In order to achieve the ultimate website user experience (UX), you have to understand the importance of it. Your website is your store front – the marketing tool that’s visible to visitors 24/7.
Optimising the experience your users have when on site directly correlates to sales, subscriptions, enquiries and customer retention. A good UX design leaves a lasting impression on both your returning and potential customers too. So, it’s good business sense to properly invest in your site’s UX. It will help make sure that your website’s potential is fully unlocked.
We’re living in a constantly evolving digital age. This means websites should be regularly updated in order to stay on trend. Because of this, the KIJO team has gathered 16 expert UX design tips. These can enable you to bolster and enhance your site’s UX, without the need for a full redesign.
UX design refers to how a user experiences your website and how they feel throughout their time on it. From landing on the homepage, the content on your pages, and the entire pre to post purchase experience.
UX is how a user feels when they visit your website. It’s how they interact with elements on a page, how your website responds to their actions and how easy it is for them to access your content too.
When considering how to improve a website, there are several tools out there that can enhance the user experience. There’s Hotjar which shows live screen recordings of sessions to better understand how a user is navigating your site and Usability Hub which allows you to conduct different types of surveys based on your design. There’s also the Google Chrome extension or DevTool Google Lighthouse. Google Lighthouse assesses your website on four metrics; performance, best practices, SEO and accessibility.
Or, if you’re inexperienced in design, you can work with professional web designers who can create a good UX design for you – like those here at KIJO.
UX is very often confused with another design term: “user interface” or “UI”. UI specifically refers to the aesthetic touchpoints a user has to use in order to engage with your site. UX focuses on the look and feel that the user actually experiences.
A good example of a brand that has accomplished their UX to a T would be Apple. Their site not only exudes their brand and ethos, it has a distinctive UX that is memorable, clean and wholly unique. It encompasses all the varied facets of a good UX design; it’s functional, efficient and pleasurable to use. Apple’s is a great site to explore when considering your own website’s user experience.
Here are the 16 UX experience tips industry professionals swear by that you can implement on your website.
Who is your product or service for? That’s who your website should be targeted at and the UX should be tailored specifically to that demographic. Invest in that research and understanding, first and foremost.
Once you understand your target audience, you can curate and personalise journeys that reflect individual user needs and preferences, directing each user type to their primary conversion goal of the website.
Does your website design resonate with your brand identity and ethos? Do you know what the latter is? Being clear on what you stand for as a brand and intently allowing it to inform your site is key for good UX design – again, something Apple does expertly.
Having a uniformed design across all of your site’s pages, coupled with consistency and guidelines that your team has access to, is trained on and understands, is a definite UX best practice to adopt within your business. It will help ensure consistency which is a key factor in good UX design.
White Space or “negative space” is the blank area between your site’s design elements. It gives your content room to breathe and promotes readability so don’t be afraid to use it in a clean, purposeful way.
When it comes to UX design tips, this one’s important. Make sure your design elements are consistent and cohesive throughout all of your pages. You want to set up global styles such as uniform headers, colours and buttons. This helps your site look more professional and thus trustworthy when everything is looking sleek and intentful.
Your site should be made up of direct and uncomplicated user journeys. Your user should be able to get to a product or service page within 3 clicks, your Calls to Action (CTA) buttons should be strategically placed throughout your pages, and your menu should be easy to access, obvious and readable on every page. There should be no room for guesswork for your user on how to get to the information they want.
Leading on from the above UX experience tip, your Call to Actions should be clear, directive and persuasive for your users. Use active language, an enticing colour, legible typeface and make sure they’re placed in obvious, but thoughtful places on your pages.
Crisp, professional visuals that are in keeping with your brand have been proven to attract and retain attention – this should be a high priority if you’re after a good UX design.
Like high-end photography and visual elements on a website page, if you’re wondering how to improve a website, multimedia elements like eye-catching video can help diversify your content presentation. Video can entice a user to stay and explore your site further.
You can have the best website UX there is, but a slow loading page will result in a user exiting your site and trying a competitor. It’s as simple as that.
In a demanding, competitive market, businesses simply can’t afford to have a slow loading website. Consider compressing your images (without compromising on their quality), minifying your code, or instructing a Content Delivery Network to help bolster that all important speed.
Presenting key information in large chunks of text can put a user off of reading it. Be sure to present necessary information in small, digestible paragraphs.
Engaging users with dynamic elements can entice a user to interact with your website on a deeper level. Consider including things like entrance animations, scrolling animations and micro interactions that help turn typically boring site action into a meaningful and memorable moment (e.g. celebratory gifs when something the user has done succeeds).
Captivating titles draw readers into the following content and site narrative as a whole, so be sure to consider and test headline copy carefully.
Broken links or missing pages not only provide a poor UX experience, but can also lead you to ranking lower on Google which means your page is generally going to be less visible. If your site has 404s, get these fixed ASAP.
When over half of web traffic comes from a mobile device, it’s essential that your website adjusts seamlessly across different pieces of tech from desktop to tablet to mobile. So, make this a priority for a good UX design.
hese UX design tips put a real emphasis on intuitive interfaces and discoverability. They stress the importance of constructing easy, interactive elements and understanding exactly who your user is and what they want.
The above UX tips can be used as a guide to bridge the gap between design intention and user interaction, and ultimately act as a springboard for ensuring your business is delivering the best website UX it can. The KIJO team can help you develop, optimise and better understand your website and its UX. For a comprehensive audit of your website including an audit of the UX metrics detailed in this article please, contact us today.
