Website Psychology

By Wynn Wilder
Posted Sunday, June 20, 2004

Website Psychology incorporates three areas of research. Color Psychology, Psychological Triggers and Critical Thinking’s own Psychological process. Using Psychology, sales are optimized, customer interaction and retention is enhanced, and return visits are increased.

What exactly does all this mean? Lets take a look at the three parts of Website Psychology.

Color Psychology

Color psychology is under-rated. Web designers do not take color into consideration when creating a web site. The reason? Color is just color too many.

However, color affects everything we do. The way we perceive others. Whether we are comfortable in a room. What we eat, how we dress, if we stop or go at the nearest stoplight. We do not realize the true impact color has on us, consciously and subconsciously.

Take orange for instance. If you are on a diet, orange increases appetite encourages relaxation and sleep. Blue decreases appetite, lowers the body temperature and eliminates the flight to fight response. As a sales tool, orange is pivotal for persons making a buying decision. It makes products more attractive and appears more affordable.

Without realizing it, web designers often use color in a way that is detrimental to the web sites productivity. The web sites color should be chosen after a demographic profile is done. It should also depend on the product being sold.

If the company has an existing logo, the color of the logo must be taken into consideration. The color can be incorporated into the site. However, a balance must be achieved between the logo and the colors for the sites productivity.

Large corporations long ago discovered the true importance of color to their products. Consider for a moment Coke and Pepsi. The predominant color for both is red. Walk into any grocery store and the majority of the packages are – red. The reason? The taste buds become more sensitive, appetite improves, and reactions become automatic.

Color Psychology is used on you every day. So are Psychological Triggers.

Psychological Triggers

If turkeys moo are they cows too?

What kind of question is that? It’s the kind that made you stop and think. It grabbed your attention. Probably made you shake your head and say, “Huh?” Without realizing it, you just reacted exactly as you were meant too.

That, my friend, is psychology at work. Psychological triggers cause you to act or react in a way that is predictable. Your mind responds to them either consciously or subconsciously. Proper use and placement can lead a customer through a web site. Even to the point of purchase.

One of the most powerful psychological triggers is “why”. Kids love to ask the question why. Why is the sky blue? Why do birds fly? Why can’t I have a pony? Anyone who has kids or has been a kid knows these questions well.

We are curious by nature. Asking ‘why’ in a header is similar to flipping the curiosity switch. Our brain tells us that we “must know more!” And so we delve deeper into a sites content. Searching for the answer our mind seeks.

Budweiser, in their infinite wisdom, came up with the slogan of “Why ask why? Drink bud dry.” That simple phrase increased their sales exponentially.

Psychology is amazing when applied.

Website Psychology

Color Psychology and Psychological Triggers are powerful tools. Used together they are unbeatable! They have the ability to increase the productivity of any site, no matter the design or navigation.

Now, Website Psychology would not be the same without the third process. It takes psychology a step further. You can reach people through color and triggers. That has been proven repeatedly. You can also control whether people read the content of the site or not.

The challenge has always been memorability. People do not always bookmark sites, nor do they return to every site they bookmark. Why? Because once the site is bookmarked it is forgotten. A niche’ must be created in the mind inspiring people to return.

Specific words are used causing the mind to remember the site. It is because of this process sites are bookmarked, remembered, and passed on. Grammatically challenged web sites can be just as successful as perfectly written sites.

Website Psychology is a new field. It is because of this fact that people have not heard about it, and do not understand its importance. Any website can be successful, but it takes more than a product, an idea, and a web designer to make it happen.

About the Author
Wynn Wilder is a Website Psychologist and owner of Critical Thinking.