If your goal is to improve conversion and engagement on your website, mobile app or even application, you need to start by focusing on user experience design. Many business owners focus too much on the actual words and copy on the web page, and not enough on the design. Some understand that they need to work on the design but do not really have the skills to come up with concepts that can improve their metrics. So the question is: How do you go about implementing UX design if you don’t have much experience?
While there are a countless number of things that you can work on, it’s best to start on the key things that will help you see a dramatic improvement in your website’s performance. It’s a smart idea to start by focusing on your target user. Build user roles and brainstorm what kinds of imagery, color schemes and message appeals to them. Most businesses use basic templates or everyday looking designs without knowing how ineffective they are. Building a role and using that to create meaningful design is a very simple action plan but is one that can make the biggest difference in performance right out of the gate.
Next, focus on simplifying everything. Your goal is to make the user understand how to use your design to get to their goal. If you are designing a website, make your navigation menu clear and organized. Break up your content into easily manageable chunks and make sure that the text is scannable. By doing an audit while browsing your website, you’ll be able to determine whether or not it makes people think about what they have to do next. You want to feel like everything is intuitive and obvious.
Now you want to create some kind of direction for your users. Obviously, you want to present clear information and design to your users but you also need to provide focus. Give them a clear navigation path that they should follow, which also ideally helps you achieve your goals whether it’s to generate a lead or another type of action. Create clear and concise call to actions so that your content leads to actual decisions. If you don’t have a clear path and action laid out for your users, they’ll leave your website even if they’ve gotten value out of your content.
Finally, you want to measure your results. While conversion ratio, bounce rates and page views tell part of the story, it doesn’t show you the whole picture. Other metrics such as engagement, website/app usage, referrals, time spent on page, clicks and direct customer feedback will help you feel in the gaps. You also want to make sure that the UX design meets your goals as every business will have different objectives.
Making sure that UX is done right is a challenge. It’s a big departure from traditional design and very few people really understand how to implement it correctly. While these fundamental strategies are just the tip of the iceberg, they will lead you in the right direction and give a good focal point to build on.