Maybe you were greeted by an ugly layout and a bunch of ads. Maybe things were all over the place, so it was hard to figure out where to start. Maybe the interface was confusing, and you didn’t know where to click. If this sounds like something that’s happened to you before, then you’ve had a bad user experience (UX).

Since the dawn of time, developers have agreed upon one thing: a website without a good user experience is an abomination.

In this article, we will look at what user experience is, why it’s important and how you can improve your own site’s user experience. This article provides you with a framework for better serving your audience through UX.

What is user experience (UX)?

User experience (UX) is a term used to describe the totality of a user’s experience when interacting with your website or app. Designing good UX is core to any business website and is the quickest way to spot a bad design. Let’s take a look at what user experience is and why it’s crucial for you as a marketer.

Why is user experience important for business?

A good user experience is important for business for various reasons. If you don’t provide your users with a great experience, they will leave and never come back. Take a look at these benefits:

• It improves customer experience
• It increases revenue
• It lowers support costs
• It builds your brand
• It saves time and energy
• It improves customer retention
• It improves customer loyalty

User experience principles

User experience (UX) is about a lot more than pretty pictures. In fact, UX design is not any one aspect of design or even design as a whole. Rather, it’s the entirety of what a user experiences from the second they begin looking for your website until long after the transaction has ended.

Before you start your UX design, there are a few things that you should consider. These things include goals, users, and the audience you will be targeting. Take a look at these principles to guide you.

The design should meet the users’ needs

User experience (UX) is all about the user. It means anticipating, understanding, and fulfilling users’ needs. The strategy behind UX is going to change over time, but the objective of UX will always be the same: satisfy users in the best way possible.

Have a clear hierarchy of content

Your goal is for users to find what they’re looking for without having to think too much about it. How do you do this? By creating a clear hierarchy among different types of content using things like font size, color, and spacing between elements.

Keep the design consistent

Consistency helps us feel comfortable interacting with a product or interface because it’s familiar to us.

Understand accessibility

When your site follows accessibility standards, it becomes more usable for everyone. This means the site is more accessible to people of all ages, browsers, and devices—including those with accessibility issues.

The user’s context is key

Always keep in mind your user’s context: How are they using your site? What do they want from it? Are they using a phone or a desktop?

Once you understand the context of your users, you’ll be able to design an interface that meets their needs and allows them to accomplish what they want. 

Usability first

This factor makes sure people enjoy using your product or service while also ensuring they’ll come back for more!

Less is more

When you have fewer things to look at, it makes it easier for people to process what they’re seeing and get their bearings.

Think about it this way: if I asked you to remember five different things and then repeat them back to me in a minute, it’d be pretty tough. But if I asked you to repeat back just one thing, you’d have no problem.

The same concept applies to UX design: the less there is on a page, the easier it’ll be for people to find what they came looking for—and that means they’ll have a better experience overall.

Use the simplest language

This might be obvious but a good UX design is written in plain English. It’s clear and concise, so there’s no room for confusion.

Typography is powerful

Always choose the best font for your audience—not just for your brand.

Ask for feedback

UX designers need to know if something isn’t working right, so they can fix it as soon as possible. A good user experience includes prompting users to provide feedback so that they can improve their products and services over time.

Design with personality

Personality makes people feel connected to a brand or product—it’s what draws them in! Good UX design incorporates a human tone, which helps users connect with what they’re reading on an emotional level and get invested in what they’re doing online.

Final Thoughts

UX boils down to how a person feels about using a particular product. If a product is easy to use and intuitive, then it’s considered to have a good UX. 

The challenge here is that it’s up to users to determine whether or not a product has good UX. Users will have different preferences for what makes for a good UX. That’s why it’s so important to test a product before it goes into development and after it has been released.

Building a successful website or mobile application is all about understanding and meeting the needs of your audience. Without a great User Experience (UX), you will likely fall short of this goal. A good user experience means you make your customers’ life easier, or at least more interesting—and encourage them to come back again and again.