User experience, or UX if you prefer, has become a critical consideration for everything from websites to smartphone apps. If you are unable to deliver a positive experience that matches user expectations and supports desired outcomes, you can expect your audience to defect to competitors. They’ll go to another website. They’ll download a different app. As such, it is critical to understand a few of the things that have the greatest impact on user experience.
Above the Fold Content Counts the Most
When it comes to website design, some things have more importance than others. What you include above the fold – the point at which the screen cuts off and consumers must scroll down to see more – counts the most. Whatever you have above the fold, whether it is imagery, typography, content, links, or what have you, must be persuasive and mesh with user expectations. If it is not compelling, your audience will not scroll down to the rest of the page.
Load Times
While there is nothing you can do about the speed of your visitors’ website connection, it is vital that you do everything you can to ensure that pages load smoothly and quickly. The rule of thumb is that if a page takes less than one-tenth of a second to load, it seems instantaneous. Navigation is considered smooth up to the point that it takes one second to load a page. Anything after that feels slow and lagging. Make sure that your pages load as quickly as possible. Use lightweight images and cut time-sucking elements like needless animation that might take longer to load.
User Expectations
You’re creating a website for your users (or customers, or clients, if you prefer). It follows that when those users land on a page, they should be presented with what they expect to find. Their expectations are formed by many things, including the text and imagery on an ad that leads to a landing page, the shape of the icon they clicked on, even the URL itself. Make sure that you’re delivering the expected and familiar. Keep your logo on the same side of the page. Maintain navigation standards. Keep the page design the same throughout your website wherever possible.
Consider Accessibility Standards
You cannot design your website for “most” people and then call it a day. You also need to consider those who might have special needs. For instance, if your website visitors are hearing impaired, do you have subtitles for your video content? Does your content read naturally when spoken aloud or does it sound stilted and difficult to understand? Are you using deprecated tags in your mark-up? Are you skipping alt tags? All of these can be mistakes that affect accessibility and affect user experience.
Ultimately, creating a positive user experience is really all about making sure that a website visitor can easily navigate your site, that your design is consistent from page to page, and that it all lives up to your users’ expectations.
Not sure that your site is delivering the ideal user experience? We’d love to help. Drop us a line.
Sources:
https://www.interaction-design.org/literature/article/the-7-factors-that-influence-user-experience
http://dotnetfactory.com/articles/7-big-ways-your-website-design-can-affect-user-experience/
https://www.webfx.com/blog/web-design/factors-that-affect-usability/
