It is no more optional for businesses operating in a competitive environment to have an impeccable online presence. Your website acts like a focal point of your online marketing efforts. A minor UX mistake in your website design can cost you millions. Besides low conversion rate, a poor web design can seriously tarnish the repute of your brand online.
An effective web presence is a combination of excellent design, valuable content, and result-oriented marketing strategies. In order to achieve high return on marketing investment, you surely need a website which offers flawless user experience and encourages visitors to retain and convert. Do not let a simple UX mistake ruin the online presence of your business. Following are some of the major UX mistakes that can put the future of your website in jeopardy:
1. No clear directions for users
Imagine a visitor lands on your webpage and he is not sure what to do next. Should he click or scroll down? Where should he go to find his solution?
If most of your visitors feel clueless on your site, you need to immediately fix this issue. A good website helps its audience find the right content and move forward in the sales funnel. You should focus on connecting your audience with as much content as possible.
How can you fix this issue? Every page of your site must contain a proper call-to-action which can make it easy for a visitor to make a decision. A visitor will happily click on a button if he is sure where he is going to land. Bold user interface elements encourage visitors to take the desired actions.
2. Not adjusting design for different screen sizes
People use all kind of devices to connect, buy, and sell. It is clear up to this point that a website should be designed on a responsive framework. However, a responsive web design needs to be adjusted for various screen resolutions.
So many professional website designers and developers make this mistake and end up with a messy, useless website. Little details or unusual appearance of text or visuals can easily annoy a user. So, do not make your audience annoyed with your out of proportion, ill-organized web pages.
Put your best efforts to understand mobile design and note down all the details that are out of order and can cause frustration. Thoroughly examine your images, text sizes, button placements, and load times so that you can make necessary changes and adjustments to build a seamless user experience.
Related: 5 Essential Reasons You Should Be Using A Responsive Website Design Now
3. Careless use of background images
It has been a popular trend in the web design industry to use a full background image. Undoubtedly, a relevant and high-quality image can create a wonderful impact. However, it is a mistake to believe that an attractive background image should stand on its own. Images are supposed to complement the site as a whole. Even a photography business should be very careful in selecting images for its website.
Simply giving something a nice, bright background and big fonts does not make a good design. An element must stand out in comparison with the overall design pattern. The function of an image is to complement the overall aesthetics and message of a site. Do not let your audience lost in the images, rather assist them to take actions you want them to take. The appearance of Important elements such as CTAs should not be drowned out by attention-grabbing images.
4. Too much text
A website should not look like a piece of newspaper. People hate to read lengthy and mundane text on a website. It is a big mistake to fill your web pages with too much text. Most of the people just go through the headlines on a page and move forward. This is the reason why web designers focus more on visuals and try to convey their message through interactive images, videos, and graphics.
Understand your audience and come up with precise content coupled with meaningful visuals.ย If it is necessary to post lengthy content, divide it into multiple short paragraphs and include visuals to keep readers engaged. A great user experience delivers the right message in an exciting manner.
5. A cluttered layout
We often come across sites that seems like a child has done some artwork. Creativity, no doubt, is an essential component of a UX web design. But, your website should not distract the audience with ill-organized information and layout. If your design is unable to differentiate the information on your site, users will not be sure what is important and what is not for they will be overwhelmed with too many distractions.
Making a good use of whitespace and modern design standards coupled with a simple layout can get the job done. A clean layout can bring about dramatic improvements in the overall performance of your site.
6. Slow page loading
If a web page takes long to load, people will hate it immediately and leave. Slow page loading issue can destroy the flow of a user. If your site takes more than two seconds to load, it can lead to a bad user experience.
A study suggests that one second delay in page load time can result in 16% decrease in customer satisfaction, 11% reduction in page views, and a 7% decrease in conversion rate.
Page loading time is definitely a crucial component of any websiteโs UX. A good design does not compromise loading time at the cost of aesthetics or heavy content. People care more about the website speed than all the fancy stuff we can add to a site. Page loading time is also key when it comes to search engine rankings. Here are some suggestions to improve page loading time:
- Avoid using too many plugins
- Optimize images
- Reduce server response time
- Optimize CSS delivery
- Minimize HTTP requests
- Minify resources
- Reduce redirects
Related:How Loading Time Affects Your Bottom Line
You can easily implement some of these tips, but a few are advanced techniques that can be difficult to deal with if you are not technically inclined.
Conclusion
You can always find space for improvements no matter how skilled or established you are. So far as UX web design is concerned, you can just dream of achieving perfection. Take into consideration these common UX mistakes and do regular research to improve the performance of your site in terms of conversion and visual appearance. Keep the user in mind all the time when developing or optimizing a website because itโs the user who will decide the fate of your site.
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