One thing Ive noticed about casinos is these guys are masters of marketing. Unlike 99% of offline businesses, they pull all the stunts.

They follow up with coupons, freebies, etc but there are two things that they do that are most interesting to me.

They don't have ANY clocks on the wall and if you look down at the carpet, its so full of different colors it makes you dizzy.

One can only assume this is so you are forced to look straight at the tables, and slot machines at all times.

Also, according to a few studies, the designs in these carpets (shapes) are closely related to symbols of fortune, good life, luck and other very powerful messages that are obviously used as a trigger for the subconscious.

Casino carpet patterns gallery - Boing Boing


Here's my question:

What if you had a background color on your webpage that had the same effect? So when peoples eye wondered, it would force them to focus in on the copy? Perhaps it could also full of symbols that appealed to their subconscious?

The difference with a web page is when you make people "dizzy" they just click away, unfortunately it doesn't make them more intent on reading your message. In most cases it also makes your site look more like a salesletter and less newsworthy.

Symbols that appeal to the subconscious are valid and worth testing, but again they can't detract from your message.

i sat on a plane with a dude who designs casinos.

lets just say everything in there is there for a specific reason. They make the exits hard to reach... the colors, the sounds, everything you see is designed to get you to stay longer and spend more moolah.

crazy stuff.

but I wouldnt use background stuff on web pages..... VERY distracting and from the testing I did it reduced conversions.... a lot.

Absolutely agree with davemiz on this - I tested funky backgrounds and they had a high negative impact on conversion.

too distracting, draws away from any text