User experience (UX) is a much-overlooked aspect of website development, which could ultimately cost the end-user. For example, 9 in 10 consumers won’t likely visit a poorly designed website again. Worst of all, they will tend to tell their friends about their bad experience with your website.
User experience design aims to improve satisfaction by boosting efficiency, functionality, and accessibility when the user interacts with your website.
Yet, more than half of website owners do not conduct tests on user experience. The data is mind-boggling, considering the potential returns. Forrester data revealed that you could potentially earn $100 for every dollar invested in UX. According to the same study, your online store can improve conversion rates by 400%.
Here are 5 steps that can improve user experience through the web development process.
Call-to-Action
A call-to-action (CTA) is a process that dictates the next step the user should take. For example, it can instruct the user to subscribe to a newsletter or buy a product. It can be both a hard CTA (“Buy now and get one item for free”) and a soft CTA (“Read more for further details”).
However, more than 7 in 10 small businesses do not include a CTA on their websites. The most crucial step is determining what type of action you want your audience to take. Then you can gear your web development process to improve the user experience through an appropriate call-to-action.
Create a dynamic website
A dynamic website ensures a better user experience in the long run since you can customize and modify your content as often as necessary. In contrast, a static website involves a vanilla layout and a fixed number of pages.
The dynamic website will help you create data-driven content using a custom interface. In terms of the web development process, a dynamic website takes longer to deliver because it will use other scripting languages other than HTML. In the end, you can personalize the user experience by collecting digital footprints when they visit your site.
Keep It Simple Stupid (K.I.S.S.)
You should make it simple for users to navigate your site. You can do this by putting up signs and guideposts so that they know what to do next.
A simple design for a better user experience involves a clean layout with lots of white space. Don’t flood your website with colors, fonts, and other design elements that would only result in clutter. Each design element must serve a purpose.
Speed up load time
User experience starts and ends with how fast your page loads. A 2019 study by Unbounce revealed that more than 7 in 10 are less likely to transact with an online store that loads slowly.
In addition, the first five seconds are a critical aspect of the sales conversion rate. So, you need to test your website across different platforms and benchmark your page speed against your competitors.
Test and test
Finally, you need to test your website for usability. Web developers use tools for a comprehensive user experience design analysis. You can also generate feedback from your visitors to determine their user experience. One way to encourage cooperation is to offer a gift voucher or discount to respondents.
Think of your website as your salesperson that is on call 24/7. And every sales pitch starts with a good first impression. You can do this by investing in a competent web developer and optimizing the user experience.
