How To Make Your Website a Sensory Design Masterpiece

Everyday Sensory Design Principles to Beautify your Website

We live in a multi-sensory world that begs to be seen, heard, touched, tasted, and smelled, and we’re competing in an endless sea of information to reach our audience. Unfortunately, when we’re designing online, we only get to work with sight and sound — right? Not necessarily.

You can still make your website a sensory design experience that pulls in your audience and keeps them coming back to your site again and again. Let’s unpack how sensory design principles can make your website appealing to potential clients.

There Are More Than 5 Senses to Work With

We’re all familiar with the 5 senses, but psychological research is pointing more towards the fact that we should really be thinking about more. Our brains are powerful generators of sensory experience, so much that if you imagine yourself biting into a lemon with your eyes closed, you might actually pucker up.

In addition to sight, sound, taste, smell, and touch, our brain also strongly perceives pain, temperature changes, and mechanoreception, or the ability to feel pressure and vibration. The body also perceives interception, which is the ability to feel itself working, like when you feel your stomach gurgling in hunger. Knowing this, you can implement sensory design elements in your web design strategy that will create a physical response just from clicking through.

Sensory Design | General V.S Digital

Whether there are 5, 9, or 100 senses, web designers prioritize sight, hearing, and touch, But at the core of sensory design lies this reality: Every online interaction leads to a sensory experience. The aim is to:

• Be intentional and multifaceted with sensory engagement
• Activate the senses in ways that boost the user experience (enhanced navigation, improved discoverability, etc.)
• Create product and brand identities that are more appealing and memorable

To leverage perception’s full potential, web designers need a principled framework for including senses in the digital design process.

 

The Relationship Between Senses

The senses never work alone. Sensory design integration is a process where the brain prioritizes information from senses and surroundings to send messages to our body. Examples include:

• Sight working tandem with hearing to decipher communication cues
• Temperature and pain to warns us of potential injury
• Smell and taste to encourage digestion

When designing for the senses, try to use visuals that show detailed texture so your viewers can imagine what it’s like to feel your products.

Less is More

It’s best to remember how distracted the modern world is. While it’s great to pull out an arsenal of visual tools to engage your online audience, sometimes your best plan of attack is not going overboard. If a customer feels overwhelmed by too many visual elements, they’ll click away. Make sure your user flow leads them straight to your call to action. This is also a great strategy when you design for seo.

Trigger a Sensory Reaction With Sensory Design and ADVAN

If you’re starting to “sense” that your website isn’t giving your viewers the right impression, working with a web design company to refresh your online brand can be the shot of adrenaline that does the trick. ADVAN Design and digital marketing partners with local and national businesses to design striking websites that get to the top of Google and convert clicks into sales.

When you’re ready to turn your website into a masterpiece of sensory design, contact the most sought after web designers in Akron at ADVAN on our site, or call 330-688-1324.