With the advent of modern technology and the internet, building a website for your business has become a necessity. More often than not, your website is the first point of contact for potential visitors to know more about your business and offerings.
So naturally, how your website looks and feels can drastically impact conversions. Therefore, building a seamless and user-friendly website that’s easy to navigate and use is essential. This article outlines expert tips and suggestions for building a user-friendly website.
Listen To Your Users
Understanding what your users need is the first step to creating an excellent customer experience. Website owners can leverage insights and data to interpret what their users are looking for. Specific tools can also help you locate points of drop-off or potential barriers in your website design.
However, if you are building a website for the first time, you are unlikely to have any pre-existing data. Conducting competitive analysis and analyzing your rivals’ websites can help you understand what users are looking for. You can even consider hiring a local design company like Pittsburgh web design & development to create a detailed plan of action.
Provide Enough Information
A good website design should have every information and detail new visitors would require to get a grasp of your services. Inadequate information can leave users feeling confused and lost. In extreme cases, it can also force users to drop off the website and look for alternative services. Similarly, a content-heavy website can make your users feel overwhelmed.
Proper content structuring and diversification is the best approach to ensuring your users get the right details. Consider going light on the text while incorporating visuals like infographics, illustrations, and animations. Remember, whatever you choose to incorporate on your website must add value to the users without overwhelming them.
Good Use Of White Space
Just having relevant information on your website is not enough. Users will not engage with the information provided if your content is not properly structured. One excellent way to reduce information overloading among users is the smart use of white spaces. White spaces refers to any vacant space between two components.
A carefully left space between website components not only provides an aesthetically pleasing design but also reduces content crowding. This also significantly reduces effort on the part of the user to read and engage with information. However, do remember to keep a balance when incorporating white spaces to your content. Furthermore, try to utilize white spaces to highlight critical information on the site.
Brand Color And Typography
Your website serves multiple purposes as a dynamic platform, including brand visibility, marketing, and boosting sales. That is why choosing colors for your website plays a bigger role than you may realize. Your brand colors are key factors in ensuring how your users feel when they first land.
For instance, yellow is a fun, playful color that can heighten users’ emotions and excitement. Blue, on the other hand is an excellent choice if you wish to evoke feelings of reliability and professionalism. In addition, your choice of website color should be in accordance to your brand tonality.
Using brand colors for your website is a standard design practice. This creates a subtle brand association among users while retaining a sense of uniformity and cohesiveness across the site. Similarly, your typography should reinforce the association and harmonize with your brand colors.
Add Social Proof
It is human tendency to be uncertain of anything new. Users visiting your site for the first time are not any different. While trust and custom loyalty does take time to build, you can reduce some user concerns through social proof.
In user experience design, social proof offer two major advantages. First, it reduces uncertainty and offers users a source of credibility. Secondly, it acts as an anchor to motivate users to take action and engage with your services. For instance, customer reviews or testimonials act as a social proof for new users and can help in building initial trust. It may also motivate new users to take action and avail of your services.
Similarly, incorporating social media icons like your business’s Facebook profile allows users to get access to more details about your business.
Navigation, Layout And Speed
The most essential element of your website is its operation. An aesthetically pleasing website is practically useless if it’s not intuitive. A website that takes a long time to load or is slow in operation will frustrate your customers and prevent them from converting.
Similarly, if your website navigation is not intuitive, it is likely to confuse your visitors. When building a website, ensure its loading time and speed do exceed the standard. Furthermore, structure your website’s layout in a manner that supports the natural browsing behavior of users.
Make sure all the information is accessible and structured in a way that makes the overall navigation a seamless experience.
Mobile Responsiveness
Mobile responsiveness plays a significant role when it comes to enhancing user experience. Remember, most users are likely to visit your website on accessible devices like tablets and mobiles. If your website design is not compatible with all devices, you run the risk of losing on potential customers. In addition, mobile responsiveness can also you with search engine ranking.
When working on mobile responsiveness, ensure your navigational scheme is compatible with different mobile models. Optimized images, content-friendly layout and smart site architecture are few other aspects you must consider. Loading speed and overall site performance should also be optimized for mobile users to reduce drop off.
Effective CTAs
Your CTAs or call to action are cues that work directly to convert visitors into customers. A strong CTA not only reminds the visitor of specific action points but also urges them to go ahead and take those actions.
Clear and precise CTAs work the best. A strong CTA should also tell the customer precisely what action is expected of them. For instance, “sign up” or “register with us” are clear action points that encourage customers to take a specific action. Moreover, ensure your CTAs are clickable to reduce the gap between user intention and action.
Chat Functionality
Even a well informed and structured site can leave certain visitors confused. Especially if you run a product or service based business. Users who visit your site and find your offerings interesting should have a medium to answer their queries immediately. Any delay or obstruction in receiving further information can be a potential drop off point.
This is where real-time chat functionality comes into play. Live chats provide a platform to users to get their doubts and queries answered instantly. In addition, data from chat queries can also provide website owners with insights on recurring questions or feedback. This can further help you in enhancing your offerings or design for the ultimate customer experience.
Final Thoughts
A lot goes into building websites that are user-friendly and intuitive. In such a competitive landscape, just going with a predefined list of suggestions is not enough. While our tips can certainly help build an intuitive website, you need to have a clear plan first to truly stand out. Take time to understand how you want your visitors to feel and act when they first land on your page. This will allow you to create unique experiences for an excellent user experience.
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