User Experience Best Practices to Put Your User Back in the Experience

User experience design is an intentional focus on creating a unique digital experience with the user in mind through design. Pretty straightforward right?

Yet, why are 44% of website visitors leaving company’s website?

It’s due to the fact that these websites have missing contact information. Missing contact information! Of all things to have on your website, why isn’t that available?

Most likely, it’s due to the fact that the attractiveness of the design outweighed usability. Meaning, during the website design process, the user was unfortunately left out. In today’s In-Sites blog, explore two in-depth user experiences best practices to make sure your users are incorporated in your web design.

User experience design isn’t a checkbox. You don’t do it and then move on. It needs to be integrated into everything you do.—Liz Danzico

Establish the digital experience right away

User experience design is not a step. It has to be weaved in throughout the entire planning, creation, staging, and launch of your website. A failure to do so is the reason why people leave your website without showing signs of converting into leads or customers. Having simple navigation, customer testimonials, or thorough contact information on your website can help make your users feel a part of your web design experience.

For example, on your homepage, you may not have case studies, testimonials, partner logos, or social proof displayed. However, these simple tactics can create a more engaging user experience.

Sit in your user’s shoes. Wouldn’t you trust a website that had partner logos from past clients? Wouldn’t you trust a website that had customer testimonials in written or video format—allowing you to explore how the company handles each customer’s buyer’s journey? Wouldn’t you trust a website that had social proof on it—allowing you to confirm the company’s brand authority outside of their website as well as see for yourself what other means of engagement this company provides even to potential customers, i.e., website visitors and leads?

With just those list of examples alone, you can establish the digital experience right away for your audience. That’s why it’s important when you’re combing through your website to have the following resources in mind. Answering these questions, setting goals to these metrics, and establishing a user experience design process will help you in the long run:

Questions to consider when evaluating your web design:

• What is missing from the current website?
  • Take stock of your webpages. Check to see if there are any pieces of information missing. Look out for missed opportunities for search engine optimization or SEO. Explore areas that can be seen as key missing pieces on your website based on the data provided by your website users.
• Does my site currently convey a feeling of trustworthiness and authority?
  • As stated before, having social proof, testimonials, and partner logos can establish trust and authority between your website visitors and your brand. Check to make sure links work and navigate to the intended destinations on your site. In order for you to be an authority, you have to make due on your promises. And your web design is just one HUGE promise that what you provide is valid and valuable.
• What are 3 to 5 websites that my brand has looked at and/or used for inspiration?
  • This question will help you to see how much you are influenced by competitors. If you are basing your design off your competitor’s website, their design may not fit what your users need. Be sure that the design trends you adapt coincide with what your users need and want from your website.

Gather and analyze your current data to create a list of new website goals using the following metrics:

• Number of visits and visitors
• Bounce rate
• Time on site
• Domain authority
• Number of new leads and form submissions
• Total amount of sales generated
• Current SEO rankings for important keywords

Use these same metrics to benchmark what you want to achieve, where you should focus your resources, and how you can take action in achieving that goal through design. For more information on the user experience design process, review the following infographic:

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Solve your user’s needs in your design

Have you ever been to a website and your needs were instantly met? Take for instance you want food from Chipotle. But you don’t want to wait in the usual long lines. You go to their website to see if you can order online. That way, your order is ready by the time you arrive. Upon arriving on their website, you realize that not only do they have an order online feature in the top right hand corner, but they also have a secondary order online CTA in their slideshow images.

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Whatever industry you work in, you have to make sure your web design is accessible to your user’s needs. If what they’re looking for is not immediately reflected, they will look to some other company with better user experience design for answers.

Do your research. Know who your audience is, what they are looking for online, and how you can solve their pain points. Map out your buyer’s journey in your website’s main navigation and content. Make the journey to your content immediate. Don’t let your users fish around for what they need. In fact, go through the following questions to learn how your website visitors can be reflected in your website:

Questions to consider when evaluating your website visitors:

• Why do your users come to your website?
• On the site, what are the top 3 things that your users look for?
• What are 3 current needs that your audience has right now?
• In what ways can those needs be present in your web design?

For more information on user statistics and in-depth user experience research you should not ignore, explore the provided infographic below:

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Usability answers the question, ‘Can the user accomplish their goal?’—Joyce Lee