User Experience. If you don’t know what it is, you should. User experience can be the single biggest deciding factor as to whether websites retain viewers, and convert them to customers.
First priorities for many businesses wanting to establish their online presence is domain name and visuals. They put UX on the backburner, as an ‘if we still have time/money’. This is a common yet crucial error for many online businesses.
Why is UX so important?
Context: you have been told about a shop which has the very thing you are looking to buy! It’s easy to find, and the exterior is beautifully decorated.
Then you walk in. The shop is badly lit and poorly organised, so you can’t find anything you need. The staff are unhelpful and seem to not know their purpose. They tell you the item you are looking for is somewhere in the store, but you’ll have to look around to find it.
Do you buy anything from here? Probably not. Are you more likely to move to a more efficiently organised shop, where you can quickly find what you need? Yes, yes you are.
This is why UX is important. Your experience online affects your decision making, in the same way your real life experiences would. Something that is easy, efficient and satisfies your needs will be something you return to. Providing good UX is a science, and this is why it is increasingly important to consider web engineering – and not just design. There is no point in making your house pretty if it falls down around you.
What makes good UX design?
Clear navigation. Getting lost in a site is hugely frustrating; make sure visitors can quickly find their way around and get where they need to be.
- Page loading speed. Check out our blog here to find out why.
- Purpose. Make sure the design of your pages reflect what they are there for. Blog content should be shareable, whereas products for sale should be shoppable.
- Personalised. Make sure your experience reflects your audience type. Understanding how your audience thinks, and what they want from your site is vital to good UX. Getting feedback from your target audience is a great way of checking you are fulfilling their needs.
- Content-led design, not design led content. Establish what needs to be on your pages before you try and build them, not after.
- Information Architecture. Your content hierarchy should be clear and logical. As with your navigation, users will feel lost if the layout isn’t rational.
- Human. Whilst optimising for SEO is vital, if you want humans to interact with your site then it needs to be human. Users need to feel a sense of trust that there is a genuine humanity behind your site, not just a vacant machine.
Does your UX do you justice?
How do you think your site weighs up when it comes to UX? Is it something you regularly review as your site evolves? Let us know if you would like to chat about evolving your customer experience, or if you’d like us to review your current site for you.
