Really great or really poor user experience design can most definitely make or break the success of a website. No matter the industry, specialization, or intended outcome of the design is, often times website designers get caught up in overly complex, or poorly executed website design, only to realize once they’ve launched their design that they forgot what the actual purpose of what they were trying to achieve with their design was, and ultimately their goal of converting visitors into paying customers, or achieving well-structured goal funnels.
In this article we’ll discuss why and how website designers can miss the mark when it comes to UX design, and the sorts of quality UX design solutions going around today, which if well-executed, can result in high levels of conversion optimization, lower bounce rates, longer time spent on site, and increased return visitor counts.
Keep it simple, and focus only on what matters
Web developers and marketing professionals are often under great pressure to complete a particular job due to deadlines and the pressures of the workplace, and can sometimes forget to ensure they provide structure and purpose around what an audience is actually looking for. The above video is an excellent example of this, and demonstrates how easy it can be for us to completely miss interactions which may be of value to the user, because they got distracted by something else. These seemingly significant changes, can be easily overlooked, and showcase how careful you need to be when putting together your UX.
Don’t start coding, until you’ve mapped out your UX
One of the most common traps web developers and designers fall into is to start to build their web pages with no planning or consideration for the user experience.
This avenue, all though it may seem productive at the time, generally leads to forgetting the true purpose of your web page. When pre-planning your website, we recommend making a list which includes the following items, and answering each in full before you start to lay out your elements for screen representation:
- What is the primary goal of this web page?
- What are the secondary goals of this web page?
- Is this page part of a seamless navigational structure?
- Is this page going to be linked to from relevant external locations?
Although only a basic start, if you’re a full-time web developer, you’re most likely very busy pushing out a number of pages, so this short list can really help to go a long way. We recommend answering these questions, before moving onto laying our your screen designs.
Your goals must match your onscreen placement
Probably the second most common mistake web designers make when implementing interactive representations of business goals is to disconnect between this point and the last. If your primary goal for a web page is to get someone to click an “Add to Cart” button, or a “Register” button, then you better make sure this is the focus of your UX. It’s amazing how many well-intentioned designs miss the mark, even after undertaking the previous step; but why?
To answer this question, you’re best bet is to look at the communication channels between project stakeholders (who generally undertake the previous step), and the web designers who undertake the implementation. If a web designer is not given clear direction on what they need to implement, then generally they will feel like they need to interpret your request as best as possible. This of course can have a positive effect, but most times it does not. If you want to achieve a particular outcome, you need to be specific about what you’re wanting to achieve, and I’m not just talking about the goals you may have for the particular web page. I’m talking about the following:
- Specifics around user behavior and intelligences
- Ideal placement of key elements
- Clearly defined focal elements
- Actions you want to achieve
- Tracking goals which may provide extra intelligence for you to review your progress
- Other pages which should link to this page
- Any branding requirements that must be adhered to
These, and many others items should all form part of what is called a “Website Developer Brief” (sometimes called a Website Designer Brief. Prior to beginning to build your web pages, you need to ensure that the person building your product understands what it is you’re wanting to achieve with your page. This should include all the above items, and spell out very clearly to your user what you want them to do when they visit your web page.
Improving your UX Developer Brief
Because you’re not a web designer, there is every chance that your web designer may have a better idea of how to lay out your content, or help you achieve your goals. Therefore you would be crazy not to have an open discussion about your developer brief, and refine it using your developer’s expertise.
On many occasions in the web development industry, designers’ opinions get overlooked, and are often not considered. This is a mistake in most cases. In general, you will be bringing business experience to the table, and your web designers will bring a creative and technical skills set to the table. Between the two of you, you need to work together to produce a goals oriented outcome. This doesn’t mean a ‘pretty looking’ web page that doesn’t achieve anything. It means a web page which produces the exact result the client is requesting, which supports business objectives. This should also include high quality modern visuals, with a focus on clever web design and user oriented feedback.
What’s trending in the world of web right now?
In the web development industry right now, there are definitely some design trends and methodologies that are in vogue, and some that have plummeted out of popularity. The following lists detail the most popular web development methodologies and techniques at present, and some techniques to be avoided:
Popular web development techniques
- Responsive website design: This is the process of building a single website solution which displays equally well on screens of varying sizes. Whether you’re building a page for a mobile or a desktop platform, a Responsive Website Design will actually change in appearance as you drag the visible screen area. Because this has massive cost saving potential and provides great usability benefits, this is most probably the hottest trend in web design right now.
- Paralax designs: Websites with a focus on design, may often choose to develop what is called a Paralax Website Design. These designs commonly have a long single page, are full screen, and scroll vertically to elements which traditionally may have existed on a separate page. Although highly visually appealing, these sites are heavily reliant on JavaScript which isn’t a major issue, but do face some challenges with strong search engine performance.
- Traditional left/right column designs: Blogs and websites of all different types have always had a fixed width left or right column, fixed width main body area, and common navigation header. The reason for this is simple. It just works. Everything is easy to navigate; it can be constantly built upon; and works well with most browsers. This is not so much of a trend, but more of a safe-bet if you’re developing a new website structure.
Web development techniques to be avoided:
- Flash or Shockwave: Not so long ago, Adobe’s Flash plugin used to be widely used in website development because it was easy to develop animations and transitions for, and had some really nice effects you could use; and that is still true. However what happened was that more and more people started to realize that is was bad usability to depend on your users to have Flash installed to play their content, and when Apple decided not to allow Flash to be played on its mobile devices, the decline of Flash began, as the popularity of mobile Internet access rose.
- Sites with mega-menus: Although it seems like really smart usability to include a ton of links in a large menu when you hover over your navigation, this is actually a really bad idea. Why you ask? Because search engines such as Google don’t like to see more than around 120 links on a page; therefore if you add a 100 links in your navigation, there’s not much quota left on page, and can result in your pages seeing huge penalties in the search engines. Easy to navigate yes, poor online visibility for your entire site…a definite possibility.
Summary
If you’re looking to execute a well planned user experience, it’s actually not that hard; you just have to spend some time thinking about what it is you’re trying to achieve, and make sure you actually support those plans with a real-world solution. If you’re at the business end of the transaction or are managing a project, make sure you connect with your website designers, and ensure they’re on the same page as you. Most likely they’ll be able to provide you with some great suggestions and improve your original proof of concept, because after all, they are the professionals in this space, and will most likely have seen a similar set of requirements before which will stand them in good stead to help you out.
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