UX is far more than UI. UI is purely the user interface. Yes, a good interface is necessary for a company’s website to function, but an interface alone is not enough. UX, or user experience, design brings far more to the table than just the interface. By focusing on UX design, companies can create truly effective and unique experiences for their customers that will save money.
Increasing Conversion Rates
One of the best reasons for any company to have a solid, strategic UX is that it can result in greatly increased customer conversions. Here are some essential tips to make a user experience that will convert more customers:
- Fix broken links. This is an especially important part of UX maintenance. Few things will turn away customers from a site faster than clicking on an interesting link and seeing a 404 error. However, it’s not realistic to expect to never have broken links; problems are a fact of life. UX design can help recover from 404 errors with elements like automatic redirection, suggesting links from the 404 page and having contact information there.
- Streamline the website. Conventional thought says that one should try to keep users on a website, but many users don’t wish to linger for longer than they need to. If a website is interesting to users and they have time to browse, they will—but if they’re in a hurry, it’s best to let them get what they need as quickly as possible.
- Ease of navigation. It’s incredibly frustrating to know that some piece of information should be on a website somewhere and be unable to find it. Having a solid UX means making everything important on the website can be easily found.
- Build trust. Your customers may never meet, speak to, or even see you. Why should they trust that your company can provide the products or services they need? Part of a good UX design means showing customers they can trust you by using elements like social proof, humanizing, and endorsements.
Reducing Customer Support Needs
A solid UX can reduce the amount of customer support your company must provide. Look over the company’s logs of past complaints and modify the user experience to fix the recurring problems. This will reduce the number of complaints your company will have to deal with in the future. Implementing changes to fix issues that created past user problems also makes the company appear more user-oriented and professional.
Other Ways UX Is Helpful
UX design affects every aspect of a website. Increasing customer conversion rates and reducing necessary customer support are only part of what a solid UX can do for a company. Thoughtful UX design can also:
- Lower wasted development time by foreseeing issues such as incorrect assumptions about visitor behavior, inaccessible design choices, or new features that won’t actually add value to the website.
- Remain competitive by learning what your competition is doing and one-upping them with your own experience.
- A good UX will not only convert customers, but also help retain them.
All business websites need UI, but for a website to truly be great, it must invest in strategic UX. A good UX design will more than pay for itself by vastly increasing conversion and retention rates, reducing the cost of customer support, keeping a company ahead of competition, and more.
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