A business website is the online representation of your business’s physical operations. Given the rapid increase in the number of internet users globally, it is imperative for businesses to have their presence online.

And, a website is one of the largest means to attract and engage the target audience, online, with the objective to eventually convert them into loyal customers.

Now, whether a potential buyer converts into a customer through your website depends on the overall experience they have on the website. That’s the importance of user experience, a.k.a, UX design in the overall success of a website.

This goes to show that, even if a user converts on your website once, if the overall experience they had was below par, they’d not return to your website ever. This means you lose on a long term and recurring customer.

The good news is that one happy customer can help you get 10 more loyal customers simply through word-of-mouth publicity. 

The bad news, however, is that the same customer, if unhappy, can make you lose 10 potential customers as well through the same word-of-mouth publicity.

Therefore, it is important that when you are planning to design your own website you remember the importance of UX design.

In order to save you from bad publicity, and improve your website traffic through professional UX design, we’ll share some very simple tricks that you can ask your designer to follow when creating a custom website design.   

But, first, let’s understand the basic definition of UX design.

What is UX design?

In terms of website designing, UX design is the process of creating a website that is informational, easy to use, and solves the issue at hand.

In other words, UX design is all about enhancing the experience that people have while interacting with a website, and making sure they find value in what it’s providing.

According to a study from the Oxford Journal Interacting With Computers:

The goal of UX design in business is to improve customer satisfaction and loyalty through the utility, ease of use, and pleasure provided in the interaction with a product (or service).

In order to provide a good user experience you need to have the answers to the following questions:

Answering these questions can help a lot in getting close to creating a website that carries a solid UX design. 

So, now that we have a good, basic, understanding of what UX design is and, what role it plays in the overall success of your website, let’s take a look at some simple tricks to ensure a good UX design for your website.

Restrict the use of typeface

For effective graphic designing, it is recommended to not go beyond 3 different typefaces for the design. The same applies when you are working on the UX design of your website. 

Restricting your font style to minimum variations ensures clarity in communicating the main message across to the audience visiting the website.  

Maintain visual hierarchy

Continuing from the last point, the content of your website needs to be clear with its hierarchy for the audience.

When a user visits a website, the visual hierarchy ensures their focus goes to the more important information first; followed by the rest of the content.

Some quick ways to establish a solid visual hierarchy include size, color, weight, position, and type contrast.

Keep the most important text bolder, darker, and/or larger.

Allow the user some time

It is understood to be eager to convert a user to a customer as soon as possible when they are on your website. However, pushing too hard with frequent banner ads and sign-up messages can work against as well.

Allow the user to settle in by letting them go through your website content.

Create each landing page of your website in a manner that serves the purpose of a potential customer’s visit.

You can use more headings than a simple text body as the user is more likely to read them for quick information.

Alternatively, you can use short paragraphs instead of lengthy ones, as they are easier to understand and follow.

Place CTAs conventionally

Change is the only constant; of course!

However, sometimes, it’s better to follow the conventional approach, especially, with your website design; to keep it familiar for the users.

Some of these conventional web design best practices for better UX design include;

-Using the search bar in the header.

-Having the navigation menu on the top of the page.

-Placing sign-up form and/or social media links in the footer.

-Having a CTA at the top right corner of the page.  

And several such practices can help create a great UX design for a website.

Keep simple navigation

Let’s be honest here, it can be tempting to create a web design with overwhelming graphics and animation effects in order to make it look attractive.

However, sometimes it’s the simplest of the designs that turn out to be highly effective in getting more conversions.

The traversing of a user from the landing page to the conversion page must be a smooth sailing experience; and not a complicated one.

Users must easily understand what they have to do next as soon as they arrive on your website.

Confusing them with complicated navigation by providing several different CTAs and options at the same time can make it difficult for them to reach the conversion stage.

Maintain the color balance

No list for successful web design tips is complete without mentioning the color scheme for the design.

As one of the main elements of graphic design, colors play a huge role in establishing and offering a unique and memorable experience to the users visiting the website.

Colors are an integral part of the overall UX design and, therefore, need to be picked strategically.

Just like the typeface for UX design, you need to ensure a balance of colors that are used for different parts of your website design.

For example, the color you pick for thewebsite background design should not overshadow the CTAs or other important clickable buttons.

Similarly, the colors used for your in-content image graphics should not overpower the rest of the information on the page that could thwart the navigation of the user.

Conduct market research

Lastly, a good amount of research can go a long way in helping the UX design to be effective and rewarding.

After all, the entire reason for creating a custom website design is to attract a specific set of audiences.

So, it is only obvious to research your target audience and understand their likings in order to create a UX design that caters specifically to them. 

A good competitor analysis can also help in this, not only in the form of letting you know what worked for them (as you share the same target audience) but, also to let ensure your brand to be distinct.   

To conclude…

The UI/UX design is the crux of any website design project. And, since it decides whether a visitor converts and turns into a loyal customer or leaves and never returns, it is important to have it done professionally.

GraphicsZoo has been providing professional website design services to small businesses for a long time now. Our team of expert designers understands the basic nuances of graphic design and how to apply its principles and use its elements to create effective designs.

So, if you are looking to improve the traffic hitting your website by improving the overall UX design, we can help.

Simply, send us an email at support@graphicszoo.com and one of our design advisors will get in touch with you.