Visual Design, Usability & Credibility:
How Much Does it Matter?

By the late 90's anyone and everyone in the graphic design business jumped on the Website design band wagon. Has the user experience been positively affected by the Graphic Arts people? There are many reasons to think not. This article is taken from comments I made in a clickz.com article commentary.

By William R. Stocking CMC

Yes, visual design matters... but any attempt to equate credibility with good visual design is an error. Visual design excellence positively affects credibility only when the total visitor experience is also excellent.

Bad web design is everywhere, some of our most respected icons of consumerism practice it.

The "Consumer Web Watch" website, home of the Consumers Union "credibility study," has significant usability problems: Javascript menus that only seem to work with Internet Explorer or old versions of Netscape, pages that won't print properly, font sizes that are almost unreadable at higher resolutions, etc. Though they are reporting on credibility, I'd have to question their credibility in all matters of the web. (No, I'm not a CU slammer, I subscribe to CU and seek their advice on things that they are really knowledgeable about such as washing machines and automobiles.)

When visual design affects usability in even the smallest manner, credibility goes down the tubes, no matter how pretty or slick the design. Unfortunately, this is the case on about 80% of existing sites, even those of the Fortune 500.

Worst Offenders

This problem is at it's worst on the sites of Web design firms that feel they have to pull out all the visual / multi-media stops to impress prospective clients. Wouldn't it be kinder to those prospects to devote a page or two to each presentation technique and present meat and potato content in a manner that is comfortable for the prospective client? I think so and I suspect many prospective clients would as well. People are increasingly impatient and reluctant to wade through Web designer concepts of "Art" while trying to figure out what a company really has to offer.

Simple Goofs

There are many ways a site can short-change the user, here is just one of them: page printing. How many times have you visited a site and tried to print a page only to have the right side of the text cut off? Many if not most people do attempt to print pages they are very interested in. Page printing is a problem on a high percentage of websites.

If you visit www.Clickz.com, a site for those involved in Internet marketing of all types, you find they have a nice solution to this printing problem for many pages. The Clickz "print page" version could also be a possible alternative for those who have visual problems since the font's are much bigger. However, I'd guess that they don't want to lose advertising impressions by steering visually impaired visitors or some of us with tired eyes to those "Jakob Neilsen style" pages. They should do the "print page" link for all of their pages and make visitors aware this is also an accessibility option.

The Real Challenge

Coupling good visual design with high usability is very hard work, much harder than simply designing something that is visually slick. Most web designers / design companies seem to believe that once they get the approval for the visual design from the decision makers, their job is 90% done and they can hand it off to the coders. Not true, the really hard part is still in front of them and they don't even realize what the challenges are.

Designing web pages that are attractive and still allow the visitor to have some control over things such as font size is difficult, a challenge that seems to be beyond the Web designers who were schooled in print design. They really don't get it, even the younger ones, because most of the schools that teach Web design don't get it either.

To have a truly great website you must be willing to relinquish some control of the experience to the user, each of whom has their own unique viewing environment, each with slightly different comfort zones. "Personal experience," isn't that what it's supposed to be all about?

The Web as Art

The Web presents environmental variables that simply aren't a factor in print design. Print design can be "Art," movies can be "Art," Web sites can't be at this point in time. Web designers need to grow up and out of their print and movie oriented mind-set and realize that the true art of Web design is to insure a comfortable and productive experience for each unique visitor. Anyone that believes websites can or should be "Art" is delusional.

Summary

It's unfortunate that the connection between website usability and credibility gets so little respect. Sites with high usability just simply get used and nobody thinks much about it because it's an "invisible" attribute. It will, however, show up on the bottom line every time!