the main CTA. Instead of placing the CTA at the fourth focal point, we choose to place the signup button at the third point of the Z pattern.
Principle of least effort
We don’t process more information than is necessary, but it’s not because we’re lazy. We just have a lot on our plates. Did you know that we process around 100,000 words every day? It’s the equivalent of a medium-length novel, such as Dune.
Keep in mind that every landing page contributes to information overload. Here’s how you can use the principle of least effort in your web design efforts:
Cut the experience short: In today’s world, it’s important to always ask does this part of my site cause friction and discourage the user from proceeding? If so then maybe we need a redesign or some other type of improvement in order for visitors to have an enjoyable experience. It’s important to understand who your users are and what they need from you. You can use this information in order to find out where their journey ends up being a little bumpy, so that way we don’t have any more friction points on our end.
Stick to plain language: it’s about the written content, too! When your audience has to wade through industry jargon and complicated paragraphs of text, they’re adding an unnecessary task onto their cognitive load. Your audience deserves the best experience possible, and that means making sure they can understand what you’re saying. Use short sentences with simple vocabulary so your words are easier for them to comprehend – it’s important on landing pages where space is limited.
Group items into categories: Landing pages serve a specific purpose. You don’t need to overwhelm your audience with all the details at first, and you can group features into three or four categories depending on what type of product offer it is that you’re showcasing. Your main goal in this stage should be getting them engaged enough so they take note when presented with an opportunity for action: clicking through/buying something from us! This principle plays heavily into how people perceive information given their biases & habits towards certain types of actions based on previous experiences (the same thing also applies here).
Hicks Law
When it comes to options, is more better?
We all know that when you have a lot of choices, it can be difficult to make up your mind. But what if our decisions were made by something other than rationality? Hick’s law states: the more options we’re presented with for an action or decision-making process, then longer this final choice will take as well. This became the foundation for the KISS acronym. No matter if you choose to interpret it as Keep It Short and Sweet or Keep it Simple Stupid, the idea remains the same.
The key here is to make the decisions for the users with creative design.
Here’s how to design with Hick’s Law and the Paradox of Choice in mind:
Focus on a single goal: It’s no surprise that landing pages with multiple offers often have a worse conversion rate than those who offer only one. Amongst all of this clutter, making sure you’re not leaving out any relevant information can be difficult and time consuming! So instead of trying to saturate your few landing pages with as much information as possible just create more landing pages that are designed for a single purpose. Adept Creative Data reports going from 10 to 15 different landing page designs will increase lead generation by 58%
Try progressive disclosure: Progressive disclosure sequences allow you to include the main categories or essential information on a landing page, and then guide users further for more details. This way your landing pages will be clean with simpler navigation towards important parts of it as they need them – without overwhelming those who come in right away looking for help!
If you need inspiration Here’s an idea…
XImageX
Figure/Ground
In the context of landing pages, the law of figure/ground is particularly common. This phenomenon is typically illustrated with this popular picture:
You can either see two face profiles or a vase.
The same element can be perceived either as a figure or background. This is an example of a reversible relationship where one part serves both purposes in different contexts, depending on the context you’re looking at it from!
The law of figure/ground is a fascinating way for web designers to think about their designs. These laws were created by psychologists in the Gestalt Group, They studied how people make sense out stimuli around them as well as perceive objects in order to form an idea about what’s going on within whole picture
Propose the idea of “the whole is other than the sum” to designers. This statement by Kurt Koffka helps us realize that no matter how much we focus on one particular element, its value will be limited if it’s not strategically placed within a bigger set for web design purposes and applications like SEO strategy development or content marketing campaigns. Each element you design is perceived differently when it’s part of a bigger set of elements.
In landing page design, you will aim for a stable relationship between the figure and the background. The figure should stand out. This can be achieved through contrast and color.
Have a look at this great example from
XimageX
The aim of this landing page is crystal clear. They want the user to sign up for their service, and they make it easy for them by providing a single call-to-action button that stands out in contrast against its background – an orange shade with a strong hue.
Putting a big button to call your attention and encourage you to take action is always important. We made the “Get started” button significantly bigger than other components on our website, so that it stands out as an essential link for visitors who want something from us right away!
Ximage
Pareto Principle
Every web design process needs priorities, especially when your resources are limited.
20% of your design is responsible for 80% success. This idea, known as the pareto principle or law in economics (after Vilfredo Pareto), can be used to define strategy and study how best you use resources like time or money on each task according it’s proportion within overall project completion rate.
If you’re using heatmap software on your website, you’ve probably already noticed that only a small fraction of all users scroll all the way to the bottom. Research from 2020 suggests that users spend 60% of their time on websites above the first fold. 74 percent is dedicated to this area, which you should focus most efforts on for maximum visibility and engagement!
Here are some ideas on how to use Pareto principle in design.
Suggest Options: Don’t make it difficult for the user, you can make things easier by moving the most likely choices to the top of the page.
Prioritize features: Knowing what your users want and need is important for building a successful landing page. To help you do this, we can analyze the most common requests or features on our website to create something that will meet those needs more effectively than anything else out there.
Decide what goes first on mobile: Campfire is a great example here. When we designed this website we knew that the tool was designed for desktop users. So here is the desktop landing page
Ximagex
As you can see , the top right hand corner navigation is very much like the other landing pages we’ve covered. Things look a bit different when you see the mobile version:
Ximagex
See what happened? The “sign in” and “sign up” buttons are gone. When you look for Campfire on mobile, you’re not ready to start using the app. You’re probably just looking around to see what it does and how much it costs. This is why the “pricing” button is highlighted, instead of the sign up or a hamburger menu. It all depends on your findings when analyzing user behavior.
Social proof
Now that we’ve discussed the principles of cognitive science, it’s time to turn our attention towards social psychology. You may have heard about this title: The Psychology Of Persuasion by Dr Robert Cialdini- although in is out for decades now and considered one great source on persuasion core mechanisms within today society
One of the most widely known phenomena described by Cialdini is social proof.Social proof is a phenomenon that describes how people tend to think that actions taken by others are worth following. In other words, we’re more likely to do something when we see others doing it. There’s social pressure on you and it works better if they have some level of competence. This principle can be seen through landing pages across industries.
Ximagex
The main page is studded with raving reviews from SEO industry experts. They’re also using the popular trick of adding logos of companies who use the product.
Another interesting way to use social proof is through user generated content. This example uses pictures of real people wearing their products on their website. This builds trust and makes their customers feel like part of a community.
