Interestingly, the end goal of creating an amazing user experience is for it to go unnoticed. Let me explain.
User experience dictates that the site should be easy to use and deliver satisfaction by enhancing the availability, usability and efficiency of its interactions. There is only a split second of a decision where the visitor chooses to either stay on your website or bounce off to your competitors.
To boost your business, the digital environment should be as seamless as possible. That is to say; the user should not have to make an extra effort to find, click or tap on anything. With everything in place, all they shall remember is the conversions and final product. The rest of the experience shall only complement their decision.
In a time where 75% of people base your credibility on your website, it becomes imperative to design a customer journey through the tools of UX. Here are five tips for you to improve this pivotal factor in your digital arena.
1. Improve the Page Speed
How long can you wait for a page to come to life? One of the most common reasons for a high bounce rate is slow loading websites. People want content on-demand, irrelevant to the connectivity or the device at hand. A snail-paced page not only disrupts the user experience but also creates a negative image for your brand.
So, the first and foremost phase is to optimize the waiting times by accelerating the page loading speeds. You can start by compressing the images, minifying your scripts and stylesheets, using an efficient CDN and getting rid of redundant assets and features.
Google provides a testing tool to see where you stand on the page loading index. It offers insights into what might be going wrong and how the site can be brought up to speed.
2. Use Conventions
Why do you feel so relaxed in your own home? Because you are well aware of all the elements surrounding you and can access all your required ones in the blink of an eye. The same concept applies to websites as well. Users expect a particular piece of content and design to be in specific spaces and are bound to be frustrated with they can’t find that information when needed. For instance, 51% of people think contact information is the most vital element missing from many websites.
To deliver a known and yet creative user experience, you first have to make sure that the visitor is comfortable in navigating the website as per their base understanding. Once that is achieved, can you introduce something new to the table.
Some known conventions are logo on the top-left corner, CTA button at the top, sign-up form in the footer, contact information in the navigation menu, and a complete sitemap at the end of the website.
3. Make Use of Whitespace
The only reason you can read what’s written in this sentence is because of the spaces between the words. Whitespace is an exaggeration of this concept that allows you to create a soft-focus on the design elements of your website. It makes the content readable and builds a complementing aura around the text or graphics.
Unlike common notions, white space or negative space is not a wasted area that should be used for advertising or pushing even more content. It essentially makes the user feel open and fresh about your website, thus lending a positive emotion to the experience.
Since whitespace indeed takes up your precious website’s real estate, it is important to choose the content and images that are highlighted. The layout should be designed to create directional cues for the viewer without any explicit instructions. The strategy is to find a balance between the space and the content that is displayed above the fold.
4. Bullets are Your Best Friend
If I were to write a chunk of words with no relevance, to begin with, you’d probably skim through the entire section and go for the conclusion. Bullets give you the power to deliver bite-sized information in an ingestible format to lure in the audience and retain them for longer.
It makes the UX further appealing by giving the key benefits, features and solutions of your products right away. Plus, with a list, there is a definitive amount of content that the user has to go through, lending a sense of control and time management.
Nevertheless, you don’t have to get all boring with the numbered tags and solid circles. Using creative icons and graphics can have a better effect on the user, reinforcing the ideas through visual aid. Coupled with white space, bullets highlight the key information while accentuating the site aesthetic.
5. Conduct Remote User Testing
User experiences can only be bettered if you know what’s going wrong with them in the first place. Remote testing your website and landing pages can help improve the sales funnel and bring higher conversion rates to the table.
Additionally, it is super affordable and delivers immediate feedback for timely changes. The hassles of a location-specific space and requisite equipment are entirely eliminated, reducing the costs involved by quite a margin.
A comprehensive test helps you understand the “how, what, and why” of user behaviour across your channels and lends insight into the thoughts and opinions that surround your brand image.
Ending Notes
Once you connect all the dots from the website design to the user interface, you’ll get an idea of how UX is indeed the superset of everything that goes around your digital space. From there, you can adopt an audience-oriented approach to keep testing and changing the pages until you arrive at your predefined objective.
It is essential to note that the above tips are simply a starting point to create a pleasing experience through your website. But, with a solid foundation, you can continue to add or remove the features, addressing your customer’s pain points and delivering greater results on-the-go.
