If you’re a small business owner, you need a website to help customers find you and your products. With limited time and resources, however, it can be easy for the design and organization of that website to become an afterthought.
Taking some time to make your website as easy as possible for users to navigate is an investment that can make you stand out — and help your bottom line. Incorporating user experience design principles will pay off by helping customers find your website, stay on it, and take the actions you hope they’ll take.
At EDJE, we’re a web design firm that helps small businesses prioritize user experience every day as they build new websites or improve their existing ones. Let’s explore more about user experience, why it matters, and how to use it to elevate your business’s website.
What Is User Experience (UX)?
User experience (UX) refers to the way that your website’s structure and design align with what your potential customers need. Good user experience means your website makes sense to your customers and efficiently helps them find what they need.
UX includes the overall design of your site, the readability of your content, the speed that your pages load, and other steps you take to make it accessible to your users.
The first step in creating a good user experience on your site is to know who your users are. Think of questions like:
• Are you marketing to people who are well-versed in the terminology used in your industry, or people who aren’t?
• What age range are they?
• What devices will they be using to access your site?
Keeping these questions in mind throughout the website design process lets you center your design around those user groups and give them the best experience possible.
Why Is User Experience Important?
A positive website user experience makes it easier to engage with your products and services, helping to keep people on your site rather than sending them away frustrated.
By making your website easier to navigate, you’re increasing the chances that your site will generate more business for you. Consider these statistics:
• Each dollar invested in increasing a website’s accessibility and UX brings a return on investment of $100, according to a 2022 report from Forrester, cited by the Bureau of Internet Accessibility.
• Increasing the speed of mobile sites by one-tenth of a second increased conversions by 8.4% on retail sites and 10.1% on travel sites, according to a 2020 study commissioned by Google.
• Mobile users are 32% more likely to bounce off a website if the page loads in three seconds versus in one second, Google found.
How to Improve Your Website’s UX
With this in mind, here are some practical tips for improving your website’s user experience.
Design (Color, Accessibility, Etc.)
Good web design includes arranging content on the page in a visually appealing but logical way, making buttons large enough for people to click on them easily, and making user-friendly dropdown menus.
Another aspect of user experience is your site’s accessibility. About one in 20 Americans has a visual impairment, and one in eight has a cognitive disability, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. If your website isn’t accessible to people who have disabilities, you’re potentially losing a large portion of your audience.
At EDJE, we follow the Web Content Accessibility Guidelines issued through the Web Accessibility Initiative. These guidelines ensure your site is more navigable for people who may have a visual impairment, have cognitive disabilities, use a screen reader, or more.
Site Organization
When it comes to organizing information and placing things on the design, your users will expect to see things like a dedicated contact page, an about page, and a logo in the upper left corner.
Not meeting their expectations — or making them hunt for key elements on your page due to an overly complicated or unusual design — will result in precious seconds being wasted trying to figure out how your site works.
Readable, Scannable Content
It’s also important that the content on your website is written for your target audience. Speaking directly to your users using a tone of voice and language that they can understand will help you connect with them much more effectively.
Fast Site Speed
Nobody likes a slow website, so keeping your site speed within industry benchmarks is a large factor in giving your users a positive experience on your site. Having a fast website can also help you appear higher in Google search results.
Ready to Make Your Small Business Site Easier for Users? Contact EDJE Today!
Creating a good user experience doesn’t have to be difficult. By using best practices like these on your site, you can set yourself up for success.
Are you ready to work with a web design company that specializes in user experience design for small businesses? Talk with the experts at EDJE to learn more about how we can help enhance your site — or build you a new one that’s fast, intuitive, and effective.