At one time or another, we’ve all stumbled upon websites that offered information we were looking for but that just didn’t offer the most enjoyable user experience. Whether they suffered from difficult navigation, an overuse of flashing banners or animations, or was established to be overly complicated, we’ve all landed on such sites before.
Information is important and the primary job of any website is to provide information about the brand, product or service it endorses. But poorly designed sites offer visitors little in the way or excitement or real engagement. With no consideration given to flow, function, or speed, the bounce rate of such sites is bound to be pretty high which means their conversion rates are likely low.
User experience (UX) design is all about creating an immersive experience for a target audience, about interpreting the user’s needs and crafting a website with the feel, functionality, and look needed to get them excited about finding what they need and want. The components of UX are more than just visual appeal. They are a collection of elements that all contribute to an excellent user experience that includes calls to action, content, imagery, navigation, and many more. You can achieve this if you use the right tools in web design such as Shipfaster UI, a Figma design system that will help you build world-class and responsive UI out of the box.
Deciding which specific features and in what combinations requires some study and thought, but it’s worth it when the end result is a successful site that offers exactly what the specific user needs and wants. If it’s also able to provide insights into the improvement of its effectiveness and usability, that’s a bonus.
What is Usability?
We used to use terms like “user-friendly” a couple of decades ago. Now we apply the term usability which now means user-friendly and beyond. Usability references the ease and efficiency in which a user can navigate a platform, product or website. Usability is part of UX design but it isn’t an interchangeable term for it. Usability is, however, something we can measure. It’s the most important aspect of websites that can’t be seen because it impacts everything from loading speeds to search engine optimization (SEO).
There’s a real opportunity in UX design strategies to resolve many common problems users encounter with websites today. UX experience strategies can help visitors find precisely what they’re looking for on a given website, help reduce abandon rates, and much more. A reputable digital agency knows that integrating usability testing, businesses can learn infinitely more about their clients, their needs, and give them what they want.
Usability Elements
Accessability
When you can create a website that most anyone can access, interact with, navigate and understand, you’ve got an ideal selling tool. Such accessibility is a necessity for many and is highly desired by numerous brands and businesses who want to connect with an underserved target audience.
For audience members with disabilities, an accessible, well-executed website would be a tremendous help. There are compliance best practices that should be implemented to assist those who are hearing, motion, or visually impaired and aid the learning disabled. With a considerately crafted UX design, you can provide a well-rounded user experience for everyone.
Beta Testing
Usability is the cornerstone of any quality online customer experience. When beta testing is used to determine usability or its strategies like persona development, the website’s owners are better equipped to meet and understand their clients’ needs.
Beta testing can be conducted in a variety of ways but should always be scaled for the specific service or product being promoted. Those who participate in testing are sent through the entire sequence or to specific portions of it, trying their hand at completing the given tasks. Often such tests are timed and monitored with results carefully noted to be compared with other test runs.
Common questions should be applied to these tests. Can the product or service and information about it be easily located on the site? Do the calls to action used prompt the desired response? Such tests allow companies to fine-tune their user experience to gain valuable insights on those they hope to serve and provide the end user an easy-to-use interactive experience that will have them coming back for repeat business.
Brand Positioning
Usability is an important component in gaining consumer trust. A website that’s poorly executed will reflect poorly on the sponsor company. Whether its usability is lacking, its design is antiquated, or it’s incredibly slow to load, it’s hard to have faith trust in a company who didn’t care enough to provide their customers with the best possible website to serve their needs.
Produce a quality website with high-resolution images and content that’s fresh, engaging and unlike what your competition is producing. Take your user experience to the next level and you’ll improve consumer perception of your entire brand. An overall favorable impression of your brand is vital today in a marketplace filled with so much competition.
Enhanced Productivity
A battle-tested UX design agency knows that whether you’re utlizing easy-to-use systems or content management systems (CMS), having a comprehensive, quick-to-learn setup is only going to benefit the training and management of your company’s staff.
Staff who are confident and comfortable with the system they use for their job will be happier and more satisfied with the work they do for your company. Tasks will take less time to complete and their work will be of consistently good quality.
Refined Conversion
Having the right contextual and visual prompts are of paramount importance when it comes to usability. A strong digital agency knows that the right calls to action (CTAs) are vital tools in providing an easy-to-understand experience for consumers. Such visual cues can help the user find what they came for quickly and easily and help boost your business’s sales exponentially as a result.
Usability is a matter of study, design, and execution. In learning the personal stories of consumer personas, studying their journey, and setting relevant goals for your business, you have a solid place to begin. The right UX design experience featuring well-researched usability can instill trust in both prospective and potential customers and boost your sales along with your company’s reputation.
In dedicating your efforts to UX design best practices, you provide your consumers with a comprehensive user experience that will boost brand trust and boost your bottom line. If you don’t know where to start, consider the services of a reputable UX design agency like FuseLab Creative. Fusing creative skill and mad science together with highly innovative results, the team at FuseLab Creative develop UX design to help their clients’ reach the next level of business and gain an edge on their competition.
