Line25 is reader supported. At no cost to you a commission from sponsors may be earned when a purchase is made via links on the site. Learn more
You might be familiar with the term user experience (or UX).
Recently, its importance in website design has been emphasized.
As a business, understanding the importance of UX will assist you to improve your website and, as a result, your conversion rate.
When website designers understand UX, they are able to create a better design for their clients.
What are the basic building blocks or a great UX, and what does it really mean?
What is UX and why should it be included in the design?
User experience is the process of creating a positive experience for users while they engage with your website. Great UX assists your customers to access an aesthetic and intuitive site. Your users, therefore, enjoy your site and feel pleasure while browsing.
The way that your user is able to navigate and use your site is as important as the design, the content and the products offered. It isn’t enough to add CSS text effects in there or other embellishments.
A great user experience doesn’t only relate to website design. It is an important element in any form of website success.
When taking UX into account, it is helpful to ask the questions: who, what, where, when, why and how.
- Who are your clients and how do they wish to use your site?
- What are your products and what will motivate your customer to use them?
- Where will your customers use your products?
- When will your customers use your products?
- Why will your customers select your product instead of your competitions?
- How will your customer make use of your product?
What does a UX designer do?
A UX designer researches how clients interact with a site, continually improving it. By working towards creating an intuitive site that meets client’s needs, a UX designer is able to create a positive user experience. This will increase business profitability.
In many industries, UX is still unknown and may feel confusing. One of the biggest misperceptions involves the confusion between User Interface (UI) and UX. User interface involves how your user engages with a site, while UX explores how a viewer feels about the experience.
This confusion often occurs because UX is relatively new to the field of website design.
UX is slowly beginning to emerge as important though. It is no longer simply site aesthetics or wireframes which determine the effectiveness of a site. UX has a crucial role to play.
Why is UX important to web design?
As a site owner or designer, you want your viewers to enjoy visiting your site. There are many sites which are more frustrating than helpful, and many users will bounce of those sites.
However, it can be subtle elements which determine a site’s success.
When you pay attention to how your users are responding to your site, you can fix those elements which inhibit enjoyment.
Focusing on UX enables your website to move from good to great, enhancing the enjoyment of your audience. Many people will bounce away from websites which don’t appeal, and they usually don’t return.
Large companies such as Amazon focus heavily on UX in order to determine how to improve customer experience.
When websites are enjoyable, easy to understand and help a viewer achieve a goal, they will keep your clients coming back.
What are the primary goals of a website?
- To provide customers with information in an organized and valuable way.
- Ensure that a customer can complete any transactions on a site with ease.
Keeping these two functions streamlined will keep clients happy. The more complex or disorganized a website feels, the less satisfied viewers or clients will be.
If your clients are unhappy, dissatisfied or frustrated, it will harm your UX, which will decrease your growth as a company.
Companies need to convert viewers into clients or attract leads in order to grow. Your business depends on selling your products.
As a business, you also need to explore what your customers need. If nobody is looking for your product, your site will be ineffective.
Before setting up a website, explore Google trends to see how many people are looking for your product or service.
When you are looking to create a great user experience, you’ll be looking both at how your website has been designed, and how functional it is to your users. It is a combination of aesthetics, great content and easy usability that creates a great UX.
When designers work towards creating a great UX, all of the elements that produce an excellent site are broken down into small steps which will achieve this goal.
Designers look at both the industry the company falls within as well as the target audience which users are appealing to. What do users look for in a site and how would they like it to function?
Think of the goals of a business, and what the business would like to achieve with the site. Is it the sharing of information, product sales or the attraction of volunteers? Are you looking for industry leads?
When you design a site, the element of flow is as important as site elements. While site elements are the building or construction blocks which will engage your user, flow is the end result.
In flow, your users enjoy your site to such an extent that they lose themselves in the process. Time can pass as the user delves further into your site.
Flow depends on all of the site elements – great content, legibility, aesthetics and navigation – being well constructed and easy to use.
When customers are engaged in flow, they will enjoy your site and the end result will be a high conversion rate for your business.
While designing your site, it is therefore important to focus on the human touch. A user will respond well to a site that has been designed according to their needs.
Keeping the site simple, well structured and easy to understand will go a long way. Adding humor and warmth while remaining informative will create flow within your viewers.
Presenting your site as warm and informative will build up a human relationship, where your viewer will feel as though they are interacting with a human being rather than simply a machine.
This helps to build up trust and create a relationship between site owner and client. Your viewer will then return to your site again and again to continue the relationship.
A strategic approach
When you are exploring UX, it is often helpful to draw on-site analysis and client research. Effective analysis is more helpful than seeking out your competition and exploring what they are doing.
This is because your competition may not be meeting the needs of their own clientele.
Researching your target market is a far more effective means of creating a great UX,
The end result
When you are working with complex sites and sophisticated techniques, focusing on UX makes a site simple, effective and easy to use. If you implement a great UX, your customers will be able to access your site across multiple devices and have a great online experience. This increases sales for companies retains clients and reduces marketing costs. This will allow a business to grow.
With the move to the digital age, businesses with websites will be improved by focusing on creating a positive user experience. This will enable a company to make progress, understand their clientele and make informed decisions.
UX has the possibility of taking business experiences to a new level, creating a new online marketing technique which is determined by client needs.
Summary
Creating a successful website design involves exploring your UX. This may seem like a challenging proposition. However, when UX is included in website design from the beginning, the site will be designed around client needs.
This will add value to the end result.
Thank you so much – you really helped me a lot!
We will use your groundwork in our article about UX for web.
That’s really an informative post. I appreciate your skills. Thanks for sharing.