Bruce Lee once said, “It’s not the daily increase, but the daily decrease. Hack away at the unessential.”
Like many Bruce Lee quotes, this quote goes beyond martial arts. It can be applied to many areas of life, including web design. These days, many websites are too complicated. Users don’t know where to go, where to click. This phenomenon is called “click uncertainty,” and it’s killing conversion rates.
If users don’t know where to click, there’s no guarantee they’ll stick around until they find out. 50% of web surfers only give a website eight seconds, and there are estimates out there even lower than that. People who are nonplussed typically end up leaving, not staying until they figure it out.
The best way to avoid click uncertainty is via excellent web design. Here’s a list of premium tips to assist you.
Offer Fewer Choices to Reduce Click Uncertainty
Choices. In everyday life, they are applauded. Yet, in business, they often don’t help you sell.
Take a look at the famous jam experiment by psychologists Sheena Iyengar and Mark Lepper. To briefly summarize, these chaps (well one chap and one lass) laid out two tables of jam. One table had 6 types of jam, and the other had 24 types of jam. The people who saw the small display were 10 times likelier to buy jam then the people who saw the big display. This is astonishing, because intuitively more flavors should equal more sales. Curiously, the larger table attracted more general interest, but far fewer buying decisions.
This groundbreaking study contains the secret to making captivating websites. Here’s the (kind of scandalous) rub: web visitors get overwhelmed when they have too many choices. As a matter of fact, too many choices can lead to dissatisfaction. The Harvard Business Review has a fascinating article on this subject. They note that lots of choices can lead to an “analysis paralysis.” Freedom of choice is usually a wonderful thing, but guide your visitors assiduously, and let them know where they should go.
Use Precise Copy to Reduce Click Uncertainty
People respond more favorably to specific CTA text. Here’s a practical example. Imagine you’re offering a free ebook download. Instead of writing, “Submit Your Info”, write “Grab Your Free Ebook.”
It’s just a simple change, but it’s an important one. Some of your visitors are afraid they will enter their info, and not immediately get their ebook. Make sure your CTA text reassures customers they are getting what they’re interested in.
Employ a Contrasting CTA Color to Reduce Click Uncertainty
The entire idea behind a CTA is to draw eyeballs. Using a CTA color that contrasts with the page is a robust option. The button screams, “click me.” That’s exactly what you want your CTA button to say.
Is there one color that’s better for conversions than others? As Optinmonster opines, “It’s pretty much impossible to prove one color is better than any other.” They also go on to mention that the best CTA color is the one that increases the visibility of your CTA.
Use Heatmaps to Reduce Click Uncertainty
Does every section of your webpage get the same amount of attention?
No. Most certainly not! Some parts of your website get more attention, and other parts of your website get less attention. You can find out the details using a heat map. A heat map uses a hot-to-cool color spectrum to show webmasters which sections of their website are the most popular. The red areas are the most popular, and the blue areas are the least popular.
This is powerful information. If you want to fix click uncertainty, then you naturally want to start in the most popular sections of your website. Also, that’s where you want to put your CTA. For example, imagine your heat map shows an ice-cold blue zone at the bottom of your website- right where your CTA is. If that happened, it would be imperative to move a CTA to the top of fold- where it would have more eyeballs. If users aren’t seeing your CTA, that’s a key indicator they don’t know what to do on your website.
Put up Human Faces to Decrease Click Uncertainty
“Human faces are very powerful,” says designer Sabina Idler. People are triggered to empathize with human faces. Click uncertainty goes beyond the question of “where should I click?” It also summons the questions: “Should I click at all? Can this website be trusted? Will these people do what they say they will?” Human faces increase the trust factor of a website, helping erase click uncertainty.
Add White Space to Reduce Click Uncertainty
As you can see, good web design is about eliminating fluff. Calling back Bruce Lee’s words, “It’s not the daily increase, but the daily decrease.” The daily decrease means putting more whitespace on your cluttered website.
What are the benefits of whitespace? There are numerous benefits. For instance, it highlights a strong central message. White space also removes distraction, giving extra emphasis to the most important areas. It also directs the flow (which influences where visitors eyeballs go) of a page to these vital areas. White space is the ultimate team player.
Limiting Form Fields Reduces Click Uncertainty
Extra form fields seem good on a perfunctory level. Form fields are the information that you ask for (name, email, age, address, business name, etc.), on your website in exchange for something else (like an ebook). More form fields means more information. And more information about your customer is always a good thing.
Yet, extra form fields are a design choice that can scare off good prospects. Unbounce notes that a company increased their conversion rate by 120% by reducing their form fields from 11 to 4. Long form fields are daunting. They make customers think too much. Customers start to wonder if they can get the info (or product) somewhere else.
