50 Game-Changing Web Design Statistics for 2019

Did you know only 1% of users click a carousel image? Or that users actually spend the most time and attention to content below the fold? Find out what’s new in the web design world with these 50 game-changing web design statistics for 2019 below!

Web Design Statistics

1. 84% of respondents think that design-driven businesses are outperforming their competitors (Econsultancy & Adobe, 2018).
2. Design-driven companies have outperformed the S&P Index by 219% over 10 years (Design Management Institute, 2014).
3. On average, visitors spend 80% of their time viewing the left half of the page and 20% viewing the right (Fessenden, 2017).
4. When given only 15 minutes, 66% of respondents would rather browse something beautifully designed rather than something simple and plain (Adobe, 2015, pp. 18).
5. First impressions and feedback shared by respondents surveying British health websites were 94% design-related, such as navigation, colors, popups, and layout (Sillence et alii, 2004, cited via Laja, 2012).
6. Website users find information faster by scrolling rather than paging (Baker, 2003).
7. Users take considerably more time to read content by paging rather than viewing full-page or scrolling (Baker, 2003).
8. Website visitors spend 66% of their time and attention “below the fold” on a website layout (Haile, 2014).
9. Strategic white space between paragraphs and in the left and right margins increases reading comprehension by almost 20% (Lin, 2004, cited via Fadeyev, 2009).
10. After adding spacing between primary elements—a banner and two CTAs—users visited the CTA pages 150% more and the whole website’s overall conversion rate increased 20% in a case study for gDiaper’s desktop website by UXPin (MacDonald, 2017).
11. After removing a sidebar, re-adjusting the layout, and moving CTAs to the top to create more whitespace in a webpage for Cummins Allison, user conversion rates increased to 15% instantly and their web lead revenue increased by over 70% over time, in a case study for Cummins Allison by UXPin (MacDonald, 2017).
12. After removing extra links and increasing white space around CTAs in a product page for Shop Xerox, user engagement increased 20%, users added 5% more product to the cart, and 33% more users completed the purchase than before in a case study for Shop Xerox by UXPin (MacDonald, 2017).

Website visitors spend 66% of their time and attention “below the fold” on a website layout.

Haile, 2014

Graphic Design Trends

1. Younger generations prefer beautiful designs over plain and simple, with 73% of Millennials preferring to spend 15 minutes browsing something beautifully designed rather than something simple and plain, versus 62% of Generation X and only 55% of Baby Boomers (Adobe, 2015, pp. 18).
2. Users spend 22% more time looking at a webpage and look at 25% more elements on the webpage where flat UI elements are used, resulting in less attention given to webpage and more confusion (Nielson, 2017).
3. Flat web designs confuse clickable areas: on average, 30% of clickable areas identified by users of flat design websites were in fact not clickable in a 2013 study by Usabilla (Idler, 2013).
4. Flat design interfaces rates higher in perceived usability than skeuomorphism, but skeuomorphism rates as more beautiful than flat design. Based on looks alone, an average of 82% of users believed a flat design interface would be easier to use over a skeuomorphic interface (Spiliotopoulos et alii, 2018, pp. 14). Flat design scored a higher *perceived* usability. However, 65% of users considered a skeuomorphic interface beautiful than a flat one (Spiliotopoulos et alii, 2018, pp. 14).
5. Flat interface designs scored 20% higher than skeuomorphic interface designs in System Usability Score (SUS) questionnaires (Spiliotopoulos et alii, 2018, pp. 15).

The field of UI/UX is growing rapidly. Because a design is only as good as its ability to solve a problem, businesses use usability testing to inform their designs. For example, I applied usability heuristics in Fixing The Usability Errors In My Old Case Study Web Designs. These web design statistics show how quickly UI/UX can track down such problems.

Usability Testing

1. Usability tests conducted with just five users reveal about 85% of all problems with a website, and 15 users discover nearly all problems (Nielson, 2000).
2. Measured usability improves 22–38% per usability test iteration (Nielson, 2011).
3. To maximize the benefit-cost ratio of usability testing, conduct three tests with five users each (Nielson, 2011).

Every designer understands the power of images. The web design statistics below provide empirical evidence of their effectiveness. It’s no surprise purposeful images make the list of 10 Things Every Website Needs.

Images

1. A/B testing case studies from the VWO Blog also found that replacing pictures of paintings with photos of the artists, or replacing generic icons with photos of the authors, both resulted in substantial gains to conversion rates (Chopra, 2011).
2. Website viewers naturally follow the gaze of a person shown in an image or a directional arrow (Galfano, 2012).
3. Visual content makes up 93% of all human communication (Kusinitz, 2014).
4. Using detailed and branded images can successfully capture the attention of 67% of viewers (Kusinitz, 2014).
5. Articles compelling visual elements see a 37% increase in engagement from targeted customers (Kusinitz, 2014).
6. Publishers who use infographics grow in traffic an average of 12% more than those who don’t (Alexander, 2012).
7. When people hear information, they’re likely to remember only 10% of that information three days later. However, if a relevant image is paired with that same information, people retained 65% of the information three days later (Medina, 2008).
8. Only 1% of users click a carousel image (Runyon, 2013).

Only 1% of users click a carousel image.

Runyon, 2013

Content Strategy

1. 47% of website visitors look at “Products and Services” section first, 33% look at the Home page first, and 16% look at “About / Company Information” first (Huff Industrial Marketing, KoMarketing, & Buyer Zone, 2015, pp. 5).
2. The most in-demand content for a vendor’s website homepage include: Products & Services at 86%; Contact Information at 64%); and About / Company information at 52 (Huff Industrial Marketing, KoMarketing, & Buyer Zone, 2015, pp. 5).
3. Website visitors seek long, in-depth topical information: 38% of respondents call research reports a “Must Have” or “Very Important” item and 34% said the same of case studies, white papers, and/or articles (Huff Industrial Marketing, KoMarketing, & Buyer Zone, 2015, pp. 7, Figure 2).
4. Far in the lead, 82% of respondents called thorough contact information a “Must Have” or “Very Important” item (49% alone cited “Must Have”). Additionally, 38% demanded research reports; 37% demanded about information and/or team biographies; 35% demanded client lists and/or client testimonials; 34% demanded case studies, white papers, and/or articles (Huff Industrial Marketing, KoMarketing, & Buyer Zone, 2015, pp. 7, Figure 2).
5. Given only 15 minutes, 59% of respondents would choose to skim articles on trends while 41% would prefer reading a long article on only one issue (Adobe, 2015, pp. 11).

Calls to Action

1. Call to Action buttons perform better than CTA images (Vocell, 2018).
2. The best spot to place web ads are above the fold, after some copy, but before scrolling is required (Google, 2014).
3. An A/B test by Beem Digital and Unbounce.com saw a 90% increase in click-through rate by using first-person phrasing in their Calls to Action, such as “Start my free 30 day trial” rather than “Start your free 30 day trial” (Gheliucl, n.d.).
4. Website landing pages with multiple Calls to Action get 266% fewer leads than pages with only one CTA (Patel, 2014)…Yet 48% of landing pages contain multiple Calls to Action (Patel, 2014). K.A. Use only one CTA per website landing page to dramatically increase leads (Patel, 2014).
5. Personalized Calls to Action with convert 202% better than default versions (Vocell, 2018). Personalization options included adapting a CTA to the visitor’s location, browser language, whether they were a hot or cold lead, and more.
6. Users spend 22% more time looking at a webpage and look at 25% more elements on the webpage where flat UI elements are used, resulting in less attention given to webpage and more confusion (Nielson, 2017).
7. HubSpot discovered its end-of-post banner CTAs contributed an average of just 6% of posts’ total leads; however, anchor text CTAs written in H3 or H4 near the top of a post generated 47–93% of that post’s leads (Vaughan, 2016).

Contact Information

1. Thorough contact information is cited as the most trust-boosting content a vendor website can offer, with 82% of respondents citing this as a “Must Have” or “Very Important” item (Huff Industrial Marketing, KoMarketing, & Buyer Zone, 2015, pp. 7, Figure 2).
2. 51% of people think “thorough contact information” is the most important element missing from many company websites (Huff Industrial Marketing, KoMarketing, & Buyer Zone, 2015).
3. Lack of contact information is the second-highest reason respondents said they leave a vendor website (Huff Industrial Marketing, KoMarketing, & Buyer Zone, 2015, pp. 15).

Encrypted HTTPS web pages often load faster than their non-encrypted HTTP counterparts.

HTTP v HTTPS Test

Website Bounces

1. 51% of respondents indicated vendor websites lacked thorough contact information, followed by client list and/or testimonials at 37%, research reports at 35%, and case studies at 34%, despite these being in high-demand (at 82%, 35%, 38%, and 34% respectively) (Huff Industrial Marketing, KoMarketing, & Buyer Zone, 2015, pp. 8, Figure 3).
2. The top 3 reasons for losing trust in a vendor website is no contact information, poor design and/or navigation, and lacking a message (not knowing what a company does), cited by 54%, 50%, and 48% respectively in respondents (Huff Industrial Marketing, KoMarketing, & Buyer Zone, 2015, pp. 15).
3. 48% of respondents cited the primary reason for leaving a vendor website is not knowing what the company does (Huff Industrial Marketing, KoMarketing, & Buyer Zone, 2015, pp. 15).
4. 37% of respondents cited their primary reason for leaving a vendor website is poor design and/or navigation (Huff Industrial Marketing, KoMarketing, & Buyer Zone, 2015, pp. 15).

Speed & Performance

1. 42% of respondents said they leave a vendor website if it takes 10 seconds to load (Huff Industrial Marketing, KoMarketing, & Buyer Zone, 2015, pp. 15).
2. Encrypted HTTPS web pages often load faster than their non-encrypted HTTP counterparts (HTTP v HTTPS Test)— HTTP v HTTPS Test reports the same page loads a substantial 73% faster over HTTPS than HTTP.
3. Blue Fountain Media witnessed a 42% increase in sales after posting the Verisign SSL symbol on their website (via Patel, 2014).