Contrary to the common wisdom “don’t judge a book by its cover”, we all subconsciously do it when browsing the internet. Whenever I’m shopping online, I almost never buy from a website that has terrible UX. I know it’s irrational, but a horribly designed website makes me assume that the business is dodgy, untrustworthy, and illegitimate. A website often forms a business’ first impression. If they don’t put effort into making their website look great, why should I believe that I’ll have a positive experience with them?
That’s why it’s important to make sure your website has killer UX. In other words, to convince a visitor to stay on longer and ultimately become a customer, it has to look good, be effortless to navigate, and communicate what your brand is about within seconds of browsing.
No pressure, right?
My experience with creating websites (for myself and a local cupcake shop) has taught me that keeping visitors scrolling is largely about the visual design and copy. Fortunately, there are a few simple tips that if implemented, can dramatically improve your UX.
Optimize the visual design by:
Incorporating white space (aka. Negative space)
Making it usable on mobile screens
Optimize web-copy by:
Making it skimmable
Using clear call-to-action (CTA) buttons
The visual design
White/negative space is your best friend
White or negative space is all the blank spaces on your webpage. You want heaps of it. A page tightly full of images and text will make the site overwhelming to the visitor’s eyes. Compare the two examples here, one with heaps of white space and the other with none.
White space doesn’t have to literally be white — any blank areas on a page is considered white space. Notice your eye’s preference to scroll through the website on the left rather than the one on the right. This is because the left website has plenty of white space that allows the visitor’s eyes to breathe, also resulting in a clean and professional appearance. The spaciousness also accentuates the image and headline, which helps convey a single idea clearly.
Whereas, the website on the right feels clunky, leaving you overwhelmed by the text and images in front of you. This results in an internal judgement call that the business represented is sales-y, outdated and unprofessional, making you less likely to respond to any CTA on their homepage.
How to effectively incorporate white space:
Have one main image or CTA button per section of a page.
Space out distinct elements of your website, such as each page in the menu.
Use an appropriate line and letter spacing to avoid cluttered text.
Optimize your site for mobile screens
About 70% of website visits happen on phones. This means that if you aren’t making your website look great on a mobile screen, you are losing out on heaps of conversions. The UX of a bad mobile view is too much effort to deal with for most visitors, likely causing them to bounce off your website within seconds of landing.
Tips on creating a mobile-friendly website:
Modify your original design to fit the smaller margins of a mobile screen, in both vertical and landscape view.
Make the font size large enough to read without having to zoom in.
Position buttons and links on the page in a way that is easy to click.
The copy
Make it skimmable
No matter how beautiful your copy is, if it’s in lengthy paragraphs, visitors won’t bother to read it, so you might as well have not written it in the first place. By making your copy skimmable, a visitor can grasp the general idea and determine if they are interested in what you have to say, without reading every word. If they want a deeper understanding of your message, they can spend more time carefully reading the copy.
How to make web-copy skimmable:
Break up copy into small, digestible paragraphs and use sub-headings that encapsulate main ideas.
Use bullet lists and visuals (like images, diagrams and tables) to communicate your message where possible.
Highlight, bold, underline, or italicise notable words and phrases
Use short, sharp, clear sentences. Clarity > cleverness
Use a legible font style and size.
Avoid text that runs across the entire width of a page.
Have clear call-to-action (CTA) buttons
The purpose of your website is to get visitors to take some sort of action, usually to click a button that takes them down the sales funnel. The hard part of the sales process is convincing your visitor whatever happens after clicking the button will benefit them. However, even if you’ve successfully sold them on your product or service, you could still lose the sale if you make it difficult for them to figure out what to do next!
To make it easy for visitors to click the CTA button;
Place the same button in multiple places,
In the above-the-fold section,
At the bottom of the page,
And in places where visitors are inclined to take action. Eg. next to the section where you’ve explained the benefits of the product.
To conclude
Framing your brand in a positive light and getting conversions starts with a great website UX. When creating your website, aim to make it look pretty, appear professional, easy to navigate, and clearly communicate your message within seconds of browsing.
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