For the longest time UX (User Experience) has been one of those industry buzz words to me. Everyone I asked to define UX would give me their own opinionated answer. Each answer I received was right, but skewed it just enough so it was different from the next person. So after talking to many individuals, and even taking a class at General Assembly on UX, I thought I’d share my opinion, and newly found passion for it.
Every one of my discussions about UX is more relevant for a custom built web application (think banking website), as apposed to a more simplified informational website. At first this was a deterrent, those were not the clients I was dealing with on a regular basis, therefore I had no need to get into UX. A false assessment that I quickly turned around. Everyone could use a good UX strategy, even simple information websites.
First, My Definition
Disclaimer: My definition is an opinion too.
When I took the class on UX, I heard the best definition – ”UX is primarily the feeling users get while using your property”.
My definition is a bit more specific to my clientele, but I think it does justice. To me UX is defined as not just getting your users to feel good while using your web property, but guiding them through it to where ultimately they get to the actionable page you want them to.
Example: An online shopping store will have good UX if the user feels confident and safe in purchasing, and actually purchases. Creating the sense of security and reliability about your products/services is one thing, getting them to pay you is another. Good UX takes care of both.
Start and end, with the users
You are about to start designing your website and whether you are using an agency like Ciplex or have an in-house team, it is important to always start with your users. I discussed briefly in my last article that a good website is one that addresses your target market. The best time to figure out what your users in your target market want, is before you even start.
Get to know your users
Who is coming to your website? Is it Frank, the 45 year old mid-level executive making around $150,000 a year? Or is it Jan, the 22 year old college graduate looking for her first career-centric job? What do your users do in their free time? These questions and more are crucial for creating a website that will bring you the traffic and conversions you are hoping to get. Getting to know your target audience by making user profiles also makes it easy when design and development start to know how to answer the questions that may come up. Does the fade effect slideshow work better for Jan, or is the animation not apparent enough for her to take notice? Throw out the window the “I like…” because unless you fall into your own target audience (which is rare), most likely you need to appeal to those that are going to be increasing your profits.
The website should not be launched before you have addressed every question, and feel confident that your user(s) are going to get the most out of the site, which in turn will lead to higher conversion rates on your marketing efforts. Once the website is launched, and you have gained some traffic, revisit some of the questions you had a harder time answering. Reach out to your visitors and ask them why they are leaving on certain pages, or what caused them to not finish the transaction.
Get to know your copy writers
Good copy can be one of the fundamental differences in making a user happy and feeling like they should trust you. If your website includes a user registration process, or even just a contact form, what kind of copy do you have in place for after they have successfully submitted their information?
“Thank You for your inquiry” just doesn’t cut it anymore, it is too clinical. Wouldn’t you rather read something more uplifting?
One easy way to test any copy writing and / or UX team, is have them look over your 404 (page not found) page. A 404 is not a great thing to encounter when your users are looking for content they are hoping exists. Whether it is a link to a page that no longer exists, or you moved the page, a user landing on a 404 page is something you want to avoid. However, it is inevitable. A good 404 page should easily comfort the user, make them realize that what they landed on was an error on your end, and that you are there to help guide them. There are a few discussions going on around the internet whether or not a search is important for a 404 page, however I feel that depends on your property. For a simple informational website, I think a quick “Sorry, page not found” with some useful links is appropriate, however for a larger scale web application (or large online libraries of content), a search feature might be the quickest and most valuable resource for a 404 page.
Why is it worth it? ROI
There is a lot more to UX then just getting to know your users. Story lines and user flows are created, wireframes, and even getting into psychology for the design. A good UX assessment will deliver you with at least a good assessment of your users, wireframes, and a style guide. You should expect to be able to turn around to your design and engineering team quickly with the take aways from your UX team. Designers will get a good understanding of the layout and the color scheme, and the developers will have story lines to follow and develop for.
You will get the most value out of the time you spend with your UX team. A designer’s job is to take the style guide and wireframes, and make sure it comes out looking good. A good designer will work with your UX team to make sure that the design objectives are met, and that the users will like it. A developer’s job is to make sure that the story lines function and that any questions on user flow (how a user interacts and gets from one page to another) are addressed. In the end, you are going to see that the more time you spend with your UX team, the more ROI you will get from your website.
Just like Marketing, it never ends. That is a good thing.
Marketing your business is a never ending investment. With a finely tuned marketing campaign, you can easily get scalability so the more money you put in, the more profits you see come out. UX can be assessed similarly. Getting to know your users and creating a website for them is just the beginning, Once you are a few months into your launched property, look over your analytics and see where people are leaving your website, and how many of them are making it to the action page. (i.e checkout, contact us, etc.)
Good UX practices are like having a good plumber on call, always able to quickly assess and fix any leaks that your website may have. Ultimately the goal being to close off the funnel and get the conversion rate higher.
Take all of this into consideration next time you are ready to launch a new or updated web property. Good UX is both a great GPS for your users, as well as a great plumber for you. Answer every internal question with “Let me ask my users” and you will find that you will have a more efficient website that converts.
