Make Your Website Look Authentic Visually

• What background color should you choose?
• Can website colors affect what your customers see?

Researchers have found that light yellow and white colors can enhance readers’ cognition when they are used as a background color. As the background color, red, blue, and green impair readers’ cognition.

When designing your website, you may think white text on a blue or green background looks cool. But in reality, that color combination may prevent you from getting your marketing message across. The most popular websites, like Google, Amazon and Facebook, all have black text on white background.

Web users have become more and more sophisticated. They immediately recognize the look of stock photos.

Researchers have found that test subjects spot the difference unconsciously. Subjects believed that photos of real customers, employees and finished products were more authentic and believable. Authenticity is an important factor in establishing trust in your customers’ minds.

Don’t ditch those boring fonts. People are already positively conditioned to reading them. They are much easier to read than beautiful, cool, complex fonts. The harder it is to read your website, the faster your visitors leave for your competitors.

Optimize Your Neuro Web Design Visually

Neuroscience research shows that almost 50% of brain activity occurs in the brain’s visual processing centers. That’s why the effective use of photos, images, videos, charts and bullet lists is an important part of user experience optimization. Graphics alone can’t convince shoppers to buy. Only when they are used to evoke emotions and feelings, can they play a role in increasing conversion rates. All too often on business websites, large stock photos waste valuable screen space, while serving no useful purposes. Smart use of graphics, however, has been shown to catch visitors’ attention and lead them to act.

The brain’s attention is instantly drawn to photos, especially those that have human faces. However, if they don’t immediately show relevance to what a potential customer expects to find, they can also be the only thing seen before a quick exit. Large, generic images at the top of a web page often send the wrong message. They also negatively affect user experience because they slow down the website.

• Use Images That Introduce Relevance – Feature a product in use. Show your staff helping a customer. Illustrate your services in action. Identify with your visitor’s search intent.
• Feature Real People Who Look Like Your Target Customers – Neuroscience research shows that people instantly recognize and ignore stock images using models. Real photos of real customers enhance the authenticity of your website.
• Pay Attention to People’s Expressions in Images – The human brain instantly recognizes emotions in people’s faces. Happy faces evoke positive emotions unconsciously in viewers. Optimizing your website design with subtle visual cues can lead to strong positive responses.
• Product Images Must Sell Desirability – On point of sale web pages, multiple images let you show products from different viewpoints. Use manufacturer’s professional photos if possible.
• Use Images to Trigger Action – Visitors unconsciously take cues from images. If the person in a photo is looking in a direction, your visitor will look too. Use this knowledge to guide visitors’ attention.

Optimize Videos for Neuro Web Design

The popularity of YouTube and constant exposure to TV advertising have conditioned people to pay attention to and view video presentations. On your website, videos that you present will be actively viewed by many visitors. Take advantage of this by using relevant, high-quality videos. They work with your web content to inform, inspire confidence and influence conversion decisions. Consumer neuroscience research suggests ways to optimize them for a better user experience.

• Auto-Playing Videos Have a Negative Impact – A loud, blaring video that plays automatically will drive most visitors off your website. Always let visitors choose when to view videos.
• Don’t Test Viewers’ Patience – Short, well-edited videos tell your story best. A two to three-minute duration will keep people watching right to the end.
• Action Engages the Brain Fully – Show products in use. Show a staff member installing a product. Show customers enjoying their experience. Avoid boring self-promotion.
• Create Social Proof with Testimonials – A real customer in a testimonial video describing their satisfaction inspires confidence in a viewer’s mind.
• Video Quality Matters – Consumer expectations are high for video viewing. Every video on your website should tell your story clearly. Wherever possible, use professional productions.

Use Subtle Visual Cues for Web Optimization

The overall look and feel of your website is an important visual web design element. From logos, colors and font choices to text layout and illustrations, every optimization effort should be guided by Neuromarketing principles. The design should take eye-tracking studies into consideration and lead visitors along the path you want them to follow. Retention and conversion are the ultimate goals. Visual web design is an art, and an optimized user experience is what makes the website useful.

• Text Fonts Are for Reading – If visitors notice the fonts you use, you made the wrong choice. Choose fonts for readability, not artistic novelty. Make them large enough for effortless reading.
• Emphasize Text to Draw the Eye – Many visitors scan text content quickly. Use bold, italic letters in headings and key points to grab their attention and slow them down.
• Use Illustrations to Increase Understanding – Charts, graphic images and other features should always be relevant to your marketing content. Clarity and impact are top priorities.
• Break up Text with Graphical Elements – Use boxed text, bullet lists, and other formatting to draw guests’ eyes down the page and feature important points. Avoid gray walls of words.
• Use Directional Graphics to Trigger Action – When used sparingly and strategically, lines and arrows provide neuro cues that direct people to action links and encourage scrolling.

Integrating Web Optimization and Graphic Design

Effective visual web design optimization aims at increasing sales and lead generation. Neuromarketing turns graphic designs into highly functional conversion tools. Through careful attention to how the human brain processes information and makes decisions, neuro web design can create better visual cues to guide your potential customers to explore, shop and buy. Your website should increase your revenues and outcompete your competitors. You need to do more than showing your potential customers a pretty model’s face. Activating their brains’ decision-making processes requires intelligent use of photos, images and videos.