Did you know that half of mobile users say that bad website optimization irritates them? With this in mind, it should shock you that only just over half of companies do user experience testing. UX design, or user experience, is how a person experiences using your website or app.
Although this may sound simple, don't be deceived. Making sure customers can navigate your website can be more of a challenge than it seems at first glance. Good UX can impact your sales, your returning visitors, and more.
Are you interested in learning more about why UX is so vital for your business? Our helpful guide will give you a complete rundown of what you need to know.
What Is User Experience Design About?
Consider your user's experience in every step of website design. There are different elements to pay attention to. Each of these elements will make your website easy to use and understand.
A lot of these principles may seem very common sense to you. But many business owners fail to implement these design principles on their sites. Not enough businesses do UX audits to find out where they may be losing clients.
Imagine using your product from the point of view of your client or customer. What do they need from you?
They will want to be able to easily navigate your website. They want to know where products and pages are located. It should be easy for them to perform tasks on your site.
What seems simple is the result of hours of research and prototyping. Through this trial and refinement, you get a beautiful and easy-to-navigate site.
Communication Is Key for UX Design
Users value clear communication. That means you want to explain to your user each step of the way what to do through the website. Copy on your site should be clear and easy to understand.
Assume that your viewer does not know jargon or complex technical terms. Give clear feedback when it comes to error messages and other website copy. Avoid confusing your user.
Repeat information they're going to need across every page that they need it. Do not expect them to remember or recall information while they're browsing.
Good Communication Leads to Better Conversion Rates
Looking at conversion rate tells you what people are doing after you've got them to click on your website. User experience designers pay close attention to conversion rates. They do so to understand if people are using your website as intended.
For example, say you are an e-commerce site. You need to check that your conversion rates for "adding to cart" are successful.
Maybe it's not clear where customers put in their payment information. Or it's hard to read the fields they need to fill in. A UX designer will optimize this for you.
User Experience and Navigation
You want the navigation experience to be easy for the user. They should be able to go to previous pages or click buttons with ease. You don't want your website to be wildly different than your competitors.
Users have short attention spans. They don't want to have to learn an entirely new system in order to shop, read, or get in contact with you on your site.
Clear Navigation Lowers Your Churn Rate
Poorly designed websites lead to a high churn rate. You calculate this rate by looking at how many customers stop using your website over a period of time.
If your website is difficult to navigate, users will not continue to use your website. They won't use your services if it's a pain to sign up or pay.
Visual Design
Good user experience design will be consistent across pages. Use the same colors across the entire site. Don't suddenly change the color of buttons or page backgrounds.
When it comes to branding, you want to do research. See what colors, fonts, and combinations work well for your site. It's not just about what you think is appealing.
It's also about what makes it easy for the user. For example, yellow may be a color that you really like and want to use.
You can develop this in your logo or accent details. But keep in mind that readability is impacted negatively if you'd use only yellow text.
Well Designed Sites Reduce Bounce Rates
It is very common for users to quickly leave a site if they see that the design is ugly, confusing, or outdated. There may be countless clients you're losing because your website is not optimized.
When a visitor quickly leaves without interacting, that's called your bounce rate. The bounce rate is calculated and tracked by Google Analytics. The higher your bounce rate, the lower you'll rank in searches.
Not only good design keeps people engaged. Another key facet of good UX to reduce bounce rate is site loading time.
Quick Load Times
Bad UX design is not just about visual elements. There are also ways your designer can code your site so that it's not bogged down with extra information.
Good UX design will ensure your pages are not bloated. Unnecessary text, images, and code slow your pages from loading.
When you optimize your UX, visitors can quickly load the page. They don't have to stare at a blank screen as icons and copy slowly appear.
Fast Sites Reduce Your Bounce Rate
Did you know if your bounce rate goes up by 123% if your website takes too long to load? If your site takes 10 seconds instead of just one, you're missing out on potential business.
With bad UX you're under threat of losing money to your competitors. But when your site loads fast, on both desktop and mobile, you're ensuring your bounce rates stay low.
Get Started With Good UX Design Today
Ready to improve your website's UX? There's a lot to keep track of, but you don't have to do it solo. A great first step is to do a user experience website audit.
Try out our free UX audit of your website. We look forward to working with you on meeting all your UX goals!