UX is a buzzword in the current era. Before we come to explaining its importance, let’s understand the meaning of this term.
What is UX?
UX stands for user experience. It is nothing but human interaction with systems. It refers to how easy or pleasing the system is to use. It can be anything from a website to mobile apps, involving human interaction, behavior, satisfaction, actions, etc. UX, therefore, measures the quality of user interaction. It is the experience, emotion, and connection that users feel while using a website or digital product.
Importance of UX design
User experience is essential because it aims to offer positive experiences that keep users loyal to the product or brand. User experience is subjective and is different for everyone. To ensure a great user experience, you have to consider the requirements of users. Talk to them, watch them use your products, and pay attention.
It doesn’t matter how attractive your site is until people can’t interact it with properly. Neglecting UX design can result in a poor user experience, which can make people go away from your brand.
UX design is important for startups, as well as small businesses as their site or mobile app, is their first impression to users. This decides their future traffic and sales of their products. Users decide in just a few seconds whether they like your website or mobile app. 88% of online consumers are less likely to return to a site after a bad experience.
Therefore, think about what kind of experience you want your users to have, whether normal, incredible, surprising, or emotional. Do testing before you launch. Is the actual experience the same as you expected? Try to know what users feel about your website or mobile app and what their experience is.
A UX designer has to do research, create personas, design wireframes and prototypes, and test designs. They have to keep users’ needs at the center of all their design and development efforts.
- They have to understand the context of the use
- Before designing, they specify users’ requirements
- They then design solutions
- Once the design is ready, they evaluate that against requirements
Research is important about the latest trends and what users like. You can monitor and record user behavior to gain an in-depth understanding of what customers do on your site to improve UX. By knowing what users are doing on your site will help to identify ideal areas for further development.
A UX professional should be aware of how most people use products and systems. Usability is important when designing digital products. The interaction design should be easy on the eyes and a pleasure to use. By using various colors, fonts, and shapes, UX designers can build a soothing environment that increases enjoyment and the chances of conversion.
If you design a website or mobile app that is hard to use and doesn’t help your visitors fulfill their goals, they will feel frustrated and angry. UX is all about creating a digital interface that works the way your visitors expect. The interactions have to be intuitive and well-designed that give delight to users. They should touch, read, scroll, and interact with the digital product until the conversion doesn’t happen. Your UX design has to be such that it keeps your visitors coming back to you repeatedly.
UX is important because:
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Loyalty:
It ensures customer loyalty. If your visitors have a horrible experience with you, they won’t return to you. A potential customer would probably go to your competitors. If your competitors have a good UX design, that lead will be gone forever. Even if you have a very good design, but an unpleasant UX, it will draw visitors away from you.
On the other hand, if your website or mobile app is attractive and wows the audience in the UX aspect, your visitors will become your customers and stick to you, exhibiting loyalty and ensuring long-term business success.
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ROI and Conversion rates:
When your customers have a good user experience, your rate of return will increase too. Improved UX can shorten the time from lead to sale. This enhances the quality of your leads, as only those who are genuinely interested will proceed to conversion, and you will get more repeat business from happy and satisfied customers. Many websites have a complicated design that may look good but drive away potential customers as humans are impatient. A good UX design means more conversions.
Conversion rate is important to track to know how many leads were converted into actual customers and how effective your site or app’s UX is. In fact, companies with highly effective UX have increased their revenue by 37%
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Efficiency:
When your UX design is good, visitors can easily find what they are looking for on your app or site, leading to fewer mistakes.
If your UX is smooth, it will help in increasing the efficiency of employees who are using your mobile app.
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Customer satisfaction:
Website visitors will appreciate you for being able to navigate through the site smoothly. When your mobile app offers solutions that are intuitive and fast, there will be customer satisfaction.
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Search engine rankings:
Google has also indicated that UX is one of the most important factors in search engine rankings. It uses analytics data like dwell time which is time spent reading a page and navigation behaviors to determine how user-friendly and well-designed your website is.
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Credibility:
A good UX design helps in building credibility too. You have to reinforce your brand’s credibility through your content that shows your expertise. A good UX will help people in finding content and engaging with it.
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Word of mouth referrals:
Word of mouth is a great marketing tool. People spread the word of a brand if they have a good experience. So, if you have a good UX design, you will have a great chance for word of mouth referrals. This is especially true on social media.
It becomes important for businesses to design a website that users love. Create a buyer persona, which is a replica of your ideal customer. The persona has demographics information, role and responsibilities, likes and dislikes, etc. of users. With this information, you can be prepared to create a website or app that is not only user-friendly but also fun to use.
Every element of your digital product has to be created with user interaction in mind. Visitors to your website and your app users should be able to find what they want to in a couple of seconds.
All your interactive elements, including your buttons, swipe buttons, etc. should have apt colors to stand out and should be made large enough to be used on even tiny screens. If visitors don’t like your interactive elements, your UX will be affected.
To give your UX a boost, your call-to-action should be visible with bright colors and above the fold, to make it easily viewable and clickable.
To optimize websites or apps from a UX perspective, you should:
- Reduce the number of steps that need to be taken. The major goal of the apps or websites is to make easy interaction and enhance conversions. This can be anything from buying products online or booking tickets.
- Keep things intuitive to minimize the risk of users becoming frustrated when they are on your site or app, trying to complete their tasks.
Conclusion
By providing a good user experience, you not only increase the probability of increasing your conversions but also change lives. By making your interactions intuitive and simple, you are making end-users’ lives easier. If your products can help users solve their problems and complete their tasks quickly, it will leave a lasting impression on the minds of consumers and result in word of mouth marketing.
UX, therefore, plays a crucial role to grab the attention of users and enhance business revenues. Without applying UX design, you can lose customers. A good UX design will increase customer satisfaction and boost sales. You will not only be able to enhance your sales but by providing an engaging experience to your users, you will make them keep coming back.
The process is never-ending; you have to keep your UX optimization ongoing so that you can remain ahead in this competitive market and maintain customer satisfaction.
MintTM has expertise in website development and mobile app development, focusing on the UX design to provide an intuitive user experience. Get in touch with us through sales@minttm.com to know more about our services.