The web has become increasingly competitive and complex over the years. What used to be simple websites viewed on desktops and laptops has now become rich content experiences across a myriad of devices both stationary and mobile. This has effectively changed the way we interact with the web, how we consume it, for how long and where. How do we try to manage all of this? The answer is UX design, AKA User Experience.
UX designers specialize in user behavior and general emotions associated with their interactions with your site. With careful planning and research, a good UX designer can improve conversion and user satisfaction with your website.
What Does a UX Designer Do?
By utilizing different tools like wire frames, A/B testing, user surveys, user flows, story telling and more, UX designers can test and tweak a websites layout, colors, flow, etc.
For example, by using A/B testing you can split your website into two versions with slight differences, like showing an orange add to cart button to audience A, and a green button to audience B. Then, measure the results to see which version led to higher click-throughs. Just how effective can something as simple as a button change be? Well, one extreme example led to a substantial increase in revenue by $300 million all by a simple button change. While this is outside of the norm, its easy to see the value in testing and UX design from these results.
Wireframes and prototypes also provide great templates for layout and strategy. Creating sites that are easy to use and understand is key to improving a user’s happiness with your website. They can be used to plan out content that goes above the fold, choose placement of call to actions based on eye tracking and human behavior, and help bring organization to complex site layouts.
A user needs to feel comfortable using your site, and with proper planning and testing, easier to funnel through your conversion points. There is no exact formula for doing this, which is where UX designers, surveys, testing all come into play.
What this Means for You
In a nutshell, good UX design leads to happier and loyal returning customers, increased conversions and an intuitive, easy to use website. By making changes and decisions based on research and analysis you can more accurately create desired results. Whether you are trying to gain traction as a new business, increase usage of an intranet application or increase sales, proper UX design should be an essential step in your web planning and implementation.
