Nathalie Nahai – Webs of Influence
This book was very informative and allowed me to understand some of the psychology behind web design and how I could use that in my own work, I have summed up the most impart parts below.
Sales techniques such as buying in a group can have a psychologic impact on the users choice of product, individually pricing a product at £50 and then as group at £130, the user is more 84% likely to choose the group option, since our client is selling gun holsters, this could be a clever strategy to improve sales.
People also choose the middle priced option so by raising the price of the middle option will drive profits. Showing an Low stock will drive a user to make a purchase quicker than usual because they want to get that item, so by placing a low stock quote next to the middle priced item will drive sales of that item even further.
We need to understand who our target audience and design specifically around them because it is clear that male and female have different things that they like about the design of a site.
Six principles of sales suggest:
Giving something away to customer to improve experience
Consistency throughout the site
Herd psychology means we are more likely to trust someone if lots of other people do (You are the 58th member from Texas, Take a shot at your sign and make your mark)
Trust people with similarities – Taylor homepage with welcome using local ‘lingo’
We are rewarded for complying with authority, therefore by implying people with power use the services, it will look more professional and have an expert appeal
But buy on impulse if the item is in short supply, like mentioned earlier show low stock on certain items.
Things that stop us buying are:
Lack of customer service and salesperson, therefore have an assistant available for chat at all time on every page, just like in a shop if you need assistance all you need to do is look around and you get help, breaking down the barriers would improve the service and generate more sales.
Lack of security, so therefore state that the site hits a certain security level to make the user feel more comfortable even browsing the site.
Things that aid us buying are:
Customer reviews, therefore these should be important within the hierarchy
Earned media, therefore good ratings from larger media companies
Cameron Chapman – Colour for Web Design
Contrasting makes content stand out a lot as can be seen here with the orange on black combination.
Mixing different tones of the same colour can make for some interesting imagery. Below are a few ‘neutral’ colours that make it more about the content.
A lot of the stuff covered in this book I have already done and can be seen in this blog post;
Black and white work with every other colour in spectrum therefore would be useful colours to consider.
References;
Click to access Web-Psychology-your-roadmap-to-online-success.pdf
http://www.smashingmagazine.com/2010/01/28/color-theory-for-designers-part-1-the-meaning-of-color/
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