5 + 1 key UX improvements for better website results
7 mins read
"The worst thing that can happen to your website is that people lose interest entirely..."
SUMMARY:
- Ensure that your page is loading quickly!
- Summarize your value proposition into few words and include it as one of the primary elements that you can see on the screen before you scroll (above the fold).
- Make your page easy to navigate
- Make it easy to get in touch - show your phone number and use chat
- Let your website be remembered
- Learn from and emulate the best
Let’s not waste time, let's get directly to the action and improve your online business results.
1. ENSURE THAT YOUR PAGE IS LOADING QUICKLY!
Every delay in loading costs you a successful sales probability (conversion rate). Based on Walmart and Tagman data, you can see the huge difference between fast loading and slow loading pages
Make sure, that your loading time of the first visible screen is less than 2 seconds. It will improve your conversion rate for sure!
Tip:
Check your speed results here: https://developers.google.com/speed/pagespeed/insights/?hl=cs
2. SUMMARIZE YOUR VALUE PROPOSITION INTO FEW WORDS AND PUT IT ABOVE THE FOLD.
Browsing the web is getting faster and faster. Users are not willing to explore your page. Their goal is to get what they need and quickly disappear.
Be smart enough to offer them what they want to see in a very short time.
Visitors of your website give you approximately 5 seconds to impress them; no more. If your website is loading for a while (1-2 sec.), then you have just 3 seconds to confirm that visitor is in the right place!
If you organically attracted your visitor, but don’t show them a clear value proposition, they will stay on your website for a maximum of 10seconds,
Summarize your value proposition into a few words and put it visibly above the fold.
Be aware that there is a massive decrease of attention after the first content your users see on the page (people don't like to scroll).
Tip: Conduct a 5-second test:
Show your page to anyone who has no relationship with that page for only 5 seconds, then ask them what is the page about. If they are not able to answer your question properly, you know that you should improve the first visual contact with your website.
3. MAKE YOUR PAGE EASY TO NAVIGATE
Users are only scanning your page. In 2008, Nielsen Norman Group presented their research that only 20% of users will read all of the words you have on your page.
You should highlight the most important parts of your website. Work with users attention.
Action buttons are very important. As the business owner, you should show the user what to do. Do not let users think. If they must think, you are losing their attention.
What type of buttons are customers used to clicking? According to UX Planet, the most common ones are:
- Filled button with square borders
- Filled button with rounded corners
- Filled button with shadows
- Ghost button
Do not confuse users by adding crazy and unusual buttons.
Next, do not present too many elements. On one screen, show only a few elements which users can easily absorb.
The last, but not least, hint is to use short sentences and visualization (pictures, graphs, infographics).
The same rules work for both - desktop and mobile.
Tip: Conduct small-scale user testing
Have meetings with 5 of your friends who could be your potential customers. Show them your website and tell them to buy what they like. You will only observe and take notes on where they had trouble with on your website.
4. MAKE IT EASY TO GET IN TOUCH - SHOW YOUR PHONE NUMBER AND USE CHAT
Even the worst webpage ever has a chance to retain users if they have a possibility to call/write/chat with the website business representatives or customer support.
So what is the basis?
Chat is compulsory.
The chat industry grew like crazy and customers see it as almost a standard now. A huge amount of people are afraid to call. If they are visiting a website from a different country, calling is not convenient for them at all.
“A website without a chat is like a brick-and-mortar store without a shop assistant.“Smartsupp
And why is chat also better than email? You have direct contact with your potential customer in real time and they also see your immediate answer as a huge benefit. Actually, who wants to go looking for your answer in their overloaded inbox?
From my perspective, it is a must-have when you want your customers to know that you are “open for business.”
I would recommend using the free app https://www.smartsupp.com. Through this app, you can also see the user's screen behavior.
It is not a complicated process to launch this app at all. You can easily put their code on your website. If you don't need any special customization, this app is 10/10 for you.
You can work with chat more aggressively by displaying a popup chat with questions or chatbots. You can use it based on your business strategy, but be careful and do not bother your users too much.
Number and email
Make it easy to find your contact number and email. Most of the users are used to finding it in or above the header of your website.
If you are doing your business locally or in one country without different time zones, or languages, show it visibly.
Do you want to offer unique added value to your customers? Offer your customers the option to finish their purchase via chat or call. :)
5. LET YOUR WEBSITE TO BE REMEMBERED
The statistics show that users always remember their first and last emotions the most. There are always two situations of how a user’s journey ends.
a. They buy what you’re selling or write to you.
So, give them a bit more! Emotional experience - animation, e.g. email software Mailchimp gives you a high five after you send an email campaign.
On your thank you page, you can also add a joke, funny video or give your users one more gift - free content or a discount for their next purchase.
Be creative! Surprise your users and they will be back sooner than you think ;)
b. Not buying anything.
If they are leaving without buying anything, consider adding a goodbye popup with a special offer (promotion, special entry, gift). In return, you may want to record their email. This is a final ditch effort to keep from losing a user.
You can find more brilliant popups on Wisepops: https://wisepops.com/exit-popup-examples/
Tip: Brainstorming meeting
Set a meeting with your colleagues and find out what you can offer as the last contact with your users to be more memorable.
6. LEARN FROM AND EMULATE THE BEST
If you do not have a research team, a bunch of testers, UX team or other specialized teams, a very efficient method is to follow the best players in your market or in e-commerce.
Bigger businesses have better resources and they test every inch of their websites and apps, so why not get inspiration for free? :)
What I recommend is to choose 5-10 other websites. It could be 3 leaders in the e-commerce market, 3 leaders from a similar market as yours and 3-5 of your competitors.
Visit their websites once per month (e.g. the 3rd of every month) and make a printscreen of their website - at least the home page, product page, landing page, and all pages from their checkout flow.
Tip: Use the Full Page Screen Capture extension.
Go through the changes they have made and ask yourself if you can capitalize on it in a similar way. If you see anything with the potential of increasing your sales or conversions, make similar changes on your pages.
Please do not forget to use your own judgment. The best approach is to discuss your web changes with experienced professionals. One consultation costs less than a whole team and much less than incorrect implementation.
Write me at ondrej@creativehandles.com how you have used the tips I mentioned above.
If you need any help with increasing your business results in the digital world. Talk to us. Check out our other articles:
Sources:
https://usabilitygeek.com/psychology-web-design-influence-choice/
https://www.nngroup.com/articles/how-long-do-users-stay-on-web-pages/
https://dl.acm.org/citation.cfm?doid=1835449.1835513
https://www.websitemagazine.com/blog/5-reasons-visitors-leave-your-website
