Chinese Monks Teach Web Design

What in the world does Feng Shui have to do with web design? More to the point, what does Feng Shui have to do with designing a website for a higher ROI? The principles of Feng Shui date back at least 3000 years – what can we learn from this ancient Eastern philosophy?

Feng Shui is about harmony and balance. It is about harnessing positive energy, or ch’i, to create environments in which ch’i flows smoothly to achieve physical and mental health. When ch’i is flowing freely, there is harmony. When ch’i is stuck, there is disharmony. It is, at its core, about being aware of your surroundings and the impact these surroundings have on you as an individual.

Malcom Gladwell, author of Blink, wrote about how our brains make near-instant judgments about our surroundings. When we are immersed in a website, it is also a part of our surroundings.  We make judgments about a website before it is even finished loading. Usability studies show again and again that visitors don’t read content, they simply scan it. So perhaps some of the basic, common sense principles of Feng Shui can help us understand why we make decisions in the blink of an eye and, in turn, help us retain more visitors and drive them to action.

1. Colors

According to Feng Shui, colors are an expression of one of the five elements of Feng Shui – wood, fire, earth, metal and water. Red, for example, is an expression of the element Fire, indicating passion and high energy. Blue, the most frequently used color in corporate websites, is an expression of Water, which represents ease, freshness and abundance.

When applied to web design, it is important to keep in mind what your choice of colors says about your business and whether these colors support your positioning or not. The color green, for example, is used on many financial websites such as Ameritrade and BNP Paribas. This conveys an image of health and growth, two things this sector could use right now.

2. Eliminate clutter

Clutter in a room prevents energy from flowing properly. The effect on a person is that it drains energy and causes stress. Just like energy must be able to flow through a room, so must a visitor be able to flow through a website. Clutter prevents a person from moving naturally through the website and creates a disruptive and unenjoyable browsing experience.

Eliminating clutter means getting rid of stale content that does not drive visitors to a desired action. It also means organizing the site so the layout is clean and clear. A Call to Action could be considered strategically placed clutter, since the goal is to catch visitors before they flow away from the site. With a clean, simple layout, it is much easier to guide your visitors to these calls to action.

Web Analytics Tip: Think about the paths you want your visitors to take in your site. At an online shop, you want visitors to put an item into the cart and flow smoothly to checkout and payment confirmation. Look if a large number of visitors are getting stuck along the way and then take measures to improve the ch’i!

3. Consistency & Balance

Feng Shui is also about balancing yin and yang – opposing but interdependent concepts. Dark is to light as passive is to active. Interior is to exterior as cold is to heat. By failing to balance the two sides, turbulence and imbalance results.

In a website, balance is also important. That means not just balancing the page so it fits aesthetically, but also ensuring a consistent and balanced design. For example, if a text link is red, there should not be any other red text in that font style that is not a link. By sticking to a simple and consistent layout, visitors will be able to navigate through the site without thinking, leaving them to concentrate on the tasks for which they came to the site in the first place.

Chinese Monks teach web design?

There is of course a lot more to Feng Shui than what I described in this post. Even the basic concepts of Feng Shui – abstract notions like energy flow and balance – are nearly impossible to prove. But on the web, apply these principles and test them with your web analytics tool. The results are measurable. Before you know it, you will be calling on a Chinese Monk specializing in Feng Shui to consult on your next redesign!