Incorporating User Experience Into Your Website

Creating a business website is an essential part of having an online presence. However, in today’s modern online marketplace, where traffic is dependent on factors like your search engine rankings, user reviews, and content quality, simply putting up an online business card isn’t going to score you a lot of new business.

All of these factors are long-term strategies and we recommend you investigate all of them. But before you do anything, it’s important to understand the basics of user experience (UX), and how potential visitors and customers are going to experience your website.

In this article, our friends at web hosting provider xneelo outline some of the factors to consider when designing your website’s UX.

What is user experience?

User experience (UX) refers to the overall experience that users have when interacting with a product, service, or system. In this case, your website.

Done correctly, good UX can positively affect your:

• Customer satisfaction levels.

• Number of repeat customers.

• Customer loyalty.

• Competitive advantage.

• Brand reputation.

Ideally, you want to create a seamless, positive experience for your website visitors.  This involves structuring information in a way that is logical and intuitive for visitors to navigate.

What does a good user experience on a small business website look like?

Here are some steps you as a small business owner can take to enhance the user experience on your website:

• Use clear and simple messaging that communicates your purpose, value proposition, and key offerings on your homepage.

• Design a simple and intuitive navigation structure that allows visitors to find the information they are looking for easily.

• Optimise your website for mobile devices (78.6% of South Africans accessed the internet via their mobile device last year).

• Use clear call-to-actions (CTA) that guide visitors towards taking action, such as making a purchase, contacting you, or signing up for a newsletter. 

• Make it easy for visitors to contact you by prominently displaying your contact information, including phone number, email address, and social media links. 

• Showcase positive customer testimonials, reviews, or case studies to build trust and credibility.

Ask yourself:

• Is it clear what products or services I provide from my home page?

• How many clicks does it take for someone to find product information? 

• Is it easy to locate my contact details?

Common UX mistakes

Here are a few common mistakes to avoid when designing your user experience. 

• Confusing navigation which makes finding information difficult (Including cluttering your home page with videos, pop-ups and imagery).

• Not optimising your design for mobile devices.

• Not optimising your images for the web (too large they’ll slow down your website, too small and they’ll be pixellated and illegible).

By being aware of these common UX mistakes, you can proactively address them and create designs that prioritise your users’ needs and satisfaction.

What is xneelo’s approach to UX?

When creating our new Control Panel, we embraced the concept of Iterative Design, which involves constant feedback from our customers.

Instead of designing and delivering a completed control panel, we tested the usability of each feature, asking customers for feedback, and incorporating that feedback throughout the development process. We learned from this feedback, in order to create the best possible control panel for our customers. This was largely achieved through a volunteer user testing group.

You can employ Iterative Design for your website as well. Perform usability testing with friends, family and existing customers to make sure your website performs well and serves up information quickly.

Actively listening to users, gathering feedback, and incorporating it into design iterations can help enhance the user experience.

Creating a good user experience for a small business website is crucial for attracting and retaining customers. Considering its importance, businesses that prioritise and invest in creating exceptional user experiences are more likely to succeed in today's competitive market and build lasting customer relationships.

This advice was compiled by our friends at hosting provider xneelo.