For every dollar you invest in UX, you can expect $100 in return – an ROI of 9,900%!
But to attract, engage and convert visitors, you must first build a trustworthy web and app design.
In this article, we bring you six expert insights from top-class agencies on what constitutes a website or an app design that converts and, ultimately, grows your business.
Table of Contents
- Follow the Rule of Simplicity and Create Navigation That Flows
- Build a Clear Conversion Path and Value Propositions
- Intrigue Your Website Visitors With an Impeccable Hero Section
- Look From the Users’ Perspective and Focus on What Matters to Them
- Collect Data for Ultra-Personalized App Experience
- Automate and Speed Up App’s Routine Procedures
Follow the Rule of Simplicity and Create Navigation That Flows
According to Ivonne Lim, Digital Marketing Executive at Kode Digital Experts Services, an eye-catching website is the difference between a new conversion and a lost prospect.
The website design agency representative points out that, in order to scale businesses that convert, it’s important to create “captivating informational designs that create interest and curiosity in visitors to explore what the brand is all about.”
Lim suggests these five tips and strategies for creating eye-catching website designs:
- The Flow of Navigation
- The Rule of Simplicity
- The Wisdom of Visual Hierarchy
- Engaging and Meaningful Content
- The Purpose of a Call To Action
“The flow of navigation is the combination of content, design and ultimately leads to customer sales,” remarks Lim. “Make your navigation easy to understand and visitors will be able to find your products, content, and services. This can be adding a menu at the top or side of the page, linking your logo to your homepage, or even having a footer with links to important information.”
She adds that, while it may be tempting to add long texts, moving images and special effects, it’s important to keep things simple and stay clear of clutter.
The third tip has to do with the importance of visual hierarchy. Lim asserts that a good visual hierarchy is cohesive, with clear visual aids for visitors to skim through what they are looking for without confusion and knowing the importance of every piece of information.
“Add the right font size for headings and body copy, then adjust colors and contrasts and the controversial design element of balanced white spaces,” says Lim.
The last two best practices for creating a website that converts sales are to create persuasive messaging that generates interest and make bold call-to-actions that grab attention.
Build a Clear Conversion Path and Value Propositions
According to Jamal El Khaiat, CEO at digital marketing and SEO agency YoomWeb, having a beautifully designed website is mandatory, but not sufficient.
In his mind, a good conversion-optimized website should have a clean design that is “easy to navigate and creates a clear conversion path that visitors can follow to ultimately convert.”
El Khaiat lists these common traits of websites that have high conversion rates:
- Attractive web design
- Clear concept and value proposition
- Conversion-oriented copywriting and content
- Perceptible calls-to-action
- Quality UX and inclusive design
“Your website is the first impression your audience gets of your business,” says El Khaiat. “It should have a professional look that exudes confidence and security. Websites that convert take advantage of their web design to attract people and get them to continue browsing through their content.”
For websites that convert, a good web design goes beyond aesthetics which means:
- Fast page loads
- Mobile-friendly design
- Intuitive navigation
- Attractive layout
Regarding clear value propositions, the website should tell a visitor what the company’s business is about and what makes their products and services unique.
“The more your visitors know up-front what your business does, the more they will feel like they can make informed and quick buying decisions,” remarks El Khaiat, and adds:
“Websites that convert also identify what sets their business, product or service apart from their competitors. The visitor must quickly know what your company can do better than others to meet their needs or solve their problems.”
An effective sales funnel also requires quality content writing. El Khaiat defines conversion-oriented copywriting as a type of persuasive writing that aims to get a visitor to take a specific action, like buying a product, making a phone call, filling out an online form, subscribing to a mailing list, etc. Anything that a business defines as a conversion.
“In trying to persuade the reader to convert, the writer's goal is to write simple, clear and persuasive content that educates the reader on a product, service or brand proposition and then, above all, explains the benefit it brings to their lives,” says El Khaiat.
Visitors convert better when they know what you want them to do. In this regard, a bold, clearly indicated call-to-action (CTA) is invaluable on any website that aims to convert. YoomWeb’s CEO says that the best converting websites display their CTA buttons right from the start and provide visitors with plenty of conversion opportunities.
“CTA buttons help guide users to the next step, whether that step is to visit an information page, a pricing page or a page to sign up for a newsletter or make a purchase.”
Finally, a user experience on a page is becoming a massive consideration for Google when ranking websites. User experience criteria, such as page load speeds and mobile-friendliness, are essential. However, in 2022 and beyond, you should also consider inclusive design to meet the needs of all groups of website users.
“In 2022 and beyond, companies need to care about diversity, equity and inclusion. This needs to be reflected in design, media and content to accommodate a larger and ever-expanding audience,” concludes El Khaiat.
Intrigue Your Website Visitors With an Impeccable Hero Section
For Igor Maric, Creative Executive Director at Studio 081, the hero section of the website – also called above the fold – is the first thing your visitors see and, therefore, the most vital.
“Your hero section has a couple of seconds to make an impression, but also explain what you do in a few words and intrigue a visitor to keep scrolling,” explains Maric and elaborates:
“One of the thumbs-up rules is to keep it clean, fun and engaging. Other than that, it’s important to remember to follow some of the standard practices for web2.0 websites such as clear layout where every element is distinct - the logo, the menu (collapsed or expanded), main hook, key visual, short info and a CTA - call to action.”
The point of this exercise is to tell your visitors what they should do on your website. Catchy text with a lot of visuals, alternating layouts and information organized in bite-size pieces followed by a CTA go a long way in doing just that.
Designing elements on the page means designing a user journey from point A to point B. This is an especially important consideration when designing websites for mobile devices. They have to be responsive as much as their development is, argues Maric.
“Use new generation of image formats such as .webp, re-crop all images to fit the screen, make sure you use one column for blocks of texts and images most of the times.”
Maric concludes by saying that your website is to you, as a business, the most important tool for getting your message out there. It is therefore vital that it is optimized for your preferred target audience in these ways:
- Set the mood for the imagery by working with an art director
- Use distinct typefaces for on-point branding
- Utilize just enough text and images to explain what you do best
- Guide your visitors to book a call (or towards any other conversion point)
- Simplify whenever possible
- Use analytics to track the behavior of your audience and identify problematic areas of your website
Look From the Users’ Perspective and Focus on What Matters to Them
Karthik Narayan, Co-founder and the Development Consultant at Grapdes, maintains that the best way to scale your business with a website design that converts is to provide clarity and accessibility.
In his opinion, you need this three-point plan to do it:
- Focus on what matters and scale things accordingly
- Keep it simple
- Look at things from a user’s perspective
"When it comes to website design, user interaction is the most important thing to keep in mind,” declares Narayan.
“It is your job to control how a user interacts with and understands what you are trying to convey through the website. This is achieved primarily by focusing on what really matters by using scaling as a factor with texts and assets. Using a header text to convey the important information and placing them in a prominent location helps us control what the user focuses on while going through your website.”
Next, you want to bear in mind that a simple visualization beats a cluster of information. On a website, it is important to showcase the info succinctly without making a trade-off with creativity. Information visualization helps a user better understand and interact with given information.
Then, you always need to cater to your most common demographic. Narayan asserts that most demographics are based on age when it comes to industry-specific targeting, implying that you need to make sure your web design caters to this audience segment but without ignoring others.
“At the end of the day, your site has to establish its primary purpose. Focusing on what you’re trying to convey clearly and ensuring that it is perceived exactly the way you want it to be is something that is in your control completely, so keep it simple, focus and be accessible,” concludes Narayan.
Collect Data for Ultra-Personalized App Experience
Eugene Solovyov, CTO at Gera-IT, claims that app users today want everything at their fingertips, interactive and automated, and that different apps for different verticals need a corresponding development approach.
According to him, these are the defining trends that will impact how apps are developed for business growth:
- Collecting user data and using it for UX personalization
- No-code apps are gaining traction
- Simplified and gamified experiences to become a norm
- Development culture and skills will always be vital
When Solovyov talks about using collected data to personalize user experience, he means personalizing everything – from users’ habits and purchases to responding to their mood and health.
“Almost every app development should include data collection to build meaningful datasets, data scientists to build personalization models and AI/ML developers to implement it in your app. If you build it right - it is + 1 [on] your business value.”
No-code solutions are a recent trend in developing smart applications that allow integration with each other via API. Potentially, they can save your business time and money on building simple solutions – but it’s important to remember the limitations that no-code apps have and to plan for “standard” development at a later stage.
Solovyov asserts that users are increasingly more inclined towards the simplest UI solutions – watching videos beats reading content and short videos win over long and information-heavy ones.
“Be ready to think differently while building your products. Even if you see no alternative to long-form, try to take another look at it and convert to the dialog, add gaming experience and a little be of fun.”
Finally, AI-based GitHub Copilot – albeit in closed beta version – is already in writing code mode and will be a Stack Overflow replacement for non-senior developers, says Solovyov but also cautions developers:
“Even with such great tools available, pay your attention to the development culture and professional skills of your developers. The ability to solve real complex problems will help you build more mature solutions.”
Automate and Speed Up App’s Routine Procedures
Maurizio Terzo, Creative Director at bitgears, says that customers increasingly realize that without proper technological support, business results can be modest at best.
According to him, the most successful customized app solutions depend on three fundamental steps:
- Analysis of the work in progress: To identify customer needs and prevail over weak spots.
- Benchmarking: To understand how you’re positioned in your market, how your competitors work, what to do and what not to do.
- Development of a tailor-made project: To create specific functions suitable for any user.
He maintains that a lot of daily app development activities are a burden for a company and particularly managers that “can’t keep focus on economically relevant aspects.”
“The development of a tailor-made app, functional to your own production and commercial purposes, allows you to automate and speed up a series of routine procedures, which do not have a direct return on profits,” says Terzo.
To illustrate this automation and acceleration of procedures, he lists these examples:
- Separate the communication and operational flow of customers from that of suppliers, speeding up everyone's processes
- Allow suppliers to quickly access the departments they work with to free the staff from the management of standard operations.
- Instill an efficient system that includes booking, reminder and cancellation of appointments for zero chances of missed appointments.
- Provide external collaborators with tools that can guarantee the timely performance of their professional service, integrated with the internal company systems.
- Integrate small or relevant gamification solutions into the work process, allowing those who carry out the most routine operations to introduce engaging elements that contribute to a higher level of attention and more evident gratifications in achieving the tasks
“In our agency’s experience, the development of an app is a value for the company. Not only for the contribution that the app itself can guarantee to the business, but also, for the support that a team of professionals is able to give in areas that may not have yet been considered profitable by the customer.”
Key Takeaways
As any expert will agree, the symbiotic relationship between aesthetics and functionality plays a pivotal role in driving user engagement and conversions. The discussed tips underscore the dynamic nature of user preferences and technological advancements, pushing designers and developers to continually innovate and adapt.
As we move forward, the interplay between human-centric design and technological advancements will continue to redefine digital experiences. By embracing these expert tips and adapting them judiciously, businesses and designers can create immersive, intuitive, and persuasive web and app experiences that not only attract but also convert users, ushering in a new era of digital success.
Website and App Design That Converts FAQs
What is the difference between web design and app design?
While both web design and app design deal with user interfaces, web design targets browsers on a range of devices, while app design is specifically aimed at mobile applications on smartphones and tablets.
Can a web designer design an app?
Most likely, yes. The core design skills are transferable, but web designers looking to design apps should be prepared to learn and apply the principles of mobile app design to create effective and user-friendly interfaces.
Which is better web designing or app development?
The choice between web designing and app development depends on your goals and the target audience. Web designing focuses on creating websites accessible through browsers on various devices, while app development centers around creating applications for specific platforms like mobile devices. Consider factors like user experience, functionality requirements, and the preferences of your audience to determine which option is better suited for your project.
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