If you’re getting traffic to your website but not converting, chances are it’s not your product that’s driving customers away. It’s your website’s UX design. But what is UX design anyway, and how can understanding it help you achieve your business goals? Let’s discuss.
User experience (UX) design is the process of creating a website or app with the end-user in mind. Web designers use UX design to ensure their websites and landing pages are user-friendly, easy to use, and optimized for their business objectives.
The modern consumer is accustomed to instant gratification and seamless interactions. If your site does not deliver, your customers will go elsewhere. Here are a few reasons why you should care about your website’s UX design.
Good UX Design Can Increase Credibility
UX design is not just about the customer; a well-designed website will also emphasize the business goals. A good UX designer must balance the user needs and business objectives. One of the principles of UX design is to reduce confusion. Reducing confusion can lead to an increase in email signups, purchases.
Websites with Bad UX Lose Credibility
Website visitors are accustomed to modern, reliable websites. If your site is lacking on any of these fronts. Your customers will lose trust in your website and your brand. Put simply, if your website looks like it hasn’t been updated since 1995, you will look like a joke.
Higher Search Ranking by Reducing Bounce Rates
Bounce rate is the ratio of people who immediately leave a website upon entering it. Bounce rate is a major SEO (Search engine optimization) factor used by search engines like google, bing, and yahoo to determine organic search ranking. A website with a bad UX will experience an increase in bounce rate. This, in turn, will decrease your ranking in search engines and reduce the likelihood of your customers ever finding your website.
What Is a UX Audit
Bad website user experience can tank your business. This is why it’s essential to conduct a proper user experience(UX) audit on your website. If you don’t know how to do a UX audit, don’t worry, a site audit does not need to be an event. You can do it by simply testing your website on different devices or having new users test. It is very simple, straightforward, and in my opinion, a ton of fun.
A UX Audit is especially important for e-commerce businesses. I once finished building an e-commerce store and was ready to receive customers, only to find out the next day that customers could not check out because there was a bug in the system that prevented customers from checking out. This was brought to my attention by a negative comment on Facebook. If I had done a proper UX audit prior to launch, I would have tested the check-out process and discovered this error myself.
When to Perform a UX Audit
You should have a site audit performed every time there is a significant change made on your website. You should also do an audit if you notice new trends in the industry, which may affect the way users interact with web content.
For example, when more and more people started browsing websites on their phones. Businesses had to suddenly begin testing their mobile user experience in addition to their desktop versions.
Empathy Map
One method of getting inside your customer’s head is through empathy mapping. An empathy map will help you understand your customer’s goals, which will, in turn, help you determine how they should achieve those goals while on your site.
The best way to create an empathy map is by asking your audience questions about your product or services.
An empathy map should be used in conjunction with your company’s SWOT analysis to ensure you achieve your company’s goals and stay clear of any threats and weaknesses.
Conclusion
Don’t get caught up in the term “design.” You don’t have to be good at graphic design to be a UX designer. In fact, graphic design has little to do with it. You just need to be able to hop into the minds of customers’ visitors and understand their pain points and frustrations and try to remedy those points.
Ultimately, UX design it’s about creating an enjoyable, seamless experience for the end-user. With a little attention to the user experience, you can increase your sales, build trust and credibility, and reduce bounce rates. So, If you have never had a UX audit performed on your website, now is the time.