A beautiful website can make a very good first impression. Sometimes it makes such a good impression that we politely overlook the part where finding a phone number became an escape-room activity.
That doesn’t make visual design unimportant. Quite the opposite. It means appearance can influence how we judge the experience, so we need to look at what people do as well as what they say.
Nielsen Norman Group’s discussion of the aesthetic-usability effect explains this tendency: people may perceive attractive interfaces as easier to use and tolerate minor difficulties.1 The effect has limits. Good photography won’t indefinitely compensate for a task somebody cannot finish.
Here’s a practical way to review a polished redesign without treating the compliments as a completed usability test.
Give the design a job before asking for an opinion
Choose a task a visitor genuinely needs to perform. For a fictional architecture practice, that might be finding a relevant project and working out how to discuss a similar one.
Keep the task neutral. Ask someone to find information, rather than telling them which menu item or button should provide it.
Define what finishing looks like
Agree on the information or action that would satisfy the task. In this example, the person might need to identify a relevant project, understand enough about the practice’s role and locate an inquiry route.
That is different from asking whether the homepage feels premium. Both questions may be useful, but they tell you different things.
A dramatic project image can contribute to confidence and interest. If the visitor then has to inspect six unlabeled symbols to find the contact page, the image has done its part and the navigation still needs help. We don’t have to make the photograph stand trial for somebody else’s work.
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Let the person try without a guided tour
Give them space to act. Avoid explaining the navigation as soon as they hesitate. It is a kind impulse, particularly when you’re proud of the site, but most visitors won’t arrive with a helpful developer attached.
Notice wrong turns, repeated attempts and places where the person pauses. Ask open questions afterward about what they expected and what happened.
If somebody compliments the colors after struggling, accept the compliment without using it to cancel the observation. They can appreciate the appearance and encounter a real problem at the same time. Human beings remain annoyingly capable of holding two thoughts.
Check whether the visual hierarchy supports the task
Scale, contrast and grouping help direct attention. Kelley Gordon’s visual-hierarchy guidance describes how those relationships shape what people notice.2
Apply that to the page in front of you. Does the important next step look important? Are project details grouped with the relevant image? Does a minor announcement compete with the main explanation?
A layout can look calm while hiding essential information. It can also be lively while keeping the task clear. The right judgment depends on the actual content, rather than whether a particular style is fashionable.
Worth reading next: What did the redesign make easier?
Combine observed behavior with a structured review
A heuristic evaluation checks an interface against established usability principles. Nielsen Norman Group’s guidance distinguishes that expert review from testing with users.3 They can complement one another; they aren’t interchangeable.
A small project can start with a focused review of the same journey. Look for unclear labels, missing feedback, inconsistent controls and difficulty recovering from an error.
If several people review independently before comparing notes, you may uncover different issues. Keep observations specific enough to act on. Difficult navigation needs an example; the project page offers no clear route back to the portfolio gives the team something to investigate.
Then make a targeted change and repeat the relevant task. Try to preserve the visual qualities people valued while resolving the friction. We don’t need to respond to an awkward menu by sentencing the entire site to beige.
The review should leave the team with an ordered set of improvements and the evidence behind them. A failed task deserves attention even when the overall impression is positive. A small hesitation may deserve a smaller adjustment.
I’m very happy for a website to be beautiful. Let’s just make sure its good looks aren’t doing all the apologizing.
When someone can enjoy the design and comfortably finish what they came to do, you have a stronger result than either a lovely screenshot or a perfectly usable page nobody wants to spend time on.