You’ve heard the old adage that first impressions are everything. Well, research suggests that Web users make aesthetic decisions about their overall visual impressions of websites in as little as 50 milliseconds. That’s 1/20 of a second! As advocates for creative, we can conclude that aesthetics do, in fact, play a major role in the user’s online experience, much the same way that aesthetics affect a shopper’s experience at a physical, brick-and-mortar storefront. For example, shoppers will unlikely return to a store if the stylistic elements or navigation aides prohibit a creative, welcoming aura or simple shopping experience.

As soon as online searchers enter your site, they form opinions of you, including a sense of trust (or lack of trust) in the information/content provided. Furthermore, we can conclude that aesthetics also impact the credibility and authority of sites even before user navigation occurs. Because Web users are influenced by aesthetic impressions of your site from the get-go, they may never make it to your online content if they don’t like what they see, quickly exiting to visit a competitor’s site. In a very short time, you just lost a potential customer because he or she didn’t feel comfortable with the presentation of onscreen content, from copy and videos to audio and images.

Yes, positive perceptions of creativity increase the user’s confidence in a site’s trustworthiness and usability, thus increasing the chance of sales conversion. But a balancing act between aesthetics and practicality is going on here. Creative elements must convince users immediately to trust a company so site and content navigation proceeds. At the same time, the content must be reliable and also complement the site’s aesthetics. In other words, both aesthetics and content must be coordinated to encourage the site visitor to browse page by page. You can optimize a site or include great content, but what’s the point if your visitors aren’t satisfied with their experiences with you? At the same time, your site can be creative, but why bother if users aren’t discovering the information they need or can’t even find you online due to inadequate SEO content? That’s why designers and writers must work together to create better user experiences.

Companies that don’t utilize writers for their online content and rely solely on designers for information creation run the risk of losing customers. Designers are not writers (and vice versa), yet each can contribute to the success of the other. Even traditional copywriters are not necessarily Web writers; in fact, Web writing is much different than copywriting. Today’s Internet writers must be able to effectively understand the user’s online experience and how design factors into usability and navigability. They must also be able to write metadata and comprehend on-site search engine optimization. And they have to understand your company well enough to constantly manage and update content, as search engines feed on fresh content.

If aesthetic and design elements speak to the reader, then your copy should do the same. After all, the Web is a big conversational tool that promotes interaction through various platforms such as chat rooms and discussion groups. The common denominator? The written word. Your website should read and flow like a book filled with captivating, eye-catching imagery and engaging content so readers keep flipping from one (web) page to the next. But in order to create engaging content, it’s important to find a voice for your site. Consider your intended audience, and write copy that fits in with and complements your site. Don’t just write to fill the virtual space with words. Give your users someone with whom to identify, like a narrator with a welcoming personality. Pair up your writers and designers to coordinate all the site elements and find that unique voice to represent your company. In our creative department, we call this content strategy, or the process of developing useful content to foster a better user experience with our interfaces (some companies even hire separate content strategists to handle this). Without such a strategy, you ignore your content as a vital asset. Ultimately, your customers lose out of a positive user experience, and you lose the customer.

In a nutshell, content strategies should combine the forces of both writers and designers to focus on your site’s metadata, SEO efforts, key themes, topics, purpose, channel distribution, etc. All these elements drive meaningful, interactive user experiences. To help you develop an effective content strategy, assemble an editorial calendar, as your site should contain frequent updates and regular content revisions based on your users’ needs and how they’re finding you.

By understanding how your customers are finding you, you can better connect your company’s message to the intended audience. Let’s face it, every website wants the same thing — attention. Attention leads to more traffic. So focus on being found, and have your writers and designers work together. Try including SEO specialists, content strategists and others on the same team. Educate your entire team on the importance of generating findable sites because finable content equates to additional profits. For example, instruct your SEO specialists to focus on findable keywords/terms that will improve your organic ranking on first search engine results pages. Have your writers implement the keywords into the copy, as well as construct user-friendly copy that keeps readers flipping through the web pages. Designers should utilize tools that enhance your ability to be found and direct visitors where to go. Developers ought to keep the site open to all users and scripts, not impeding search engine indexing. If each member does his or her part, each element will complement the overall goal of enhancing the user’s experience with you.

If you’re interested in this topic and would like to read more, I found the following blog posts for additional reading:

• Better Writing Through Design
• The Discipline of Content Strategy
• Visual Decision Making
• Findability, Orphan and the Web Design Industry