Website Design Fundamentals

Want more leads from your website? Your homepage is probably missing these six crucial elements. The data doesn't lie: most startups are leaving money on the table with homepages that fail to answer prospects' actual questions. Recently, I read some research where Ekaterina (Sam) Howard analyzed 26 startup homepages reviewed on Wynter’s podcast and discovered most failed to answer these essential questions/concerns: → "How is your product different?" (19/26 failed) → "What does your product actually do?" (16/26 failed)   → "Can you back up these claims?" (15/26 failed) → "Will it really work?" (13/26 failed) → "How does it work?" (13/26 failed) → "Show us your product!" (12/26 failed) These aren't just random questions. They're the exact objections preventing your visitors from converting. I've found the most effective homepages address each of these concerns head-on: 1. Differentiation: Frame the problem, then introduce your solution as the breakthrough alternative. Show the before/after transformation.     2. Functionality: Clearly describe your category, primary use case, and main capability in plain language. If first-time visitors can't explain what you do in one sentence, simplify it.     3. Proof: Include relevant testimonials and quantifiable results. Real customers solving real problems will always outperform empty claims.     4. Credibility: Use social proof, customer logos, and case studies to overcome the "will it work for me?" objection.     5. Simplicity: Demonstrate how easy it is to implement your solution with a simple 1-2-3 process.     6. Visibility: Show the actual product through interactive demos, video walkthroughs, or (at minimum) real screenshots. Which of these six elements is your homepage missing?

Your users aren't dumb - your UX is fighting their brain's natural instincts. Ever wonder why that "perfectly designed" feature gets ignored? Or why users keep making the same "mistakes" over and over? Listen founder, you're probably making these costly cognitive bias mistakes in your UX: Avoid: • Assuming users remember where everything is (they don't - it's called the Serial Position Effect) • Cramming too many choices on one screen (Analysis Paralysis is killing your conversions) • Making users think too hard about next steps (Mental fatigue is real) • Hiding important info "just three clicks away" (Out of sight = doesn't exist) Instead, here's how to work WITH your users' brains: 1. Put your most important actions at the beginning or end of lists (users remember these best) 2. Limit options to 3-5 choices per screen (users actually buy more when they have fewer choices) 3. Use visual hierarchies that match real-world patterns (we process familiar patterns 60% faster) 4. Keep important actions visible and consistent across all pages (our brains love predictability) Great UX isn't about being clever. It's about being obvious. Your users' brains are lazy - and that's okay. Design for how they actually think, not how you wish they would think. --- PS: What's the most counterintuitive UX decision that actually improved your conversions? Follow me, John Balboa. I swear I'm friendly and I won't detach your components.

The reason why you’re not seeing any consistent growth in your conversion is probably because you’re making one (or all) of these 7 mistakes on your Shopify site: 1) Lazy loading of the hero image Shopify does this and it’s horrible for UX and site speed. Lazy loading is meant for “below the fold” content. Lazy loading above the fold delays the display of critical content and hinders CLS. 2) Downloading a bunch of apps Installing multiple apps on your site will lead to more scripts that download with the other content on your site. 3) Not cleaning up those apps when deleted Sometimes, a lot of scripts can get left behind continuing to load on the site and hindering the site speed after you've deleted the app. 4) CTAs below the fold The most critical information, including the CTA, should always be shown above the fold. This makes it easier for the user to access it without scrolling. 5) CTA in one place Make sure the CTA sticks and follows the user’s scroll pattern. The CTA should be visible wherever the user is on the site. 6) Websites only optimized for desktops Portable, handheld devices like smartphones and tablets are more commonly used than laptops or computers. Your site speed should be tested on 3-4 of the most routinely used devices. 7) Botched and cluttered cart When you make it harder for your customer to access their cart and proceed to checkout, you increase the chances of them abandoning their cart. The fewer the steps in your funnel, the better it is for UX. Mistakes like this negatively impact conversion because they impact the UX and lead to high bounce rates. Keep in mind that when a user bounces, they won't return 70% of the time. Did I miss anything?

I audited 10+ homepages last week. These are the biggest mistakes I’m seeing time and time again: 1. Vague positioning. It's unclear who the target audience is. What problem gets solved for them. And how the product differs from existing alternatives. 2. Lack of clarity. Many shiny claims are standing in the way of these pages doing a good job at explaining what the product is, what it does, and how it works. 3. They tell, but don’t show. In line with point 2, claims like “the most productive way” or “exceptional service” are unhelpful. Because they tell me nothing about how these promises get delivered. 4. Sell vitamins, not pain-killers. We’re biologically programmed to do more to avoid pain than to gain pleasure. But most of the pages I audited fail at identifying (and addressing) the pains their ideal market is experiencing. 5. Too much friction, not enough motivation. Claims are not backed up with data. Social proof is weak (e.g. no headshots). Major objections (AKA “buts and whys”) are not addressed. I don’t know what will happen if I take action. Of course, these are not the only shortcomings I found. But I’d argue they’re the most recurring ones. If your want to optimize your homepage, it's simple: Do the opposite of the mistakes. And if you want your homepage audited line-by-line, I’m still offering FREE audits (not sure how long I’ll continue doing that). DM to see what you’ve missed on your page, and how to fix it.

🔮💻 Have you ever been tricked online into doing something you didn't initially intend? Maybe you ended up subscribing to an email newsletter you didn't want or found yourself unable to easily cancel a subscription. If so, you've been a victim of what's known as 'Dark Patterns' in User Experience (UX) Design. 🕸️🎭 Dark Patterns are deceptive techniques used in websites and apps, deliberately designed to make users do things they wouldn't typically choose to do. This could be anything from signing up for recurring bills, making it difficult to delete an account, or surreptitiously adding items to your shopping cart. While these techniques might increase short-term metrics (like conversion rates), they do so at the expense of user trust and long-term customer loyalty. It's just like a mouse trap for every user.📉👥 As UX designers, it is our responsibility to advocate for the user and ensure that we are designing ethically. This means prioritizing transparency, honesty, and respect in our designs. 👩💻🔎🎨 Next time you're designing an interface, ask yourself: 1️⃣ Is this choice architecture helping users make the best decision for them, or is it pushing them towards a decision that benefits the business? 2️⃣ Are we making it easy for users to understand what they're opting into? 3️⃣ Are we respecting users' time and attention? I challenge you to be part of the solution, to use your design skills to create experiences that respect and empower the users, not manipulate them. 💪🌟 Share your thoughts below on how you ensure ethical decision-making in your design process! Let's learn from each other and collectively make the digital world a better place. 🌐🤝💬 #uxdesign #darkpatterns #ethicsindesign #design #designcommunity

Many websites look great but fail to convert. Why? They might be missing three key ingredients for success: User Experience, Trust Signals, and Urgency. Enter Searchbloom’s UTU Methodology. Let’s break it down: U: User Experience (UX) Your website is an interactive experience. So, how do users navigate it? Step 1: Gather data. Use tools like Microsoft Clarity, hotjar or Google Analytics  to track heatmaps, clickmaps, funnels, and user behavior. Step 2: Define success. Is it longer sessions, more add-to-carts, or higher purchase rates? The goal?  A frictionless experience that makes every action intuitive, easy, and rewarding. T: Trust Signals Trust is the currency of the internet, but trust signals are often underutilized. Without it, users abandon ship. You can start to build trust by:  - Displaying trust badges (e.g., Norton, McAfee ) on cart and checkout pages.  - Highlighting social proof with testimonials, video reviews, and UGC.  - Showing credibility through SSL certificates, certifications, and verified customer reviews. Trust signals reduce hesitation and make users feel safe clicking "Buy Now." U: Urgency Procrastination is your enemy, but urgency is your best friend.  - Show stock availability (e.g., "Only 5 left!"), countdown timers, or high-demand notices.  - Offer limited-time deals or early-bird specials to push users to act now. When done right, urgency motivates action without feeling pushy. By addressing experience, trust, and urgency, UTU creates a CRO trifecta that can turn hesitant users into confident buyers. Which of these ingredients does your website need most right now?

I recently rebuilt the code for the BK SciViz website from the ground up with a focus on speed, flexibility, and a future of interactivity. When building the site, I followed three main principles: 1.     The design should be in service to the content—not distract from it. 2.     The site needs to load fast. The worst thing a use can ever do is wait. 3.     The site should be flexible for expansion in the future. None of these statements are profound. But it’s very easy to get them wrong. 1. On the Design: One of the biggest temptations I had to resist was over-designing the site. When one of the primary goals is visual engagement, it’s easy to over-indulge. The goal of this design is to be invisible. To let the work speak. To elevate, but never to draw attention to itself. Almost everything that is not the actual SciViz *work* is in black and white. I was ruthless with myself that every part of the design needed to answer a question: why do you need to exist? 2. On Performance The site is built with a simple assumption: no one cares and no one is going to wait. Every second of their attention needs to be earned. For me, this meant targeting Lighthouse scores of 100 on desktop and never lower than 95 on mobile. For a site that is focused on image and video, it’s easy to get this wrong. Images are served in the smallest possible format I could get away with. When you spend hours creating something, its easy to want to have it in beautiful 4K. But again, no one cares and no one is going to wait. They probably won’t notice if its in 4K, but they will notice if they have to wait 5 seconds for it to load. Anywhere auto-playing video is served, there is always an image fallback. And that image is never blocked by the javascript that runs the player. Again, there is nothing profound about this. But everything is built with the intent of ensuring that a user never waits for important content. 3. On Expansion in the future My primary motivation for re-writing the code was not just having more control over how we’re serving media right now, but to prepare for expansion in the future. Everything is built from modular JSX components that obey common design rules. The goal was to have a component library that would allow consistent and efficient expansion in the future. And everything is built to support a future of interactive design. Science and the data it relies on has become to complex, too multi-dimensional, too multi-modal, to continue to rely exclusively on the old ways to visualize it. Static plots will always have a place. But I deeply believe in a future where interactivity unlocks new levels of how we communicate our science and how we navigate it ourselves. And part of this re-write was about laying the framework for our expansion into that space.

Are your designs humane? Humane by Design provides “guidance for designing ethically humane digital products and services through patterns focused on user well-being.” Humane by Design: https://humanebydesign.com Time and attention are ever scarcer, and technology often prioritizes extracting our attention and exploiting vulnerabilities over enhancing human abilities. We must acknowledge and address the impact of the technologies we create on the people they are meant to serve. “Optimizing something for ease-of-use does not mean best for the user or humanity.” - Aka Raskin Form Humane by Design, here are 7 principles for designing ethically humane digital products and services. 1️⃣ RESILIENT Resilient design focuses on the well-being of the most vulnerable and anticipates the potential for abuse. 2️⃣ EMPOWERING Empowering design ensures products center on the value they provide to people over the revenue it can generate. 3️⃣ FINITE Finite design maximizes the overall quality of time spent by bounding the experience and prioritizing meaningful and relevant content. 4️⃣ INCLUSIVE Inclusive design is a methodology that enables and draws on the full range of human diversity. 5️⃣ INTENTIONAL Intentional design uses friction to prevent abuse, protects privacy, steers people towards healthier digital habits and considers long-term consequences over short-term gain. 6️⃣ RESPECTFUL Respectful design prioritizes people’s time, attention and overall digital well-being. 7️⃣ TRANSPARENT Transparent design is clear about intentions, honest in actions and free of dark patterns. — Interested in healthcare UX? Join the community and sign up for the newsletter at Design with Care: https://designwith.care #designwithcare #healthcareux #uxdesign #humanexperience #humane

Stop doing more, start doing less: "The first step to increasing conversions is to remove everything that doesn't add value." — Redona Imagine visiting a website, where every element has a purpose and the design is clean. Your browsing experience is no longer cluttered but A smooth, focused journey toward your goal. Sound unrealistic? It's completely possible with Minimalist Design. After helping 100+ businesses double their conversion rates, I’ve seen time and time again that less is more. When I started simplifying websites, I thought I was doing less for my clients. Turns out, the less we did, the more conversions we got. Here’s how simplifying one client’s site took their conversion rate from 2% to 10% in 60 days. Step 1: Remove unnecessary features Step 2: Focus on key actions Step 3: Use whitespace effectively Step 4: Simplify navigation Step 5: Test and refine Minimalism isn't just about removing clutter; It's about creating a clear path to conversion and maximizing user experience. As Leonardo da Vinci said: "Simplicity is the ultimate sophistication."