Business Strategy: Creating an Effective UX Design for Your Website
In today’s world of business, having an ecommerce website for your company is essential in connecting with customers and increasing your sales. With that being said, simply creating a website and considering the job done won’t cut it. Those who make this mistake will see poor performance numbers and low engagement and conversion rates. If you want your website to perform well, you’ll also need an effective user experience (UX) design to match.
What is UX design?
User experience (UX) design refers to aspects of a product, service, or platform that are created to improve the target users’ experience. For a website, this specifically refers to how a website is styled and structured to ensure that target users interact with and perceive its content positively. In other words, are customers able to use the website easily and do they enjoy it? Since a business’s main goal is to entice customers to purchase its products and/or services, its website should be designed around the users’ preferences so that they can navigate it with the utmost ease and comfort.
“Since a business’s main goal is to entice customers to purchase its products and/or services, its website should be designed around the users’ preferences so that they can navigate it with the utmost ease and comfort.”
Research shows that when a user opens up a website, it will take them less than a minute to form their first impression of it. Therefore, the first few seconds on your storefront are vital in determining the possibility of a sale. Any complicated interface, misdirection, or mistakes found during the buying process may cause customers to leave and close the tab. Unlike physical stores where customers will normally have access to well-informed staff to ask for assistance, the online space is not as instant nor straightforward. At the first sign of trouble, most customers will leave and find an alternative website that’s simpler and more convenient to use. As such, it’s important for businesses to prioritize user experience if they don’t want to lose out on customers.
“… when a user opens up a website, it will take them less than a minute to form their first impression of it.”
If you’re reading this article, then we have good news for you! With our comprehensive list of what makes for an effective UX design, you’ll no longer have to wonder how to make your ecommerce website work to your advantage. (And if you only want a quick run-through, scroll down for the short recap!)
Content
Content is what users will want to see if they go to your website. As the saying goes, “Content is king.” No matter how beautiful your website is, if customers are not able to get the information they want about your products, they won’t proceed with their purchase.
Here are some tips on how to improve content on your website:
Research your target users and competition
If you’re going to truly address your customers’ wants and needs through your product and website, then you’ll need to know who you’re selling your products to and who else is selling on the market (i.e. your customers and your competitors). Conduct a survey to get relevant information about your target market, current customers, and other leads. Read available guides on market design and strategy. Check out visual boards like those on Pinterest and Instagram for timely and trendy designs and visual inspiration. Ask industry experts for advice and tips. This will give you important insights minus the extra hard work. Study your competition’s websites and see what works and what doesn’t. For example, if you’re a fashion brand, check out websites of fashion ecommerce leaders like Stylenanda and Zara. Learn from their experience to avoid mistakes at your own expense. Browsing through other websites will also give you insights from a customer’s perspective. You can also conduct your own study or pay for one. While studies are costly and time-consuming, it’s the way to go if you want specific answers for your specific ecommerce needs.
Provide quality content
Is your information accurate and are your comparisons on point? Develop customer trust — don’t falsify information (no matter how big or small the lie is). Make sure customers feel like you’re not simply selling to make a profit but also to help improve their quality of life. Develop an emotional connection with them by having a brand story on which you can base your marketing content. (Don’t know where to start? You can check out our brand stories here.) And finally, provide complete product information. Avoid making customers ask for more details. Any hassle may give them a reason to leave your website.
Keep your forms simple
Forms are one of the first true exchanges with your customers. Whether they’re sign-up forms, survey forms, or checkout forms, they present a big opportunity for you to connect with customers and sell. You should therefore make your forms as simple and easy to use as possible. Ask only for relevant information and leave out other details for future communication. Use simple words and phrases whenever possible, and make buttons, links, and other options clearly visible. Keep redirection to a minimum and avoid too many pop-ups.
Place keywords in optimal locations
The majority of people read from left to right and top to bottom. We also tend to focus on headers and other highlighted words first to get a gist of the full content before determining whether we want to proceed or not. As such, you should place your most important content strategically on the left and up, and on headers (Note that this may be different if your target users read from right to left or differently in their first language). Users should be able to see them the moment they enter your website.
Display contact information and other accreditations
Make it easy for customers to contact you whether for inquiries or complaints. Being accessible makes your brand look more reliable. Displaying accreditations as well as security notices like your Privacy Policy will make your brand more trustworthy and legitimate.
Website design
Website design is not just about providing great aesthetics (although that’s a big part of it). On a deeper level, your website’s design should also include considerations on structure in order to make your website easier to navigate, understand, and enjoy for users.
Make your products obvious from any point of entry
No matter how your users access your website, it should be clear to them what products or services you’re offering. Place your brand logo (and catchphrases) in visible places and organize your products in a way that displays your most popular or new items (or any other items you want to prioritize) in eyecatching locations.
Make sure text is readable and your website looks appealing
Avoid small fonts that can be hard to read, too many visual media in one location, and long blocks of text without any line or image breaks (Note: It’s usually recommended to use 16px for regular text.). A very content-compact website can be overwhelming and intimidating, especially for new visitors who may not know where to look and how to browse through your products. Your website’s theme and layout should direct the eyes where you want them to go. Read up on color theory and ensure that your visuals match and your font and background contrast well for readability and aesthetic appeal. Use images, tables, and charts when possible to present information clearly and visually. Lastly, make sure to develop a style guide for consistency.
Improve visual appeal through multimedia
In the digital age, people have become accustomed to consuming information through different types of media. They rely on them not only for information but also for entertainment. Gen Zs, for example, prefer video formats over other forms of media if their social media preference is anything to go by (i.e. TikTok and YouTube). Keep customers informed and entertained enough to stay on your website by including different types of multimedia on your store pages.
Plan your website structure for easy navigation
Imagine a department store without any signs or proper labeling on where their products are. Frustrating isn’t it? That’s how users would feel if your website doesn’t have a structure that’s easy to understand and follow. You can solve this problem by creating a sitemap for your website. This will make it easier to see where each button is and where they link to. The sitemap should follow a logical progression of browsing, checking, and purchasing products or services from your website. Group related pages and topics together. Consider where users want to go and the routes they’ll most likely take to get there. And speaking of buttons, make them visible. Any clickable call to action (CTA) links should be easy to spot. The worse thing that could happen is when a customer wants to buy something but is unable to because of misplaced links or buttons that are not distinguishable from regular text.
Make your website accessible and inclusive
Include alt text for images (for when they won’t load) and add translations and voiced text features if possible. This allows people with disabilities (PWD) as well as users in other countries to access your website, thus improving their user experience drastically. This is crucial for ecommerce brands dedicated to PWD needs.
Performance and responsiveness
A website that has great content and amazing design will be of no use to anyone if it does not respond the way it’s supposed to. Disappointed users often talk about how a website page won’t load or how a website that looks good on PC becomes incomprehensible on mobile, leading them to close the page and look for alternatives instead.
You can avoid this problem by doing the following:
Always update your links
It’s not uncommon for websites, especially new ones, to deploy improvements and changes to their sitemaps after a performance evaluation. However, many websites neglect to update their links so they no longer lead to the correct content or cause the dreaded 404 error to appear. This results in users not knowing where to go. Broken links are opportunity killers and should be avoided at all costs.
Speed up your loading time
Who doesn’t hate slow loading time? For customers, it results in lost time and interest. For you, it results in lost opportunities and a poorer Google Search ranking. Ideally, your web pages should load within 1–2 seconds. However, if they load any slower, there’s a good chance that your customers are having a poor user experience.
Make your website accessible on multiple devices (responsive web design)
A responsive web design adjusts the website’s design and content so that it is viewable and usable regardless of the device it is accessed from. Responsive design is important now that the technology is readily available and potential customers can opt to use their mobile phone, tablet, or PC to visit your website. Google recognizes this technology and includes it when ranking websites in its search results.
Just a short recap
Here’s a short recap to summarize everything we’ve just covered.
Optimize your user experience with Cafe24
Creating a website is ultimately about prioritizing its intended users. And for us, we’re prioritizing you. Yes, that’s right. Cafe24’s free web-hosting platform is designed specifically to help ecommerce entrepreneurs customize their website however they want and achieve great results. The platform has everything you need to build your site and brand effectively, with no registration fees or hosting fees.
You can find a variety of responsive store themes that include all the important design principles, so you don’t have to worry about which font, style, or images to use. Whether you’re running a beauty, technology, or food and beverage business, there are many free and paid options to choose from. If you want a more personalized theme, you can use Edibot themes to drag and drop page elements, or Smart Themes to directly code your store’s design and optimize loading speeds for your web pages.
At Cafe24, you can also insert your own media for online ads, so you can market and sell at the same time. You can also find apps that will enhance your UX design like the Seller Fit UI Pack for sticky navigation bars and buttons or the Purchasing Pattern Display to show the most popular products and variants on your website. For everything ecommerce, you can trust Cafe24.
