The Web User Experience
Regardless of the electronic device we use, when we visit a website, we want to navigate it easily to find information. Website owners today aim to achieve that to create a good user experience for their visitors because doing so keeps them engaged and interested.
A user-centric design, which is also known as human-centered design, is designing with the user in mind, as the name suggests. A website design pivots around user experience and customer journey. The site information structure is based on planning the customer journey of key target audience segments.
Segment Your Web Visitors
You may have many segments within your target audience, but ideally, your website should be targeted at no more than 3 segments. Once a website starts to cater to a wide variety of audience, the design and content lose focus, because content (text and images) is crafted and tailored for key identified segments.
Keep The Rhythm Going
In web terms, a vertical rhythm is a design element that uses a repeated visual pattern to create visual comfort for readers, hence improving the readability of the content. A consistent vertical rhythm is achieved when there is a balance in content, paragraph spacing, features, etc.
Consider the type of content to have on your website – text, images, videos, etc. Images and videos may be helpful for the user to visualise, but have them in moderation because it may affect the loading speed of the site, and a slow loading site may turn visitors off.
Mobile Experience
Features on your website are designed and developed based on user needs gathered from data and analysis. With an increasing number of smartphone users, ensure that your website is mobile responsive even if your business model is B2B because your customers may be viewing your website on-the-go.
Avoid having PDF downloads unless necessary because it disrupts the user experience on mobile when the PDF opens in a separate application.
Call-To-Actions On Your Website
For conversion-oriented sites, call-to-action (CTA) should be placed at relevant areas. CTAs are built around user needs, so have a think about how ready your users are to take an action; for example, a user who visits your website for the first time may not be ready to make a purchase after reading your home page, so having a “Buy Now” button that takes them to the check-out page disrupts the user experience.
If you have clickable actions, the click area should be bigger, where the user interface (UI) should signify action. Also have a contact form that customers can submit easily because, in this way, your sales person will also have some information before making a call to the customer.
Branding On Your Website
Have testimonials, awards, and social proof where applicable, because these gives confidence in your brand, and could help give a light push for your user to make a conversion.
Remember, your web visitors are gathering information on your site. Subtle branding touches and elements that complements, but does not overshadow content, will help in branding without disrupting the user experience on your site.
Keep Optimising
User behaviour evolves rapidly in the digital world, so keep analysing the data on your website to spot trends, hypothesise, and A/B test to identify the version that will bring you better results.
There, building a website is not that tough, or is it? 😉
Is Your Website “Hot” Or “Not”?
Our Project Director, Collin, was featured in the “Web Watch” section of Marketing Magazine’s November 2016 issue. We asked Collin for 5 tips on what makes a website “Hot”.
- Your website is mobile responsive.
- Your website is catered for a maximum of 3 segments of users.
- CTAs should be placed appropriately, and the UI should be designed to be intuitively actionable.
- A consistent vertical rhythm that improves content readability.
- Have testimonials, awards, and social proof where applicable.
Featured On Marketing Magazine November 2016
Source:Marketing magazine November 2016 issue, Page 12.
