12 Reasons Why Design Matters in Your Business
12 Reasons Why Design Matters in Your Business
If you're wondering why design matters in your business then you need to check out this blog post, it's an absolute must-read if you're a small business owner. Click here for more information on this topic!
A whopping 65% of the population are visual learners. This is why good design matters.
In fact, it will lead to higher customer engagement and sales. If you are a small business owner with few resources, you may wonder, "Why is design important?"
Safe to say, there's arguably little that's more important than aesthetically pleasing business graphic design when it comes to your website, social media and product.
You may be tempted to try and design your website yourself, but by investing in professional help, you can ensure high quality.
If you're unsure why design matters and how it can help your small business, keep reading to have your mind changed!
1. Attractive Design Makes for a Good First Impression
As internet users, we know how short our attention span is. If you're faced with an ugly website or confusing page, you'll quickly click off.
In fact, you only have 50 milliseconds to make a good first impression. This already proves why design matters!
People instantly judge your website and make a decision whether to read on from your landing page.
Images and design are noticed before a viewer gets down to reading your blog. It doesn't matter if your content is interesting.
If said content is laid out in an unappealing manner, you've lost on the first impression and will lose a valuable reader or customer.
2. Easy-To-Use Design Means Viewers Will Return
Think of your favourite blogs and websites. What is it that makes you continue to return?
An easy-to-use design means you'll convert first-time visitors to regular readers. This is especially why design matters to small businesses as you can't afford to lose out on new customers.
A good design should guide a reader's eye, provide them with useful content in an easy-to-read manner, offer visual appeal and highlight important info.
3. Helps Small Businesses Appear Professional
Are you working out of the spare bedroom at your parent's house? There's no reason to show this online.
By offering a good website design, you'll put out a professional appearance from the off.
If you're a new small business, growth is important. If customers believe you're not professional, at worst they won't work with you and at best, they'll expect reduced rates.
4. Ensures You Appeal to the Right Market
What is your target market like? It's very important to take this into account while working in graphic design.
Firstly, you should do your research to find out which social media platform your target market is most active on or whether they respond to flyers and brochures or emails and tweets.
Once you know this, you can focus your initial designs. Next, take into account what you're conveying with your product or service.
Would your clientele respond to a fun, creative webpage or should you create something serious and professional?
Once you have this down, along with curated social media and a beautifully designed email campaign, you'll be sure to appeal to the right market.
5. Why Design Matters for Mobile Users
A great way to capture your audience is through a mobile app. In fact, just 10% of time is spent in a browser and 90% is spent on apps.
Right now, there are millions of apps vying for the attention of customers. This means you have to fight to be seen.
Good design is the one thing that can initially draw a customer's eye to your app and make them download.
Reviews are also important, but a secondary to the design when you're faced with hundreds of the same app.
Another important aspect of design is having an easy-to-use mobile site. If your app or mobile site takes a long time to load, crashes or quickly drains battery, you won't see a return customer.
6. Aesthetically Pleasing Label Design Will Increase Sales
If you're selling a product, spending time on your label design will make a big difference to your sales.
Have you heard of the attractive bias? It's a cognitive bias that means we believe using a beautiful product is easier than using an ugly one.
In fact, humans perceive beautiful things as better. This is why design matters for your label. You want your product to stand out and be more beautiful than your competition!
7. Communicate Brand Values
As we already know, people make assumptions about your brand based on just a few seconds. So, communicate effectively what you're selling and you'll quickly attract the right customer.
Every single brand is based on a value or idea. But, it's unlikely a visitor to your website will focus on your brand's mission statement.
Use imagery to give an idea of what's important to your company instead. You can do this by focusing on colours and relevant pictures.
Although it can be difficult to communicate your entire brand's meaning, good design will help put forth an idea your brand values.
For example, the Apple website quickly shows the consumer that their product is all about ease of use, simplicity and block, attractive colours.
They also have a simple tagline at the top of the page "say hello to the future", and a beautiful product image which draws you in.
Don't be afraid to take inspiration from other companies who are working in the same field as you.
8. Consumers Trust Well Designed Websites
How often have you clicked off a website that's all over the place? Don't design that website.
A website which is badly designed is not visited, read or even trusted, which is why design matters! This is especially the case when it comes to health websites.
Consumers trust clear and simple layouts, easy-to-use interfaces and a colour scheme that doesn't hurt the eye. Text should also be laid out in an aesthetically pleasing manner.
9. Design Is All About How It Looks and How It Works
You've designed a website that you think your customers will like? Congratulations! Now you need to consider how it works.
If your pages are loading too slowly and the scroll function takes too long, your customers will click off, no matter how beautiful the content which is loading is!
Rather than encouraging customers to navigate around the website, everything they need to know should be right there in front of them on the homepage.
Be mindful of too many popups or ads as they can often irritate a customer. 68% of internet users would block a site from search results due to too many adverts
10. Make Life Easy for Visual Learners
In this case, the phrase "a picture is worth a thousand words" is true.
This is why design matters. Include informative pictures and a beautiful design to go the extra mile for visual learners.
By doing this, you won't have to explain what you're selling. You can simply show them.
A well designed visual aid can be very useful when meeting investors during meetings or even conferences.
In fact, it will help your company appear professional and you'll likely be taken more seriously.
11. Good Design Will Motivate a Customer to Take Action
Draw your customer's eye to the right place with a well-placed button and they'll be more likely to follow the link.
Apple shows you the latest iPhone as soon as you click on the page, meaning you're instantly drawn onto the product page and more likely to buy.
If you bury your product links inside lots of text, your customers are less likely to see them.
This is why design matters - you need to attract a customer's attention so they take action and buy your product.
12. Consistency Is Key
Finally, when you're happy with the design for your website, flyers, business cards, emails and social media the next step is to stick to it.
If your design is working well at attracting the right customer and converting views to sales, stick with it.
Consistency in the colours and type fonts you use are very important. This is how your customers will identify you across social media and the web.
Your logo should also constantly be consistent. Don't randomly switch up the colour and confuse customers!
Implement These Steps for Success
Now you know why design matters! As a small business owner, there's nothing more important than having a strong brand design that's consistent and aesthetically pleasing.
If you're unsure of where to start, then speaking to a professional is a good idea. By doing this, you can ensure your design is taken care of.
Whether you need help with logo, print, website design or more, get in touch. We can help you!