The TIG Blog

26 April, 2018

4 UX Best Practices for Your Site

Learn How you can Improve your Site's User Experience with these 4 UX Best Practices

Creating a positive user experience is more than just creating visually attractive designs and elements, it encompasses the entire user’s journey. From the moment they enter your site to the moment they leave, you want to ensure the user has a smooth and engaging user experience. From responsive design, to efficient loading times, to intuitive and balanced features – your website should be designed to work seamlessly.

Here are 4 simple ways to improve your site’s UX:

Responsive Design to Improve Your Site's UX

1. Responsive Design, Responsive Design, Responsive Design!

Nothing frustrates a user more than going on a non-responsive site. Nowadays, users have higher expectations when it comes to website performance. They no longer must rely solely on one site, since they have a wider option of obtaining what they want from other sources. This means that they are more likely to leave a site if they have a negative UX. Creating a responsive site that is mobile, tablet and desktop friendly gives the users multiple opportunities to have a positive user experience.

Not only is it important to have a responsive site for your users, but also for your Google Ranking. Google has begun penalizing websites that aren’t optimized for mobile, making responsiveness even more necessary for your site. Most CRM softwares now have responsive templates built-in, and for the most part, they do a great job at resizing your content to fit the appropriate screens. If you are hand-coding your site, however, a possible tool you could use in your CSS is Flexbox. Flexible box layout (Flexbox) containers can be very useful in creating responsive content for dynamic layouts and webapps.

Call to Action UX Best practices

2. Clear Call to Actions

Whether your site is focused around eCommerce, blogs or even showcasing your portfolio, the goal is to incite your users to perform a certain action. Call to actions can range in colors and designs; however, keep in mind that some designs and colors can elicit different responses from the users. A red call to action button may invoke passion, excitement, and urgency, so if your goal is for your customers to take urgent action on your product, this would be a great color to use. Whereas black call to action buttons tend to blend in with your site and give the illusion that you are not trying to get the user’s attention.

Another important factor when it comes to call to actions is that less is more. If you have one main goal for your users, then place a clear, bold call to action button on your site. For instance, if you want your users to add a product to your basket, eliminate any other competing buttons near the main call to action. If you do need a supporting call to action, then make sure it does not compete with the main button. This could be done by using less saturated colors (greys are commonly used in these cases), thinner fonts, and overall smaller button size. The main goal is to direct the user’s eye to that main action, so as long as you keep your design precise and clutter-free, then the user will be more inclined to follow the path you have laid out for them.

Website Speed Icon UX Best Practices

3. The Faster, the Better!

Page load speed is one of the most important aspects of creating a positive user experience. Many users want to be able to access your site ASAP, so having a slow page speed will just increase your bounce rate. A good rule of thumb is to keep your page load speed under 3 seconds. There are many free tools that allow you to check your page load speed, such as Google’s Page Speed Insights and Pingdom. If you find that your website falls above the 3 second mark, try optimizing your images. This can greatly decrease your page load speed.

White Space Icon

4. Negative Space leads to a Positive User Experience!

Designers have a tendency to fill in any negative space (also known as white space) they see with some kind of image, icon or text. This can be the appropriate approach in some cases; however, studies have shown that using white space in between paragraphs and throughout your page can increase the user’s understanding by as much as 20 percent! Keep in mind though that white space can take up valuable real estate on your site. For instance, the most valuable real estate of websites tend to be “above the fold” (the part of the screen that is visible before you scroll), so it may not be the best choice to include too much white space in this area, especially if it is replacing important content. Nevertheless, if you are able to find a proper balance, negative space can positively influence your user’s experience with your site.

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