User experience (UX) is a vital component of any marketing strategy. Your website is your brand’s centerpiece and the tool in charge of retaining your customer’s interest from the first click to the final purchase.
In order to battle your growing number of competitors in a post-Covid e-Commerce environment, UX design is key. Crafting a user experience that is simple yet exciting will encapsulate your visitors and provide them with an easy route to the shopping basket.
From revamping the website flow to improving the mobile experience, we have collated five of our favorite money-making enhancements for your UX design that will see your sales soaring.
What Is UX Design?
Firstly, let’s go back to basics. User Experience Design, also known as UX, is the process of using website design to help improve consumer satisfaction.
Your UX design lays the foundation for success, providing efficiency and accessibility to your consumers when they browse your website. By aiding the user interaction on both the mobile and online versions of your website, your UX design should easily escort your potential buyers around your navigation system and effortlessly provide the solution for their needs.
As you can see above, a good user experience-focused design should have 5 key elements that contribute to its success.
Firstly, think of usability. How can I make my sight as user-friendly as possible? Customers will not hang around all day trying to find the page for the product they are looking for. Make this process quick and easy, so their experience on your site is enjoyable.
Secondly, let’s look at the visuals. A strong but simple visual design is the key to successful UX, as your site remains encapsulating while not overwhelming the customer.
Finally, there’s planned user research; the glue that holds your UX design together. Each demographic is different, so it is important to know your own niche inside out. Compare your design with competitors and conduct research into your visitors to create a unique experience that attracts your target audience.
Read on to find out how you can incorporate these fundamentals into your UX design and find out how you can position this clever asset at the heart of your marketing strategy.
1. Conduct a UX & Audience Audit
One of the first and most crucial steps towards creating a successful UX design is, unfortunately, the one that is most forgotten. Taking a step back to reflect and regroup is vital if you want to improve your user experience. Conducting an audit of your current UX design will provide you with a better view of what’s working and, most importantly, what isn’t.
source: Grazitti Interactive
Focus on the analytical data. Using audience-focused analytic tools such as Finteza will give you a stronger understanding of your demographic and will help lay the foundation for the new redesign strategy.
Conducting a heuristic evaluation is also a great way to test the usability of your interface, making it a must-do when completing the initial UX audit.
source: Interaction Design
Following the UX rules of thumb such as error prevention, aesthetics and consistency, this is a cheap and easy way to test if your website design is up to expectations.
2. Keep It Simple
Now you’ve conducted your audit; it’s time to start fixing the problems with your UX design. Where better to start than the website layout itself.
The layout design of the site is one of the most vital contributors to user experience. It can determine whether the customer clicks away or comes back again. Simplicity is key when designing your website.
Keep the color scheme uncomplicated and leave lots of white space. Introducing a minimalistic composition is a great way to highlight your desired products without overcrowding the page. Utilizing a clean layout with only a couple of fonts will keep your design looking fresh, modern, and easy to use.
Source, NUA Bikes
The Nua Bikes website is a great example of a simplistic design. Using a large amount of white space to their advantage, you can see that the UX design allows the product to stand out and take center stage during the customer’s experience on the website.
3. Prioritize Smartphone Screens
Did you know that more than 50% of online traffic comes from mobile devices? Therefore, if your UX design isn’t mobile-friendly, your smartphone-based demographic won’t stick around.
Introducing a mobile-friendly version of your website will not only rake in digital native demographics, but experts suggest that you’ll rank higher up too. If you’re looking to improve your organic ranking score, going back to the drawing board with your UX design could be key. As Google crawls both your mobile site and your desktop, you’re much more likely to see a successful index of your website if both versions perform efficiently.
Incorporating mobile-friendly solutions into your UX design has also never been easier. It’s all about ensuring that users can interact with a single touch. When redesigning your interface for smartphone users, place the buttons in the center of the site, allowing thumbs to access them at speed.
It’s also important to keep flipping between your site's desktop and mobile versions to check that the fonts, images, and graphics are optimized for all users.
4. Create a Consistent Flow
Just as you would in a physical store, you need to make sure that the flow from the homepage to the user’s goal is as streamlined as possible. This is where the simple design strategy from earlier aids your success. Making sure that your navigation system is clearly presented and easily utilized by your visitor will increase the number of consumers reaching the end goal of your website.
User Flow Diagram, source: Digital Natives
Each website flow must also remain consistent. Avoid dead ends within your flow where you can, even if this means linking them back to your homepage. From the entry point where the user starts their journey, up until the end goal, each page needs to lead on to something else that will take the consumer one step closer to the valuable information they seek.
As the flow begins to reach its end target, aligning the goal of the website and the needs of the user, it’s important to narrow down those navigation options and focus on your end goal. Whether that is a product purchase or a link to valuable content, it’s important to organically lead the customer to your desired page without breaking the flow.
5. Ask for Customer Feedback
Last but certainly not least, it’s time to turn to your customers. It is important to speak to the users to improve your user experience. To do this, simply introduce a survey style section to your end goal pages. Ask how you could enhance their user experience or what they would like to see on your website in the future.
Incorporating consumer input into your new UX strategy is a quick and easy path towards design success.
