Having a website for your business has become commonplace in today’s competitive market and web design continues to evolve almost daily. However, some business owners do not have a clear understanding of the objectives they want their website to achieve. While having an online presence is of paramount importance, your website should be doing so much more than merely existing.
For this reason user experience or UX design, is very much in demand. UX design is part of the design process that emphasises ease of use and access for the user. One of the main purposes of UX design is to find a balance between meeting the users’ needs and achieving business goals of the website.
As a relatively fresh concept, there are a variety of misconceptions when it comes to UX design, let’s take a look at 7 of the most common ones.
UX is Optional
Every business has a user experience, but not all of them design for user experience. Ensuring brand consistency throughout your marketing and communications places you with a better chance of winning new business and retaining existing customers. Take Netflix for example, I can start watching a film on my phone on my way home from work, when I get home I can then resume watching the film on my TV or laptop; this is a consistent user experience.
Users Make Rational Choices
This is one of the most important misconceptions, many great ideas have failed because people didn’t account for the fact that just because your product is the rational choice, it won’t necessarily be the choice for people in your market. Sometimes irrational factors influence the buying decision, identifying these triggers for your user experience can make all the difference.
You Understand Your Users
Thinking you understand your audience is perhaps the most common mistake made by businesses when it comes to marketing. The best way to understand your audience and how they respond to your marketing is to test everything and collect clear and comparable data that can be analysed.
A true understanding of your users comes from research; to make assumptions about UX is likely to result in failure. Consider asking your users for feedback and recommendations on your website to get a good understanding of what they would like to see.
UX is a Type of Web Design
UX design encompasses the entire design process and beyond, UX plays an important role in web design, but its importance extends beyond the web and should be considered and included in every aspect of your business. UX should cover every area your business communicates with customers from social media to phone conversations, emails to invoices.
UX is Just About Usability
While usability is an essential part of UX and web design, learnability and behavioural responses of users has to be studied and implemented. For example analytics tools such as Google Analytics will tell you everything you need to know about your website’s performance, if a high percent of traffic drops off or exits on your product page, it would be good practice to review the product page and see how it could be improved to enhance UX and lead users through the purchasing process.
UX is a One Off Thing
It is good practice to review your UX periodically, continually monitoring and improving user experience is the best way to achieve measurable and sustainable success. Online markets and the needs of users change continually, frequently reviewing your UX arms you with the information to implement changes to ensure your UX is the best it can be.
UX Design is About New Technology
UX design is about the customer, implementing new technology is great if it works seamlessly with your business and helps to retain customers. The last thing you would want to do is implement new technology that has a negative effect of business and alienates potential and existing customers.
If you have any queries or questions about what Blackberry Design could do for your business, get in touch on 01527 517309 or fill in our contact form.