Website User Experience

5 Practices That Will Improve Your Website User Experience

Website user experience: As an online marketer, you want all visitors to have optimized experience while on your site.

We all know what a crucial role experience plays for the potential client in making their decisions.

Thus you want to ensure you give them the best experience possible from the minute they get into the search engine and get to your link, or see your link on any online platform.

What is User Experience?

 

User experience (UX) refers to how visitors in your site interact with the site. Are they getting what they need? Is there value being added to their lives?

Is anything hindering them from accessing the information or understanding it? Every step made to this effect should be centred at influencing the thoughts, actions and emotions of internet users to go with your product.

What are the best practices for website user experience?

Website User Experience Tip #1: Creating a Good Design

 

To begin with, for great user experience, the overall design of the website should be good enough. You may be thinking that creativity is important here, but it actually is not the most crucial part.

Of course you do need to be creative to set yourself apart from other similar companies, but along with that are several other factors.

The design needs to appeal to the selfish part of the internet user. Remember that everyone wants something that will benefit them.

So do some research on your target market and learn what they want, then give it to them. Show them what they stand to gain from your site, why they should ignore other messages and not your own. Appeal to something they want.

Finally, the design should also have a clear guide for the user as to the next action they should take. No matter how good the design is, leaving your visitor wondering what they should do next may be bad for you.

Thus, you will need to ensure that you clearly communicate their next step such as through a call-to-action button so that there is no confusion as to which direction the interested visitor should take.

For instance, ‘Start the course now’ for the case of short courses being offered for those who sign up.

Website User Experience Tip #2: The Header

 

Website User Experience

This is the first thing a visitor will see when they get to your website. You need to get it right. Have a header that is informative and appealing.

The header should be able to relay information about your brand and the product, while still being straight to the point and easy to understand.

This header may be what leads them to the next action, so their initial attention needs to be captured and retained through it. The header guides them to where they should go next.

Website User Experience Tip #3: Relaying Information

 

Relevant information needs to find its way to the website or webpage. You are required to give any important information here as part of the webpage design to inform the visitor more about the product and answer any questions they may have.

You can have scroll down options where additional information may be found. Ensure the information is put in a logical manner, so that there is a natural flow to it.

You may opt for a clearly indicated scroll action, to show the visitor how to scroll. Alternatively you can go for a running website such that the visitor needs not click on any button to scroll.

The appearance of the information given is also part of the user experience. You may want to have a single column for all information, as compared to having multiple columns.

Having more than one column may confuse the visitor, and would have them missing out on important information or opting out of your website. A single column directs them.

While relaying information, highlighting the important parts of the website is imperative. The call-to-action button for instance needs to stand out from the rest of the website content.

You can do this by having a different colour from the rest of the website for it so that it contrasts. It needs to be easily located. This may be the key to getting higher conversion rates, so eliminate the possibility of your visitors missing it.

Website User Experience Tip #4: Loading Time

 

Picture yourself visiting a website you just saw on the internet, one you decided to check out while you were doing something completely different such as going through your social media.

You click on a link, and wait for it to load. And wait. The screen is blank while it loads so you are not even sure whether or not it is loading.

What do you do next? You will most likely move on to other things or go back to your previous page.

You only get a small part of the visitor’s attention to begin with. To maximize on this, you need to ensure the loading time is less.

However, even if it does take a longer time to load, you can create the perception of a faster loading time.

For instance, you can get written content to appear first while images and animations continue to load, to allow the user to start reading.

Giving progress of the loading allows the visitors to know what is going on, and have a sense of control.

You can have a progress wheel, where the percentage of the loaded item is shown while the visitor waits.

You may also have a progress bar indicating that the page is loading, or even words to that extent, like the ‘Beep Beep Bop’ that appears on Word press.

You may provide for a page to show completion of a task. For instance, when one subscribes to a webinar on offer, having them taken to a thank you for subscribing page would be a good idea to inform them that their subscription was successful.

Website User Experience Tip #5: Giving the User Control

 

Website User Experience

Allowing the user to have control on a website gives them the ability to navigate your site in their own time.

You need to avoid things that take control out of their hands like pop-ups and auto play videos.

Your visitor should be able to navigate your site as they want without distractions in the form of movements or videos unless they want to see them.

Also, give them a visible way out, an exit to correct mistakes they may have made like clicking on a link they did not intend on, or just to opt out.

You may get overwhelmed and feel the need to give excessive information, to ensure that you miss nothing while marketing a product.

However, minimalism is the key for online marketing. Only give what is completely relevant and leave out the rest to give the user a good experience.

Errors should be avoided for websites, but do ensure that in case of one, you inform the users of it and how to recover from them.

Conclusion

 

With these website user experience practices, you will be able to provide a good user experience, and even get more conversion rates.

This however is not a fool proof formula, as different methods work for different areas. Thus, you need not take our word for it. Just try the different techniques, and pick which works best for you.