Everything You Need to Know About Website UX
How will the end user interact with our website? This is the basis behind UX. Short for User Experience, it covers everything that the user will see and interact with in terms of services, products, and a company as a whole. Are consumers getting frustrated by their experience with our business? Are they enjoying it? Are they turning away from our products because of the experience? These are all questions one needs to answer to optimize the user experience and, ultimately, boost sales and profit figures.
Today, we want to discuss some UX trends that have made themselves clear in recent years as well as some advice so that you don’t fall into some of the common traps. For the most part, we’re going to focus on websites since this is where consumers tend to experience businesses for the first time. Let’s boost the user experience and ensure that your online platforms aren’t harming the business!
1. Responsive Design
Do you ever use your mobile phone or tablet to surf the web? If so, you’re part of a growing majority. Of course, this means that your own customers are potentially finding your name for the first time on their mobile devices. If you haven’t optimized your website for mobile users, you immediately cut yourself off from a significant portion of the market. Whether these people are in a dentist waiting room, commuting home, or just browsing on the sofa, your website needs to welcome them otherwise they’ll simply click away and find a website that accommodates them more effectively.
In case you haven’t seen this trend, it’s called ‘responsive design’ because the very best websites will adjust depending on the device the consumer is using. Even when they switch from their mobile to a laptop, the website will still greet them in a usable, recognizable way.
If you want best results, make sure there’s consistency with appearance across all platforms, the images fit nicely on each, and that navigation is simple. The last thing your customers want is to be clicking on tiny links and getting frustrated.
2. Chat Bots
Secondly, it’s fair to say that chat bots have captured the imagination in recent years. Why? Because consumers need answers… and they need them now. At first, contact forms were perfect because visitors could ask specific questions and have a response within a day or two. When making purchasing decisions, a day or two is now FAR too long. Instead, prospective customers want answers almost immediately.
For this reason, we’ve seen the introduction of chat bots and live chat. While the latter is controlled by your team and allows for human-to-human interaction, the former takes advantage of technology so that visitors are getting their answers even when nobody is in the office.
Just like a website without responsive design, one without a chat bot is likely to push consumers towards the competition. If you can interact with them and answer their questions while they’re actively considering a purchase, you’re more likely to get them across the line. With this, we can confidently say that chat bots improve lead capture rates and conversion rates.
3. Infinite vs Parallax Scrolling
Another consideration that often goes under the radar is the difference between infinite and parallax scrolling. With infinite scrolling, users can continuously scroll as more and more content loads. Rather than users directing themselves to other pages, everything they need is in one place. For many consumers, this is useful because they don’t like to jump around from one page to the next.
If you need an example, just look at Facebook feeds. Rather than separating posts by days, hours, or other methods, we could potentially scroll for hours on end if we really wanted to (some of us do!).
On the other hand, the parallax effect is one that exists in art, animation, and many other industries. Effectively, it describes a scene where the background moves at a different speed to the foreground. On a website, a sense of depth is created as the foreground content moves quickly while the background remains almost still.
Imagine a cartoon scene where there’s a car driving on a 2D road. While the car moves slowly from left to right, the trees move quickly in the opposite direction and a mountain in the background hardly moves at all; this is the parallax effect.
In terms of UX, it attracts the eye, has the potential to boost engagement, and is less common than other design elements. When choosing between the two, we recommend considering your offering, the audience, and what suits the style of experience you want to present.
4. Landing Page
How can we ignore the landing page? If this is all wrong, your bounce rate will go through the roof and nobody will stay long enough to even learn about your business. Rather than just filling your landing page with information and content that doesn’t fit anywhere else, consider what will offer a positive first impression. If your niche is especially competitive, there’s a chance your visitors will have several tabs open or will check out a number of websites in their browsing session; make sure yours is the one that stands out.
Don’t be afraid to test; some people have found great success with a bright background, others find that their audience enjoys the simplicity of a clutter-free, minimalistic design. Play around with mouse animations, interactive features, background space, and create a unique landing page that leaves a lasting impression.
Read More: What is on-page optimization and why is it important?
5. Content and Commerce Strategy
For the commerce services reading this, you’re in a unique position because you have an opportunity to make a sale with each visitor. After first visiting the landing page, they can browse your website, add a product to the basket, and spend their hard-earned money all within a matter of minutes. With this in mind, we advise having a strategy. For example, visitors should be guided through their experience and encouraged to either learn more about products and delivery or sign up to a newsletter service.
Elsewhere, you can improve this strategy with free content. Every day, millions of people head to the web to get answers to specific questions. If you have content that not only answers basic questions but goes above and beyond, you position yourself as a leader and an authoritative source of information. From here, people are more likely to purchase from you because they’ve had a great experience and trust your brand.
6. Micro-Interactions and Micro-Animations
When two websites offer a similar experience, it’s often the micro-interactions or micro-animations that make the difference. Whether a small sound or visual feedback, these are tiny details that improve the user experience aesthetically and in understanding what’s happening. As long as they occur immediately and are in line with every other feature of the website, these can contribute towards the brand’s identity and make the UX even greater.
7. Personalization
Features like responsive design are essential for a positive experience, but they don’t allow visitors to have unique experiences… and this is where personalization comes in. Depending on your service, you can personalize the experience for each visitor with product recommendations, related content, push notifications (birthdays and other events), and more.
In order to do this, the first thing you need is data, and this comes from surveys, interviews, and various other sources to learn more about your audience. Once you know the preferences of users, it’s possible to integrate this into the design of your website.
These days, we also have brilliant technology that learns about users and provides a unique experience based on this information. Here are some additional tips in this regard:
- Ask for more information at the sign-up stage (be wary of friction and fewer completed forms)
- Take advantage of clever algorithms
- Don’t fall short with user testing
8. Take an Objective View and Test
Finally, we cannot underestimate the value of testing your website through the eyes of the customer. If you’ve spent too much time building it, have loved ones and friends go on the website and provide honest feedback. Often, they will point to small navigational problems or slight hiccups that prevent a positive experience. Whether it’s a problem with the responsive design, chat bot, or another feature entirely, it gives you an opportunity to build those final blocks that ensure success.
Let’s finish with some quick-fire tips;
- Don’t bombard the user with content (sometimes, less is more)
- Use visuals to catch the eye
- Master the balance between consistency with each page and variation
- Try to avoid pop-up forms wherever possible
- Play with gamification (but don’t condescend or go over the top with it)
Thank you for reading, we hope these tips come in handy when maximizing the UX. Why not get started today?
