Why KISS is the Best Standard for Web Design

The design of your website plays a very important role in your success. Unfortunately, many online businesses make a number of flawed assumptions when developing their site, which ultimately hurts their conversions. The biggest mistake is using a very complex design. You can actually significantly boost your conversions by using a simpler layout. Here are some reasons to use KISS (Keep it Simple Stupid).

Soft Sell More Easily

Visitors are often turned away from websites with very complex layouts. They often seem too commercial and can lead to a similar phenomenon as banner blindness. According to one study, 86% of customers suffer from banner blindness, which is starting to affect their perception of websites.

A 2012 study from Google found that simpler websites perform much better. Consumers actually find websites with fewer visual elements to be more aesthetically appealing, which probably explains why so many of those sites with excessive Flash animation fell off the face of the earth.

Easier Navigation

Ease of navigation is one of the most important things that websites need to be successful. According to one study, 44% of consumers felt website navigation is too difficult on most websites. You need to make the site more accessible to get more people to your money pages.

One of the problems with fancy sites is that they often distract users from the navigation menu or even make it hard to figure out which elements are used to improve functionality and which ones exist solely for visual appeal. If your users complain about accessing your site, then you may need to simplify your design to improve navigation.

What Simple Layouts Work Best?

There are a lot of simple designs that you can try. A site with a soft white background, an organized menu structure, a few image headers and a nice looking logo may be all that you need. This was considered far too basic years ago, but has since become a standard layout for many industries.  You will even notice that major sites such as The New York Times have very simple designs that tend to be much more effective than publishers using loads of unnecessary visuals.

There are a number of resources that you can use to come up with simple designs for your site. You could try to look for free templates from WordPress, but there are a limited number of resources available. Another option is to use a DIY website builder such as this one from Web.com. It has a number of templates that you can customize, which reduces the time that you would need to spend creating something from scratch.

Of course, you will also definitely need a logo for your online business. If you don’t have one already, then it’s essential that you invest in one to stand out. However, it’s still important not to make your logo so flashy that it distracts users from any calls to action, so it may be necessary to deemphasize it if it was created by a designer with Flash.