Why User Experience matters for your business
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.
How do we design a website to create a positive user experience? There are two main elements of a well-designed website.
1. Easy to navigate
It’s essential that your business’s website is easy to navigate so users can quickly find key information. Your site should be easy to use, with a natural flow of information that goes from page to page in an organic and predictive way. Your sitemap, primary menu and sub-menus must be designed to lead users to the information they want, and then naturally to the action that you want them to take, whether it’s signing up for a newsletter or purchasing an item online.
2. Easy on the eyes
A good website is designed well so users enjoy interacting with it. This includes the use of images and text: font size, colour and paragraph structure should be chosen for readability and the design should be clean, consistent and easy to interact with.
How do you think your business website ranks in terms of creating a positive user experience? Is it something that you considered before designing the site, or would you consider re-designing based on good UX principles?
