The goal of website design and functionality is to provide a great user experience. The UX and UI need to be growth driven. UX objectives are focused on the visitor (user). If your web design, UI, website looks, feels and functionality is focused on the visitor or customer then it’s a good user experience.
But if your website’s User Interface design or approach such as menus, colors, function, content, readability, SEO, technicalities, and most parts of your website are not focused on the customer, then it cannot be considered a good experience.
You can understand the good and bad UI/UX design of your website through conversion rate tracking, ranking, and. time spent by users, bounce rate, and revenue.
What is user experience?
User experience in web design is the system and process through which each visitor goes or follows a specific path or steps to access the content (data, information), and services, and buy products or services on a website.
For example, you searched the term “user experience” or “Importance of user experience” or “what is user experience?” And within 2 to 3 seconds, you’re reading this info on this website, without any disturbance. You land on this post within a few seconds, you see the menus, content, related posts, logo, messaging, contact details, and everything that is important or good as per the blog design.
That’s an experience that we’re able to provide to our visitors so far. The creation of user experience in a web application or website is based on the type of application, website, and marketing goals.
Difference between UX and UI?
UX (User experience) is the overall experience and feelings that users get on your websites such as a high-quality image, properly formatted paragraphs, space between menus, good loading speed, responsiveness, and helpful information.
While UI (User Interface) is the design elements, features, appearance, and functions that you’re providing to the users such as high contrast color, multi-language support, images, diagrams, content structure etc.
Example of UX (User Experience Process)?
When you have to wait or go through the long or hefty or complicated process to get what you want on the website.
For example, you clicked on the website link on the search engine. The website took more than 5 seconds to open.
After that, before even you start interacting with the website content, direction, reading or getting the product, a popup comes up. That asking for a subscription, turning on notifications etc.
Until you didn’t finish doing it or close it you can’t able to access the website or content.
While this is important for businesses to take you through this process because it’s their UX strategy. But it’s consuming your 20 seconds. This is another type of UX. It can be good for business or but can be bad for users or visitors.
Can we consider UX bad or good in a website?
Yes, we can consider it good or bad. But only users can consider it. And website designers or companies or website owners can find out the results of their UX design through website analytics.
For example, it’s almost essential for one company to show an attractive popup on your screen. So that they can get the email details of visitors for email marketing or remarketing.
Now the use of Pop on the website is a part of their UX strategy.
Even most business owners do not know much about user experience and design.
They depend on website builders, CMS Software, themes, templates, and website designers for the user experience.
There are various reasons why can’t they invest in user experience design. Some of that reasons are a lack of understanding of the customer’s needs or desires and problem-solving processes and website data analytics.
What to include in web design user experience?
What I understand personally so far is that the “User experience web design strategy” should be 1st focused on the users, 2nd on sales, and 3rd on technology.
My UX design suggestion is that to grow your business, website traffic, and sales, you should focus on the users and visitors.
UX design is a bridge between your product and users. In which users travel to reach the product. That journey or steps needs to be great. So that each step looks amazing and attracts users to take the next step.
Example of good website design user experience:
- Website loading speed: Your website loads on users’ devices within 2 to 5 seconds. It’s a good User Experience.
- Responsive web design: If your website automatically adapts to users’ device screen size and displays content (text, images, videos) and navigation without any quality compromise then it’s a good user experience.
- Helpful Content: If you publish and display content on your website that is focused on helping users 1st then it’s a good experience.
- Quick and less time-consuming process: If your users are able to find the information and product quickly and easily on your website, then it’s a good user experience.
- Latest and Updated Technology: If your website, plugins, and code are up to date then it will help users use your website or services without compromising security. That’s also a good user experience.
If your technology, functions, creativity, and website features are focused on improving the quality, speed, and trust of interaction with users then it’s a great UX design strategy.
Examples of bad web design user experiences:
- If it takes 5 to 10 seconds for users to load a single web page in an application or a simple blog post then it’s not a good experience. But if it’s more than 10 seconds, then it’s bad.
- If users have to fill up too much information and personal data in the contact form, then it’s not a good user experience. Users do not have time or if you’re not a brand they will not feel secure while contacting you. So, ask for less and explain why you need that.
- If your website is monetized with display ads. If you display too many ads before content and in between content then it’s a bad user experience. It’s because users have to find content or solution in between ads. And it’s not easy to find that when too when ads are loading here. It must not be like there is a rainfall of ads on users.
- Before users read your content, if you’re showing the popup for signing up for a newsletter then it’s not a good user experience. 1st let users read what you have written and how helpful is, if it’s good I will find the signup form on my own.
- If you’re too many animations, attractions, or sliders or like if your business website looks like the entrance of a marriage hall or reception then it’s not a good experience.
How do know if your website UX design experience is good or bad?
You can follow and test your website with W3C standards. Such as to improve content visibility and readership quality you can test the color contrast of your website images, text, menus etc. You can use Color Contrast Accessibility Validator tool for testing your website elements and content contrast.
You can also test and validate the HTML, XHTML, CSS, and JavaScript or various elements of your website through the Markup Validation Service.
This will help you to find out the coding standards and errors due to various elements of your website. This is very important for you to test the WordPress themes and plugins on your website. Also, for those using web development services.
To learn more and improve your user experience please read this post: The Ultimate Guide to Designing for the User Experience
Why UX is important on a website?
Great user experience on a website plays the biggest role in SEO, Conversion, and Sales. Each type of website is created to achieve certain business goals mostly its branding, sales, and revenue. But you can achieve this goal only if your website visitors and users find it easy and hassle-free to access the website, content, menu, function, and products.
Examples to understand the importance and goals:
If the user is spending less than 5 or 10 seconds on a web page and has a higher bounce rate then it’s important to test and improve the UX on that page. If you do not improve the UX of that page, then it will impact the SEO and decrease traffic to that page. That’s why UX is important not only for SEO but also to increase conversion rates.
How to design a UX strategy for a Website?
UX design strategy depends on the type of website, content, products, and services you are delivering to your people.
- eCommerce Website UX Process: For example, it’s important in an eCommerce website that users can access the product page quickly. They can see a variety of product images in different Angeles. They can select the quantity. They can find the reviews, ratings, and feedback of existing customers. And they must get various payments option. And they will get a notification when their order is processed.
Benefits:
- More conversion into sales
- Decrease in Cart abandon rate
Read more: High-converting eCommerce product page best practices
2. Blog Website UX design process: A blog website has information, tips, and solutions based on the author’s experiences and expertise. When someone searches for a keyword or solution on Google or Bing and visits your website.
A blog website has information, tips, and solutions based on the author’s experiences and expertise. When someone searches a keyword or solution on Google or Bing and visits your website.
Then think about what they want to see 1st.
Obviously, they want to get the information promised in your blog post title as quickly as possible. And if that process between users to information is less complicated and easy to follow then it’s a good UX strategy.
So, the UX strategy for blogs is to try to avoid ads or popups or signup forms or notifications that come before the information.
If it’s really important do not a show popup until users have not invested 50 to 60 seconds on your page and posts.
if you have to display ads then display them after the 4th to 5th paragraph or in the sidebar. But do not display them before a post if you want to provide a great experience.
Benefits:
- Low bounce rate, because people do not get distracted by ads. And they can see your internal links as well.
- More time on a page because ads do not take them away and they can focus on reading the text 1st.
Whenever you see a decrease in traffic, a high bounce rate, less average time spent by users on your website, and a lower conversion rate, always consider the UX design of your website.
So, I hope you learned the basics of UX and important ideas to implement and test. If you find this post helpful and useful, please share it with your friends and followers on social media.