4 Ways Psychology Can Improve Your Blog Design

If you any of the design work on your blog (and who doesn't?) there are hundreds of articles giving tips on how to do it correctly. But, how many of those are based on individual preference and how many are rooted in science? Psychology has always been an interest of mine and I recently picked up the book 100 Things Every Designer Needs to Know About People by Susan Weinschenk. Even if you aren't a web designer there are a lot of things you can take away from this book to improve your blogs design and here are 4 of my favorites. 

1. Eye Contact Creates Connection

One of the most important things to include on a blogs landing page is a photo of yourself. When you're choosing with photo you want to use make sure you choose one where you're looking directly at the camera. Eyes are the most important part of the face (even newborns prefer to look at them) and can go a long way when it comes to making a connection with your readers. 

2. Keep the Important Stuff at the Top

We know that humans have short attention spans, so keep the most important parts of your blog "above the fold" on the top half of their screen. You want to grab their interest before they even start scrolling down the page. 

3. Don't Get Too Weird

I know you want your website to be unique and stand out, but make sure you aren't making it too different. Viewers have a certain web page layout that they have gotten used to and when looking at your site they will be looking for the same visual cues. For example, most websites have a navigation menu near the top of the page, so readers will institutionally look to the top of your blog when looking for it. Don't make your blog difficult for your readers to navigate or they won't stick around for long. 

4. Give Readers Visual Cues

If you want your blogs visitors to do something, ie. click a link or a button, make sure that it's obvious. Add shading and drop shadows to buttons to make their purpose obvious and make hyperlinks a different color from the rest of the text so they stand out.