When it comes to creating a successful website, the design plays a crucial role in determining the user experience. From the visual elements to the layout and navigation, every aspect of the design can impact how users perceive and interact with the site. In this article, we will explore the importance of website design and how it affects user experience.
In today’s digital age, first impressions matter more than ever. The visual elements of a website, such as colors, images, and typography, can immediately capture users’ attention and draw them in. A well-designed website with an appealing aesthetic can create a positive impression and make users more likely to stay and explore further. On the other hand, a poorly designed website with cluttered layouts or outdated visuals can turn users away and lead to high bounce rates. By understanding the importance of visual elements in website design, businesses can create a visually engaging and user-friendly experience that keeps visitors coming back for more.
Visual elements are crucial in website design because they help you create a visually appealing and engaging user experience. When users visit a website, the first thing they notice is the overall look and feel of the design. The visual elements, such as color schemes, typography, images, and layout, play a significant role in capturing the users’ attention and guiding them through the website.
Here’s an example of a website mockup we recently did.
A well-designed website uses visual elements strategically to communicate the brand’s message and create a positive first impression. Colors evoke emotions and can convey a sense of trust, excitement, or calmness. Typography choices can enhance readability and reflect the brand’s personality. Images and graphics can help tell a story or showcase products and services. The layout of the website should be intuitive and guide users to the information they are looking for. By carefully selecting and arranging visual elements, website designers can create a visually cohesive and aesthetically pleasing experience that enhances user engagement and encourages them to stay on the site longer.
Visual elements are essential in website design as they have a direct impact on user experience. By paying attention to colors, typography, images, and layout, designers can create a visually appealing website that captures users’ attention and communicates the brand’s message effectively. A well-designed website not only enhances the overall user experience but also increases the chances of users staying on the site longer, exploring more pages, and potentially converting into customers.
Improved navigation and accessibility ensure that users can effortlessly explore and navigate through a website, resulting in a seamless and user-friendly journey. When a website is designed with clear and intuitive navigation menus, users can easily find the information they are looking for. This can be achieved by organizing the content into logical categories and using descriptive labels for the menu items. Additionally, incorporating search functionality allows users to quickly search for specific content, saving them time and frustration. By providing multiple avenues for users to access the desired information, website designers can cater to different user preferences and ensure a positive user experience.
Different menu examples:
In addition to navigation, website accessibility is crucial for ensuring that all users, including those with disabilities, can access and use a website effectively. Designing a website with accessibility in mind involves considering factors such as font size and color contrast to ensure readability for users with visual impairments. Providing alternative text for images allows visually impaired users to understand the content through screen reader software. Moreover, incorporating keyboard shortcuts and other assistive technologies can make it easier for users with motor disabilities to navigate the website. By prioritizing accessibility in website design, designers can create an inclusive online environment that accommodates the needs of all users.
To fully appreciate the impact of colors and fonts on your overall experience, consider how they can significantly influence the way you perceive and engage with the content on a website. Colors have the power to evoke emotions and create a certain mood. For example, warm colors like red and orange can create a sense of excitement and urgency, while cool colors like blue and green can evoke a feeling of calmness and relaxation. By strategically using colors that align with the purpose and tone of the website, designers can enhance the user’s experience and make the content more appealing.
Fonts, on the other hand, play a crucial role in readability and accessibility. The choice of font can affect how easily users can read and understand the content. For instance, serif fonts are often used for body text as they are considered more legible in print. On the other hand, sans-serif fonts are commonly used for headings and titles as they have a cleaner and more modern look. Additionally, font size and spacing can also impact readability. Using a font size that is too small or too large can make it difficult for users to read the content, while appropriate spacing between letters and lines can make the text more visually appealing and easier to digest. By carefully selecting fonts that are both aesthetically pleasing and easy to read, designers can improve the overall user experience and ensure that the content is accessible to all users.
Start by incorporating whitespace strategically in your layout to create a clean and organized design that allows the content to breathe and draws the user’s attention to key elements. Whitespace, also known as negative space, refers to the empty areas between elements on a web page. It plays a crucial role in enhancing user experience by providing visual clarity and improving readability. When used effectively, whitespace can help separate different sections of a website, making it easier for users to navigate and understand the content. By leaving enough space between elements, such as text blocks, images, and buttons, you can create a sense of balance and harmony in your design.
Moreover, whitespace can also highlight important elements and guide users’ attention. By strategically placing whitespace around key elements, such as call-to-action buttons or important messages, you can draw the user’s eye towards them and increase their visibility. This can ultimately improve the overall user experience and increase the chances of users taking the desired actions on your website. Additionally, whitespace can also contribute to the overall aesthetics of your design. A clean and organized layout with ample whitespace can create a sense of elegance and sophistication, making your website appear more professional and trustworthy. Therefore, when designing a website, make sure to utilize whitespace effectively to create a visually appealing and user-friendly experience.
By incorporating visual cues, designers can guide users to interact with specific elements on a webpage, enhancing overall usability and engagement. Visual cues can take various forms, such as arrows, buttons, icons, or even subtle changes in color or size. These cues help users understand the intended actions or functionalities associated with different elements on the website. For example, a well-designed button with a contrasting color and a clear label can easily attract users’ attention and prompt them to click on it. Similarly, an arrow pointing towards a particular section can indicate that there is more content to be revealed, encouraging users to scroll or explore further.
Visual cues not only help users navigate a website more intuitively but also contribute to a more aesthetically pleasing design. By strategically placing visual cues, designers can create a sense of hierarchy and flow, guiding users through the desired user journey. For instance, using larger and bolder fonts for headings and subheadings can make them stand out and draw users’ attention. Additionally, designers can use visual cues to indicate the relationship between different elements, such as grouping related items or using consistent icons to represent similar functions. These visual cues provide users with a visual map, making it easier for them to understand the structure and content of the website, leading to a more positive user experience.
Incorporating visual cues is essential for guiding user interaction on a website. By using various visual elements strategically, designers can direct users’ attention to specific areas, encourage desired actions, and enhance the overall usability and engagement. Visual cues not only aid in navigation but also contribute to the aesthetic appeal of a website and create a sense of hierarchy and flow. When implemented effectively, visual cues can greatly improve the user experience, making the website more intuitive, visually appealing, and user-friendly.
Website design impacts user engagement and overall satisfaction by influencing the ease of navigation, visual appeal, and functionality of a website. A well-designed website can enhance user experience, leading to increased engagement and higher levels of satisfaction.
Some common mistakes in website design that negatively affect user experience include poor navigation, slow loading times, cluttered layouts, lack of mobile optimization, confusing forms, and inconsistent branding.
Website design can influence the credibility and trustworthiness of a website by creating a professional and visually appealing appearance, ensuring intuitive navigation, providing clear and accurate information, and using trustworthy design elements like testimonials and security badges.
Responsive design plays a crucial role in improving user experience across different devices. By adapting the layout and content to fit various screen sizes, it ensures that users can easily navigate and interact with the website, leading to a more positive and seamless experience.
Yes, there are specific design elements and features that can enhance website accessibility for users with disabilities. These include alternative text for images, keyboard navigation, clear headings, captions for videos, and color contrast options.
In conclusion, the design of a website plays a crucial role in determining the user experience. The visual elements, such as images, videos, and graphics, are essential in capturing the attention of users and making a lasting impression. By incorporating visually appealing elements, website designers can create a visually pleasing and engaging experience for users.
Furthermore, the navigation and accessibility of a website greatly impact the user experience. A well-designed website should have clear and intuitive navigation menus, allowing users to easily find the information they are looking for. Additionally, incorporating accessibility features, such as alt text for images and keyboard navigation options, ensures that all users, including those with disabilities, can easily navigate the website.
Colors and fonts also play a significant role in user experience. The choice of color palette can evoke different emotions and set the tone for the website. Similarly, the font selection can enhance readability and accessibility. By carefully selecting complementary colors and legible fonts, website designers can create a visually cohesive and user-friendly experience.
Whitespace, or the empty space between elements, is another important aspect of website design. Utilizing whitespace effectively can create a clean and organized design, reducing visual clutter and enhancing user focus. By strategically incorporating whitespace, designers can guide users’ attention to the most important elements on the website and improve overall user experience.
Lastly, incorporating visual cues, such as arrows, icons, and animations, can guide users through the website and enhance user interaction. These visual cues can provide clear direction and feedback, helping users understand how to navigate and interact with the website. By utilizing visual cues effectively, website designers can create a seamless and intuitive user experience.
In conclusion, website design has a significant impact on user experience. By considering the importance of visual elements, enhancing navigation and accessibility, utilizing colors and fonts effectively, incorporating whitespace for a clean design, and providing visual cues for user interaction, website designers can create a positive and engaging experience for users.
User experience (UX) is an important factor in website design, as it has the potential to make or break a website. UX is all about creating a positive experience for users by providing them with a well-designed interface and easy-to-use navigation. In this article, we’ll explore the top reasons why UX is so essential for website design and why it should be taken into consideration when building a website.
Good UX can have an immense impact on the success of a website, from increasing user engagement and improving conversions to decreasing bounce rates and boosting overall brand reputation. By taking some time to understand the importance of UX in web design, businesses can ensure their websites are as successful as possible. Read on to learn more about why UX matters in website design!
User experience (UX) is a critical component of website design, as it helps to increase user engagement and satisfaction. An effective UX design should be tailored to the specific needs and wants of the target audience, allowing users to find what they are looking for in an intuitive manner. This can be accomplished through features such as organizing information hierarchically, using navigation menus, and providing visual cues to help guide the user’s journey.
By optimizing UX design, websites can become more efficient and enjoyable for visitors to use. Designers should take into account how users interact with the website by considering their goals and motivations for visiting. This includes creating a consistent user interface across devices, reducing loading times, providing helpful hints when needed, and offering support options if something goes wrong. All of these measures will contribute to an improved experience that encourages users to return again and again.
UX design is therefore essential in creating a successful website; it not only provides a better overall experience but also increases user engagement while driving growth and customer loyalty.
It is essential to engage users in order to create an effective website design. Enhancing user engagement can be achieved through utilizing UX principles such as creating a clean and intuitive navigation, displaying relevant content, and providing clear and concise calls-to-action. With these features implemented, users will be able to access the information they need quickly and easily, increasing their overall satisfaction.
Improving conversion rates also relies heavily on user experience. By understanding the needs of the user, it allows website designers to create a product that meets those needs. This involves making sure the page loads quickly, optimizing images and videos for mobile devices, ensuring all links are functioning properly, and streamlining checkout processes. Taking all of these factors into consideration will result in improved customer satisfaction which leads to higher conversion rates.
Attention all web designers! User experience (UX) is a vital component of website design that should not be overlooked. It has the power to make or break your website, and ultimately determine whether your visitors stay and explore or leave without further engagement. Reducing bounce rates is one of the key benefits of UX design, and can be achieved in several ways.
By optimizing page loading speed, minimizing distractions, and making navigation intuitive, you can create an enjoyable experience for visitors to your site. Increasing user engagement is essential for websites that require user registration or need customers to complete transactions. User-friendly UI/UX design can help guide users through important steps such as signing up for newsletters or completing purchases, improving their overall satisfaction with the website. Additionally, providing helpful support for users when they get stuck can help reduce frustration and keep them on the site longer.
Creating a positive user experience will increase customer loyalty and conversions while reducing bounce rates. With the right UX design strategy in place, you will be able to maximize user satisfaction on your website and improve its overall performance.
Having a well-designed website with a positive user experience can have an incredibly beneficial impact on a company’s brand. Investing in UX design helps to ensure that users have the best possible experience when interacting with the site, which leads to more positive sentiment about the brand and its products or services. A good user experience is both tangible and intangible, offering quick loading times, intuitive navigation, and content that is easy to understand. This can not only help build customer loyalty but also attract new customers who value the company’s commitment to creating an enjoyable online experience. Furthermore, it encourages users to interact with the website and share their experiences on social media platforms, increasing brand reach and further raising awareness of the company’s offerings.
Brand reputation is essential for a successful website design. It can take years to build and only a few seconds to destroy. As such, UX is an important factor in website design as it directly impacts user satisfaction.
UX focuses on creating engaging experiences that are both efficient and enjoyable for users. This not only leads to improved customer retention and increased sales but also helps create brand loyalty and recognition. By taking the time to consider the user experience of their website, businesses can improve customer satisfaction and build trust with their target audience. From well-crafted navigation menus to intuitive search functions and customized content, UX can make all the difference in creating a positive user experience.
In order to know if your website is providing a good user experience, you should evaluate how easy it is for users to navigate and understand the content of your site. You should also consider how quickly users can find what they are looking for and whether or not they have any difficulty using your website’s features. Additionally, pay attention to feedback from customers and website visitors, as this will help you identify areas where improvements could be made in order to create a more enjoyable user experience.
Improving user experience (UX) on your website requires a few specific steps. Firstly, you should assess the existing UX of your website through analytics and feedback from users. Next, you should determine which areas need to be improved or what changes need to be made. After that, you can create a plan for implementing those changes. Finally, monitor the results of your changes to ensure they are having the desired effect on user experience. By taking these steps, you can ensure that your website provides an optimal user experience.
Measuring user experience (UX) is essential for website design, and there are a variety of tools and software available to do this. From analytics platforms like Google Analytics to user testing services like UserTesting.com, there are plenty of options to help identify any issues your visitors may have with the site. With these tools, you can track visitor behavior and trends, measure page performance, create surveys, and more – all of which will give you valuable insight into your UX and help you make improvements.
Ensuring a consistent user experience on your website is essential for providing visitors with a great experience and encouraging repeat visits. One of the best ways to maintain this consistency is to create a style guide that outlines all elements of the website design – from color palettes and fonts to types of content and user interface elements. This will ensure that each page has a cohesive look and feel, so visitors know what to expect throughout their journey. Additionally, you should use analytics tools to track user behavior and monitor how they interact with different pages on your site. This data can help you determine if any changes need to be made in order to improve the overall user experience.
Ensuring your website’s user experience is up to date with current design trends is essential for providing a great customer experience and keeping visitors engaged. It’s important to stay informed about the latest UX trends, such as intuitive navigation, minimalistic designs, mobile-first design principles, and interactive elements. Additionally, use tools like heatmaps and analytics to track how users interact with your website so you can make necessary changes that will improve their overall experience.
User experience (UX) is essential to providing a positive website design. It’s important to regularly assess the user experience of your website, and take steps to improve it. With the right tools and software, you can measure UX and find out what areas need improvement. You should also make sure that your website’s UX is up to date with current design trends. By doing this, you’ll ensure that your visitors have a great experience on your website. So keep up with the latest design trends and take actionable steps to improve user experience – it will benefit both you and your visitors in the long run!
If you run an e-commerce store, the heartbeat of your website is your product pages. People turn to each page to get details about the items they’re considering purchasing. Without stellar details, images and layout, you risk them bouncing away to a competitor’s site.
E-commerce sales account for about 14.1% of global retail sales. Statista predicts the number will reach 22% by 2023. With increased revenue comes more competition. You have to be on top of your game if you want a piece of the digital retail pie.
The best place to start is by redefining your product pages to match the brand image you’d like to project. Here are our favorite things to focus on to make sure yours are the best they can be. We also include a few examples of businesses with excellent ones. Here is what your product pages say about your business.
Stellar product pages don’t have a lot of unnecessary clutter taking up space. They offer only what the user needs to make a decision on whether or not they want the product. While there are elements that improve the shopping experience, there are some things you don’t need.
Hone in on the item you’re trying to sell. Put yourself in the shopper’s shoes. What information would you most need to make an informed decision? How can you best share those details with them?
Bjork and Berries is a Swedish hand and body cream company. On this product page for their White Forest hand cream, they list the price, ingredients and highlight key benefits such as organic and natural ingredients. They also include several relevant photos. Notice the abundance of white space around text and images for a streamlined look.
How quickly does your website load? The average person will only wait a few seconds before bouncing away. If you don’t focus on how fast your pages pull up, you risk telling your audience you don’t care about their frustrations.
Invest in the fastest web hosting you can afford. Optimize images and run tests through sites such as Pingdom to improve site speeds. Make changes until your product pages load in milliseconds.
Does your site give off the vibe that you care about how hard users must work to get to your products? Filters make it easier for them to navigate exactly where they need to go. An excellent product page only helps you make a sale if your site visitors can navigate to it easily.
Rvinyl does a fabulous job of helping users narrow down options by providing intuitive filters to direct them to the right products. Note how you can narrow down the choices by vehicle make, model and then year. Once you put in all the variables, you’re taken to the available options to make a selection.
Your headline is one of the first things customers see on your site. You have a chance to make an impression and confirm they’re in the correct location. Think about every word in your headings. Can you remove any without changing the meaning? Is there a more powerful verb to drive engagement?
Think about the subtle differences between two words. Is your product helpful or life-changing? You may even want to rearrange the wording and run A/B tests to see what resonates best with your customers.
Your product pages must grab the attention of your site visitors. Think about all the other things they could be doing rather than visiting your page. Not only are there online activities competing against you, such as social media and video streaming, but everyday life exists right past the computer screen.
Use animation, videos and relevant information to keep your users moving through your sales funnel. Think about what your competition isn’t doing and go a step beyond.
Lunya offers sleepwear. As you scroll through each product page, the site utilized parallax scrolling and some subtle animation effects to keep you engaged. If you hover over the call to action (CTA) to “Add to Bag,” the background changes color to grab your attention and encourage you to move forward.
People landing on your site may not have heard of you before. They may search for trust factors before choosing to place an order. Some of the things you can do to show you are trustworthy include adding reviews, testimonials, contact information and clear return and exchange policies.
You can also add badges for any organizations you belong to in your industry, links to awards you’ve won and your Better Business Bureau rating. Before a person clicks on the CTA, they want to know they’ll get what they’re promised.
Your product pages can also show consumers whether you are an expert in your industry or just throwing up a sign and taking online orders. The more authority you have, the more likely they’ll trust your recommendations.
There are a few ways to showcase your knowledge on product pages, such as linking to content on your blog or guest blogging and linking out. You can also add reviews that highlight why you’re the best choice when it comes to a particular product.
Maple From Canada has a unique take on showcasing their products. In addition to beautiful images and glowing descriptions, they add links to articles on each product, recipes and resources to teach kids about real maple.
You may be so familiar with your product pages you don’t get a clear picture of what they’re telling viewers. Ask for feedback on what works and what doesn’t. Have customers highlight what’s unclear so you can tweak the language. Add anything they feel is missing but don’t go overboard. Get feedback on your product pages so you can better meet the needs of your customers.
Author
Eleanor Hecks is the editor of Designerly Magazine. Eleanor was the creative director and occasional blog writer at a prominent digital marketing agency before becoming her own boss in 2018. She lives in Philadelphia with her husband and dog, Bear.
Not a single business in the world can survive without happy and satisfied customers. You make customers happy by offering them a great experience. And you offer them a great experience by delivering them quality products and customer service.
Why customer experience and happy customers are important for a business? It is because they talk about the experience and how they feel about your brand with their near and dear ones. In short, they do the word of mouth for you, and make an indirect effort to bring you more customers.
So, if a customer had a bad experience while buying from your ecommerce store or using a product they bought from your website recently, imagine the harm they could do to your brand image through their negative remarks.
From a customer standpoint, reviews are a great tool that helps buyers decide, whether they should buy from you. One negative feedback can push many potential buyers away from your eCommerce store. That is why it is important to always stay on your feet and watch out for new trends related to customer experience. Another important thing is doing surveys to research your customers, so check out Survey Cool.
This post attempts to underline some of the ways you can improve customer experience on your ecommerce website –
Apart from products, an ecommerce website should have a fast and simple processing. From homepage to internal pages and from navigation to checkout process – everything on your website should load quickly and be easy to work with.
If your website or pages take forever to load, no one would like to be on it. Even if you manage to gain traffic on your website, it would be difficult for you to stop visitors from leaving and convince them to convert. Additionally, slow loading website and pages do not get a high rank on search engine result pages (SERPs).
Here is what you have to center on while developing a smooth, user-friendly, and search engine friendly ecommerce website –
ECommerce is all about rich, well-organized visual content. There is not much space for text on ecommerce. Giving too much of textual information is never advisable on ecommerce, because it will be difficult for a user to digest a heavy amount of text.
Instead, focus on providing all the essential information through high quality images, just like TobaccoPipes.com does.
They use relevant and attractive icons to tell their visitors that they deliver worldwide and offer free shipping on orders above $75. Wow!!
Try to organize text content and product descriptions in a visually appealing way. Never use a sentence, if you can deliver your message in a few words.
Similarly, you can show information about your product.
To make sure that your marketing and sales work well in the long run, you will need to work on your product strategy too. If there is no product strategy at all, no matter how effective your marketing strategies are, they are not going to yield anything.
An effective product strategy includes, but is not limited to –
You might want to add or remove certain factors in or from this list, based on your products and the age group of your exact audience. Here also, you will need to work closely with your industrial designers and manufacturing team, taking care of the negative feedbacks received from customers.
In addition to that, product strategy on ecommerce should include use of high quality product images, how-to videos, and informative description that is crisp and precise.
Since ecommerce takes place online, you should explore more ways to find new customers online. You can use digital marketing to generate traffic and gain new customers. For this, you can make use of free and paid channels of digital marketing.
You could also try social media marketing that gives you several added advantages; such as: free marketing tool, paid ads, and organic and paid ads analytics.
Social media is the most crowded place on earth. It is like a jam-packed market place, where you can display your ads and build a community, where you can feely communicate with your audiences and customers. It also gives you a chance to deliver high-level customer experience by resolving the issues your visitors or customers are facing while using your website or products. This way, social media help you build trust and gain more attention online.
Emails are still not an old-school practice. They still have relevance. They are still a decent way to connect with your audience and build a positive impression and content the unsatisfied customers.
If the issue is so broad that it cannot be discussed on social, you can definitely resolve it on email. You can send personalized emails for special days of your customers (for example their birthdays and festivals). Through these emails, you gain trust – and with that, a chance of sale. You can use birthday mailers and festive emails to send customized offers to your customers.
And when building your email marketing campaigns, make certain that your emails are bold, clear, short, and snappy.
Reminder: Even if it is not a promotional email, even if it is an email from customer support, it should be able to deliver the right message clearly.
Offer free shipping. Customers love the word free. Even if you can’t deliver next day, if the shipping charges are free (or lowest possible), the ball is still in your court.
Next, you will need to keep the “Add to Cart” and “My Cart” buttons easy to locate on your website. Not just that, adding to or removing from cart options should also be simple.
Last but not the least, do not leave a customer after he has made a purchase. Remember, you can always encourage them to repurchase from you through your social and email campaigns. But, don’t get too promotional.
A business to many (B2M) model is unique in the ways they utilize web design to reach both segments of their audience. Some choose to create a main landing page with separate areas for business and consumer customers. Because of the many needs of B2M companies, there are some specific trends in design that come to the forefront each year.
The latest report from the Small Business Administration shows there are about 30.7 million small businesses in the country. There were 433,000 startups but 400,000 closures. The fact that openings and closings are almost equal shows that businesses have to be on top of their game if they want to survive in a highly competitive, global economy.
No matter what type of business you run, it’s smart to stay on top of trends in online marketing. However, for a B2M business, it’s even more important to know how best to serve both sides of your firm. Here are some trends we think you’ll see in 2020 and beyond that apply to B2M models specifically.
Even though you may have a single website to serve both consumers and other businesses, it is important that you have separate areas to address the needs of each unique audience. There may be some services and products that overlap both segments of your customer base. However, there are likely at least a few areas that are different.
Amazon is well-known for its consumer offerings and has been studied by many marketing experts in an effort to repeat its e-commerce success. However, it also offers a variety of business services. One way that Amazon meshes the two is by offering a separate area listing the many business services and partnership offerings. Note the lists of different ways business owners can work with Amazon or how you can start your own business.
You’ve likely noticed more and more sites going away from a grid design to a more free-floating layout. This trend applies to any type of website and not just business-to-business (B2B) or business-to-consumer (B2C). It is an evolution in the way online browsers work and shows that sites are current on technology and understand the trends. An asymmetrical layout gives you a lot of flexibility to mesh both your B2B and B2C offerings.
Your unique value proposition (UVP) is what you offer that none of your competitors do. Good design embraces your UVP and puts it in front of your audience. It doesn’t matter who your audience is. It’s important to communicate why they should choose you over any other brand. Including your UVP in large type or a video or some other feature on your landing page is smart for any business model.
McGraw-Hill Education serves educators and school systems as well as consumers (students). Their landing page highlights the types of textbooks and services they offer, but then it also has an area for teacher and professional development. They present their UVP above the fold with the words “We combine learning science and the art of teaching to empower success.” It’s their mission as a brand and shows where their focus is no matter which audience they’re serving.
Have you noticed the half and half screens popping up on some websites like Born & Bred in recent months? The new design trend basically takes the screen and splits it down the middle. The two halves are related and yet separate at the same time. This is a perfect design for a B2M business that serves two distinct audiences. Expect to see this design trend crop up often in 2020.
For companies that sell products, offering bulk discounts to businesses is one way they serve their B2B customers while still selling to the general public. Ordering more than a certain number of a product triggers the discount. Many companies also offer points reward systems to their repeat customers or allow businesses to set up automated orders so they can set it and forget it when it comes to supplies.
Quill’s website meshes their consumer and business sides into a cohesive unit. However, as the user shops, they see that ordering a certain quantity triggers a discount. The site also puts information about their rewards program near the top of their landing page.
Buffer’s 2019 Social Media Report shared that 85.5% of marketers publish some type of video content. Your website is the perfect place to share this content and educate your buyers about what you have to offer. Those consumers who buy from you might not realize you specialize in business services. Yet, some of those people may start their own businesses this coming year. On the flip side, business owners may not realize personalized products you carry for individuals but might be interested in making a purchase for their own household.
Educate your audience about what you do and what you have to offer. Videos are a quick and easy way to share information about your brand’s story.
No matter what type of business you run, your calls to action make a difference in your conversion rates. For B2M businesses, CTAs might be particularly important for a B2M model to guide and direct the correct users to the right areas of your site. A strong CTA uses action words and doesn’t hide what will happen when the user clicks on the button. Test different words to find the ones that resonate with your specific audience.
idc-Automatic offers garage door installation and repair to homes and businesses, serving many different people. Note their strong CTA on their home page that reads “Learn About Our Repair Team.” This is information that applies to both business owners and consumers as they’ll want to know the experience of those working on their garages.
Dark mode web designs have a modern edge. You probably noticed with one of the recent iOS system updates that you now have the option to choose dark mode or light mode. Many web designers are copying this as more and more people use mobile devices to access the Internet. Create a site that adapts automatically to the settings on the user’s phone and thus shows them your site with their own personal preferences. You can also offer a manual setting to view in dark or light mode.
While it’s impossible to predict every web design trend 2020 will bring, business owners can certainly look at trends at the end of 2019 for some clues. Technological advances also impact how you should present your site to visitors and what additions might have the most impact. Some things stand the test of time, such as writing strong headlines, keeping your audience in mind and adding CTA buttons. The rest is a matter of testing what works with your different buyer personas and finding some common ground between your B2B and B2C customers.
Lexie Lu is a designer and writer. She loves researching trends in the web and graphic design industry. She writes weekly on Design Roast and can be followed on Twitter @lexieludesigner.
Just as it’s important to focus your efforts on the things that make good web design better – informative content, high-quality photos, and an easy-to-use interface, it’s also important to think about the things your website visitors don’t want to see. If your bounce rate seems higher than it should be, but you can’t figure out why, there’s a good possibility that your website contains one or more of the five faux pas below.
Once upon a time, getting to the first page of Google search results was as simple as inserting a few keywords into your website content. These days, though, things are far more complex. In fact, Google will rank your website based on its overall design – and so will your visitors. There are several things that might add to a bad design, and they include:
It’s easy to get wrapped up in your website content’s quality while forgetting about its overall design. The biggest goal here is to make sure that it welcomes visitors without overwhelming them.
In today’s world of fast internet and instant digital gratification, ensuring that your website operates the way it should is crucial. If a visitor can’t get to the information he or she needs within three clicks, it could be a deal-breaker. After all, why should visitors search endlessly for information on your website when they can easily find it from one of your competitors?
To combat this, make sure your website is easy to navigate and that users can get virtually anywhere in three clicks or less. Make sure photos and banners do not mislead your visitors, and clearly label your buttons with instructions like “Click Here” or “Buy Now”. Finally, be sure that your main navigation links are tucked neatly inside a menu rather than scattered across the website.
Content is still king when it comes to creating an excellent website that visitors will love. Unfortunately, many people continue to make simple mistakes that are causing their visitors to bounce and affecting their overall rankings. In order to ensure that your content is structured as optimally as possible, make sure that you avoid the following:
Statistics show that companies can lose up to 60% of their sales when visitors struggle to find what they were originally looking for. Keeping your content properly structured will help you avoid this.
When people visit your site, they want to be in control of their experience, so if you’ve considered the idea of videos set to auto-play or background music to help set a tone, you may want to think again. People find it aggravating when they are searching for information only to be interrupted by a video or background music they don’t like. If you’re going to use videos, allow the visitor to decide whether they want to watch it – don’t force it on them.
Photos are a great alternative to videos in many cases, and they load far faster, which improves your site’s response time – especially on mobile devices. If your site’s visuals are well-designed and appropriately placed (and sized!) they can go a long way toward giving your visitors a pleasant, memorable experience without the need for background music or videos set to auto-play.
Getting a small business off the ground can be tough, and online ads are indeed a phenomenal way to help you generate a little extra income to keep things moving forward. Though there’s nothing inherently wrong with having an ad on your site here and there, there is a limit. Everyone finds ads annoying to a degree, but if they are intrusive and interfere with your visitors’ experiences on your site, your bounce rate will undoubtedly skyrocket.
To combat this, make certain that your visitor does not see an ad before anything else on your site. Avoid pop-up ads where possible, and if you choose to use them, make sure they are easy enough for your visitors to close. Finally, if you have an entire sidebar filled with advertisements, there’s a pop-up on every single page, or there’s more than one pop up on any given page, there are far too many ads on your site and your visitors are almost certainly frustrated.
Focusing on good web design is crucial, and part of that involves truly critiquing your site to discover what might be putting users off. By going over your site carefully and keeping these five common mistakes in mind, you can discover what’s been increasing your bounce rate, resolve it, and start climbing the rankings once again.
If you’ve done the research, followed search engine guidelines, and otherwise optimized your site to rank highly you would expect results, right? But what happens when you aren’t receiving the results you’d expect?
You might be seeing a lot of impressions coming in, but those impressions have a very conversion rate to leads. Those leads have an even lower conversion rate to sales. If this sounds like the issue you’re facing, then your issue certainly lays in site design and overall user experience.
Site design is more than the background or fonts you choose to use on our company’s website. The overall design will incorporate all graphic and non-graphic elements of your company page. A good site design is:
User experience is just what it sounds like. It is the experience a user has when they come to your website. Even more important than SEO best practices, ensuring a good user experience is vital. But what makes an enjoyable experience versus a negative experience?
A negative experience would be a site with hard to read copy, eye-straining color scheme, difficulty in navigation, unclear directions, or is otherwise difficult to use.
Keys to creating a good user experience would be ensuring that:
Wondering why this is important? The point is to get customers to your site, which is done through search engine optimization. Right? Kind of.
SEO will get users to your site, but user experience is what keeps them there. A bad design or ineffective copy can have potential readers leaving before they even scan your pages to see what is being offered.
A straightforward way to think of this is as a series of actions and rewards.
Action #1: Using SEO and a variety of advertisement options to increase search engine ranking.
Reward: People come to your website.
Action #2: Implementing best website design practices and ensuring a great user experience.
Reward: People stay on your site, where they find out what you offer.
Action #3: You offer your target audience something useful in return for their information. This can be content, discounts, or something else entirely. What is offered depends on your brand and customers.
Reward: You get their information, which turns them into warm leads.
The process goes on from there, but this is the part of the buyer’s journey where website design and user experience are most important.
Knowing how important these elements are is one thing, but how do you go about optimizing your website for them? The best option is to hire a professional design company who is efficient in best SEO and user experience (UX) practices. Often, these selfsame companies can operate after your site is live as an extension of your marketing company.
If you choose to go it your own, however, here are eight simple ways you can begin to improve your site design. Each of the following are simple steps which are broken down, so they can be executed one at a time if necessary.
Get rid of overly bright, neon coloring which causes eyestrain and a difficulty in reading texts. Replace it with soft or dark colors. The text should contrast the background, so it is easy to read.
Do away with overly stylized fonts which are difficult to read. While pretty, these offer no purpose or benefit to the reader.
Check your sign-up forms. It is ideal to have five or less boxes which need to be filled out, if possible. If your forms have more than five boxes, consider doing away with any optional ones to decrease the chance readers will become too overwhelmed to sign up.
Check your webpage copy for easy readability. Have you used plenty of white space? Are bullets used when possible? Have you incorporated headers to break up the text?
Make sure the graphics used on your website are just enough to help the user experience without being overwhelming. They should also be of the highest quality.
You want users to spend as much time as possible on your website. Every good business owner or digital marketer knows that the more time a person spends on your website, the higher the possibility they will purchase the products or services you are selling.
The idea is to implement several best practices. These revolve around optimize your website and content for a more positive user experience, as well as allowing your website visitors to know what to expect from you as a company.
You may already be doing some or all the following items – or you may not be. Check out the following to find out which best practices will keep your visitors on your website and yearning for more.
Branding is the way you set your company apart from the dozens (even hundreds or thousands) of other companies like yours. Through branding you are telling your target audience a story. It is about why you do what you do and how you do it. Everything on your website (and all your marketing or sales endeavors, too) should reflect this brand story.
A few tips for creating strong branding on your website include:
A positive user experience means that people who come to your website will have no difficulty navigating your website. The design should be intuitive and visually appealing.
You can do all the search engine optimization in the world and run numerous paid campaigns to bring visitors in, but if the user experience is suffering it won’t matter.
Why? Visitors will never stay on your website long enough to become familiar with your brand, which translates to meaning they will never be converted into customers.
A few tips for creating a positive user experience on your website include:
Content is still king, but the format options have changed. You want to include a variety of formats on your page to target the widest audience and make your message available in the way these viewers prefer. In addition to written content variations, formats could also include infographics, videos, or podcasts.
All content formats are important, but chances are written variations will be those most used. These include everything from website copy and blog posts to e-books and white paper.
In terms of website copy, blog posts, and articles that you host on your site, use the following practices to help increase readability. Great readability is vital in keeping visitors on your site longer.
Everyone loves a freebie. I do, and you do, so you can be certain your website visitors do, too. Free downloads and other offers are a wonderful way to both give your customers something of value to them and get their contact information in return.
Free downloads are typically in the form of e-books, which are useful resources in their own right. An e-book can help to set you or your company up as an industry expert, provide highly detailed information on a subject (versus brief explanation), and could help you garner more sales as a result.
The offer doesn’t have to be an e-book, however. It could also be a free trial service, discount, promotion (buy one get one), or anything else which might be of value to your target audience.
The contact information garnered from free downloads are down with landing pages with a sign-up form and clear instructions. Clear instructions may be “Sign up now to receive our free e-book on content marketing” or “Sign up now to receive 10% off your first purchase.”
Our final tip for keeping your website visitors yearning for more is simply to be consistent. Consistency revolves around both your design and content, and includes:
By keeping all your design elements and content formats consistent you let your website visitors know what to expect. This not only keeps them on your website longer, but also increases the rate at which people return to consume your content.
If you are not already utilizing the above strategies to keep website visitors on your page longer, now is the time to do so. Create a checklist of things you need to accomplish to improve the length of time visitors stay on your website and methodically check them off over the next few days or weeks.
Increased time spent with your company is not the only improvement you will see. You will also see begin noticing an increased conversion rate from impression to lead, as well as lead to customer.
Once upon a time, back when Google’s algorithms were simpler, search engine optimization was as easy as using the right keywords at the right density. These days, though, Google demands much more than keywords. Today, you need relevant content, images, and videos alongside desktop and mobile sites that provide an outstanding user experience. If the user experience sucks, no amount of marketing will help you succeed. Here’s why.
Just like you, Google has a goal to be the very best among its competitors. In order to do this, it has to satisfy its users’ demand for search results that are relevant to the search terms they use. For this reason, Google considers many different things when it ranks websites, including the relevancy of the content, the frequency at which you update the content, bounce rates, conversion rates, backlinks, website speed, mobile responsiveness, and more. In fact, Google regularly researches user experience and tweaks its algorithms to provide exactly what its users want.
A couple of great examples of user experience:
It’s pretty clear that Rover.com 100% understands user experience. I recently had a chance to really use this site and it made me wanting to come back. That’s success.
Transferwise is another site that we’ve been using lately. Similar to PayPal the user experience is really flawless. The front end and back end are both very smooth and easy to use. Probably why
HeyOrca is a new social media platform that takes the guessing out of social media. The front end and back are extremely user friendly which is not the case for all social media platforms.
All of these things ultimately provide the user with a good experience or a bad one depending on your site’s design. Failing to provide a solid user experience (UX) has serious consequences, as well.
If you don’t know how your website ranks when it comes to the user experience, there are some key characteristics of an overall bad UX that you should consider.
Though the elements above are some of the most common issues affecting the overall user experience, these days, Google is putting far more emphasis on the UX as it applies to mobile users. In 2015, for the first time in US history, more Google searches originated from mobile devices than desktops. For the last three years, the search engine giant has worked tirelessly to improve search results relevancy based on this fact. This is evident with the recent announcement of mobile-first indexing, which will rank pages with responsive mobile sites higher than their non-mobile counterparts on searches conducted via mobile devices.
One of the absolute worst things you can do to bring down the overall user experience for your website involves failing to optimize your site for mobile users. Your site should display on a smartphone or tablet in much the same way as it displays on a computer. All the elements need to be present, navigation needs to be a breeze, and visitors should not have to pinch or zoom in order to read text or see images clearly. If you have not yet optimized your site for mobile responsiveness, now is the time. Failing to do so could leave you scrambling to climb the ranking ladder.
Many companies out there believe that they can overcome a less-than-stellar website with mass marketing. After all, it’s just a website. This is absolutely not the case. These days, people rely on information they find online, and they form opinions of your brand based on your website. If your UX sucks because your site is a jumbled mess, or because it doesn’t display properly on their smartphones, or because they have to wait 10 seconds between pages, that reflects negatively on your entire brand.
No amount of innovative marketing, and no amount of marketing dollars, can overcome a poor user experience. In fact, by investing some of that marketing money back into your website to improve the UX, you can actually see a significant return and perhaps even save money on future marketing campaigns. Earning a high ranking via Google is arguably the world’s best marketing strategy, so be sure to consider your site’s UX and make changes accordingly.
Being available to our customers is important. If it’s difficult for them to reach us, we may miss out making a sale or a lasting connection. As expectations for acceptable ways to interact with customers change, you need to consider how to make your company available online.
When a potential customer or client has a question or concern, they’re likely to go online to see if they can get some help. If you make them jump through numerous hoops just to have a conversation with you, they’re likely to move on to a competitor to purchase their products or services instead. Making it as easy as possible for customers to reach you ensures you can provide them with the help they need to close a sale.
There are many different ways you can be available for your customers online. Here are five ideas you may want to apply to your business.
Live chat is one of the most popular ways to provide customer service help to your target audience. As an IM service you can feature right on your website, live chat allows both you and your customer to easily discuss problems. Because a customer service representative can take on multiple chats at once, it can be a time saver for both parties.
The clothing site Hautelook provides a live chat service to help customers troubleshoot problems, ask questions about their orders or provide other services. Connecting customers with a customer service agent enables them to get assistance immediately, without needing to wait for a return phone call or an email response.
If you have multiple locations for your company, you’ll want to provide unique information for all of them. By sharing location-specific information about each store, your customers will be able to find contact information for the area relevant to them. This can lower the amount of times the customer needs to be transferred, ensuring they get accurate information the first time around.
Duncan Parnell offers a location and department search for its users. Not only can customers search for the location they’d like to contact, but they can also select the department they need. This search will then provide them with the exact person they need to connect with and the contact information they’re looking for.
If a customer comes to your website looking for your contact information, they don’t want to dig through page after page in order to find it. Keeping your contact information clearly displayed either in the footer of your site or in an easy-to-locate separate page can reduce the amount of time wasted on your customer’s end.
MailChimp clearly displays its contact link in the footer of its website, making it easy for customers to get in touch when they need to. After going through to the contact page, there are various topics the customer can choose, ensuring their message reaches the right department or customer service representative.
Many companies prefer to deal with their customer service inquires through email. While this is fine, you want to make it as easy as possible for your customers to send you a message. If they need to copy an email address, open their email app and type in the message, they may decide it isn’t worth the hassle. This is where having a contact form on your website can come in handy.
The messaging service Slack offers a contact form for customers to fill out when they need additional assistance. From this page, customers can input their email address and message and send it the same way as an email. However, the online form saves time and prevents them from needing to leave the original website.
Not all your customers are going to look at your website for a way to contact you. Many will turn to your Twitter or Facebook page to reach out. If you’re not available to answer questions, give advice or provide assistance on your social media pages, you could be missing out on an opportunity to connect with your target audience. Responding to messages and comments, and including your contact information on your page, can guarantee you connect with the right people.
Airlines such as Delta are constantly dealing with customer interactions on social media. Because it is much easier for a traveler to send a message through social media or an app they already have downloaded on their phones, they can get up-to-date information while they’re on the go. Scrolling through Delta’s timeline, you’ll see they respond to a lot of questions and concerns throughout the day.
Being accessible is important for companies of all sizes and in all industries. If you’re unable to help your customer when they need you, they’re going to become frustrated and move on to a competitor. Making it easy to reach you can guarantee you’re providing the best assistance possible to your target audience.
Consider what technique will work best for your customer or those who may need to reach you. By considering their needs and tailoring your contact process to their preferences, you’ll keep them happy and more likely to buy from you again.
Lexie Lu is a designer and writer. She loves researching trends in the web and graphic design industry. She writes weekly on Design Roast and can be followed on Twitter @lexieludesigner.