To begin with, it’s good to remember that UX, or “The user experience,” covers all aspects of end-user interaction with the company, its services, and its products.
The biggest reason for a UX designer to have a work of excellence is to meet the exact needs of the customer without confusion or bother. Then, and not least, comes the simplicity and elegance of creating products that people take pleasure in having and using. It is always good to reinforce that this is a work in also comes from a merger between several distinct disciplines including engineering, marketing, graphic design, industrial design and interface design.
Speaking of interface design (UI), let’s make clear a confusion that often happens between UX and UI. Let’s move the example to creating websites. The person who designs the site, the wireframes, the mockups and the visual part is an interface designer (UI). The person who thinks about the interactions, behavior and ease of use of the site is an experience designer (UX).
“You can not communicate. Every behavior is a kind of communication. Because behavior does not have a counterpart (there is no anti-behavior), it is not possible to communicate. “- Paul Watzlawick’s First Axiom of Communication
Clarifications made we move on to some UX tips for your website.
For website creation, several factors need to be thought about carefully, after all, everything you do can affect the conversions of your site and automatically the goals you want to achieve.
Let’s start with the homepage . In it you have to concentrate the essence of whatever happens. To ensure a good UX, be careful not to put everything on the homepage. It should guide your readers to what you have on your site.
Always keep in mind some rules:
- Keep the site simple, light and brief (no abuse on what is not needed by the user).
- The most important content, such as call to actions, should be placed at the beginning before scrolling the page is required.
- Always link the logo to homepage.
- Put the information you want to sell ahead and give your customers tips on what’s to come on the site.
In relation to navigation you have to be very aware and attentive to whatever the user does on your site. Your navigation icons should be clear, well positioned and the text should support them. Good navigation can influence conversions and the final purpose of the site.
The designer when designing the navigation areas should first plan the structure of the pages to be added. To create this structure one must start with the information architecture. You should know everything about the website to be able to create a correct hierarchy of more and less important content. The information architecture includes features, user needs, sitemap, tests and wireframes.
As designers we tend, sometimes, to want to overflow or to make a difference, or to delight the user. Pay attention to this impulse. The key here is to get the message across clearly and with little explanation. The user has to feel compelled to take that attitude on the site as if it were as natural as drinking water. So keep it simple without losing sight of innovation.
Another important tip is to always indicate where it is in navigation, be it by breadcrumbs, changes in background color or lines and arrows. It is important for the user to know where to be and how to navigate the various pages in a simple way.
As one of the main points of your site is to pass the information or sell the product simply and clearly, the icons you choose to identify actions in navigation should be objective. They help users navigate simply without even needing to read about the action. It also helps create a more creative design. They should be appealing, universal, readable, consistent, functional and complementary to the interface design.
All this is very important to create a good experience for the user, but something else that should not be forgotten and much less subjugated is the text. Nowadays storytelling is the soul of the business. You have to tell your story well and drive your consumer the desired actions. That’s why you must have heard the famous phrase “Content is King”. Despite the controversy on the subject, it is good to keep in mind that the content in this case is more than just text but a set of image, text and experience that leads to your product.
Another tip to finish is related to the use of typography. Pay attention to the public and the product and find a consistent typographic solution.
Pay attention to the use of titles, italics, underlines, and punctuation. Think about the associations that users already know and try to steer you on the right track.
One of the best techniques is to put yourself in the user’s shoes and figure out each step before even drawing a line from your site.
