Psychological Design: 7 Tactics to Convert Leads into Customers

Just like marketing, design uses psychological tricks to convert leads. Designers usually do it automatically, simply because it works more often than not. But if you use these techniques deliberately and strategically, the outcome will exceed your boldest expectations.

Each project is individual and has different goals. Each needs a tailor-made strategy. These tricks, however, can be incorporated into any strategy. They are effective for all kinds of design, from brand design to website design.

1. Humanize your business

A soulless and faceless company does not inspire confidence or desire to do business with it. Good, smart design gives it a face and a soul. This is especially true for brand design.

But how do humanize a business?

• personify

The design should be a visual expression of brand’s ideas, essence, and features. A humane brand appeals to people and their needs. Imagine a brand as a person. What qualities would they have? What’s their personality like? Look for ways to express it through design.

• show your face

Make sure your audience associates your company with real people. Use attractive photos or videos of your employees, include their stories and experiences in your design. You don’t need too many. The important thing is that they evoke sympathy and trust by inviting communication.

• talk

The better you know your audience, the easier it is to bond with them through visual design, tone of voice, emotional or logical content. Use stories, and establish dialogs. Show them that there are actual, responsive humans behind the brand.

• let them peek backstage

Make a visual demonstration of how your team works or how things work at your company. What makes you happy? What makes you sad? What motivates you? Fill your stories with emotions that will resonate with the audience.

• use influencers

Have people with no connection to your company tell others about it. The more sincere and natural their reviews are, the more trust you will receive.

• emphasize the important stuff

People like being taught, encouraged, and aided in their efforts to make a change for the better. Focus on teaching and helping, not selling.

Humanizing the product is something that should be done at the idea stage. Otherwise, only a redesign or complete rebranding will save it.

Call-to-Action. The Foundations of Efficiency

2. Use the psychology of color

Color is the first thing that catches our eye. In marketing and design, color choices are crucial. There’s even such a thing as a “converting color.” It’s one that immediately sets an emotional tone that matches the mood of the audience, facilitates readability, and helps quickly locate an object.

A well-chosen color

• matches the business and product;
• meets audience expectations;
• is appropriate for the audience’s cultural background, age, gender, social status, etc.;
• helps manage attention;
• sets an emotional background;
• is memorable.

Any mismatch causes immediate confusion and rejection. Color attributes, such as hue, saturation, and brightness, can greatly affect perception. The optimal color is determined through testing and surveys.

Color is a great way to

• manage the users’ visual attention;
• highlight important elements;
• lead the user down the right path;
• highlight availability/unavailability, active/inactive options, etc.;
• set the mood and signal emotions.

Using color in branding makes a brand distinct and memorable, so it’s paramount for a brand to find the right color solution and test it multiple times.

3. Consider the meaning of shapes

In terms of importance, shapes (both geometric and natural) come a close second after color. The human brain sees the shape first and the details second.

The shapes of different objects evoke certain associations, simplifying or complicating comprehension. Shapes affect us subliminally. They can cause fear, anxiety, curiosity, calmness, confidence, calm. So choosing the right shape is very important.

Choose a shape based on what you want to achieve. Calm shapes don’t cause alarm, but neither do they generate excitement. Volatile shapes are good for attracting attention, but they should be used sparingly.

Shapes can speak volumes about a brand, and they do it in the blink of an eye.

Psychological meanings of shapes:

• Rectangle (square, cube)

A static shape, associated with order, calm, and simplicity. Squares and rectangles are used by brands that want to appear practical, stable, and reliable.

• Circle (oval, sphere)

A friendly shape, associated with perfection and closure. It looks harmonious, safe, and delicate. Good for attracting and focusing attention, which is why it’s mostly used for logos, icons, and special highlights.

• Triangle

Signals activity and dynamic, as well as balance (depending on how it’s position). Triangles are perceived as pointers. These shapes are powerful and efficient. They can evoke all kinds of emotions, from enthusiasm to caution. Triangles direct the gaze and are useful for highlighting.

• Diamond

This shape is associated with jewels, so it’s good for designing luxury and expensive products.

• Sharp angles

Angles can cause anxiety and even fear, but also curiosity. They’re more effective attention-grabbers than curves. When combined with “safe” shapes, they make the design more interesting.

• Curves

Curves are related to nature, comfort, and creativity. They emphasize lightness, affection, and warmth in a brand. Curves make the design unique and are useful for separating blocks of copy.

• Spiral

Associated with movement, progress, evolution.

• Zigzag

Symbolizes dynamic change, new paths, growth, speed, energy.

• Abstract shapes

Irregular shapes signal lightness and creativity, setting a positive mood.

4. Use Gestalt principles

These principles will help you build a structured, easy-to-understand interface, connect the elements visually, and reduce the user’s cognitive load. The more content you have, the more important it is to apply Gestalt principles. Here are the primary ones:

• Continuity

When we’re tracking an object, our gaze follows it until it encounters another object. For example, lines and arrows guide our eyes toward the right buttons or content.

• Similarity

We tend to perceive visually similar elements as related, whereas dissimilar elements appear unrelated.

• Proximity

Elements that are near each other are perceived as comprising a group.

• Common Region

When several objects are placed within a boundary, we perceive them as belonging together. Containment is useful when proximity alone isn’t sufficient.

• Symmetry

Symmetrical elements are perceived as being connected and create an impression of cohesion and order. Adding an asymmetrical element nearby will make it a focal point.

• Closure

Our brain likes to fill in the blanks, adding the “missing parts” to restore a familiar shape. Incomplete images are attractive, which is why they’re so often used in design. We can minimize and simplify images thanks to this quirk of human perception. This is most commonly done when designing icons, symbols, and badges.

• Common Fate

Elements traveling in one direction are perceived as connected, unlike those traveling in a different direction or static.

• Figure/Ground

People perceive objects as figures or backgrounds, even in two dimensions. The figure always dominates the scene. It’s the focal point that attracts the eye. The brain differentiates between near and far objects and prioritizes the former. This is used to create highlights, popups, banners, and tips.

Shapes in Web Design: The Psychology of Visual Perception

5. Manage attention

Attention management directly impacts conversion rates.

To maintain attention, you need a simple and clear page structure and a clean design with no distractions.

Prepare a system of highlights and make it hierarchical. Each focal point should grab and hold the user’s attention according to its importance. Use visual guides to help the user travel from highlight to highlight until they reach the goal.

Highlights can be created by:

• Using a contrasting color;
• Resizing (adding larger elements, headlines, etc.);
• Changing the background;
• Visual weight (“heavier” elements appear more important);
• Zooming in or out;
• Elaborate shapes (interesting objects are more attractive);
• Typographic highlights (using bold, italics, caps, decorative fonts);
• Disrupting a pattern (the brain immediately notices a mismatched element);
• Wide indents (using whitespace, placing the focal point far from the other elements);
• Illustrations;
• Animation;
• 3D images.

Whereas a highlight tells you what to look at, guides tell you where to go.

Visual guides include:

• lines;
• arrows;
• pointers;
• element placements (with the central axis acting as a guide);
• a character’s gaze (our eyes follow it);
• layout structure (its guiding axes)м
• dynamic elements (our eyes follow their direction).

Increase Conversion with Help of Images

6. Manage the cognitive load

An excessive cognitive load makes users quickly get tired, feel stressed, and lose motivation. Comprehension starts flagging, activity slows down, and hesitation sets in. People get confused and start making mistakes. Frustrated, they quit the site.

But that doesn’t mean you should simplify and minimize everything. Decide at the outset where the user’s path should be swift and easy and where they should linger a while longer. Studying or reading up on a product or learning new information is a useful kind of load. Cognitive load only becomes a burden when users get confused by visual chaos, can’t navigate their way, are forced to fill out tedious forms, and generally feel like they’re wasting their time.

To reduce cognitive load:

• Follow the standard

Familiar, common placement of elements and interaction options make it easier for users to find their way around and anticipate the interface.

• Minimize visual content

A visually cluttered interface adds to the cognitive load. Information should be structured and ordered. Remove all unnecessary elements and hide all auxiliary information with an option to expand it.

• Plot logical and consistent task flows

Break complex tasks into sequences of smaller steps. Give clear instructions on what to do at every step so that user can follow and complete the task without getting unduly stressed.

• Optimize search and navigation

Improved search and navigation make finding important things easier and faster. Implement effective search tools, use logically organized menus and links for navigating the website or app.

• Provide feedback

Users get anxious when they can’t tell whether they have correctly completed the task. Provide immediate feedback for actions and confirmations of correctness.

• Optimize the information architecture

A clearly and logically structured website reduces cognitive load. Separate the info into blocks, use a hierarchy, and ensure easy and convenient site or app navigation.

• Keep it simple

Use precise, simple words to convey what you need. Avoid unnecessary technical terms and long-winded phrases. Communication should be easy to comprehend and aimed at concrete actions.

• Minimize visual clutter

Don’t overload your design with multiple elements, garish colors, excessive animation, or effects. A simple, clean design helps users focus on the important information and tasks at hand.

• Train your users

Provide training materials to help the users learn the interface. Video tutorials, step-by-step instructions, and FAQs reduce cognitive load and simplify user experience.

• Solicit feedback

Provide ways to report problems, ask questions, and share reviews. Interact with your users to improve your product and make your interface easier to use.

• Run tests

Do real user testing to identify any points of cognitive overload. Use the findings to make the necessary changes and optimize user experience.

UX/UI: The Art of Management

7. Motivate your users

Unmotivated users are often the reason for low conversion rates.

A motivating website:

• is simple and accessible;
• has enough tools for accomplishing goals and receiving help;
• is valuable and useful.

The motivation to use a product often wanes because the process seems too complicated, lengthy, or vague. The user needs to have a clear understanding of how much effort they’ll have to expend in order to achieve the result. To perform an action, they need to see what tools they have at their disposal and whom to call if they need help.

Study your users to determine what motivates them and pick the right approach. Visualize their goals whenever possible. It’s a great encouragement. Where appropriate, show them their progress (for example, when completing a profile). The progress bar increases the motivation to complete the task.

The value of a product is not determined by its cost. It may be higher or lower. Making a product valuable means convincing people that it will improve their lives (or affect their comfort, health, self-esteem, accomplishments, mood, etc.).

A large selection (in a competitive market) further reduces the motivation to buy any given product. The way out is to offer additional value to users.

Additional values include:

• free delivery;
• discounts on future orders;
• samples/trial versions;
• any business-appropriate incentives (free consultations, after-sales service, information support, perks for regular customers).

Psychology-based design will help you build professional digital products that are popular, attractive, aesthetic, and highly converting.

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