Meet the 4 of the basic psychological principles underlying UI design.
1. Fitts' Law
It's used a lot in UI (user interface) and UX (user experience) design, and is expressed in terms of how far the mouse cursor needs to move to get to the action button. According to this law, the action button should not be small and the distance should be shorter. The law would pose a problem in adaptive design. This is because the distances must be tailored to the size of the device in question - smart phone, tablet or desktop computer.
2. Psychology of colours
According to psychological research, consumers often make a decision whether to purchase a product based on the colors alone. That's why it's important, both in real life and online, to get their selection right. We'll give you an example of a colour that whispers strong emotions - red. It is suitable to be used in web design for a "Buy Now" or "Look Here" button .This is because it predisposes the user to make an instant decision.
When choosing the colors for your website, you should focus well on the brand identity of your business and the desired message you want to convey to your audience.
3. Psychology of choice
In order to make it easier for the user, the website navigation should be as clean and simple as possible - with only a few choices. It should be user-centric. It should be in easy and understandable language. Putting lots of buttons and menus would confuse the visitor. There's a whole concept of so-called "neglected navigation". It is expressed in the different structure of the navigation in the different pages of the site, drop-down menus or its complex structure. Visitors will only stay on your site if they can make their choices easily.
4. Psychology of forms
Thanks to visual perception, important information can be perceived before the user has read a word. There are four main forms that influence:
– square and rectangle: we associate them with the shape of the book or letter, which leaves a feeling of reliability in the user;
– Triangle: this form creates a sense of movement and sometimes conflict, so care must be taken with its use;
– RoundA: This figure is not essential in creating a web design because the screen shape does not include a circle. But with proper use of colors in it, a sense of infinity can be achieved;
These are just a few of the methods a web designer uses to influence the user, when creating the user experience on websites. The psychology of web design is a vast topic, stay tuned for our next article on that soon. It will be entirely dedicated to colors - their meaning, combinations and what to look out for when applying them.
Sources: Aceola, Aramagopian, Wikipedia, Psyhologistworlds