Web design is a huge factor in our daily lives. Probably a larger factor than most of us realize. Everyone in this minute-by-minute world is online, using the internet, and experience the structure of websites. It's important to be aware of the psychological concepts behind a good design versus a poor one.
An example of web page improvement to Google and Facebook:
First, web designers take into account the psychological effects of color. They recall how blue tends to be calming, red ignites passion or drive, grey feels neutral and balanced, etc. They apply these colors to their website appropriately. The use of these colors will determine the length of a users time, how they feel when the open a page, and even how much they spend, if they website is selling something. Imagine opening Facebook and having a black screen with yellow text. Although, this would still be legible and an effective way of reading, it would not be efficient or comfortable. Users would not engage with Facebook nearly as often, because of how uncomfortable it made them.
Secondly, being aware of the web-sites target audience is an important aspect to be aware of. Obviously, reaching an audience of 9-12 years old is different than reaching an audience of 18-23 years old. Knowing more about the interests and mental abilities of the targeted audience will improve the experience of that user on the website. An example would be Nickelodean's www.nick.com versus Abc's www.abc.go.com.
Thirdly, perceptual sets would be used in a good web design. Understanding the way a person will perceive the website, what parts he will chunk together, the way he reads the pages (which is in a 'Z' formation), and the expectations a viewer already has of a website. The concept of perceptual set will create an efficient layout for a viewer. It is the most critical aspect of designing; it allows the important things to be noticed and the less important to be available, but not overwhelming.
Ultimately, if web designers ignored the psychological ideas and principles of perception, us users would be stuck with uncomfortable, mis-formulated layouts, that would hinder our ability to use the internet efficiently and happily.
--I found this article and chapter 4 of the textbook helpful in writing this blog entry. --
I think that you bring up a lot of interesting points about how much thought webdesigners actually put into websites. It is almost like they are creating an ad, trying to locate a target audience and fit the visual aspects to that audience's specific needs. This could also account for anything given to us by the media. Books, newspapers, movie covers. Who knows how much time the desingers actually spend on such things that we don't think about but can be subliminally influenced by. We would probably be much less obligated to buy or go on those websites.