Many businesses are now harnessing the benefits of digital marketing. A sudden shift in the buying behavior of customers with more people inclined to brands that sell online requires businesses to have a converting website.
And, what’s the first thing your ideal customer notices when they reach your website? It’s the design.
If you haven’t caught their attention in the first few seconds, then most probably you have lost the deal. Studies have proven that having a well-built UI can raise your conversion rates by 200%. Similarly, an enhanced User Experience (UX) can accelerate your closing rates by 400%.
And, this isn’t a one-time process; businesses have to continually upgrade their UI with the latest trends that make their website look attractive with on-point features.
This article will dive into ways you can enhance the look of your website without making any radical changes.
What effect does a good UI/UX have on your business?
The term UI and UX are closely related; a standard User Interface (UI) automatically results in increased User Experience (UX). In this digital era, achieving a higher user experience drives results for both B2B and B2C.
In fact, 52% of users wouldn’t re-visit your website if it offers poor aesthetics. Users now are so preoccupied with information that they don’t have the time or energy to read through your poorly presented interface. They would love to bounce to another website that might not be the best but offers readable resources.
A well-defined web page initiates curiosity to read further, resulting in higher conversion, increased profit, and more customers.
Features like how easy it is to navigate the website, understand the layout of the app, and the content posted on it contribute to the web page’s success.
Plus, poor design leads to extra support and misleading information. When people don’t understand your offers, they contact customer support to get answers to the simplest stuff. This creates a wastage of resources which ideally should have been used on another important task.
Your website’s UI gives an understanding of your brand to ideal customers. It’s the first impression that your company has on your users. With so much competition, you cannot afford to lose customers just because your interface doesn’t match your brand quality.
Ways to Enhance User Interface (UI) of your website
Here are some tips that can take your UI game to the next level-
1. Understand what your user’s want to see
Like Martin LeBlanc, CEO of Iconfinder, once said, “A user interface is like a joke. If you have to explain it, it’s not that good.”
Similarly, if anyone that visits your website isn’t able to make out what’s happening on the interface, then most probably, your website needs an update.
UI designers should start with intensive user research to identify their ideal customers. Knowing your audience gives you the right frame of mind to portray designs that suit their interest and needs.
To create your visionary customer persona, you need to make your dream clients look real to you. The information needs to be detailed to know how a person would react to certain elements on your web page.
Give your customer avatar a name and face, and write answers to the following sections-
- Demographic characteristics
Include the demographic characteristics of your ideal customer like their age, profession, lifestyle, family, etc.
- Interests and preferences
The next step is to identify your user’s interests and what they like. This way, you will get a glimpse of how they think and offers that will interest them.
- Objections in the purchasing process
To close more deals, you need to understand the basic objections of your target audience or what’s stopping them from not staying on your site till purchase.
The above process might look tiring, but it can give immense success if you do it right. You can easily gather such information from survey tools, interview tools, in-house testing tools, or persona creation tools.
2. Measure UX with these metrics
Scrap out the guesswork, and start analyzing the specific metrics that give you the exact idea of what happens when users land on your site. Here, you can ask a sample group to browse your website and perform certain actions. User-testing will help you unravel usability issues that you didn’t even know existed.
These are some common user metrics to measure-
- Success rate
User success rate is the percentage of tasks a user completes on your website. This is one such quantifiable metric that instantly highlights the problem area. For instance, if most sample users aren’t able to do a certain task, its difficulty level is relatively high.
You can easily calculate the success rate via-
(User completed task + partial tasks*½)/ total number of tasks
Higher the percentage, the easier your website is to navigate for your users.
- Error rate
This defines the number of errors a user makes while completing a task. So, here errors could be of two types- slips and mistakes. For instance, if a user makes a typo while filling in its name, address, or DOB, the interface has nothing to do with it. These are called slips.
However, if many users are making a similar mistake of clicking non-clickable items or finding it challenging to navigate through the interface, these are called mistakes. Here, your interface is making it difficult for users to perform a particular task.
Designers can track the number of errors per task to understand the problem area.
- Time on task
Time on task is a great metric to understand the time taken for a user to complete a task. So, if your website is higher on the usability scale, the time duration will be quite less and vice versa. This will help you understand if your users find it difficult to surf through your website.
- Subjective satisfaction
There can be times when a user’s success rate is high, with lower time on task with only minor errors, but still, your users might not feel fully satisfied with your website. Along with these criteria, you also have to measure your users’ emotional quotient via satisfaction level, ratings, and recommendations. Such behavioral metrics will give a wider dimension of how your users feel while surfing your website.
3. Maintain the unity of elements
Often, designers fail to create a story between elements, so users get confused about the arrangement of information on the web page. A unity of elements ensures each component on the webpage is visually and conceptually connected.
All elements placed on your website should have a specified role, either educating the reader or directing them to perform unique actions. To achieve unity between elements, you must follow the Gestalt principle of visual perceptions. This is based on understanding the human tendency to see things when placed in groups or patterns.
The principles are-
- Similarity
It’s human nature to group similar things together, depending on their size, color, or shape. So, when your website’s elements with similar characteristics don’t flow together, the users start feeling uncomfortable joining them. That’s why CTA buttons are designed in a different color, so they stand out and draw viewers’ attention.
- Continuation
The law of continuity states that humans follow the simplest path when viewing lines, irrespective of how the lines were actually drawn. So, if you want to draw the user’s attention to a certain component, then place them aligned within that path.
- Closure
This principle states that humans find the missing dots and fill in spaces to create a complete picture. You must have often noticed that brands leave certain spaces between characters or designs, even though the result is obvious, but they do it to attract their users’ attention.
- Figure/ Ground
The figure/ground principle is the coolest amongst all. It is similar to closure but a step ahead. Here, the designer leaves spaces in a way that you can imagine not just one but multiple images on a single frame. This principle is a great way to amplify the focal point of the design.
Final thoughts
A well-designed UI encourages users to take their first step on a webpage. It helps them navigate seamlessly and leads them to the final point. However, if your users struggle to find something on your website, maybe it’s not needed. You should strive to build an intuitive and user-friendly interface that amplifies your User Experience (UX) on your website.
