User experience can be difficult to define when you’re talking about a website. You know you want to have a positive user experience, but how can you achieve that? There is no ‘one size fits all’ answer. It depends on what kind of website you have and who your customers are. However, there are a few universal ideas that you can apply to your site, which will help to improve your user’s experience.
Findability
You might be surprised that findability relates to both humans and machines. First you need to get Google to find all the pages on your site. This will increase your organic traffic, which is the foundation of good SEO. Once you have the users on your site, you want them to be able to easily navigate from page to page. Having a site where potential customers can find what they’re looking for is a big part of having a good user experience.
Download Time
When it comes to download time, the number one rule is that perceived download time is more important than actual download time. A good example of this is Instagram. When you tap a picture to like it, that action shows up immediately on your screen. However, the actual data may take longer to get transmitted to the server, and to the other person’s phone. Here, the perceived download time is more important than actual download time.
This is why you want your website to load as quickly as possible. A slow website is the most frustrating thing that a user can encounter. The average person will wait 3 seconds for a site to load, before clicking the back button. How quickly does your site load?
Content is Always King
Imagine two different websites. One is stunning and beautiful, the other plain and simple. The beautiful website has mediocre content. The plain website has outstanding content. In the long run, which one is going to get more views?
The website with great content and a boring design will always be more popular than the beautiful website with poor content. Ideally when you make your own site you can combine the two. However, if you have to pick between the two, pick content. Having a good user experience means satisfying a person who comes to your website. No matter how gorgeous your website is, you can’t do that without solid content.
How to Detract from the Experience
In order to improve the user experience on your website, it’s useful to think about what can detract from it. Any single detail may not mean much. However, when you compound them they can really begin to add up. Here are a couple of things to avoid on your website.
- Allow users to sign in using different accounts. For example, Google + or Facebook.
- Don’t use CAPTCHAs. There are better solutions out there today.
- Pay attention to any user feedback you get. If one person has taken the time to say it, a lot more people have probably thought it.
To see the full list of what can detract from your website, head over to HongKiat and read their article: How to Ruin a Good User Experience in 20 Simple Steps. If you want professional help with improving the user experience on your website, Superiocity can help! Let’s get in touch and make it happen today!