User Experience (UX) refers to a user’s end-to-end experience as they interact with your website or brand.
The ability to create a seamless user journey can drive customer relationships, loyalty and return on investment (ROI). It’s worth noting that UX spans elements as diverse as search, navigation and payment. This can make it a confusing beast.
Here are three tried-and-tested principles for good UX design:
Understand your business objectives
Mastering UX is impossible if you don’t know how your website supports your goals. Do you want to improve brand awareness, drive sign-ups to your email newsletter or send customers to your online store?
- Interview executive staff and stakeholders to decide on your priorities
- Establish clear success metrics for your website
- Create a UX roadmap to understand how the user journey will unfold
Effective UX aligns business goals with customer experience.
Know your user
An intimate knowledge of your user is critical to user-centered design. Blindness to their true preferences and context can put pressure on time and resources.
- Conduct surveys and interviews with your target customers
- Develop wireframes based on these insights
- Use A/B testing to determine how your user responds to your site
UX hinges on a real-time understanding of your customer rather than assumptions or predictions.
Keep it simple
Simplicity is your mandate when it comes to good UX. The best UX examples are clear and consistent, united by a single idea rather than the latest trends.
- Avoid complicated interfaces
- Tie every website element to an outcome
- Ensure that it is easy for your user to move between steps
Remove complex barriers to ensure your users visit again.
From analysing your user to prioritising simplicity at all costs, thinking carefully about your UX efforts will help make your vision a reality.
Want to know more? Download our free eBook, “The Psychology of User Experience”.