When building a new website, it’s very easy to focus on the aesthetics of your site and not consider the experience of your website's users. The overall experience of a person using your website or app, especially in terms of how easy or pleasing it is to use is an important factor when working on a new project. If somebody finds that your website runs slowly, the menu is fiddly to operate or there is a lot of pinching and zooming then they are more than likely to leave your site for something better.
It can be annoying to navigate to a site using a smartphone, to discover that the site’s pages don’t quite work on your mobile screen. This is something that Google has been keen to get website owners that don’t take a mobile-first approach seriously to get to change.
What that means to you is, Google will now prioritise sites within the SERPs (search engine results page) that prove to be designed with a mobile-first approach. Sites that don't prioritise a mobile-first approach will of course still rank, however, at the end of the day with most traffic coming from mobile devices if your site isn't at least mobile-friendly then you need to make redesigning your site top of the agenda.
One element of great web design is the use of white space. Creating negative space or padding around certain elements like headings, images and products will get them to stand out. It has been shown that applying white space around an element increases user attention by approximately 20%. White Space can make your website feel like it has breathing room and easy to use, content becomes easier to digest.
There is a balance though; too much white space and your website can become cold and unwelcoming, especially with elements above the fold.
Finding out how your customers found the purchasing process from your website can offer valuable insights into what your customers are experiencing. If you find common pain points from the feedback that will allow you to take the relevant action and improve the failing elements in question. You will probably find that your customers provide valuable feedback on areas of your website you haven’t ever considered need improving.
In the current age of people being more and more time-poor, a website that loads quickly can potentially make or break whether a visitor remains on your website. If your page is slow to load, the user is likely to give up waiting for your website to load in favour of a faster loading one. It has been proven that 87% of visitors who have to wait just 2 seconds for a webpage to load are going to abandon the website. A quick website is going to reduce bounce rates and increase user satisfaction.
If it’s a struggle to implement any of these techniques on your website then we are more than happy to provide a free audit and discuss a plan of action on how to improve your customer’s user experience.
Article Written by Matt Partridge
Web Developer & Digital Marketing Specialist
matt@madebyabstraction.com
