Web designers can make a website look stunning, but does it meet the requirements for user experience? User experience takes many things into consideration: visual design, customer acquisition, branding, functionality, and analysis of your target customer base. User experience is a craft perfected over time through google analytics or other analytic platforms that will give you the data needed to know whether your website is successful. Research and science are a necessary approach to understanding and learning your target audience. You must understand their needs and wants beforehand. You should already know this before diving into your website. Without this information, your website, whether it’s content or a product they want to buy, will not have the necessary user experience to keep them coming.
Take a look below at some of the steps in the user experience process.
Performance
Web design is a craft that understands the psychological aspects of each customer, customized to each business. Web designers know how to hone in on button placement and links, why they are strategically placed in certain parts of the website, and its purpose. These tools are essential to help create future, and present customers interact on its websites with ease. Always be sure that those buttons and any links on your website are in good working order, with no errors. If any errors occur on your website, customers will likely move on from your website to the next, losing a potential customer and revenue.
Dependability
Nothing will drive customers away quicker than a website that is either not running or loads slowly. We live in an instant gratification lifestyle. If your website is not up for whatever reason, whether it’s down or the host is currently down, chances are customers are not going to reload the page. The same applies to a webpage that is loading slowly. It may cost you more to have a reliable host with quick load times, but not as much as lost revenue and conversions. I touch on this more in our SEO blog, “The Importance of SEO.” Every second count, don’t believe me? Even a ONE-second delay could cost you potential customers and revenue. Over 70% of those potential customers will not return. That’s about seven percent of lost revenue and an eleven-percent fewer page views. Needless to say, that is a substantial amount of lost profits. Not only that, but customers have trust issues as well with sites that load slowly. Load speeds are critical and essential to your business.
Even a ONE-second delay could cost you potential customers and revenue.
Over 70% of those potential customers will not return.
User-Friendly
I can not stress enough how important it is to have a user-friendly website. Customers want a quick, effective, calls-to-action, and easy to navigate experience. Based on your analytic platform’s performance, if customers are leaving your page fairly quickly with hardly any conversions, this could be because customers are frustrated with their attempts to find the content they desire or a lack of product interface. Your website should be clear, to the point, and easy to navigate for all customers. You have to be able to not only appease your target customers but most people in general. Your website should answer questions, direct customers where they need to go, and have product placement easily accessible. If customers have to search through several pages or links to find what they are looking for, they will be as good as gone. Don’t lose customers over something that should be easily designed for them.
Accessibility
Just as we mentioned about user-friendly websites, everything should be accessible to them. You should be navigating your customers easily to their wants and answer any questions they may have. Your website should not have anything on there that could distract from what you are promoting or be littered with useless information and/or ads. More than half of internet users and strictly on mobile. Ensure your website is also accessible on mobile and is user friendly.
Satisfaction
The ultimate goal is to increase conversions and please customers to keep them loyal to your brand while maintaining a user experience dedicated to their satisfaction. In the end, your analytical dashboard will hold, to tell the truth, whether or not you’ve obtained this goal. If you notice your data shows otherwise, always look to these steps to ensure that you are doing everything you should be when it comes to user experience. Tweek some of these steps as you go, as it can range from the color scheme to simple button placement.
In conclusion, your research is valuable to obtain the necessary information needed when trying to create the correct user experience for your specific type of business. Just like your business is unique, so is your target audience. Take the time necessary to learn everything you need to about them because without it, your website will be aesthetically pleasing and nothing more. Everything on your website should be tailored to your customer’s wants, needs, and desires. After they visit your website, they should feel trust and content, leaving them wanting to come back. You want them to share with friends and family and be your referral for future customers. If they aren’t doing anything of the sort, take this time to redesign your website for their needs, instead of what you think is best. If you are still having trouble pinpointing exactly what needs to be redesigned, there are web design companies out there who can help assist you in the right direction.
