To say that user experience (often abbreviated as UX) plays a significant role in web design is a bit of an understatement. Some people – mostly those far removed from the web design industry – believe that web design is mostly concerned with aesthetics or decoration. In other words, a web designer is somebody who makes sure your favorite websites look pretty.
Nothing can be further from the truth. While making website design aesthetically pleasing certainly counts among the responsibilities of a web designer, it is by no means the primary concern of the industry. First and foremost, a website should be convenient and comfortable to use. A well-designed website may not necessarily have jaw-dropping visuals; on the contrary, it can be argued that the best design is the one visitors do not notice at all.
That said, it can be hard to put one’s finger on why exactly UX is so important in web design – and this article intends to clarify this question.
What Is User Experience?
First of all, let’s get this question out of the way. What exactly is user experience? How is it defined? What distinguishes good UX from a bad one?
Boiled down to one sentence, UX is the sum of impressions something (a website in this case) makes upon the person who uses it. There is a lot more to this phrase than one may seem. A well-designed website should be not just aesthetically pleasing (although it makes for a good first impression), but also fast, intuitive to navigate, easy to use, informative, and good at performing whatever function it is supposed to perform.
If it represents a service that provides online Python programming training, it should offer clear information on the courses it offers, who its instructors are, and what methods they use. In addition, it should give an easy way to get help if you have any questions concerning the services it provides. It should load fast because some of its visitors may have a slow Internet connection. It should look well no matter what device they use to browse it. And these are just some of the concerns a web designer has to deal with.
Good User Experience Improves Conversion Rate
The eventual goal of any website and of everything the website contains is to persuade the visitor to convert: to buy something, to subscribe to a mailing list, to follow an account on social media.
All the writing, all the images, all the color combinations work towards this goal. Numerous studies show that they do their job.
People tend to distrust websites whose design looks too cheap and avoid dealing with them, but making premium-looking websites can easily scare off those who are afraid of high prices. According to different studies, more than half of Internet users leave a website if it does not load within 3 seconds. A visitor can decide whether to buy from a website based on something seemingly as irrelevant as its color palette. In other words, the better a website is designed, the more likely its visitors are to convert.
Good User Experience Improves SEO Rankings
One of the most common ways people find websites they are not familiar with yet is Google and other search engines.
It is only natural for business owners to want their websites to appear at the top of search results – you do not need to have an MBA to see that it brings you clients.
Well, good user experience is one of the factors that search engines take into account when determining the ranking of this or that web resource. Again, the better the UX is, the more traffic the website gets, the higher is the number of potential clients.
Good User Experience Is a Foundation of Credibility
People tend to distrust businesses and other organizations that have poorly designed websites.
“If they cannot be bothered to make their website usable for me, I am going to take my business elsewhere”
– this is how they usually motivate this decision.
It is only natural, especially when money is involved. Are you going to entrust your money to a company that has an ugly-looking, hard-to-navigate, buggy website with content created by a third-rate writer? Certainly not until they do their homework and put some effort into presenting themselves properly.
BadHTML.com – probably the ugliest website on the Internet
Good User Experience Saves Time and Money
A badly designed website either will go out of business or be redesigned. Understanding the principles of good UX ensures that it will be usable the way it is created, that it will not require further activities to make it work other than day-to-day management and maintenance.
Good User Experience Helps Businesses Retain Their Customers
Creating UX that makes users come back and removes any potential difficulties of dealing with a website may be a tough assignment, but it is exactly what most businesses and other clients of web designers want.
Even if a person needs to use a particular website, if the process of doing so is inconvenient and requires a lot of effort, he/she is likely to look for an easier-to-use alternative the next time he/she needs it.
You Should Approach Taking up Web Design Carefully
Many students decide to choose a career in web design because they are fascinated by the freedom and flexibility it gives to their artistic expression.
However, it would be a mistake to put too much focus on the artistic aspects of this job, or you may be deeply disappointed when you see what your coursework consists of. While you can look for some UX design assignment help to get yourself through a college course, you will still have to deal with the technical aspects of this career later.
Therefore, you should be sure you not only know what colors work together and how to best use negative space but also how to organize a website’s navigation panel so that it feels natural, what pages should be interlinked, and what kind of landing pages you should use to maximize conversion.