4

We have a client who is pretty set in using images of her staff on call to action buttons. I can see how it would build trust for the user to see a face since their service involves speaking to someone to get a custom quote.

Currently they have such button:
enter image description here

The down side as a developer is that I have to work around these images in the buttons and does not allow buttons to be easily changed going forward.

Does anyone know of any stats or articles that talk bout this type of thing so I can get a clear answer as to what is going to be the best call to action.

Thanks

Improve this question
1
  • 1
    There's probably some fallacy / circular-reasoning going on here. "People are drawn to pictures of faces, people also click buttons so if we put faces on our buttons then people will click them". I see no actual connection between why a face on a button makes it more clickable. Indeed it runs the risk of being less noticed as it could be thought of as an advert and subconsciously avoided altogether.
    – JonW ♦
    Feb 27, 2014 at 10:22

2 Answers 2

Reset to default
2

The call to action with human faces are frequently used for online help buttons: enter image description here
The reason is more to some skeuomorphic intentions, rather in deep psychology background. Indeed, they try to convey the idea of a real person is ready and glad) to communicate with a user.

Digging more in psychology side, you can refer to 100 Things Every Designer Needs to Know About People by S. Weinschenk. Takeaways are:

  • People recognize and react to faces on Web pages faster than anything else on the page (at least by those who are not autistic).
  • Faces looking right at people will have the greatest emotional impact on a Web page, probably because the eyes are the most important part of the face.
  • If a face on a Web page looks at another spot or product on the page, people will also tend to look at that product. This doesn’t necessarily mean that they paid attention to it, just that they physically looked at it.
Improve this answer
2

I've never used a face as a button, but one of the marketing methods we learned in college was to use people's images to direct attention to a particular call to action link/button. What was particularly effective was an image of the face of a child turned slightly with the button in the eye line of the child. The "what's that cute kid looking at?" is hard for us to ignore subconsciously. Here is an article with some eyetracking data that supports this hypothesis.

http://uxmovement.com/buttons/call-to-action-buttons-best-practices-guide/ has a good piece on different methods for creating CTAs, and while there is mention of icons, they don't say anything about pictures.

https://www.2checkout.com/blog/article/3-ways-to-optimize-your-call-to-action-buttons has more good info about using arrows to direct your attention to a link/button.

I'd stay away from using a face as a button, but would try to find a way to incorporate them into the design to direct attention to the button.

Improve this answer
1
  • 1
    I've added in a link to your answer about the 'what's the cute kid looking at' as it has some eyetracking evidence. I hope that covers off what you were referring to there.
    – JonW ♦
    Feb 27, 2014 at 10:35

Your Answer

By clicking “Post Your Answer”, you agree to our terms of service and acknowledge that you have read and understand our privacy policy and code of conduct.

Not the answer you're looking for? Browse other questions tagged or ask your own question.