Your website’s UX is more important than you may think. UX design can significantly impact your business’s success; both positively and negatively. Some people think that the design of a website doesn’t add much more value than looking pretty, but having effective UX design can make a world of a difference. UX design has been considered to be one of the main priorities for businesses in recent years; and for good reason.
What is UX?
UX – or user experience – covers everything that contributes to the journey and satisfaction of the user of a product (such as a website, app or social media platform). It’s a UX Designer’s job to ensure that the user has the most seamless and enjoyable experience possible. They must consider every process that goes into the user’s experience of a product, including design, branding, usability and function.
How does UX impact my business?
UX is a crucial element to a website’s success. If your company website has bad UX, you can expect to miss out on business opportunities. The difference between good and bad UX could be the difference between landing a new client or customer. UX is a valuable tool for generating ROI (return on investment) and increasing business KPIs (key performance indicators).
What are the results of good UX?
Good UX can be an absolute game-changer for your business. If you’re losing customers/clients, are experiencing stagnating results or are simply unhappy with how your website is looking, improving user experience can have a tonne of great effects that are sure to change all that.
Here are some of the benefits that good UX can have on your business:
Killer conversions
A website that is easy to navigate means that your customer/client can find what they’re looking for. Someone who wants your service/product but can’t find a way to complete the transaction easily is likely to get frustrated and give up. Good UX can be key in getting as many conversions as possible.
Hey good-lookin’
No one wants to buy from a shoddy website. It’s 2019, and standards climb higher every year. A well-crafted, good looking website is sure to make you fair competition.
To ensure your website looks up to scratch, make sure it:
- Uses a consistent font, text size and colour scheme throughout each page
- Has crystal-clear image quality
- Makes navigation easy and clear for the user by using CTAs, buttons and a clear content structure
- Makes your branding clear to the user with the use of logos
I DO give a damn about my bad reputation
The usability of your website can also influence your reputation. People are likely to assume that a high-quality website belongs to a professional business. A website with poor UX will likely give people a bad impression, which may result in them lacking trust in your products or services.
Top of the list
Good UX can also have an effect on your SEO (search engine optimisation). Algorithms are getting smarter and search engines are favouring user-focused and user-friendly sites.
The factors of UX that influence SEO are:
- How well your site is optimised for mobile
- Your page loading speed
- A user-friendly URL structure
- Clean and concise headers and menus
Keep em’ coming
User retention is another benefit of good UX. Your clients/customers are likely to keep coming back to your products or services if your website is easy to use and nice to look at. 52% of online shoppers have claimed that quick page loading influences their loyalty to a site.
Time is money
Importantly, good UX can save your business time and money. Making your UX as good as possible from the get-go means that you can prevent redesigns and other expensive problems from happening later down the line.
Examples of good UX
If you’re in need of some user experience inspiration, look no further than these examples:
Dollar Shave Club
Why it works: Dollar Shave Club’s website illustrates the importance of simplicity. With its limited colour palette, easy-to-follow navigation and clear visuals, the website is as clean-cut as its razors make you feel.
Airbnb
Why it works: Airbnb is another great example of navigation made easy. By keeping the home page simple and asking straight-forward questions, the user knows exactly what to do. Navigation is made particularly effective by the use of buttons; they include really simplified CTAs and guide the eye with minimal colour.
Apple
Why it works: Apple’s products are known for their great UX, and their website is no exception. The website has a helpful feature that lets you compare products and work out which is the best option for you. This answers a question that a lot of consumers have without them having to go looking for it.
ASOS
Why it works: ASOS has managed to stand out from competitors due to its excellent UX. It inherently understands how its audience shops and what their expectations are. The site includes videos of each product, allowing the user to visualise themselves in whatever they’d like. This way, the audience gains a better understanding of a product than they would get from an alternative site. By doing this, ASOS has built up a strong base of loyal customers. ASOS
What are the consequences of bad UX?
Bad UX can have a significantly detrimental impact on your business.
Some of the main consequences of bad UX are:
Behind the times
Poor UX can make your business look prehistoric compared to your competitors. In this ever-changing world of digital and technological advancements, you want to stay up to date wherever necessary. If your website appears to be from 2005, people may assume that your business doesn’t care about customer needs, is outdated, or no longer exists.
Gotta bounce
People are more likely to bounce from your website, causing your conversions to crash and burn. If you want to know how to reduce your bounce rate, give this a read.
A high bounce rate is bad because:
- It can negatively impact your SEO
- You’re less likely to get conversions
- It could signify that people aren’t happy with your website
- The user isn’t likely to return to your site
Bad word of mouth
Word of mouth can be a fantastic tool for gaining business opportunities, but it can also have the opposite effect. If the UX of your website is truly terrible, there’s no doubt that people are going to express their dissatisfaction to others.
When we talk about bad UI/UX…..
Showing orange alert for success message, really? @SageAustralia pic.twitter.com/UebCki5hQl— Navid Farshchi (@NavidFarshchi) October 21, 2019
Check it out
Poor UX design on e-commerce sites can have a particularly large impact on the amount of people checking out. Glitches and poor navigation can make it difficult for people to add items to their cart or complete a purchase. 64% of shoppers have stated that incorrect or incomplete content on a brand’s website/mobile app dissuades them from completing a purchase.
Examples of bad UX
With those points in mind, let’s look at a few sites that have poor UX.
Liverpool Echo
Why it doesn’t work: We recommend blocking the pop-ups on this one. Anyone who has browsed the Liverpool Echo website knows that it is overly cluttered and full of advertisements. The over-use of content and adverts mean that the website is not only frustrating to look at, but often takes quite a while to load.
Amazon
Why it doesn’t work: Amazon is another example of how clutter can make it hard for the user to navigate around. With sign-in buttons scattered randomly throughout the site, oodles of images, tiny text and too many options, the Amazon site definitely looks outdated.
Although, they have had massive success with Amazon Prime. This could be down to the clear calls to action and incentives used on this section of the website. Its layout is completely different to the rest of the site.
So what makes good and bad UX?
Having covered what makes UX design good or bad, our top takeaways would be:
- Make the website look as clean, clear and concise as possible
- Avoid over-using content such as text, images, gifs and videos
- Make sure that your website is easy to navigate
- Keep the user’s needs in mind at all times
- Don’t use pop-ups or flood your site full of advertisements
- Ensure that your CTAs tell your users exactly what to do
Wanting more?
Now that you’re an expert in spotting good and bad UX design, you’ll hopefully be able to recognise how to make your website the best that it can be. If you’re itching to find out more about UX, don’t worry; we’re going to keep these posts coming. Keep your eye on our socials to catch the next one.
If you understand UX but want to get to grips with content marketing, check out our digital marketing basics series or download our free ebook.
