How can you guide users through your website with visual cues?

Visual cues are important because they reinforce meaning, provide context, create a hierarchy, support branding, and establish trust in the user.

Just to provide some context for those of us who grew up before the internet, there was a time when websites simply provided information. They were the equivalent of the Yellow Pages online. Google does that now, so if someone visits your website directly, they're probably there to DO something. Visual cues make it quick and simple for your website visitors to do those things.

Visual cues are essential for quick information processing, enhancing memory retention, and capturing audience attention. The brain processes visuals faster than text, making images, charts, and videos effective for conveying complex ideas. Visual content is also more memorable, ensuring better information recall. It transcends language barriers, enabling universal understanding, and emotionally resonant visuals foster deeper connections with the audience.

It starts with identifying the objectives for each page of your website, mapping out the user flow, and ensuring your pages all link to something else and have a next step action. You'll be more successful if you optimize according to the thought process of your visitor, then continually test your approach and refine your content blocks and messaging based on the data.

I’ve worked with multiple teams across different countries and I’ve seen the following: -> not enough outsiders get involved before going live. You need a few more eyes who are not familiar with the project to share feedback -> make sure the feedback comes from a broad sample of people I.e age & location -> what’s obvious to you, is not obvious -> keep it simple. Too many options are distracting -> test on multiple platforms: Apple, android and windows -> avoid clutter. Everything in your mind, doesn’t belong on the website

I’m a huge proponent of heatmaps. Combine aggregated click and scroll data with actually sitting down and watching through some session recordings. See how real people are actually responding to your website. Where do they linger? What do they scroll past without reading? Where does their mouse hover? What do they highlight? Where do they step away? Once you spend time witnessing how real people are interacting with your pages - you’ll notice the gaps between what you thought they’d do and what they actually do. And then you can make any changes to your visual cues accordingly :)

The Design of Everyday Things - by Don Norman is a classic book on usability and design that focuses on how visual cues influence user behavior and interpretation. Universal Principles of Design - by William Lidwell - A comprehensive reference with 125 design principles including several related to visual cues. Designing with the Mind in Mind - by Jeff Johnson - Focuses on perceptual and cognitive factors in design, including processing visual cues.