What is this C.R.A.P.?

Contrast
Repetition
Alignment
Proximity

Contrast

In an empty room, your eyes will be drawn to the red blanket piled in the middle. Making good use of contrast is all about the right amount of white space, the right size, and the right color to draw the right amount of attention.

Repetition

If every door in your house opens out, you don’t have to think about how to use them. Good repetition makes your visitors think “I can use this site, I can find what I need - this is easy.”

Alignment

Even a two foot screen is enough to say “this is a separate room.” A slight change in alignment between header and content helps your visitors scan the page to find what they need, and understand what belongs to what.

Proximity

Street signs make the most sense if placed right at the intersection. Putting what you want visitors to do (like add something to the shopping cart), close to the information they want to know most (such as the price), gets the job done more quickly.

If Content is King…

Easy is Queen. Like it or not, every visitor is comparing your site to every other site on the web. If you aren’t as “easy” as someone else - guess what?

They are going to buy from the easy site, even if it is more expensive.

There are very few people in the world who will deal with a PITA website just to get a better price. Easy is the first and most important factor in every buying decision. Second to that is trust and safety - with price coming in dead last.

But there is often a very big difference between what you think, and what converts visitors into buyers.

…because conversions are the name of the game. Whether you like it or not doesn’t matter. That “Hacker Safe” logo may look really dorky in the middle of your header - but guess what? Putting it there often increases conversions by as much as 50% over putting it anywhere else on your site.

And here’s another interesting statistic. I have been proven wrong… once.