A positive user experience (or UX) plays a key role in determining whether people will return to a site or make an online purchase from a particular company. And, yet, only 55 percent of businesses are currently doing any kind of UX testing.
If your business has not been making it a priority to improve your UX design and enhance the way your website functions (not the just the way it looks), you run the risk of alienating a lot of people.
Not sure what UX is or why you need to be concerned about it? Read on to learn everything you need to know and get some tips on how you can improve your UX to continue growing your business and bringing in more traffic to your website.
What is UX Design?
UX design is all about making sure people who visit a website have a positive experience. There are a lot of aspects of web design that fall under the UX umbrella, including the following:
● Usability
● Function
● Branding
● Overall design
In a nutshell, UX combines the look of a website with the way that it functions.
It’s not enough for a website to look nice (although that certainly plays a key role in keeping people around). It also has to run in a smooth fashion. This means fast loading times, a high site uptime rating, and mobile-friendliness.
Why is it Important?
There are lots of reasons why you need to make UX a priority. Whether your business is a few days old or has been around for a few decades, you can benefit from focusing on your UX design. The following are some of the main benefits you’ll see when you do this:
Attract and Retain Customers
When your website provides people with positive user experience, they’re going to be more inclined to stick around and continue visiting. They’re also more likely to tell their friends and family about what your site has to offer.
Word of mouth is still very powerful in 2019, and a good UX is a great tool to improve your business’s reputation and enhance your credibility.
Increase Brand Loyalty
A good UX design can also help to foster brand loyalty. If your website is designed well, people are going to have more positive things to say about your business.
On the flip side, poor website design and negative user experience can have a serious impact on your site.
Remember, people are more likely to talk about a negative experience than a positive one. Make sure that, if people are out there talking about your business and your website, it’s with a positive tone.
Increase in Sales
When people have a smooth, seamless user experience when visiting a particular website, they’re going to be more inclined to complete their purchase.
Lots of shopping carts get abandoned during the checkout process because it doesn’t run smoothly. No business wants to have people abandoning their purchases, right?
Stand Out from the Crowd
Remember how nearly half of all businesses aren’t doing any kind of UX testing? That’s likely because they’re not making UX a priority, period.
If you start focusing on UX now, you can separate yourself from your competition and provide customers with a better shopping experience. This, in turn, will increase the likelihood that they’ll choose you over another online business.
Reduce Support Costs
When you make UX a priority, you also get to avoid having to pay expensive support costs later on. When your website functions in an efficient and intelligent way, there are fewer bugs and code issues that you have to pay someone to fix to keep the site up and running.
Increase Efficiency
A good UX design allows for more efficiency on the buyer’s end, too. The faster people can complete their purchases, the more people will be able to use your site without running into any obstacles. This increase in efficiency can also lead to an increase in sales.
Increase Customer Engagement
Finally, your UX design can also encourage people to engage with your website in a meaningful way.
If people like the way the site is laid out and how it functions, they’re going to be more inclined to leave feedback, sign up for email lists, and engage in other ways that boost your bottom line.
Remember, if you can make users happy right out of the gate, the chances of them returning the favour increase dramatically.
Tips for Improving UX
Clearly, UX is important. How do you go about improving your UX design, though?
The following are some basic tips that will help you get started:
● Conduct a UX audit: Work with a professional and have them evaluate your design to see where the issues lie.
● Remove unvalidated features: If nobody’s using it, get rid of it so it’s not cluttering up your site.
● Ask for and act on user feedback: Find out what people like and what they want to see more of.
● Provide value: You’ll have better luck getting people to sign up for your email list if you offer them something of value right off the bat.
● Update your search function: Make it as easy as possible for people to search for what they need when they visit your site.
Don’t be afraid to hire a professional, either. If you’re not a web design/development expert, bringing on someone who is will help you get the results you need without having to waste a lot of time.
Start Improving UX Today
As you can see, a good UX design is crucial if you want people to come back to your website again and again. A good UX will increase the likelihood that people will buy what you’re selling, and it also helps to boost your business’s credibility and search engine ranking.
If you haven’t been prioritizing UX, now’s the perfect time to start. Start working with a web developer or web development company today to figure out what you need to do to ensure everyone who visits your site has a positive experience.