Part 1 - on website design

 A good website design changes the brain

Our perceptions of everything are deeply connected with how we view them, from the looks and persona of the acquaintance we first meet, to the packaging on the loaf of bread we buy at the grocery store. Hopefully we don't have a bad habit of solely judging based on appearance. But, to a large extent, it is literally the case that appearance directly resembles what's on the inside. Here are a few examples of how this crazy connection plays out:

Tillamook Cheese!

We usually don't even think about these things. We go to the grocery store and buy the bright yellow cheese with pretty packaging because we assume it's going to be fresh and tasty cheddar cheese. What we didn't know was that we probably would not have bought the cheese if they didn't put the yellow food coloring in it and do a ton of research designing their awesome cheese wrapper.

I buy Tillamook Cheese because (1) it looks like cheese, (2) their wrapper makes them look like a company who knows what they're doing (making good cheese), and (3) after I eat it I tell myself how good it tastes and go buy Tillamook cheese next time I go to the store.

The point in all this is to say that people subconsciously judge things based on appearance and make choices on a daily basis based on how they perceive things. We find a website and may stay solely based on the design. It may not be the case every time or with everyone, but is a huge contributing factor. It's usually the first thing we notice when we visit a website, something which often immediately attracts us or turns us aways.
 


* Both of these examples are from Blink.
blog comments powered by Disqus