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Key Elements in Improving UX

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Designing websites for SEO and designing websites for user experience are often two very different processes. At times the priorities are at odds with each other – what is good for SEO may be difficult for the user, and vice versa. But designing a website with the needs of your visitors in mind can drastically increase your conversions.

While the population as a whole is gradually becoming more comfortable with navigating less-than-friendly websites, some groups – such as senior citizens and the visually-impaired – still struggle with accessing information from difficult or disorienting websites. Not factoring in the needs of these groups can result in a huge loss in sales. One study from the Nielsen Norman Group found that sales could increase by 35% when a website was designed to create the same experience for senior citizens as for other demographics.

Three key elements – appearance, navigation, and action – are crucial in considering how to create the best user experience on your site. Let’s take a look at some real-life examples of websites that incorporate some of the important elements of an accessible user experience.

Appearance

Readable Fonts

Using a font that is easy to read is the only way to guarantee that people gather the information you are presenting on your site. It’s also an important element of making sure your website is compliant with the Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA), which has guidelines for creating accessible web pages.

Default font size is generally 12-pixels, and using responsive web design can help maintain your layout if a user magnifies text through their browser or accesses your site from a tablet or mobile device. Some sites incorporate a magnifier right on the webpage, which is much more convenient than altering browser settings. Even if your font is a perfect size, it must also be a readable style.

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Further reading: Use Legible Font Sizes from Varvy, Choosing Web Fonts from Vieo Design

Small Chunks of Text

Website visitors are often looking for information quickly, so make it easy to skim by breaking up your content into easily absorbed sections. Separate the sections using bolded headings and subheadings, and incorporate images throughout your pages. This makes your information seem more accessible and less intimidating and makes it more likely that your visitors will stay on your site.

Further reading: Ways to Get More People to Read Your Content from Copyblogger

Vibrant and High-Contrast Colors

First impressions are always influential, but perhaps never more so than on a website. Color is the biggest factor in website first impressions, with one study finding that up to 90% of initial website judgments can be based exclusively on color choice.

Catch visitors’ attention and make navigation easier by using vibrant and/or high contrast colors throughout your site. Bold and vibrant colors are simply attractive, like this example from El Burro.

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Further reading: Vibrant Colors in Web Design from UX Planet

Navigation

Simple Navigation Bar

When visitors arrive at your site, they want to easily know where to go and how to find the information they are looking for. They also need it to be easy to jump between sections of your site. Few things are worse than coming across a website that seems impossible to navigate. Failing to optimize your site for easy navigation can have disastrous consequences that will plague your business. The navigation bar at the top of the page is the most important element of navigation: it is your opportunity to direct your visitors to the most important parts of your site. For the most user-friendly experience, lock the navigation bar, so it is always visible, no matter how far a visitor scrolls down.

TransUnion’s ShareAble for Hires does just that. Their navigation bar remains at the top of every page as an easy reference, and it has only five categories for users to choose from. These categories have specific labels that anticipate what the user might be looking for.

 

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Minimal Moving Parts

For the best user experience, visitors should be able to focus on the task at hand without getting distracted by pop-ups, chat bars, or other elements that intervene with the user’s view. Too many of these can cause a visitor to leave your website out of frustration, especially if they are persistent and have no clear exit. While these elements can be used to great effect for capturing leads, they should be used with caution and always with the user’s experience and intentions in mind.

Further reading: 10 Guidelines for Navigation from Usability Geek

Action

Guide your visitors to precisely the action you want them to take with specific and highly visible call-to-action buttons. Renovate America does this by explaining briefly about the possible tasks, and then having clearly marked buttons like ‘Find a Contractor’ and ‘Get Financing.’

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It’s important to not overuse call-to-action buttons. Place them at strategic points throughout your site, so they show up when it makes sense for a user to click it. For example, a ‘start here’ button makes sense at the top of the homepage, but a ‘try now’ button might have more success farther down on the page after the visitor has had a chance to learn about your product or services. Of course, these buttons need to follow the guidelines for color and font outlined above.

Further reading: How to Create the Perfect Call-to-Action from Optinmonster

Making it easy for your visitors to navigate your site is essential to increasing conversions. Improving your user experience will have the greatest effect on older demographics, but even younger and more tech-savvy consumers will leave your site if it is difficult to use or unattractive to them. Make your website work best for your visitors by considering all of these factors and how they can work together to create the best user experience for your customers.

Web Design Vancouver BC

Hurricane Web Design Vancouver
#1002 – 1831 Robson Street
Vancouver, BC V6G 1E4
(604) 256-7081

Cat Nilsson is a Managing Editor at 365 Business Tips. She is an expert in content marketing and non-branded growth. She enjoys writing on a plethora of topics, from SEO to social media.

7 Web Design Trends to Watch in 2018

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Web design has always been a creative discipline, and you could say that trends have nothing to do with creativity. You would be right up to some point, but you should also be aware of the audience that is customers. Not worrying about trends is like making an art house cinema, which is fine if you’re satisfied with a small fan base. But as we live in capitalistic times, we can’t afford to be artists without the audience. That’s why we should look at trends as some evolution of the language of our audience, for every art is a form of communication. In 2017 there were many changes in this communication, and they are the foundation of what’s gonna happen in 2018. So let’s take a look at the next steps of this language evolution that will make your sites innovative and user-friendly, at the same time keeping their beauty and consistency.

1. The world beyond the screen

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The first step in successful communication is to pull your listeners into your world. Flat design trends that were popular in the past are not gonna work anymore because they seem too strict and restrictive. People want to see what’s beyond, and your biggest tool for showing them that is shadows. We know, shadows are nothing new in the web design, but web browsers have progressed and allowed some very exciting variations. You can now play with shadows using parallax layouts and grids to achieve depth and create the illusion of the new world behind the screen.

2. Somewhere over the rainbow

Probably every person alive dreams of going over the rainbow, but not many of the web designs have the means to take them there. It is an unwritten rule that you need to stick with ‛safe’ colors, but computer monitors and screens of other devices have technologically advanced and have become able to reproduce richer colors. Every experienced and innovative SEO Agency will emphasize the importance of being courageous with your colors – combining vibrant shades and supersaturation with reimagined headers (some hard angles and slashes) will instantly attract your visitors’ eye and make them want to explore the world on the other side of the rainbow.

3. Lightweight eye candy

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It has been proven that videos are real eye candy for your visitors, but some websites have performance issues that don’t allow them to have a video background.  There is a simple solution for this problem all you have to do is to make your images move using lightweight JavaScript animations called particle backgrounds. They are made in a way that the movement is a natural part of the background, so the loading time is a piece of cake. If it sounds too good to be true, just look at the impact that similar motion graphics have on social media.

4. Personality & Character

Using motion graphic techniques mentioned above can sometimes seem automated and not live enough, so you might want to spice up things a little bit by adding some personality and character. One of the best ways to bring your site to life is to give it a unique visual voice through custom illustrations. If you find the right artist for the job, he could tailor his art to your brand, giving it personality in a playful manner. No matter what your brand identity is, there is certainly an illustration out there that is a perfect match. People like fun stuff, and if your business is in a more serious sector, these illustrations will make it more approachable to your customers.

5. Every language needs the right letters

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The textual content on your site is not there just to provide all the necessary information, but it can also be a powerful visual tool. Typography can be of great assistance in setting the tone of your website as it can build your personality and evoke emotions. There is a great opportunity to use custom fonts now that screen resolutions have become much sharper and easier to read. Big & bold is back in fashion, and if you combine it with serif and sans serif headings, it is the thing that will make your visitors keep reading.

6. Take it apart

The key to attract your customers is to try to give them an active role, and for that, you need to have interactive content. People have always loved solving puzzles and looking for clues. This tendency was recognized already at the beginning of 2017 when unconventional asymmetrical layouts were introduced. This technique of broken layouts is going to be even stronger in 2018 since it has been proven that this design can produce quite balancing layouts. So by breaking it apart, you will be able to create a beautiful balance that is distinctive and unique.

7. Take it with you

And in the end, the thing that probably everyone has been expecting – mobile browsing. There probably isn’t a single person who doesn’t at least occasionally shop on his smartphone, and this browsing has now officially surpassed desktop. There were some issues in the past, like how to create decent menus and submenus on a small screen, but now mobile design is fully mature and large number of users have already adopted it. You might not be able to enjoy the full resolution of high-quality pictures, but it certainly saves space and time with every step.

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If you look at this upcoming trends, you’ll see that these are just improvements in the communication. They will allow you to pull the customers to your world, to bribe them with the explosion of colors and to create illusions with a personal touch. These are not rules, but elements of the interactive playground where you’ll be able to fulfill everyone’s deepest desires.

Web Design Vancouver BC

Hurricane Web Design Vancouver
#1002 – 1831 Robson Street
Vancouver, BC V6G 1E4
(604) 256-7081