If you have a website for your business, brand or personal use then you need to consider your user experience. Your user experience is how your potential customers experience your website. A bad user experience could turn them away from your product or service, leading them to your competitors instead. User experience should always be considered when building a new website, but it should constantly be tested as well.
We’ve put together a list of the top 7 things to think about when developing or reviewing your user experience.
Your User
This may seem obvious, but you first need to consider your ideal user. You want your site to work perfectly for this person. For example, if you are targeting young adults or teenagers then they are very tech savvy. This means your site can be a bit more technical in a way that showcases your brand in a way that could be shared and talked about. However, if you are targeting an older population that did not grow up with computers in the same way. They may be less tech savvy, and this would need to be considered. The journey to products and purchasing would need to be a lot clearer and simpler.
Accessibility
Always consider accessibility when producing your website and content. You can even add alt text to Instagram posts now so there is no excuse. Website accessibility covers a huge range of areas to assist users who have a wide range of disabilities. Areas you can review for accessibility can include using alt. text on images, adding captions to video content, and making sure colours can be distinguished for users with colour blindness. The list of accessibility areas goes on, but don’t leave this as a second thought. The internet and websites should be accessible for all users.
Functionality
Having a beautiful and technical site is no good if it is not functional. The main aims of your site are to teach users about your brand and products and to generate sales of your products or services. If users cannot easily do these things on your website, they will likely look elsewhere. Users should be able to easily navigate your site, learn about your products and complete a purchase. If you have buttons that do not work, a menu that cannot clearly be found by users or no SSL certificate, users are going to go elsewhere. Your website is evidence of your knowledge and trustworthiness.
Use of Imagery & Graphics
When you are creating your website, you do not want to only use text. Huge blocks of text will put users off as attention spans are becoming shorter. The text you use needs to be concise and it is even better if you can supplement this with images and graphics to make your point. This can also be helpful for users who process imagery better than words. Just make sure you keep image sizes low so that you don’t slow down your site.
SEO
Search engine optimisation (SEO) is not directly related to user experience, but there are aspects which could impact your ux. SEO is about organic rankings in search engines. To optimise for this you also need to consider technical errors, mobile friendliness and site speeds. These directly impact the user experience. Regularly crawl your website checking for technical errors, make sure your site is mobile friendly and ensure that you are not slowing things down with excess code or huge images.
Responsive Design
This can be linked to the mobile friendliness of your site. Users will visit your site from desktops, tablets, and mobile phones. All with varying screen sizes. When designing your website, make sure you are implementing a responsive design. This means your website should be functional on all devices. This means that buttons should be the correct size for each device so that users can select them, and menus should be easy to access. Do not just expect users to navigate the desktop version on smaller screens, it’s a sure-fire way to put them off.
Action Feedback
The last area you should consider is action feedback. It’s essential that your users see an acknowledgment when they take an action on your site. If you don’t provide action feedback, such as the change in colour of a button or a ‘thank you for submitting’. Users will think their action hasn’t worked correctly, especially if your site is slow to load new pages. This could lead them away
User experience is vital when developing your website. Whether you are creating a completely new website or just having a site rebuild, you need to consider the ideal user. Some of these seem so simple writing about them, but you’d be astounded by how many websites have a poor user experience. Don’t get caught up in all the fancy features your can add, start from the basics of just making sure your users can complete a sale!