The Power of Beauty: Making Users More Forgiving of Websites

Did you ever notice how your car seems to perform better after a wash and polish? Or perhaps a sub-par dinner tastes better if the service and presentation is top notch? It seems that when something is presented in an attractive manner humans tend to believe it performs, looks and tastes better.

In fact, Donald A. Norman, professor of computer science and psychology at Northwestern University, discusses these observations in detail in his follow-up book to The Design of Everything Days, titled Emotional Design: Why We Love (Or Hate) Everyday Things.

As an example, Norman points out a study done in the 1990s that had people use identical ATM machines, all of which where programmed to function exactly the same. The only difference between them were the design and arrangement of the buttons on the ATM’s. The study found that people reported the attractive layouts as being perceived easier to use even if the task results were exactly the same. It turns out that attractive things are perceived to work better, even if an objective, measurable reality counters that statement.

“You Stupid Computer!”

Humans tend to ascribe human features to things around us -- called anthropomorphizing. This tendency to anthropomorphize objects is very evident in everyday technology. When a computer doesn’t work as expected and frustrates the user, the typical response is an exasperated exclamation of “You stupid machine!” or demanding request of “Why won’t you work?” We don’t truly expect a response from the machines, but our vocalized reactions provide insight into how we interact with them.

What’s interesting is when you combine our innate affinity for attractive things and our tendency to anthropomorphize objects. The end result – we can actually influence a person’s perceptions of an object by simply by making the experience look and feel more pleasurable!

Poorly functioning websites are all too common

The principles for pleasurable interactions between people and products are similar to how we interact with websites. Just as a pleasurable experience will lead to the desire for future interactions, a pleasurable online experience is likely to lead to repeated visits, an online purchase, or even kickoff a viral marketing campaign of link exchanges or recommendations with a friend or colleague. Unfortunately, the concept also applies to negative interactions. Unsatisfactory experiences are likely to lead to visitor frustration, incomplete orders, or worse, the visitor leaving with a detrimental story to tell others.

Technology and the web particularly have the reputation of continually failing to create a pleasurable experience. Marketing messages and sales reps nonchalantly employ the terms “easy-to-use” and “intuitive” to explain their website but how many times have you actually heard a friend or colleague refer to a website as such? The typical report is that the site was tolerable at best.

Often, there is a sense of surprising glee following a successful online process or transaction. Web user’s expectations are so low regarding a website that any successfully functioning site is reason enough for celebration. However, there is a way to improve a user’s interaction with your website: attractive design.

The Three Golden Rules of Attractive Design

Web designers have the daunting, yet exciting, task of picking up the pieces where technology has failed. Creating a positive online experience is not a lost cause as long as designers abide by the Three Rules of Attractive Design.

• User-centric Design: A designer is only truly successful when a user doesn’t even realize they are completing a process online. Who cares if they remember the site was red or blue, or had two or three pixels? Instead, designers must always aim to employ strategies that allow for the creation of designs that answer the needs of the user audience quickly and effectively upon site arrival. This means understanding the user’s unique needs and desires.
• Usability: A designer should always strive to employ common usability conventions and best practices shared across the web to increase site comprehension. Perhaps the worst design faux-pas is the underlining, or lack thereof, of text links. If your site visitors are expecting to be able to click on under-lined words for the majority of other websites, why would you add underlines to random unlinked words, or worse, take them out of your design all together? If there are conventions shared across the popular website that work, don’t fight them or reinvent the wheel. Instead, save your creative passion to play within those standards.
• Basic Design Techniques: There is a method to the madness of design and this is basic design techniques. Successful designers understand that they can create an attractive design through the manipulation of contrast/color, balance, consistency, and white space. Sitepoint columnist Gerry Gaffney wrote an excellent article on Why Consistency is Critical and should not be passed up. Designers should also pick up a copy of Design Basics Index

It is vital that your design adheres to the Three Rules of Attractive Design. Despite the best intentions of the thrifty business owner or ambitious designers, too many times the very means by which a designer can improve the attractive quality of a site design is compromised due to budget constraints or the artistic desires of the designer. How can one create a design without first understanding the audience that will be using the site daily? How can one create a design that is sometimes completely opposite to a user’s expectations? It’s imperative that the design be centered on the user’s needs, follow standard online conventions, and employ proper design techniques.

A Marriage in bliss: Form and Function

The importance of attractive website design is increasingly important. As applications move from the desktop to the online arena and become more ubiquitous to our daily activities such as shopping, chatting with friends, or even checking our bank account balance, the opportunities for these site users to encounter a bug or error increases as well. Despite even the best intentioned developer or even well-tested website, bugs can and will slip through. In these cases, the difference between an abandoned shopping cart and a fulfilled order may be as simple as an attractive website.

What's more, if a website functions smoothly and evokes a favorable response from the user, having an attractive design will only enhance the positive experience. The user will attribute pleasure to the site and perhaps even praise and recommend it to other friends.

So the next time someone tries to cut corners on your design process or, even worse, your budget, you might give them the following advice: attractive things will work better and lead to customer satisfaction. And anyone can appreciate a satisfied customer.