The advent of smartphones and internet accessibility has created new opportunities and challenges for business owners.
Just building a website and indexing your services and products is not enough. Your website ought to be developed to suit the needs of its target users. It should:
● reflect your firm’s values and brand
● be fun and intuitive navigation experience for the user
● be accessible through a mobile app
Thus, while designing a website, the focus should be on user experience (UX).
But, what is user experience? How to design user experience? What are the factors that you need to consider while incorporating these concepts into your website? Read on to find out:
User Experience
Like all other human behavior, internet users behave in specific ways while surfing the internet. How the site visitor behaves when he/she lands on your website is an indicator of the experience offered by your website.
For example, the number of clicks, the average time spent on the website, navigating the different pages, and many more such factors can give us an idea about whether the user likes spending time at your website. This is known as user experience or UE.
UX Design
UX (user experience) design is a process to improve the look and work of the website so that it becomes more accessible and interactive to the user.
The trick is to design the user experience for websites so that they should not be looked at as designed. UX design should be a natural and holistic part of developing a website. It makes your website friendly and desirable.
Importance of a Good UX Design:
Globally, more than 5,47,200 websites are created every day. It is but natural that the competition to reach the target user is high. A good UX design can work wonders to generate the desired traffic to your website.
1. First impression
A UX design helps create a good first impression among first-time visitors. It urges viewers to stay on the site for a little longer and explore the features
2. Lead Generation
From a casual user to a curious user, a curious user to an interested user, and finally, an interested user to a potential business lead- lead generation, nurturing, and conversion can be achieved through a flawless user design.
3. Branding & Recognition
It can help create the right kind of awareness for your brand. Right from the time a user visits your website, he/she should be able to connect with your brand and recognize what you offer instantly.
Ok, so UX design is an essential and integral part of a website design. But is it achievable? The good news is, yes. Read further to know how to improve user experience on your website by implementing the following tips
Some Essential Tips to Improve User Experience:
1. Content is King
There is no substitute for great content. Invest your resources in providing content that engages the user. The content should be relatable to the user.
2. Keep it Concise
At first, the user needs information, not data. Provide information effectively and concisely.
3. Never Annoy the User
A lot of pop-ups or links to other pages can swiftly decrease user interest. As a result, the user can leave the site. Keep your website clean and crisp.
4. Strategic Site-Layout
Figure out your priorities and prepare the site layout accordingly. For example, if you want users to search your website for various items, display the search bar prominently.
5. Optimize Your Website
As per the website section.io, if your website takes more time to load, it can decrease the conversion rate. Thus, your website should be loaded in the minimum time possible. If it indeed takes time, then ensure that the important highlights load first to engage the user.
6. Use of White Spaces
The white spaces refer to the unused space on your website. Don’t treat your website as a piece of land that has to be filled up with one or other items. The best UI UX websites have a large chunk of white spaces that let the site breathe. For example, we all use google. The Google homepage has only a prominent search bar prominently displayed among a lot of white spaces. Why do you think Google designed its homepage in that way?
7. Seamless Integration of Desktop and Mobile App
More and more users are searching the net over their phone. Starting from July 1, 2019, Google has enabled mobile-first indexing in its search algorithms. Your website can have a better chance of listing on search engines if it has an excellent mobile interface.
8. Flow and Consistency
The user should not feel like abruptly jumping from one place to another while navigating on our site. Your website should maintain a proper flow and consistency in terms of information and content.
9. Connect to the User
Your website should be able to connect to the user personally. In other words, it should be interactive. The user should feel like he is talking to a friend, not a program. For example, if the connection breaks, Google doesn’t get through the message “Error 404”. Instead, it says,” Oops. Something went wrong…”.
Conclusion
Investing time and attention in a good UX design is not a luxury in this day and age. Its a necessity to grow your reach and digital footprint. You don’t have to sweat it out on ways to find how to do it. You can hire a web design agency with a good reputation and proven expertise in building websites with great UX designs. Such agencies can give a makeover to your existing website or build a new website to fulfill your objective while making plans to take your firm to greater heights.
