Top 7 Best Practices For User Experience In
Your Design
You can have the most beautiful website, but if it doesn’t work well with and for your audience, it’s just a pretty picture. You need a website that functions almost intuitively with your audience. If I’m your target demographic, I should be able to find exactly what I need from your site without much effort. Yes, your site needs to be a mind-reader. And while you may not be a mind-reader yourself, by implementing these best practices, you can forge a near-psychic connection with your audience. Are you ready to get started? Let’s go!
1. Focus on a Call to Action
A call to action is a word, phrase, or sentence that you use to motivate the reader toward some action. Some timeless examples of calls to action include: Click here, sign up now, buy it.
Always tell your audience the next step to take. Would you like them to subscribe to your email list, or join your upcoming webinar? You’ve got to lead them down the path, and you start with a call to action. It also raises awareness about your event or offering that they may not know about unless you tell them.
Make sure that every page has a purpose by creating a clear call to action.
2. Make it Responsive
Did you know that 60% of all Internet traffic is mobile? It’s extremely likely that your site is visited from mobile devices like smartphones and tablets. Are you still forcing site visitors to pinch-to-zoom?
Your site needs to be mobile-friendly. It should immediately respond to every screen size and look just as amazing on an iPhone as it does on an iMac.
3. Increase Speed
There is a need for speed when it comes to websites. These days, the average attention span of a human is one second less than that of a goldfish. You have less than 10 seconds to make a positive first impression of your site. Way less. In fact, if your website takes longer than three seconds to load, you can expect to lose around 40% of your audience.
Make sure that your website is lighting fast. Check out these 16 ways to increase your website speed.
4. Boost Your About Page
One of the most visited pages on your site will be your About page. Your visitors want to know more about you and what motivated you to create your website. Make sure you add a friendly bio (no dry, distant, third-person write-up, please). Include your photo for a personal touch. And, last but not least, link out to your social media profiles.
5. Use Less Annoying Pop-Ups
You can use pop-ups to announce your calls to action. For example, a pop-up can be a great way to successfully grow your email list. But there’s a right and wrong way to use pop-ups. Instead of making them pop up immediately, considering adding an exit-intent one that only appears when the visitor heads for the back button.
6. Make a Clickable Logo
Can visitors click your header logo from anywhere on your site and return to home? It’s the small things that have the biggest impact on user experience.
7. Beef Up Internal Links
If you’re running a blog, don’t automatically expect your visitors to know about all of your amazing content. Never miss an opportunity to link to your other blog posts, especially if it’s relevant to the content. While some of your visitors may scour through your archives, don’t assume that everyone will. Do the heavy lifting for you.
Final Thoughts
Implement these best practices in your website design, and you’ll improve your user experience in no time.
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