No matter what kind of business you’re running, you’re going to rely on exceptional website design and web usability design. Exceptional web design and web usability will ensure that your website doesn’t only look great, but that customers are able to navigate through it and find what they want too!
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To achieve this, you’re going to have to follow website usability guidelines, carry out website usability testing and implement website usability features. This might sound like a lot to take into account, but the following information should help you to get to grips with the basics and guide you in the right direction!
The Importance of Web Design, Usability and User Experience
Let’s start out by examining the importance of web design, usability and experience with a few definitions. Web design is how your site is displayed on the internet. It can help create a brand image. Web usability definition is how easily users can navigate around your site.
The easier they find this process, the more likely they are to browse stock and make purchases. User experience is whether your users are able to use your site and whether they like your site. This can determine whether they give up before purchasing anything and whether they return. The following tips and tricks can help you to excel in all of these areas!
Keep Things Simple
First and foremost, it’s absolutely essential that you keep things as simple as possible on your webpage. This is basic when it comes to web usability standards and guidelines. An overload of images, written content and other information can leave users feeling lost and overwhelmed. This can often result in people not being able to find what they want and leaving the page - resulting in the loss of a sale for you. Instead, minimalism is key.
You need to get the necessary information across and only the necessary information across. Take a look over your current webpage and determine what aspects of it are absolutely necessary. Everything on your page should serve a final purpose of either creating a brand image or pushing a sale. Anything else can be removed.
Focus on Navigational Ease
While most users will first make their way to your landing page, this isn’t necessarily where they need to be or where they should stay. Instead, they’re likely to be looking for something specific on your site. Whether this is a certain category of products, a page with shipping information, a contact page, or anything else, you need to make sure that they can find the page they need with absolute ease.
This is where navigation comes into play. It’s a good idea to keep navigation at the top of the page and to include some sort of search box that can scour your site for keywords, terms or phrases. Navigation should never go below three levels deep to avoid user confusion and prevent users from getting lost.
Make Your Site Mobile Friendly
Nowadays, people are accessing websites from more devices than ever. You can’t assume that all users will be accessing your site from a computer or laptop, simply because these are the devices you’re likely to be designing your site from. Instead, a huge number of people will be accessing your page from a smartphone, tablet or other mobile devices.
The way pages are displayed on these devices can vary drastically, so you need to ensure that all pages and elements of your site are optimised for mobile use. This will ensure that users can still make their way around your site and carry out transactions no matter how they’re accessing it. As you can imagine, this will significantly increase sales!
Follow the Norm
A common result of web usability testing shows that people like what they know. It may be tempting to stray from usual web design in order to stand out from the crowd. But there are certain design assets that you should stick to. Web users are used to particular words or symbols indicating aspects of a webpage that they want to use.
For example, including a picture of a cart or basket on links leading to your checkout or payments page will be easily recognisable for users and they are likely to click this and check out quickly when they are ready to pay. If you don’t include this traditional visual trope on your webpage, people may spend time searching for it. By the time they find where to pay without it, they may have changed their minds and you may have lost a valuable impulse buy.
Request Feedback
Remember that you can always request direct feedback from website users regarding any changes you make. This can give you insight into what works and what doesn’t!
As you can see, the power of web design, web usability and user experience should never be underestimated.
In Conclusion, hopefully, some of the above advice will help you to create the best website going! If you’d like any further information, please visit madewithbree.io.