What’s the first thing you see when you open a website?
If you can’t come up with an answer or are confused about what to say then, don’t worry. It’s a trick question.
What you see when you go to a website depends on what the UX developer wants you to. Focussing on consumer experience, User Experience Design is the process of creating a website that defines the flow of interaction and maximizes user satisfaction.
Taking in the aspects of accessibility, usability, and efficiency, UX design goes much further than just creating an aesthetic. It essentially defines your buyer’s journey from the very first touchpoint to the final purchase.
Since no two users are the same, the design elements that assure success cannot be put in a template either. Your strategy can only work if it is backed by user research and market study at the end of the day.
To help you with the latter, we have come up with 5 definitive tips that shall improve your website tangibly. Read on to understand how you can be a part of the crowd while categorically standing out of it.
Simplicity and Minimalism
Simplicity doesn’t mean being basic. Simplicity is how you entice your visitors with selective information and components, without bombarding them with everything you have at hand. No matter which design model you choose, using whitespace and clearly segregated grid components allows the reader to move organically through the content. This not only gives you the influence to ascertain the direction but, also helps create prominent focal points within the layout as a whole.
Reduce and if possible, avoid cluttering completely. Learn about the concept of minimalism where any excess mess that doesn’t align with the brand image or even the current page gets knocked off the table. Looking independently at each content and graphic can give you a perspective into what purpose it solves and how your visitor can ultimately benefit from it.
Flow and Consistency
Think of flow as to how your buyer shall travel across your website, right from landing on it to the end goal you have set. Design language determines how the eye moves from one piece of content to the other with seamless ease. This requires you to determine the final destination for each kind of visitor. For example, valuable pieces of content should ideally lead the reader towards a subscribe button. Similarly, if it’s a social media marketing prospect, all roads should end at the checkout page. The key here is giving the user a responsive and interactive website that keeps them engaged at all times.
Consistency is a crucial tool that lets you achieve flow. Keeping a set of elements standard across the website brings about a brand persona that gives the user grounds for recall and association. Plus, guidance gets much easier if you’re only changing the focal points with similar contrasts and colors.
Personalization and Customization
Pick up any web design in London, and you’ll see that certain pieces of the puzzle are true only to that particular set. Personalization, although a common concept can sometimes get lost in context. Just remember to ask this one question – What’s the one thing that sets me apart? The answer to this can be anything, right from your production capabilities to your aesthetics. Now, apply that answer across your site through graphics, content, layout, gridlines, margins and everything else in a way that the user can effectively differentiate between you and your competition.
While personalization is how you bring your vision forward, customization allows the visitor some leeway into deciding how they would like to see and perceive your content. Personalization also comes through AI and ML, where the data is delivered depending upon the past use, experiences and interests of the visitor. Around 15% of websites use AI already to improve their consumer experience. So, get on that stallion and ride it into the sunset.
Intuitive and Native Navigation
When redirected from a referral website, 50% of users are seen using the navigation menu to bring themselves up to speed. With the continually degrading attention span, you have mere seconds before a visitor decides to bounce off. Intuitive navigation essentially means delivering what your consumers are already accustomed or what they look forward to. Innovation takes you ahead on a new road but, put too many turns, and you’re bound to aggravate the driver. For example, the footnote should always house your contact details and important links. If a visitor doesn’t find it there, it is quite possible that they won’t make the effort of searching for it.
Native navigation runs on the same lines. Your UX design should be aligned with the common understanding and placement of a home button, navigation bar and categories. Study the schematics to know how a user reacts to an array of layouts and apply this information to optimize your overall strategy.
UX Review and Audit
UX is not a one-time process. We know you must have heard this a million times by now, but this is what it means – no matter how good you were at first, you can always get better. You see UX in its very name calls for experience. Experience with time is supposed to evolve and demand something new.
Accordingly, once in a while, it is advisable to take a break from the implementation tasks and go back to evaluating everything that has been done. This involves studying the data, calling for suggestions, and rooting out the design bugs. It holds even more significance if you’ve recently decided to pivot your company goals and intentions. Inherently, catching up with the market trends and consumer behavior can bring about a change that helps you get those valuable conversions and sought after retention ratios.
UX strategy is a multi-faceted approach towards building an ecosystem where your visitor, user, prospect, and team feel comfortable. It can be seen as creating a highway that takes your readers to your chosen destination with zero obstacles.
The thing to remember here is that UX is driven by keeping in mind one person and one person only – your user.