The World’s Top Web Design Experts Give Us Their Best Tips on How You Can Improve User Experience

Matt Slightam

Design Cuts

QUESTION 1: What is one tip you would give to web designers to improve user experience?

My top tip would be to always expect the lowest level of competence and experience of using web UI from your users. You can guarantee that if you watch your uses in recordings using your UI, using Hotjar or similar (which I very much recommend to get an insight into their actual behaviour, rather than what you expect they should do) you’ll be surprised by the things they click on and try to do! So, put your hand on your heart when you review your designs – is it really, really, really, super clear and obvious? It will pay dividends in terms of increasing website conversions and improving user experience if it is! Amazon as ever is an excellent example – it’s interface almost looks a little ‘old school’, but the reason for this is that they want the highest level of ‘affordance’ (the visual properties of UI objects which indicate to users the actions they can take) possible. They don’t care if their site doesn’t look completely cutting edge – they are focused on conversions. Which all websites should be really, you’re always looking to get the user to the end goal (conversion). That could be filling in a form, or buying a product. If you can do that, and prove to your clients that you are (do track everything in Google Analytics and Hotjar to prove you have) your clients will love you for it – and those stats will help you win future clients too! Double winner! Obviously there is a balance to be struck, you still want your website to look visually appealing, but, if you put that at the core of your UI, or say things like ‘well I’ve seen another site do it so it must OK to do it’ – you run the risk of creating a site your users can’t use, one that doesn’t convert. A website your users can’t use and that doesn’t convert – now, I can’t imagine many clients wanting to pay for that in the long run…

QUESTION 2: What is one piece of advice you would give to help keep visitors engaged on your site for longer?

My top advice to keep visitors on your site for longer – is to stop thinking of your users as visitors/customers, with a ‘what they can do for you’ focus: how they can give you visits, how they can generate you revenue etc. Instead start thinking about them as a community of real people – think about how you can bring them value and improve their experience and lives. Sit down, and have a very, very good think about your community. Who are they? Where do they live? What do they do? What do they like? What are their pain points? How can you fix their pain points? Build a really good profile of them. Then see if you can work out what you can add to your site that they will find invaluable. Maybe this will be an invaluable service that no one else supplies, or the best quality products or service in your market, or the best value products or service in your market – or it might be valuable learning materials which have a synergy with the products or services you supply. Or, better still, all of them! As an example, our website supplies design products – we give value by supplying the highest quality products, at the lowest prices, with free support and the best license. Then, on top of that we give even more value by going above and beyond for our audience. We do that by hosting regular free learning events for them which include webinars from the top designers in our industry – helping and holding their hand in their design journey! This is a winner on two fronts, our community gets amazing value, which makes them happy – and we get great ‘sticky content’ for our website (content which brings users back again and again) – which is also ‘evergreen content’ (SEO optimised content which doesn’t have a shelf life, and keeps pulling in users once it’s up). By caring for and nurturing our audience, by helping them in their journey – we’re not treating them like customers, we’re treating them like a valuable and loved community. A community is far more likely to be receptive to your brand offering – you’ll get much better engagement with any content you put on your site, which will keep them coming back and engaged with your content for longer. Also, let’s not forget – it’s far easier to give your customers what they want, if you have a great relationship with them – one that’s so good you can just ask them, and be sure they’ll be very receptive to giving you valuable feedback. On top of that – you’ll get far more satisfaction out of running your business. After all, wouldn’t it be nice if all your customers were your friends? If they enjoyed buying your products and services? If they really enjoyed and got something out of interacting with your brand? So, stop thinking about your customers as customers, start thinking about them as a community – think about what you can do for them, how you can help them. Then, you’ll start to get the engagement so many brands chase so hard, but fail to achieve.

Follow on Twitter: @designcutsdeals