The user is the focus of any website, but poor UX design can make or break your site and crush conversion rates.
A brand’s website is the shop front of any business and first impressions are everything. The user experience design of the site is the deciding factor, as to whether a user stays on the site to look around, or jumps away to find something better.
When visiting a company’s website, users often have a purpose or objective that they want to be able to execute immediately. The longer it takes for them to reach their goal, the less likely they are to convert and become a loyal, returning customer.
For many businesses, it is the initial planning stage where mistakes are frequently made. Simple tasks such as detailed user research and mapping user journeys are often forgotten about or rushed through, having a knock on effect on the site as a whole.
The user needs to be at the center of a website, with all design elements built up around how this visitor will be using the site, and what the business needs those users to do.
For example, when designing a fast and effective checkout process, the user should be the main point of call, thinking about how quickly they want to get from A-B and how safe they feel inputting sensitive data.
To help you start your website design off right, here are 7 ways in which you can streamline your user journey and ensure minimal user drop off.
Conduct thorough user research
Before you can design the user experience of your site, you need to know exactly who your users will be and what their motivations are. You will already know what you need your site to do, but now you have to think about how your users will reach your end goal.
User research is always the first thing to be rushed through, but correctly identifying user behaviours e.g. what pages they visit, their behaviour flow and which landing pages have the highest bounce rate, will help you tailor your UX and streamline your user journey.
Only include what is absolutely necessary
It can be easy to get carried away and create convoluted websites with too much copy and too many landing pages. It’s important to take a look at your site map and take out any pages, processes or steps that may be considered unnecessary.
Make sure all the information your users might be visiting your site for is clearly labelled and easy to find, straight from the homepage.
Keeping forms minimal and un-intrusive
When it comes to features such as on-site forms, it is best to keep the fields minimal and easy to answer quickly. More often than not, users will give up on a form if it is either asking too many questions, or if it is not clear as to what information is needed. A simple name and contact number or email address is all you really need for enquiry forms, with a message box to allow users to explain the reason for their enquiry.