How Better Web Design Translates to Sales

I came across an interesting, though ancient, article the other day on The Psychology of Web Performance. Written in May of 2008 (so old!) and pulling from research that cites a time before ubiquitous broadband, the statistics it lists on what online shoppers will and won’t tolerate are astounding and makes a great case for the necessity of high-performance, well-designed website.

You have an average of 4 seconds for your website to load before a user/potential customer sees your company as low quality, intolerable, and unreliable. And a website that has low or no credibility is not one that people type their credit card into.

Both Google and Amazon report a correlation of lower sales with every millisecond that their site loads slower. On the upside, faster websites keep visitors clicking, buying, and “are actually perceived to be more interesting.”

This isn’t exactly news for those in the web design and development industry, many of whom hold Steve Krug’s 2005 book, “Don’t Make Me Think” as the gospel of web design philosophy. The evidence from The Psychology of Web Performance only supports the notion that a site that functions well is also a site that communicates and sells well.

We’ve all visited sites that are slow to load, impossible to navigate, and confusing to read. If you’re anything like me (and the above research shows you are), you quickly close that site and go back to searching for a prettier, easier option.

How a website is designed, what content it hosts, and what kind of hosting you choose are the determining factors for how quickly your website loads, how easy it is to navigate, and how professional it looks. Investing heavily in a beautiful website design and then scrimping on the monthly hosting plan is self-defeating. As is carelessly posting high resolution images that take too long to load.

As with all things in the business world many higher expenses beget more higher expenses. Exceptional quality is not cheap, however it is distinguishable, even among the laymen. Because the internet and interactive design is so prevalent, you can expect your customers to have a more refined palette for websites. Luckily, you can also expect them to reward you for your investment in the time, planning, design, development, and efficient hosting by being paying and loyal customers. You’re ROI is in the I.

Image by Scott Upton.