Outsource2Us, located in Brisbane, shares our 5 tips for creating a positive website user experience.
1. Consider your average users’ needs
What device does your average user view your website on? How often do your users access your website? To create a positive user experience, you need to consider your average users’ needs. An example of this might be a small yoga studio looking to update their website and create a more streamlined user experience.
“…As a yoga instructor, I want to post my classes on an online calendar so that my clients can see what classes are available throughout the week”
And the corresponding client user story might be:
“…As a yoga client, I want to see my classes for the coming week so that I can pick a class and book a spot”
We know that the instructor needs an online calendar and the users need a website that has an easily accessible calendar to book or reserve a place in their desired class. All this information is vital to building a website’s long-term goals and zeroes in on the most important features first, reducing the possibility of a confusing design and unfocused website features later.
Boost your business with a search-friendly website – We can help!
2. Organise information into section
What set of numbers is easier to memorise? 0401566437 or 0401 988 754? If you found the second easier to memorise it is because the average person can only keep seven items (approximately) in their memory. Grouping text is used in UI to create readable forms and separate different sections to make the text readable and more retainable.
3. Contrast your elements
No one wants to be looking at a black and white website, even if it is well laid out. Adding different but complementary colours, shapes and even fonts is a great way to help users categorise what they are seeing. If you want to convey the title of your page, you might place your text in the centre of the webpage, increase the font size and format it with a bold colour to contrast the background.
Discover your business’s online strength – Contact us for a Digital Audit
4. Keep it simple and consistent
Especially with UI design elements (buttons, dropdown menus, search fields, toggles, message boxes) and your overall theme. It is important to create simple, repeatable patterns that users can understand. For example, if you have a button that diverts to another page when a user presses it, that user has learnt the pattern of pressing a button to obtain information. If you then have a button that is identical but doesn’t divert, the user may become confused by the lack of consistency.
5. Keep in mind scalability for the future
A good website needs to be looking to the future. Your content, user base and products may grow over time and a website built to be scalable over time has an advantage over others without. If your website is not built for growth over time, you will see new user needs that need to be addressed and your blog posts fill up space.
