One of the Biggest Challenges in Digital Design
By: Camille Gonzalez
Tags: Design, Cognitive Science, New York, User Experience Design, Customer Experience

One of the biggest challenges in digital designing is figuring out what converts your target market into users and buyers and why. Many companies spend an inordinate amount of money on targeted ads that bring users to your website, landing page to capture the lead, and sales funnel to nurture that lead, only to find that their conversion is dismal.

One of the main reasons prospects in your target market may not convert is that they simply don’t understand your product or the value it would bring. The ease with which people process and understand something is called Cognitive Fluency.

A study from the University of Basel found that users process and understand websites with low visual complexity and a high Prototypicality. Prototypicality refers to how standard and predictable page layout a page layout is.

In other words, sites that didn’t have distracting images (low visual complexity) and followed a very common, predictable prototype of what they think a website looks like (high Prototypicality), are more easily understood by users. When your site matches the user’s schema of what they expect your website to look like, they are more likely to focus on and process your value proposition. Users form these schemas (i.e., way of seeing things) from seeing similar products or services in an industry.

In this example of an ad agency’s website, there are a lot of visuals (visual complexity) and it is unclear what actions I could or should take. I am unclear as to where to look to find the necessary information I’m seeking or understand what makes Libertine unique compared to other agencies. The result is mental overload or confusion and the visitor will most likely abandon the page. A shame, given that you’ve spent a great deal of money getting them to your website.

Now let’s take a look at a page with low Visual Complexity and high Prototypicality. Here we have Chargify, an online billing platform. You’ll notice immediately the following:

There is only one visual component that can easily be recognized as a graph where green arrow up is good, and red arrow down is bad.

The colors used fits our ‘stoplight’ schema of when to ‘go’ and when to ‘don’t go’.

The title (“Billing Built for B2B SaaS Companies) tells you exactly who the target client is for this product. If you’re a B2B SaaS company, you’ve come to the right website.

The value proposition ( “Specialized billing and data…”) is immediately visible below the title.

And, the Navigation bar has the main Call to Action (Talk to Sales) button which follows a predictable layout (e.g., top and upper right) that I’m sure you’ve seen many times.

Because this website follows a prototypical website we’ve visited in the past, you don’t have to hunt for information which means you can more easily focus on what Chargify actually offers with less mental effort. Familiarity increases Cognitive Fluency which requires less mental effort to consume the content and value proposition!

Applying this to your product website can be as easy as researching the layouts and styles of webpages in your industry. As you do your research, ask yourself these questions:

Where in the layout is the initial value proposition? What are common questions that are answered within moments of the user visiting the page? What visuals will enhance your user’s understanding of your product without distracting?

Making a few key changes can work with your target market’s habits, beliefs, and behavior patterns and can be the nudge you need to convert more of your email marketing list into real users.

Remember, low Visual Complexity + high Prototypicality = increased cognitive fluency which in turn increases visitor engagement and leads to a higher conversion rate.