Modern UX design is no longer something that’s “nice to have.” If you’re not optimizing your website for the user, you’re already one step behind your competitors. If you’re looking to create a user-centric digital marketing funnel for your brand, then look no further.
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In the age when brands and businesses have transitioned to the digital space, creating a website has now become a necessity. In the process of creating a page, a lot of web designers have the tendency to go overboard and misuse important page design elements. Even though a visually pleasing site is necessary to attract more leads, acquiring conversions will still remain as your end goal.
Unlike user interface design (UI) that guides designers on how to utilize aesthetic elements, (UX) deals with optimizing your site’s function and structuring the browsing journey of your leads.
Regardless of what industry you’re in or what platform (app or website) you’re using, the experience of your users will greatly depend on how well it functions. Your site may look sleek and classy, but if your customers are having a hard time navigating, chances are they’ll just get frustrated and leave.
Luckily, optimizing your site’s function can be done through processes like . By analyzing how people interact with your site, you can measure which areas of your page are performing well and are in need of improvement.
What’s important to note is that many of your competitors are already optimizing their website UX design, so if you’re not jumping on board, you WILL get left behind.
The Importance of Website UX Design
Thanks to the opportunities that digital channels provide, most service providers and retailers are now just a click away. Investing in UX design doesn’t just add value for users browsing through your site, it also provides a number of practical benefits for your company.
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Establishes customer loyalty and builds your online reputation
Customer loyalty is gained through positive engagements. If your visitors are able to acquire what they want without encountering any issues with site speed, page navigation, or even your payment process, they’ll see you as a reliable brand and will be convinced to return.
You should also keep in mind that people have the tendency to trust the recommendations of their peers. Now that people are more public about business reviews and other personal opinions, providing a seamless browsing experience will boost your reputation through word of mouth marketing.
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Boosts the effectivity of your content marketing efforts.
UX design can enhance the effectivity of your content marketing efforts.
By strategically placing well-defined links and call to action buttons across your landing pages, you can effectively motivate your visitors to interact with your blog. If you consistently provide timely and relevant content, you’re unconsciously promoting your brand as a trustworthy figure without using any hard-sell tactics.
This will allow you to establish authority in your industry and can even boost your overall search engine optimization (SEO) efforts.
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Cut down costs and increase overall revenue
Web development costs can really add up if new changes are being constantly made.
UX design makes use of research, analysis, and testing to ensure that all elements of your page will be able to perform its necessary functions. By fixing usability issues, creating visitor personas, and identifying bottlenecks, investing in UX design will ensure that your page is optimized to boost the development of your business.
Getting Started with Website UX Design Optimization
If you want to take on a buyer-centered approach with your page, taking note of UX pillars will make the process smooth. To enhance the effectivity of your website, below is a list of important UX design principles and how you can make the most out of each one:
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Easily Accessible
Before you optimize your site’s function and design, you need to ensure that people will be able to find it via search. Especially if you’re a newly established brand, having no solid reputation will require you to ramp up your SEO efforts.
Other than improving rankings on search engine results pages (SERPs), investing in pay per click campaigns or implementing an optimized social media strategy will also help increase website access. Essentially, anything that increases your exposure and page crawlability/indexability will inherently improve accessibility.
Here’s a great post about improving website accessibility from Berkeley.
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Information and Design Hierarchy
Having a clear hierarchy of information will help you sort and organize different sections of your site. These practices involve organizing content to follow natural eye movement patterns and address factors like element size, color, contrast, alignment, repetition, and proximity.
Once your visitors arrive, the navigation bar on top of your page should allow them to instantly go to where they want to be. Whereas on landing pages, visitors should be able to quickly identify the next step through a clear and relevant CTA. The more intuitive your website’s information hierarchy, the quicker each user will be able to complete actions, thus, minimizing barriers to conversion.
Learn more by checking out this awesome design hierarchy guide from The UX Collective.
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Clarity and Concise
Cluttered sites are bound to lose their leads. Having too many buttons, using complicated language, and having unorganized links will just confuse your leads. When incorporating design elements of any sort, adding only what’s necessary will give your site a clean and consistent appeal.
People will always prefer a site that’s simple and easy to use so take a less is more approach when designing (especially in the age of shortening attention spans). The obvious benefit to brands is that when users are clear about what their actions should be, conversion rates will naturally improve.
Find out more about clarity in website design with this post from Career Foundry.
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Responsive
In a world dominated by smart devices, you can expect your visitors to use different mediums to access your site. Now that smartphone usage is at an all-time high, a site that isn’t mobile-friendly may end up missing a number of conversion opportunities. Regularly conduct testing to ensure that your site is responsive and optimized across different devices, browsers, and platforms.
This involves optimizing views for desktop, smartphones, and tablets. All of which have significant differences in terms of viewing format. So, make sure you’ve got your images, videos, font sizes, themes, and overall visual hierarchy optimized to look great no matter what screen you’re on.
For more on effective responsive website design insights, here’s a useful post from Google.
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Fast and Consistent
No matter how good your site’s design is, all your efforts will go to waste if your site takes ages to load. In fact, slow loading speed is a primary reason for high bounce rates. A study by Google revealed that as page load time goes from one second to five seconds, the probability of a bounce increases by 90%.
As a good rule of thumb, try to keep loading times under five seconds to keep users from frustratedly clicking the “back” button. Keep this consistent across your website (especially for landing pages) and your visitors will show their appreciation with more engagement.
Optimize your website speed with these great tips from Moz.
Put Your Users at the Center
Always remember, high performing webpages have a good balance of aesthetics and function. UX is a never-ending process that will require constant testing. Investing in analytics tools and conducting site checkups regularly will help you keep track of its performance and make data-backed adjustments if necessary.
Gaining trust and establishing your online authority becomes a lot easier with a user-centered website that’s optimized for a positive experience. Start taking website UX design seriously today for a serious boost in trust, conversions, and customer satisfaction.
