Good design establishes one of the key cornerstones of your brand. If you are second-guessing the importance of design in your digital presence — DON’T! Here are 8 reasons to prove that.
- Design Sells and there is data to back this up
A study conducted by The Design Council in 2005 declared findings from over 60 companies that traded on FTSE (Financial Times Stock Exchange). In this study, the group surveyed 63 company portfolios over the course of a decade. They found that brands that laid emphasis on their design significantly outperformed those that didn’t. In the FTSE 100 index, these 63 companies stood out by 200%.
If we translate these findings into layman’s terms, every £100 a design-driven brand spent on its design resources experienced a turnover increase of £225. So basically, investing in design is more or less investing in future profits. The capital may be a bit higher, but later down the road, it would all be worth it.
2. Better the design, the greater the trust
Good design equals more consumer trust. It’s simple math. You may have the best products and the most competitive features, but if the customer doesn’t trust your website, then it’s all for nothing. Poorly designed interface claims countless potential customers that actually mean bringing business to you. Take this through the example of a shop’s façade. If the customer doesn’t find the front appealing, they may never bother to enter and explore the products.
Sadly, there is no other element that you can use to fill this deficit. No matter how well your website is optimized, no matter how captivating the content is, 94% of users will reject your website if your design fails to get their attention first.
3. Good Design Makes Your Brand Memorable
Being memorable is a winning quality. While good products and robust customer service certainly help, it’s the design that makes your brand memorable.
Consistent design and a balanced theme across your platform enable your brand to give a unique look and feel. This forms the very core of your brand identity. When you use appropriate color schemes, seamless navigation, and conceptual layout, your website makes a strong impact on the customer user journey. These elements play a central role in keeping your brand recognizable, fresh to the mind, and tempting for repeat visits.
Tech giants such as Apple for example use minimalism to reduce unnecessary clutter, make super-specific content, and add enticing visual elements to generate memorable interactions.
4. Design only works when users find it friendly
One of the key objectives of a good graphic design is to make complex information simple and digestible for your target audience. Sadly, 45% of companies don’t do any type of user experience testing, which eventually leads to poor brand interactions.
The goal is to make your brand welcoming and attractive at the same time. This is where you must dedicate the majority of your work by using A/B testing to identify the type of elements that appeal to your target audience the most. Once you know have the data, you can incorporate it into your design. But mistakes are bound to happen, and you must learn from them to make improvements.
The best way to go about is by conducting usability tests. According to a study revealed by Truelist, performing simple usability tests can detect 85% of UX-related issues.
5. Time and first impressions are irretrievable
Consumers go across hundreds upon thousands of websites and applications, all competing to get a piece of the pie. The reason many of these brands fail to retain customers is that they fail in mustering a good first impression. Website visitors form an opinion within seconds of accessing a website. And if your design doesn’t make sense within that window, their interest will eventually wane.
According to the latest study on design analytics, visual appeal can be assessed within 50 milliseconds. Here, your ‘Above the Fold’ section plays a central part.
Your visual or graphical content placement and layout are imperative because you need to focus on what appears first, therefore gets interacted with first. If any of your elements carry your brand’s unique value proposition, then those should be offered above the fold. Whether they are catchy headlines, vivid imagery, or some exciting offers, you need to be the first thing the customer sees.
6. Your social media success depends on the design
Good design establishes one of the key verticals for your social media success. Whether you have a presence on Facebook, Instagram, Twitter, Pinterest, or Tumbler, without a stellar brand design you cannot connect to customers, market your product, and build your name. In this era of pixel-perfect aesthetics, you won’t get far without integrating strong design psychology into your social media strategy.
Buffer, one of the leading social media tool companies, conducted a survey targeted at the effects of design and graphics on social media engagement. The results from Twitter alone revealed that tweets posted with images received 150% more retweets compared to those without any media. A closer look at these statistics also showed that companies who followed this practice used stable and conforming themes with their images.
But users aren’t the only ones who agree on this point. Another research conducted in 2017 showed that 60.8% of marketers claimed design is essential to their social media marketing efforts. Astoundingly, 93% claimed that it formed a key determinant in their strategies. Without design, social media boils down to plain textual information, which realistically, is incapable of attracting customers.
7. Visual appeal prompts action
Just as we mentioned earlier, design influences customers to take action. It works as a central component in your sales funnel, inviting potential customers to explore your products and make a buying decision.
But that is only if your design has the necessary elements in the right place. Taking Calls to Action (CTAs) for example, everything from the right color psychology and textual content, down to its positioning and speed plays a crucial part. This is where you prompt action from your audience and convert your clicks into sales.
As a designer, you must keep in mind that without an organized sequence and structure of elements, you cannot expect customers to follow through. There is a whole strategic rationale behind it, which I will explain further in my next blog.
8. Consistency makes everything fall into perspective
What happens when there is inconsistency in your brand design? An inconsistent theme risks your logo being used erroneously, your color preferences becoming loosely adapted to content, and you breaking seam and flow in your marketing activities. Inconsistency leads new visitors to doubt your authenticity, while others who landed completely forget you ever existed.
Taking color combinations, for example, you must practice great caution when reinventing templates. While a little bit of color inclusion may seem harmless in your brand design, in the long haul, these little irregularities can snowball into costly catastrophes.
Personally, I have helped several brands excel through consistent and robust branding. And when I help them design products, there is creative liberty which I practice with care and caution. You will come across many examples on my website where I have taken applied the same methodology to mitigate these risks and keep the design seamless.
Design consistency ensures that your website looks coherent and works harmoniously across all its different elements. Having the same functions, styling, symbols, animations, etc. throughout your website will help usability and learnability.
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