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Visual Cueing Effect

Reviewed by expert Scientifically proven

Can you recall all the visual stimuli you came across during your evening walk in the last 5 minutes? Is that even possible? To be honest, it’s impossible for us to track each and every visual stimulus that we come across daily as it requires a lot of time as well as energy. As a result of this impossibility, our brain has developed shortcuts enabling us to attract only the most prominently displayed stuff. This tendency of human psychology to attract only visually optimized elements is known as the ‘visual cueing effect.’

The Visual cueing effect is vastly used by marketers around the world to draw the customers’ focus towards their marketing materials. Nonetheless, this concept is widely used on online platforms to influence consumer behavior for Conversion Rate Optimization (CRO). The common buzz is that if we fail to optimize our content visually, we are losing bucks every minute. What is the exact purpose of visual cues? Whether it’s online or physical, the ultimate purpose of every shopper is to find solutions to their problems. The right visual cue serves this purpose.

Table of contents:
  1. How to use visual cueing in your website towards CRO?
    1. Use Arrows to draw that extra attention
    2. Use pictures of people
    3. Get the advantage from the color psychology
    4. Use right imagery
  2. Conclusion

How to use visual cueing in your website towards CRO?

Any design element of your website to convey quick information is a visual cue which works as a mental shortcut for users to make decisions. The ideal visual cueing provides seamless user experience to solve the users' problems faster. Online users are often barged with different types of content such as ads, graphics, texts etc. vying for attention. Therefore how to make visual cues to outsmart competition is something we all can't overlook for Conversion Rate Optimization.

Use Arrows to draw that extra attention

What comes to your mind as the most straightforward visual cue on a website? An arrow it is. Arrows are ideal to drive the users' focus to the place where it exactly should be. How exactly arrows help to draw users' attention?

  • Arrows indicate where exactly you can get the right information from, instead of cluttering your page with more and more text boxes.
  • They are quite straightforward and it's a crystal clear visual prompt to highlight call to action.
  • Furthermore, arrays can be used to give you readers and extra motive to keep scrolling. You can use arrows to direct them up or down the page. For example, you can use a downward facing arrow to encourage the visitors to scroll down for more content.

However when embedding an arrow be sure to go for a cool loop Arrow to highlight your cool features of the website other than using arrows of a bold style.

Use pictures of people

The tendency of humans to draw themselves naturally towards the faces of other people makes any such portrait a natural visual cue. Portraits of people can be used to convey feelings to your customers through emotions. Here is something that you should understand clearly. Portraits of people are ideal and effective for personality driven brands. But they may not be ideal as visual cues for products. Using pictures of people to fit your purpose is very important for Conversion Rate Optimization (CRO).

Get the advantage from the color psychology

Do you know that colors are associated with human perception, emotions and senses? Choosing the right color scheme for your website is one of the essential steps for successful visual cueing. Look at the following colors and the messages passed by them.

  • The color red is used to convey the power, excitement and speed.
  • The color pink is used to convey sophistication and sincerity.
  • The color purple is used to convey luxury and ambition.
  • The color yellow is used to convey happiness and inexpensiveness.
  • The color orange is used to convey excitement and creativity.
  • The color blue is used to convey trust and high quality.
  • The color green is used to convey freshness and eco-friendliness.
  • The color brown is used to convey ruggedness.
  • The color black is used to convey sophistication and expensiveness.
  • The color white is used to display cleanliness and purity.

To make the maximum use of color psychology, the key is to recognize the perception and the emotions that you plan to convey from your website. An incompatible color scheme can never help you for Conversion Rate Optimization (CRO).

Use right imagery

Never underestimate the power of right imagery. One of the famous marketing experiments revealed that changing a picture of a homepage from a person to a product increased the conversion rate of that particular website by almost 72%. Isn't it the perfect example to recognize the power of the right imagery? When using imagery in your website, use the following best practices.

  • Use high quality and meaningful imagery.
  • If you happen to use stock imagery, try to find the pictures which describe you the most perfectly and uniquely.
  • Enhance usability by incorporating graphic icons.
  • Always optimize your images for SEO.

Conclusion

The visual cueing effect of psychology is one of the greatest techniques which can be used in websites to draw the users' focus towards the important information. Using Visual cues meaningfully is absolutely vital for Conversion Rate Optimization. Designing your website without optimizing your visual content will make you lose bucks a great deal. How well you optimize your visual cues to provide the solutions for the problems of your visitors in no time decides how fast you are in the game of earning more profits.

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