Most people instinctively know that a ‘busy’ or ‘fussy’ website is no good, and that a ‘clean’ or ‘simple’ design is better.

One of the scientific reasons behind this intuition is that visually complex images take more brainpower to process than visually simple ones, which directly translates in them taking more effort.

Nature always leans towards the conservation of energy, so brains sub-consciously ‘dislike’ having to expend more effort.

When your eye and brain process an image, they analyse a variety of things, including colour, light levels, shape, size and distance. The more variables there are in each of these aspects the more brainpower will be required.

The problem with using all this brainpower to process the ‘image’ that is the landing page of your website, is that you would really prefer your users to be thinking about your products, services and unique selling points (USPs).

If their brain is distracted making sense of three different columns, each with multi-coloured adverts, several fonts in lots of colours and a plethora of pictures, they’re not going to have any energy left to think about whether they want to buy something from you or not.

If you want to learn about good web design and bad web design, then have a look at our resource bank.

Keep it simple, stupid!

Successful people have long known that the simple solution is almost always the best one, but unfortunately when it comes to practice, too many designers and clients think that having lots of varying stuff on their website will somehow meet the needs of everyone – rather than nobody.

Good designers instinctively know that simple, familiar designs will perform better, and one of the scientific theories that backs up this intuition is cognitive fluency.

So, what is cognitive fluency and why does it matter for my website?

Cognitive fluency refers to the experience of how easy or difficult it is to think about something. As a general rule, humans prefer things that are easy to think about and shy away from things that are hard to think about.

This principle influences pretty much every aspect of human behaviour - and decision making when it comes to buying goods and services online is no exception.

So, if a user reaches a website for the first time, but the navigation looks similar to the vast majority of other websites they been to, then it will feel familiar and ‘right’ and they will feel at home and know how to proceed.

On the other hand, if they arrive and the navigation is in a completely unexpected place, or requires them to figure out some kind of krypton factoresque puzzle in order to find their way around the site, they are more likely to think the site is ‘wrong’ or at the very least it leave them with a vague, sub-conscious uncomfortable feeling.

The Mere Exposure Effect

Cognitive fluency is closely linked with The Mere Exposure Effect, which basically states that the more you are exposed to something, the more you prefer it. This can easily be seen when popular brands change their imagery, and all the customers moan and groan that it’s not as good anymore, even in the product inside is identical.

If you’re smart, you can take advantage of this exposure effect with your web design, by playing on the experiences people will have had in the past and ensuring your website echoes those experiences.

Of course, this doesn’t mean you should just copy everyone else, or that all websites should always look exactly like they did in the 90s – far from it. But you need to use originality and innovation where it works, and in small enough chunks that it delights your users in comfort rather than baffling them.

Further reading:

Read more interesting and research backed up stuff about cognitive fluency here: http://www.uxmatters.com/mt/archives/2011/07/how-cognitive-fluency-affects-decision-making.php

We’ve always believed that simple website are better, but now there is a host of evidence to back –up the intuition. Over this and the next few posts, we’re going to explore: mental prototypes, cognitive fluency, visual processing and working memory – and how all those things affect your web design.

So, what are mental prototypes when they’re at home?

A prototype is a basic mental image your mind holds to represent a particular type of thing.

For example, most people when asked to visualise a bird will have an image of a robin in their brain. The more a bird differentiates from this ‘prototype’, the less ‘birdy’ we consider it to be – for example penguins and ostriches are not considered as birdy as sparrows.

The same goes for fruit (apples), furniture (chairs) and websites.

Using mental prototypes helps us make sense of the world in a practical, efficient manner, so we don’t have to fully analyse everything we come into contact with each time. Otherwise, we would constantly be paralysed with trying to process everything we saw.

The reason this is important for web designers to know is that as result of prototypes, your brain likes things it is comfortable with, and will subconsciously reject things that deviate from the norm.

So most people will have a vague visual image in mind when it comes to a website for a plumber or a trendy shoe store, built up from all of those they have seen previously, and they will ‘want’ such websites to match these visual images.

Some designers and business people think it’s a good idea to be innovative and ‘stand out from the crowd’. This is certainly true in principle, but not if it’s just for the sake of being different. Because if your website is too different from what people expect, then they will find it strange and unsettling. This is unlikely to result in sales and enquiries for you…

So if your website has users hunting around for the navigation or looks like something out of the future, they won’t be sitting there admiring your innovation and cutting edge styling, they will be wondering why the website is so ‘wrong’.

So, by all means, be original and make an impact, but make sure you know what the prototypes for your area are, and that you’re using them to your advantage.

For more analysis, we recommend this excellent article, which was the inspiration for this series of posts: http://conversionxl.com/why-simple-websites-are-scientifically-better

If you found this article helpful and want to learn about good web design and bad web design, then have a look at our resource bank.

We were delighted when Changing Pathways was recommended to us by a good friend, to set up a website for his mediation business.

Colin of Changing Pathways had a DIY website that was no longer meeting his needs, and he wanted something that would perform a bit better, and ensure he and his associates gave a strong impression online and got in front of the right clients.

Colin offers a range of mediation services, including one-on-one, group, conflict coaching and mediation training. From chatting over coffee, we concluded that many companies and individuals don’t find it easy to quantify the costs of conflict and therefore don’t realise the full negative impact that disagreements and distress are having.

Therefore, we decided to create a ‘cost of conflict calculator’, a simple online tool that HR managers and other related professionals could use to enter in the details of the conflict and get an estimated cost. This could be used simply to raise awareness of how such conflicts should not be ignored, and could also be used by managers to justify the budget required to mediate the conflict successfully.

As well as the totally unique ‘cost of conflict calculator’ the web design needed to be calm, professional and give a sense of authority and knowledge without being overbearing. We helped design the logo and company literature and used a simple colour scheme with splashes of colour and bespoke illustrations to visually demonstrate the text content on the site itself.

We also included a resource bank, which Colin can regularly add to in order to build trust and reputation though the website.

Visit the site...

We were proud to create the new website for Grow Well Gardens, a fantastic landscape gardener in Leeds.

Grow Well Gardens is run by Rob, a charming fellow who really knows his Rhododendrons from his Azaleas.

Rob had a basic Flash website that wasn’t doing anything useful – not getting any leads and not really impressing clients who went there directly.

We did a brand new web design, bringing the visuals up to date, including lots of trust-building logos that represent the company’s qualifications, experience and associations, links to social media and comprehensive details of the various services offered.

You can check out the website here: www.growwellgardens.co.uk

We realised that pictures really say it all when it comes to gardening, so the site includes a range of high quality interactive slideshows which allow visitors to browse through a wide variety of before and after pictures. This builds trust and proves the quality of work, and also offers inspiration to new customers.

The website also features ‘A Year in a Garden’ page which offers visitors advice and tips on the most important things to do in their gardens at each of the different seasons. Offering free information like this serves several useful purposes – it builds trusts with visitors, who can see that the company really does have expertise, and it helps from an SEO point of view. That’s because Google loves content, and is more inclined to highly rank a website that offers good quality relevant content than one which just lists services and prices.

We’re pleased to report that the website shot to the top of the Google rankings for a range of relevant searches, and at the time for writing for on the front page for the searches:

•  Gardeners leeds
•  Landscape gardeners leeds
• Garden services leeds

Rob employs a team of enthusiastic gardeners and invests in high quality equipment, which means the efficiency and quality of the work is second to none. They handle everything from garden clearances to regular garden maintenance to fencing, turfing, patios and driveways and basically everything garden related.

If you need a gardener in Leeds and the surrounding area, they come highly recommended!

And of course if you’d like us to work similar magic on your website, then visit our main web design website.

Here is what Rob said about working with us:

As a business owner I recognise the importance of providing a friendly and professional service to clients and therefore I have high expectations of any business professionals that I choose to trust and work with.

Grow Well Gardens website was well overdue a complete re design, after speaking with a few different web designers I choose to use Sentiva.

The whole process was made clear from the start and was explained in a way so that even I could understand. Communication was great throughout so that I felt part of the process from beginning to end.

Kat and her team came up with a fantastic design which met and exceeded my expectations which is just what I need to push Grow Well Gardens forward.

The whole experience with Sentiva was a pleasure from the beginning to end and I would have no hesitation in recommending them to my friends, family and work colleagues.

Robert Vickers, Grow Well Gardens

Crikey! That was a bit of a long break – what can we say, it’s been all go here, from joining local networking groups, expanding our software development output, promoting our beloved Novel Factory, crawling all over all the social media you can shake a stick at – not to mention streetwide power cuts, internet outages and bank holidays – all things which are somewhat disruptive to work – some more enjoyable than others.

But we’re back now, and this blog will now be updated on a regular basis, with a range of webby things, including tips on best practice web design, new trends, search engine optimisation hints and tips and maybe even a few funnies thrown in for good measure.

Watch this space!

If you’re just looking for fab web designers in Leeds, then you should visit our main website here.

Man, the web design market is saturated.

So if you’re looking to hire a web designer, it can be really difficult to figure out the genuine professionals from the amateurs. But the last thing you want to do is invest a lot of time and money and end up with something unfinished, or that you’re not happy with. Equally, you don’t want to pay over the odds, but you understand that if you pay peanuts, you’ll get monkeys.

 

Here are a few (hopefully impartial) tips on how to choose a web designer.

Get a recommendation

By far the best way to choose any service is to go with someone that someone you know and trust the judgement of recommends. If you have friends or colleagues who have had a website designed, then pick their brains. Were they happy with the service they got, and would they recommend who they used? Or did they choose based on price and live to regret it? Use their experiences to avoid repeating the same mistakes.

Get a few quotes

If you can’t get someone through a recommendation, then it’s worth getting a few quotes. This is not necessarily to find out the cheapest price (going with the cheapest option will almost always end in headaches and unexpected expenses down the line), but to get a sense of the service and quality of product they provide. Do they really listen to your needs and come up with a solution that fits? Or do they just send out a standard template email? How they deal with your enquiry is a good reflection of how they will work down the line.

Go with your gut

At the end of the day it’s about finding someone you can trust and work with long term. A website isn’t a one-off deal, it needs to keep working for years to come. So you need to choose someone who you think you’ll be happy building an ongoing relationship with. Good relationships develop into friendships and maintain high levels of trust and a feeling of security. This is well worth paying a little extra for.

If you'd like to learn how to write copy for your website homepage and how to improve your search engine optimisation, visit our site.

August is always a quiet month, so we've taken the opportunity to refresh our own website. It's had a complete (late) spring clean, with content updated, over ten new pages added, and our resource bank expanded.

To better reflect our evolving business, there are now separate sections on web design, web development, SEO, software development and web apps. Each of these sections gives information on the kinds of services we offer, as well as general information on what these things mean to modern business.

We've reinstated out Frequently Asked Questions section, with answers to all the most common answers we get asked on the phone, from how much does a website cost, to what is hosting and what is a domain name.

Our resource bank of articles now has 28 articles, covering general web and internet related topics, as well as SEO, domain names and internet and email scams.

We've also added over five case studies of our software development and web development projects over the past few years, where we've worked with everyone from British Gymnastics to Emerson Climate Technologies.

Finally, we've included lots of lovely shiny new pictures of our apps and software interfaces!

Think you can get away with a few little white lies on your website?

 

Think again.

From 1st of March 2011 the Advertising Standards Agency (ASA) will have its beady eye on all business website content - no matter how large or small.

It's normal for lumbering Government legislation to lag behind the speedy progress of technology, but now this area is no longer a free for all.

In the past business owners could pretty much say what they liked on their websites, and nobody could take any action to dispute it. But now consumers will be able to lodge a complaint with ASA if they feel a website contains indecent, misleading or false content. If the website owner fails to suitably amend the content they can be liable for fines.

If you've always been honest on your website anyway, there's nothing to worry about - and like us, you'll welcome the new tightening up.

However, for those indulging in false claims, it's time to start toeing the line.

Full details can be found here:
http://www.cap.org.uk/Media-Centre/2011/UK-ad-industry-extends-its-commitment-to-responsible-advertising.aspx

For more advice on website related matters, click here to view our web design guide.

Sentiva is a Leeds based web design company making websites, mobile apps, SEO leaps and awesome databases.