The Absolute Basics of Website UX

The set of behaviors visitors to a site exhibit constitute the UX. Based on this, design teams create products and sites that provide a meaningful user experience.

As such multiple factors have a say in what makes good UX. This ranges from the design of the site to navigational structure, colors and CTAs, to name a few.

Depending on the site the order of precedence can vary.

Improving UX immediately creates a desirable experience for your users. Simply put, UX is about how easy and enjoyable the user experience can be for consumers.

The friction that someone might experience on the path to conversion is reduced to a tiny amount. With low friction conversions improve. You make more sales and drive more number of leads.

The definition of usability encompasses so much. UX is a complex field that can be summed up in three words:

* Usability 

* Accessibility 

* Value

When you improve UX, you improve users’ ability to get from point A to point B in a way that makes sense to them. You also make it easy for them to find exactly what they’re looking for.

UX is all about designing a great experience. It’s not about making a perfect-looking website – it’s about designing a great user experience for everyone.

Also, in terms of user experience, there are a few different parts of UX. Let’s take a closer look at the following:

Part One: Navigation

Navigation is probably the most important part of UX. Where you place your most important information, such as the most important pages of your site, heavily influence user experience. If users can’t easily find what they’re looking for, they’ll leave. There goes your lead.

On a web page, navigation can be a little more complicated. So these are the visual elements you need to focus on;

The same elements that make a website great may not be the best elements for the website’s conversion funnel. Take a look at these visual elements:

* Logo 

* About page 

* Signup form 

* Social media icons (size or shape)

As you can see, these elements have the best visual appeal. They’re easy to identify and can be relevant to the website.

These are all great visual elements to have. They can be great because they’re specific to the site’s identity. It’s a great way to make a website more meaningful to a user. 

They represent the site’s purpose. You can easily add referrals and callout pages to your homepage in addition to the basics.

They share the page’s meaning and purpose. They provide clear benefits for the user.  The logo is usually the first thing on the page. It’s generally on the top left. It provides your site a sense of identity.

The About page is generally the second most popular page on a site. It should have a clear hierarchy. 

Part Two: Appearance

On the web, appearance can be a little more important to users. While you may think your website looks great on the web, consumers are more likely to experience design issues. To improve your UX, you’ll want to make your website look professional- accessible both on mobile and PC. If you have trouble finding which areas of the website are creating problems use site session recording tools to gain insights. There are many usability testing tools that can help you finetune your website by conducting real tests with real users. You’ll easily discover problem areas. Usability testing is irreplaceable as it gives true input on how actual website users are going to interact with the design.

With this, you find leaks in your conversion funnel with great ease.

Lattice, a website hosting company, improved their UX by making their website mobile-friendly and making their navigation easier to find. They realized that these were the problem areas with the help of usability testing.

With the help of visual design, they were able to improve UX and increase the average time per page, making it more user-friendly.

When users have the option to leave your site, they want to do so quickly. So keep the logout option in clear view.

If registration is mandatory highlight the benefits of the same. When a user creates an account, they can view items, view products, and view checkouts quickly.

With a fast checkout process, they can easily move on to the next step in the customer journey.

Part 3: Test CTA Positioning & Colors 

You may already have an inkling about the importance of testing your CTAs — so now, let’s talk about where to put them. 

I placed them last, but that’s not to say they’re bit players in the landscape.

If you’re running a test on a landing page, you’ll want to place a CTA above the fold or below the fold. The landing page is where you want to drive traffic and convert the visitor into a lead. If you put your CTA where it is easily seen, it will increase the conversion rate. Some case studies show it to be 20%, others 30% and so on.

Also, split test the words you use in the CTA. 

It’s important to test your CTA placement and the different variations of it. Depending on the page, you might find that different versions of the CTA work best or work better than others. If you’re testing a landing page, you might find that the “Continue” button could work better than “Submit.” Test it against a different variation — this is another element you can test. 

Test and see what happens.

Concluding thoughts

What do you think of our short guide on improving the UX of your site. A clear navigational structure that allows users to find things easily and get from point A to point B is one of the prime things to focus on.

Colors, design and contrast all matter and tell the world who you are. Do let us know in the comments below what you think.