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It is simple not relevant in this day and age to separate form from function. If something looks and feels good, people will use it more. Stephen Fry

Stephen Fry was talking of Apple products but in my view this statement is also relevant for websites.

If a site is well designed it is pleasing to the eye, fun an easy to use, then people will use it more and buy / interact with your product more.

How do we know if people are using your site more. Consider the following metrics:

1. Stickness – the number of pages per visit. The issue with this is that a high stickyness could mean users cannot find the information they are looking for on the site.
2. Unique visitors – if the number of visits increases, this is a good sign of course but it could be more to do with the means of encouraging users onto the site and not the site itself
3. Bounce rate – the number of users who leave the site on the first page impression. This is definitely to be considered because very few sites want people to leave on the first page.
4. Conversions / Conversion rate – independent on what a conversion is to you, registrations, purchases, views, the conversion is the end goal of all websites. However again this might be down to other activity driving better quality users to the site
5. Number of users who use the search box. The thought here is that users only resort to the search box when they can’t find the information they want in the navigation.