Think about the last time you went into a store and received poor customer service. Did you ever go back?
Like physical locations, websites have one opportunity to leave a first impression – good or bad – on a visitor. That’s why you need to do everything possible to ensure your website experience is a positive one. Here’s what you should know about user experience design and how to improve it on your website quickly.
What is User Experience?
User experience (UX) is the type of interaction a visitor has when they land on your website. The goal of UX design is to create an overall pleasant experience and a memorable impact so that visitors return in the future. A positive UX meets the user’s needs and objectives, which leads to an increase in conversions and a growth in business.
You want to do everything possible to avoid negative UX experiences, which create confusion and frustration – both emotions you don’t want prospective customers to generate. When a site has terrible UX, visitors often question the company’s credibility and are unlikely to ever return to that site. Unfortunately, you remember negative UX for a longer time than positive UX.
To make the UX meaningful and valuable, you need to develop a thorough understanding of your user’s needs and wants, values, abilities, and limitations. Your website needs to focus on the UX design elements that meet these requirements.
Make It Easy to Navigate
Visitors land on your website to accomplish one thing: find the information they require. If they can’t find the answers to their queries quickly and seamlessly, they’re likely to move on to another website that does.
Resist the temptation to be overly creative and instead, follow conventions. For example, place your logo on the top-left corner, the main navigation menu along the top or right side of the page, and social media links in the footer. Make calls to action large and fully clickable.
Keep your pages as clean, simple to navigate, and clutter-free as possible. This can help improve website speed, which needs to be as fast as possible.
If you have a large site with extensive information, install a search bar. Navigating your content becomes easy and you gain valuable insight into what people are searching for within your site.
Keep It Consistent
Besides increasing sales, your website is there to help you build brand recognition. Using consistent branding in all of your marketing – including your website – can create a loyal following.
Be sure to include your logo, comparable typography, and a recognizable colour palette in your design. Keep your text formatting uniform – typically title (H1), headings (H2), sub-headings (H3), and paragraph text. Use the same size, weight, colour, position, and type contrast throughout your content, as well as short paragraphs and bulleted lists.
Spacing is always important. Find the proper balance between images and text and maintain an equal amount of white space throughout your site. Use clearly defined sections and logically organized content to help site visitors quickly locate information.
Pay Attention to Feedback
Although making improvements to your site should be a regular task on your to-do list, many business owners only address site issues when necessary. If that sounds like you, you could be missing out on great opportunities to improve the UX.
Review your metrics regularly to identify the search terms people are using to find your site, the pages that receive the most traffic, and the length of time visitors stay on your site. Study this information to learn user behaviour, then make relevant site improvements. For example, if you find out that most visitors are quickly exiting your site, think about what may be causing that. Is it the annoying popup ad or overload of animations?
Register for Google Console, which immediately alerts you about any errors Google finds when crawling your site. Use its tools and reports to help identify website issues and maintain great UX.
Wrapping Up
From layout to accessibility, everything that you do on your website should optimize UX. Creating an effective UX can make or break the number of sales you receive, the impression you leave on-site visitors, and your company’s credibility. Although it requires a long-term commitment to continual improvement, the right UX will result in a steady stream of happy website visitors.
Want help with improving the UX on your existing website or want to create an entirely new site? We offer complete web design and copywriting services. Maximize the potential of your website by contacting us today!