There are over 4.5 billion active internet users right now, and almost 80% of internet users own a smartphone. The internet is probably the most widely-visited virtual ‘place’ on earth. With the internet comes websites, and with so much web traffic, especially from smartphones, a website needs to be attractive and engaging.
For a website or an app to be attractive and engaging, especially if it’s in ecommerce or a small online business, it needs to be easy to navigate and pleasing to the eye. This can either make or break the success of a web page or app, its traffic and client retention. What can be done to take this into consideration? A UX-designed website or app. This comprehensive guide will discuss what UX design is and the various advantages of using it.
Table of Contents
What is UX Design?
UX, otherwise referred to as User Experience, is what it states – it aims to make the experience for the user as optimal as possible. This becomes a multidisciplinary process, covering aspects from industries like design, human psychology, behavior, and technology. The combination of these fields create well-informed web designs based on what potential clients will need and look for when they visit a specific website so that eventually it leads to higher conversion rates.
There are fundamental UX Design principles to apply to build a good website, especially focused on end-user design principles. These focus on the goals, needs, and perspectives of the end-user, in other words, the clients or web visitors that will convert to possible clients. Designers will optimize the experience for the end-user on how they will use and interact with the service or product online, so it requires a good deal of envisioning who the user is and what their thought processes and expectations are.
How Does the UX Design Process Work?
Product Research: The UX Design process starts with identifying and researching a specific problem, creating an end-user profile or ‘persona’, and identifying potential solutions related to the data and information found. Research can be done in many ways, for example, surveys, focus groups, keeping diaries, observations, or interviews. The ‘persona’ can also branch into ‘user scenarios’, which explore where the user will be in their life when they use the product/service, and ‘empathy maps’, which explore how the user will feel when they use the product.
Product Development: This process follows a framework and taxonomy system referred to as information architecture, which creates categories of the various types of information and how it will be organized and displayed on the website. Wireframes are used to create the framework or structure of the product before using or testing it.
Testing and Evaluating: The product development process will use the information and data from the research process. There are many ways to test a product, among these is the prototyping process, which tests the product or service with others before the finalized version. Testing also involves feedback loops and heuristic analysis to assess the product/service’s usability and how users interact with it.
The Advantages of Using UX Design
Over 60% of people prefer a site that’s UX-optimized versus a regular website, this increases the demand for UX designers and gives a site the upper hand with their competitors. Additionally, having a UX-designed website will improve customer retention and productivity. Doing adequate research and testing before launching a product will also minimize time and money spent on correcting mistakes, bugs in the system, and complaints or feedback from clients.
Website Builders and UX
There are numerous website builders on the market to start an online business or showcase a product or service. Many of these are easily affordable and take less than an hour to set up. The GoDaddy website builder is ranked first on TRUiC’s best website builder guide. It offers a simple and straightforward website design, which is also SEO optimized and suitable for email marketing and social media.
Summary
The importance of a good UX Design strategy will not only save time and money, but create a website that’s easy to navigate with increased web traffic. Visit TRUiC’s website for more information about designing a UX-optimized website.