#instabuild

The first days of 1st grade are filled with wonder and excitement most of us can recall to this day. Similarly, I’ll never forget the first time I used the internet. This magical thing on my computer screen has not ceased to captivate me to this day. While the landscape of the net has changed dramatically, I find that no matter how sophisticated our technology, most of us still have many of the preferences we held those first days of our 1st grade.

  Research suggests that even educated adults prefer to read at an elementary reading level. I don’t think this is sheer laziness though! When we are not bogged down interpreting complex sentence structures and large words, we can comfortably skim content to get what we need.

We are visual creatures - take Pinterest for example. Visualizing a product or service helps us decide if what is offered is what we’re after. Considering that images are viewed twice as often as text, it makes sense that we are easily bored by websites without enough imagery. 

Calls-to-action placed strategically throughout a website guide us to engage with the business whether that be in providing information, making an appointment, or buying the product. These guides have to be thoughtful however, because not unlike our 6 year old counterparts, we don’t like to feel like we’re being bossed around.

Information security and identity theft are serious concerns for any wise website visitor. We’ve been trained to be hesitant with our information and not to give it out to anyone less than reputable. If we’re to give out our information, we need to receive something valuable in return. For example, I’m not inclined to give my email address to a marketing agency...unless they’re offering a free download of an ebook I want to read.

The average visitor remains on a website for less than 30 seconds. We need to be stimulated by the information we receive from a site or we’ll simply leave and find our services or products elsewhere. This is where it becomes so important to have a clear and appealing look and feel for a website.

It takes longer to choose 1 option out of 20 than to choose 1 out of 2. Those extra seconds spent choosing between too many options on a website are the ones right before we click the back button to the search results and try again with a different website.

    If you’re a business owner, you need a website designed to highlight your products or services that is clear enough to be understood by all. Your business website may have all the variety of the awesome 64-color crayon collection but unless your website is designed for easy viewing, we’re probably going to go for the 8-color box.