Hooray, your target audience found your website! Well done. But now that they’re there, they can’t find what they need to take any action. What happened? You failed UX 101.
User experience (more commonly known as UX or UEX) is often overlooked when designing a website, but it’s a crucial part of the process. UX design can help inform visual design, information design, navigation design, and more while balancing it all in an intricate map. The end result is a site that meets the needs of visitors while hitting your business goals.
The classic example of UX failure is a bike with square wheels. It looks cool and costs the same to produce as a typical bike, but people can’t use it. So, make your website visitors (and your business bottom line) happy, give visitors the user experience they crave.
Take a look at your website and view it from a user’s perspective. Then ask yourself these questions:
- Can you use your site and all its features on all devices and in all web browsers?
- What path do you need visitors to follow? For example: “Home” page to “Services” page to “Buy Now.” Is your website designed to promote the actions you’d like end users to take?
- What happens when visitors don’t follow the path you’d like them to take?
- Is your website accessible and readable? Is the font easy to see on your background and large and well-spaced enough to be clearly read? Take that to the next level: Is your content useful, easy to understand and free of jargon?
- You know your business goals and what you need from your audience, but do you know what they need from you? Are you delighting them and creating customer loyalty by anticipating their needs and delivering?
- How many clicks does it take you to get to the point where you can take action? If it takes you more than 20 seconds, you’re likely losing customers.
Incorporating UX into the website design process gives you the invaluable perspective of a website user while maintaining an eye on your business goals. UX can test the effectiveness of your site, systems, features, and products. And UX can be a direct line of contact with your audience to discover what works, what doesn’t, and help you craft a strategy to make your site right.
So, is your website delighting users or are you missing out on business due to a UX fail? Contact us today and we can help put you on the right path.
