A well-designed website is like a professional business card.
Around 81% of potential users look at businesses online before purchasing.
Imagine having a clunky and slow site— you'll loose any credibility you'd have!
Providing a proper User Experience (UX) is vital more than ever.
Grab your favorite caffeinated (or decaf) beverage and let's dive into the top strategies for Web and UX Design.
Top 8 Strategies for Small Business Website Design and User Experience
1. Research
Defining and understanding your target audience is key to creating seamless experiences.
You should deeply understand their interests, motivations, desires, pain points and goals through User Research.
You can use user personas to understand your audiences much more easily and tailor your products.
Also, you can harness user research methodologies such as surveys, interviews, diary studies and focus groups.
As a result, you can create products that are useful and user-friendly.
2. Navigation
User-friendly navigation is an essential element to ensure optimal usability and UX.
Embracing predictable design ensures users can easily find what they're looking for.
The Nielsen Norman Group (NN/g) highlights that menus and search bars should be predictably placed.
Additionally, they recommend using familiar wording for links and proper color schemes.
Minimalist design and the proper use of white space can simplify navigation!
It's also key to ensuring categories and subcategories have a clear hierarchy and consistent branding and design elements.
You can use a content map and a sitemap to prioritize logical and intuitive navigation.
3. Responsiveness
Let's talk about statistics that stress the importance of Responsive Design (RD):
- 52.2% of all web traffic comes from mobile users.
- 40% of online transactions occur through mobile phones.
- 73.1% of Web Designers claim that non-responsiveness is the main reason why visitors leave.
- 62% of mobile users are less likely to purchase if they have a bad experience.
Mobile-friendly design can lead to higher click-through rates, which is considered crucial for SEO.
Prioritizing mobile responsiveness can provide pleasant experiences and optimal functionality across screen sizes.
4. Accessibility
Accessibility is critical to creating products with optimal UX. Consider the Web Content Accessibility Guidelines (WCAG) 2.2 as a part of your strategy.
Include keyword navigation, image alt texts, proper color contrast and assistive technologies, such as screen readers.
As a result, you'll ensure compliance with the Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA).
It's also worth noting that assessing performance and obtaining feedback from users is an integral part of this process.
5. Performance
Optimal speed and performance should be a top priority in your Web Design strategy.
Around 47% of users expect a load speed of under two seconds.
For every one-second delay, user satisfaction goes down 16%.
Tooltester says websites can take up to 70% longer to load on mobile devices compared to desktop computers and laptops.
Given the large number of users who access websites with their mobile phones, it's extremely important to aim for great speed!
Slow-loading websites also lead to 2.6 million USD in losses every year for retail businesses.
Due to all of this, your Web Design strategy should consider all the factors that play a crucial role in web performance.
Some key edges include coding best practices, hosting providers, site size, traffic and Content Delivery Networks (CDNs).
To improve your site's speed, reduce the number of redirects, limit HTTPS requests and optimize images.
We also recommended enabling browser caching, optimizing your CSS and JavaScript files and opting for asynchronous loading.
6. Testing
Testing your site's usability with at least five users can help uncover up to 85% of usability issues.
Feedback will give you insights to refine your site and ensure it provides remarkable UX.
Usability Testing can save thousands of hours and dollars by providing the data and feedback needed to prioritize decisions.
As a matter of fact, around 80% of features built during development go unused.
This highlights the importance of usability testing in ensuring that development efforts focus on features that provide real value.
Proven UX Design methodologies, such as Design Thinking and Design Sprints, emphasize the importance of testing.
7. Contact Information
Allowing users to easily contact you is vital for building trust!
Around 44% of users will stop engaging with a site if the contact information is not available.
That's why you'll want to include a contact form, addresses, social media links and phone numbers on your site.
Up to 95% of users read online reviews before making a purchase.
Also, around 58% would spend more if products had good reviews.
You should also include social proof on your website and showcase testimonials.
This will help you build credibility, which will also have a significant impact on conversions.
8. SEO
Optimizing for search engine rankings will increase your online visibility.
As a result, you’ll position your product as an authority in the market.
SEO efforts can bring a minimum ROI of 500% with enhanced conversion rates!
Make sure your site has useful, helpful, up-to-date and relevant content!
Why Work with a Web and UX Design Agency?
Working with an agency like Capicua can significantly impact your business, especially if you don't know how to put tactics into practice.
An experienced agency with a proven track record will ensure your site provides a world-class UX and makes potential customers happy.
Moreover, we'll ensure the website adds value to your target audience and aligns with your business goals.
Working with us can also give you the certainty you'll be able to address challenges and issues as they arise!
Conclusion
Following these effective Website Design tips will ensure you provide value to real users.
However, this is easier said than done. Consider working with an agency to improve your online presence, build trust and boost user engagement.
As a UX-driven Product Development agency with more than a decade of experience, we know how to design digital products with seamless User Experience.
Reach out to shape the future with us!
