When Designing A Website, Don't Make Things More Complicated That They Should Be

With the many technologies and features for a website to use, it's fairly easy to over-complicate a web design. You may want many things to make your website more usable but for maximum user-experience, one simple and clear interface is usually all it needs.

Since you shouldn't fix something that isn't broken, you don't need to do things you don't need. Don't make things more complicated than they should be.

As an owner of a website, there is nothing worse than having a potential visitor leaving due to annoyance that you can actually control. You may have thousands of visitors a day, but if a the site's design is not appealing, you can lose that many sales to numerous factors.

Wouldn't it be nice to have a clean and clear website that it's sophistication isn't cluttering or overwhelming. With a clean and simple-designed website, people can focus more on the things they want to see, making them doing things you want them to do.

A Design With People In Mind

Design - Humans

In a research, it's concluded that it only takes a fraction of a second for visitors to judge whether a website is beautiful or not. But that doesn't mean that people don't rely on their fraction-of-a-second sense and stick with their decision. A visually complex website, although they're made with sophistication in mind, are consistently rated as less "beautiful". The reason for this is user-experience.

Often times, people design websites and aim for Google and other search engines. They want to rank well and be seen. While this is a good thing, the problem is these people often forget to design websites for people.

Not everyone in the web can think as technical as you. Since they're just visitors to your site, and probably are having their first time visiting it, they don't know they way around yet. Complex design will just repel them away.

In other words, the research has found that the simpler the design, the better.

Simple Things For Easier Process

Left-right brain

The brain is a complex matter, and how it works involve many receptors and impulses from senses for it to process. The more complex a situation is to be processed, the brain should work harder to 'decode' the real world. For first timers, this process is relatively more time consuming if compared to those that have the experience.

This is the reason why simple things are scientifically easier to process.

Complex websites may have more features, numerous color combinations, more images and media interface, more animations and others. As a first timer of the site, the brain of the visitor needs to process all the information the eyes see.

Complex websites require the brain to work harder to understand, while less complex websites don't require that much effort. This makes people conclude that despite they're more attractive, they're not beautiful.

Be What People Expect You To Be

While it's important to be unique and different, it's always important that you follow people's expectations.

Human's are visual creatures, they tend to relate certain color, name, design to something they see. For example, when you're being asked about a "boy color", you're more likely to answer "blue" rather than "pink". Or if you're asked about a "furniture", the first thing that has a higher chance to come up in your mind should involve around "chair" or "table". You can also consider "men should do all the work", or women are more tidy than men". These stereotyping on the web can be called website prototyping.

Despite stereotyping and prototyping is a visualization of your basic mental image considering something, it's heavily influenced from where you are and your culture. But they do have something in common, and that is a common sense in design.

The visualization capability of our brain has created a template for how things should look and feel. When you're visiting websites while browsing aimlessly, you may see that some websites are missing something from your mental image. Although the site has good contents and great images, your brain can conclude whether the site is consciously appealing or not.

For example, a website that is about preserving the Earth is expected to be more of a "green" to "brownish earth" color. This basic sense is people's expectation, and it's best that you give that expectation uniquely rather trying something unexpected and betting on it.

You Do The Hard Work, Not Your Visitors

In design, a web owner or web designer, know what's behind the curtain. They know how things work, and why they're there. With that many information your brain needs to feed and process, you're doing the work in which every web owner and web designer should.

On the other hand, visitors is having the exact opposite situation. They don't know how your website is designed, and they have no idea how to get around. Complex web design will just complicate the brain, and that is the least your visitors want.

Your visitors want easy things to think about. As first time visitors, they're expecting you to be easily available and easy to access with features that are easy to understand. This is called cognitive fluency.

The idea behind cognitive fluency is that the brain doesn't want difficult things to occupy its mind. This the reason why you prefer visiting websites where you know your way around, and understand everything you're supposed to do.

This fluency is what guides your way of thinking regarding a situation where you have no idea what works and what's not. If your website is complex, people won't be fluent enough to get the most out of your site.

Meeting Expectations

Expectations - Reality - Disappointment

Web design evolve according to the trend and technology. But no matter how much they change, they're still commonly the same.

As an example, an e-commerce site should have the call-to-action button so users can engage with the product and buy the thing they want. But as the trends evolve, like in the current mobile era, a mobile-friendly website is what people are expecting. To highlight your product, you need to make your design less intrusive so the products can stand out. Using white space and plain colors are the most appropriate.

Before, the more color a website has, the crisper it get, the more attractive it becomes. Sophistication was one a priority because it made you different than any others. But since people are becoming more used to colors and sophistication, what people are expecting is the content. Complex design will just eliminate the experience people are expecting.

For the e-commerce site example, a prototypical design can be described as: more open white space, mobile-friendly, high-resolution images on the frontpage, appropriate font, contrast colors and clear call-to-action feature that is easily accessible.

Conclusion

Opinion for a great web design varies from one person to another. But scientifically speaking, the brain works the same way for every person.

Information from the world are entering the brain through the body's senses. For a website, the eyes are the ones the brain is relying to get all the information it needs. While processing a web design, complex design will create a more work load for the brain to do.

Clutter and unwanted things are like "noises". While the brain needs the information to get what it wants (expects), the added noise will conceal the real information.

The brain has a short temporary memory that stores and process information in the course of a few seconds. This part of the brain allows you to focus your attention, resist distraction to the max, and guides your decision making. Simple and straight-forward information reduces the amount of noise, making information goes straight to the brain, making easier processing and understanding.

It’s what allows you to focus attention, resist distractions, and most importantly, guides your decision making.

Simple web design can involve many aspects and aren't limited to those.

Beside the differences of speed in the people's brain ability to process information, the effectiveness depends heavily on previous experience. Returning visitors may have learned a lot from your complex web design, and get to know the workaround more fluently that new visitors.

Related: Minimalism in a Website Design, Improving Your Web Design by Looking at the Aspects