Here’s a question for you: if visitors jump off your website within seconds of landing on it, is your website doing its job? Of course the answer is no. If you want visitors to fall in love with your website design and spend their time looking at every page, you need to create a great user experience that leaves them happy and satisfied. In fact, in a recent study, almost every web user (95%) agreed with the statement: “a good user experience just makes sense.”
So what is a good user experience? According to Magicdust who provide website design Sydney and Australia wide, ‘It’s much more than good information and engaging copy, although that is important- much of the user experience happens behind the scenes’. In another survey, 78% of respondents responsible for client relations said their company was “extremely or quite committed to delivering the best online user experience”. And that’s good news for their clients. You too can create a website that your users will love by following these six practices.
1. Focus on designing a high-performing site
Did you know that 40% of people will abandon a web page if it takes more than three seconds to load? Three seconds isn’t much time. If your website has too many large graphics, flash, or other features that can take slow load times, it’s time to rethink your design. Make sure these elements are well optimized or cached for quick loading times. You may also want to check your server speeds and get a dedicated server with a more complex environment if you’re expecting spikes in traffic.
2. Make your site mobile friendly
Almost all (93.3%) of small business websites are not mobile compatible and will not render successfully on mobile devices or smartphones. This is a big problem when more and more customers are accessing websites from mobile devices. It’s becoming easier to have a mobile version of your website, and it’s an important investment to make-you don’t want to lose business because your website doesn’t scale properly to a smaller screen.
3. Create a simple and eye-catching web design
For both load times and mobile friendliness, a clean and simple design is always the best way to go. It’s also just part of adhering to good design principles. People don’t have time to navigate through a ton of “stuff.” Make your site simple to use and your information easy to find. This includes simple and well-defined navigation that helps users find exactly what they are looking for fast. Include social icon buttons for your accounts at the top or side of each page. Put contact information in an easy to find location, either its own tab in the navigation or at the top right corner of the page. You should always put a second copy of your contact information in the page footer as well.
4. Add Photos and Videos
Including photos and videos may seem counter to facilitating load times and creating a clean design. But it’s not. We live in a visual world, and people respond to images. You want to offer sleek photos and embedded videos on your site to break all your text up. These images and videos should to be relevant to each page and in line with your brand personality. Just make sure they are optimized for fast viewing.
5. Make your brand personality shine
With two-thirds (67%) of businesses using their website to market to customers, it is important to let the brand personality shine. You need to differentiate yourself, and your website may be the only place where people receive your marketing messages. So be sure to inject lots of your brand and team’s personality in your website.
6. Understand your website is all about the user
Every person who visits your site is wondering: “what can this company do for me?” So resist the urge to talk about yourself and focus on your customers – and what you can do for them. Tell your site visitor how your business can help make their lives easier with your product or service. This should be apparent in the headlines, subtitles, and images as well as the actual website copy.
By reshaping your website design so it accurately reflects your brand in design and content and offers convenience to the visitor, people will be drawn into your website. The longer they stay, the more they will fall in love with your website and business at first visit.