Why User Experience Is So Important

In a digital age where trends are ever changing, keeping your website up to date and providing an excellent user experience is crucial to remain competitive. User experience also known as UX is every aspect of a users interaction with a product or company that contributes to the overall perceptions and satisfactions of using it.

 

Benefits of investing in UX improvement

User experience is a broad term that can cover anything from page load speed to how well a user can navigate a website as well as its aesthetic appeal. Here are some of the key benefits of investing time and effort into improving the user experience of your website.

• Increased conversion rates- a well-designed user interface could raise your website’s conversion rate by up to a 200%, and a better UX design could yield conversion rates up to 400%
• Better customer retention and loyalty- if a customer has a good experience with your website and product, they are much more likely to return.
• Sets you apart from the competition
• Makes your brand appear more trustworthy

 

What makes a good user experience?

There are a number of elements that factor into a good user experience, when it comes to ecommerce there are some main aspects that stand out.

 

Easy navigation

An easy menu with well labelled categories can help customers to navigate your store better and find what they need quicker. We also recommend placing essential information such as product price, description, colours, sizes and images above the fold on the product page, then use the rest of the page space to provide additional information. 

 

Accessible support

Providing adequate support also plays a significant role in user experience. Ensuring a customer support agent or bot is available to offer personalised support is a great way to increase customer satisfaction. A chatbot uses predictive tech to answer any frequently asked questions, this can reduce your workload and need for customer support agents.

 

Simple check out process

The checkout page is often the highest drop-off point on ecommerce sites. Whilst this could just be due to shopper indecisiveness, it is often a result of an overly complex checkout process. By simplifying this process and minimising the amount of steps required to complete the purchase and offering a wide range of payment gateways you can significantly improve your users experience.

 

A/B testing and monitoring

A/B testing allows companies to make informed decisions and changes to users’ experiences whilst collecting data on the results. These results then help them to construct evidence supported hypotheses to learn why elements of an experience impact behaviour. A leading digital agency, Ultimedia, specialises in Optimizely A/B testing allowing your website to create an excellent experience for all of your users ultimately improving your conversions.

 

Aesthetic yet simplistic design

Whilst usability is the most important factor, a simple and aesthetically pleasing design still needs to be taken into consideration. A website’s aesthetics can influence a brand’s credibility and perception. If you think about it, a website is a bit like a storefront, when users end up on your website, an appealing design will encourage them to stay on the site rather than bouncing.

 

Improved readability

Good readability is important in allowing users to effectively read your content and understand what message you are trying to convey. Quality content not only gets users to your website, but encourages them to stay longer which increases their likelihood of converting.

 

Who can help with user experience?

There are plenty of platforms such as Optimizely and development agencies that either combined or separately can make a significant improvement to your user experience. An agency like Ultimedia can offer you a consultative approach to user experience, establish clear calls to action and test, track and monitor to identify what works and what doesn’t.