September 19, 2011
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As we mentioned in our last post, attention to the user experience (UX) is essential for today’s business website. So the big question is: how can you improve the usability and user experience of your website?
The first step is research
Research is a crucial part of UX, and the foundation of creating a beautifully interactive website. It helps you understand your customers and provides insight into their needs and what they expect from your website. This is turn helps to pre-empt any problems they may face by designing every interaction and mapping their navigation experience.
Conducting research is often best left to UX experts, as their results will be independent, objective and turned into recommendations for information architecture and website design that you can incorporate immediately. However, whether you hire UX researchers or try doing it yourself, these are some types of usability research:
September 12, 2011
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Now more than ever, User Experience (UX) is an essential part of setting up or reviewing your business website. The modern user is more savvy, more discerning but has less time, so websites must be designed to lead them exactly where they want to go. That is, their experience must be positive.
What outcomes can your business expect from positive user experience?
IBM says that for every dollar invested in improving your website’s usability, you could achieve a return of between ten to one hundred-fold on your investment. Jakob Nielson statistics show that redesigning a website for positive user experience can increase the sales and conversion rate by an incredible 100%. With the potential for increased sales, increased customer leads and increased registrations, usability is quickly proving essential for modern businesses.
The best thing about UX is that it is a measurable field. With today’s technology, we can harness information at rates never seen before. We can calculate how long a user’s mouse hovers over a certain part of the website and how many clicks are achieved by call-to-action buttons placed in different positions. All this gives us insight into users and their interaction with our sites, that help us create designs that are customised for a positive user experience.
