Rethink your Website User Experience (UX) to Get More Clients

On average, you have about 15 seconds to capture the attention of a new visitor on your website. It is, therefore, essential to create an optimal user experience (UX) if you want a website that converts. Website conversion can include prospects subscribing for a special offer, signing up for an email list, making a purchase, or becoming a new client. 

Rethink your Website User Experience (UX) to Get More Clients

User Experience (UX) design is a crucial aspect of creating products that are both functional and enjoyable for users. It encompasses a broad range of disciplines, including user research, usability testing, and human-centered design. By focusing on the end user’s interaction with a product, UX design aims to create seamless and intuitive experiences that meet users’ needs and expectations. In this section, we will explore the world of UX design, its importance, and the key principles that guide it.

What is User Experience (UX) Design?

User Experience (UX) design is a field that focuses on creating products that provide the best possible experience for users. It involves understanding the end user’s interaction with a product, service, or brand, and designing solutions that meet their needs and expectations. UX design is a holistic approach that considers the entire ecosystem of users’ interactions, emotions, and behaviors across all touchpoints with the product, service, or brand. By prioritizing the user’s experience, UX design ensures that every aspect of the product is tailored to enhance usability and satisfaction.

The Importance of UX Design

UX design is essential for creating products that are user-friendly, efficient, and enjoyable. It helps to improve customer satisfaction, increase user engagement, and drive business success. By understanding the user’s experience, UX designers can identify pain points and opportunities for improvement, and design solutions that meet the user’s needs. Good UX design can also help to differentiate a product or service from its competitors and establish a brand’s reputation for quality and user-centeredness. In today’s competitive market, investing in UX design is not just an option but a necessity for businesses aiming to thrive.

User Interface (UI) and UX

User Interface (UI) and UX are often used interchangeably, but they are not the same thing. UI refers to the visual elements of a product, such as buttons, icons, and typography, while UX encompasses the entire experience of using a product, including the UI. UX designers focus on creating a seamless and intuitive experience for the user, while UI designers focus on the visual aspects of the product. However, the two disciplines are closely related, and a good UX designer will also consider the UI as part of the overall user experience. By integrating both UI and UX, designers can create interactive systems that are visually appealing and easy to use.

Key Principles of UX Design

There are several key principles of UX design that guide the design process. These include:

  • User-centered design: The design process should be centered around the needs and goals of the user.

  • Empathy: UX designers should strive to understand the user’s perspective and emotions.

  • Usability: The product should be easy to use and navigate.

  • Accessibility: The product should be accessible to all users, regardless of their abilities.

  • Consistency: The product should have a consistent design language and behavior.

  • Feedback: The product should provide clear and timely feedback to the user.

  • Iterative design: The design process should be iterative, with continuous testing and refinement.

By following these principles, UX designers can create products that are both functional and enjoyable for users, and that meet the business goals of the organization. These principles ensure that the user’s experience is at the forefront of the design process, leading to higher customer satisfaction and successful human system interaction.

Below are essential tips for making a great first impression on your website to build trust and increase your conversion rates and overall client base.

Simple Navigation

Have you ever been to the Cheesecake factory? Their menu is 21 pages long and has over 200 items! How easy do you think it is to make a decision with that many choices?  Offering too many options can paralyze your potential customers. Psychologist, Barry Schwartz, has coined this as choice paralysis. Indecision can lead to feeling stuck, stagnant, or frustrated and that is not the type of customer experience that converts to new business. Check out Barry Schwartz’s Ted talk around the paradox of choice. 

Customers are more likely to take action when they have less choices

It’s important to decide on the most critical items for your navigation bar and avoid too many drop down options. The simpler, the better. What is the purpose of your website and what are visitors looking for? Highlight what is most relevant to the client’s needs in your navigation. 

Trust Building Visuals

With so much competition in today’s market, it’s critical to stand out. If your website isn’t visually appealing, you’ll instantly lose website visitors. Overused and generic stock images and videos will not cut it. Show your brand and your unique personality and positioning through original, high quality images and videos.  A study by High Rise, showed that adding a photo of a happy woman increased conversion rates by a whopping 102%. What emotions do you want your customers to feel? Let that be expressed through your images, video, and design. Can your customers relate to the images? Can they see themselves or what they want within the images? Remember to also ensure the images display properly across all user platforms including mobile use.  

Content Strategy

One strategy to attract prospects is using search engine optimization (SEO) which involves incorporating keywords and phrases into your content to improve your ranking on search engines. While this is a key strategy in driving traffic to your website, it is also important to ensure the content itself is of a high enough caliber to convert prospects into new customers.  The website content should be designed for the customer, by the customer. One important and easy way to ensure your content will convert clients is to start with gathering research and feedback around the client needs and user experience.

What are your client’s feelings, needs, struggles or barriers? Don’t just guess what they need. Instead, call clients and ask for feedback or send out a survey. Don’t skip this step as it’s important your client’s voice is reflected in your content. Next, let’s explore headlines. Since they are often what first catches a reader’s eye, they need to be engaging and speak to your audience. It’s worth your time investment to research, test, and craft appealing headlines (and content) that appeals to your audience.

There are also several headline analyzers out in the market that score the effectiveness of a headline as well like Sharethrough and CoSchedule. Another content strategy that is highly effective is storytelling. Think about how you can showcase your employees or customer stories in a way that would appeal to your wider audience. Perhaps an employee story can illustrate the evolution and growth of your business, or a customer story can show how your product or service solved a problem or changed their life in a positive way.  

Testimonials

Testimonials are an easy and effective way to build trust and credibility and should not be overlooked. In a survey conducted by Dimensional Research, 90% of customers reported that reading testimonials positively influenced their decision to make a purchase. Try getting video testimonials or add a photo of the customer providing the review to add even more validity. 

Call to Action (CTA)

Lastly, do you have a call to action on each page of your website? Beyond simply adding a call to action button, and perhaps experimenting with the colors to draw attention, you’ll also want to think about the user experience. How much information must a customer gather before they are ready to take action? Make it easy for a client to learn more or make a purchase by incorporating a button, pop up or link into your content. 

Rethink your Website User Experience (UX) to Get More Clients

We hope this content was valuable. If you’d like additional support on getting more clients, please contact the Coastal Web team for a free website analysis.