If you have studied or read anything recently about improving rankings on Google, one of the expressions which you must surely have come across a lot is user experience. User experience, or UX, has become one of Google’s primary focal points, and it means that website design is no longer a matter of just how good a website appears, but also how positive the experience is of those that visit a website.
Thankfully, research, not just in the world of SEO or asking website designers, but also by asking real people, has identified several ways in which user experience can be improved. Read on and you will discover ten web design elements that should be included in any new or redesigned website.
Website Security: Horror stories about data theft are everywhere and today online users want to know that their private information is safe. Ensure that your web design has all the necessary security plugins, certificates, and updates to build trust with visitors from the start.
Website Loading Speed: The first thing any visitor experiences is the load speed of your website so your web design needs to ensure there is nothing within it that will slow down page load speeds, especially the home page. Test it, and wherever possible optimise anything which is creating delays.
Focus On Mobile: Depending on which survey you believe, mobile usage online is anything from 40% to 60%. Whichever level it is at, it is increasing, so every website that wants to be seen by all online users, and not just those with PCs, needs to have a web design that is responsive to mobile device screens.
Make Navigation Easy: The easier your visitors can navigate throughout your website the more likely the chances of them having a positive experience. Make menus easy to use, unambiguous, and on each page, so victors can return to the home page at any time.
Use Lots Of White Space: Modern internet users hate to see clutter on their screen so ensure that your web design is not too busy and confusing. A great way to achieve this is to use plenty of white space which will help keep items of content and other page elements reasonably spaced apart.
Make Calls To Action Effective: If you want your visitors to take action on your website, then your web design needs to have effective calls to action. It is unforgivable to have a web design where the victors genuinely want to take action but there is nothing on the page making it clear where they should click or enter details.
Use Only High-Quality Video And Images: There are plenty of resources, tools, software, and technology that allow website owners to create or obtain high-quality images and videos so there should be no excuse for not using them in your web design. Poor images are a complete turn off to visitors as are sub-standard videos.
Use Appropriate Colours And Fonts: As well as images and videos contributing to the user’s experience, the colours and fonts that are used throughout your web design contribute too. They should be consistent, match your branding, and fonts especially should be easy to read. Avoid script fonts that replicate handwriting as these can be difficult to read.
Include Social Sharing: We live in a world where social media plays a part in the lives of just about everyone so your web design should tap into this phenomenon. Users love sharing and so your web design should include buttons to allow them to share to major social media platforms like Facebook, Pinterest, Twitter, and Instagram.
Make Sure Everything Works: There is not much point in having everything else 100% to provide a great user experience if there are elements on your website that do not work properly. Every new web design or redesign should be thoroughly tested to iron out any errors or issues which are guaranteed to annoy users.