Imagine you walk by a store and a very cool display catches your eye.
You go inside, only to discover that the store is impossible to navigate.
You’re not sure in which direction you can walk, there are racks blocking the aisles,
and, for some reason, the cash register is in the bathroom.
And it’s broken.
I’m guessing if this store actually existed, it would close pretty quickly because it creates
a poor experience for its customers.
Similar to a chaotic store, careless web design can end up hurting your business.
If your website doesn’t look great, is difficult to navigate, or doesn’t work the way it
should, people will go elsewhere.
This is where I tell you that you can prevent people from leaving your site.
In this video, I’m going to go over how you can create a website with user experience
(UX) in mind.
I’ll cover: What UX is
What a UX designer does How to give users a good experience on your
site
Stay with me.
What is UX design?
UX design is a principle of good web design that focuses on how to create a website that
works well for users.
The end goal of UX design is that you’ll have a great product that looks nice, is structured
well, functions properly, and keeps people coming back.
I guess that’s more than one goal…
In addition, good UX can help your website show up in search engines.
If your site works well, you’ll likely be able to keep people on it longer.
If people don’t quickly return to the search engine results, this is a signal that your
site offers something valuable.
Your website may be pretty on the outside, but if it’s difficult to navigate when you
look a little closer, your designer was not focused on UX.
You may be wondering, “What is a UX designer?”
What is a UX designer?
Put simply, a UX designer thinks about the user’s needs when they’re working on a
site.
While the following aren’t the only aspects of a website a UX designer can cover, they’re
some pretty important ones: Responsiveness
Usability Navigation
Design Responsiveness
People don’t only access your website from a desktop computer.
In fact, there’s a chance you’re watching this video from your phone.
Am I right?
Tablets, smartphones, laptops, desktops...people have plenty of options when they’re surfing
the web.
If your website doesn’t respond to different devices, it’s bound to lose traffic to competing
websites that do adapt.
So if your website gets cut off on tablets, or is significantly slower on mobile, it’s
time to make adjustments.
Your UX designer can handle that.
Usability Think of usability as getting your site visitors
from point A to point B with little to no issues.
Say you have a short paragraph of text on your website encouraging people to contact
you, and you’ve linked to a page with a contact form within the text of that paragraph.
With usability in mind, it may be better to have your contact form directly below that
paragraph, or add a noticeable button that directs people to your contact page.
While you may think it’s common sense for people to click the link in the text, another
person may miss that link or get confused and wander aimlessly through your pages.
Your UX designer should throw all assumptions out the window when updating your website.
Navigation If people can’t find what they need on your
website, they’re going to get frustrated.
Frustrated site visitors likely won’t become customers.
A UX designer will organize the structure of your website so that it’s as simple as
possible for people to find their way across your site.
You may notice that many websites have a large navigation menu at the top of every page so
people can hop to different sections.
This is a great way to keep your site organized and keep people from losing their way.
Design It’s not 2005 anymore.
Websites need to look good.
Let me ask you this.
If you landed on a website that looked like it was made when dial-up was considered groundbreaking,
would you trust it?
Good design can help communicate your brand and can help people feel more comfortable
navigating your content.
A UX designer will keep this in mind when working on your website.
You don’t want your design to be too distracting, but you want it to be eye-catching enough
that people want to stay on your site.
We’re almost done here, but I just want to talk about one more thing related to UX
design: user interface (UI) design.
UX vs. UI design As I mentioned, UX is a way of designing that
incorporates people’s needs and behaviors.
UI, on the other hand, is just a portion of UX.
I can best explain this using a smartphone.
So when you use your phone, you interact with the interface.
Things like apps, a search bar, and the design of the home screen all make up the UI.
The UX includes the interface, but it doesn’t stop there.
Things like the phone’s physical design, the home button (or not), the power button,
and the headphone jack (or not) can all be considered part of the UX.
So both UI and UX are important, but UX is a more all-inclusive term for things that
users interact with.
Either way, UX design is incredibly important for your website.
If you don’t think your website creates a good experience for visitors, it may be
time to partner with a UX designer.
Our team of designers knows how to create websites that people love, so don’t hesitate
to contact our team by phone, or through webfx.com.
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See you next time!