How Important is Website Design for User Experience?
What sets 1st on the List apart from other SEO and Digital Marketing organizations is their ability to provide foremost, a results-driven experience which ensures a high conversion percentage rate. Companies require objectives to meet, with regards to their online content. Objectives such as generating profit from their products and services, subscriptions, and creating an account ensures a large traffic –> conversion ratio. 1st on the List are here to provide the necessary tools organizations need to produce comprehensive quality content, with the following information the perfect starting point for your needs.
What is Conversion Rate Optimization?
According to Saleh et al, Conversion Rate Optimization is “the percentage of visitors exposed to a campaign who take the desired action of that campaign” (Conversion of Optimization: the art and Science of converting prospects to customers, 2010, pp.10).
Some examples of conversions include;
- purchasing a product from a website,
- requesting a quote,
- subscribing to a service.
While at the micro-level, this can be extended to;
- signing up for email lists,
- creating an account,
- specific page views,
- adding a product to the cart.
The conversion rate on a given website charts how much financial revenue the organization is generating online, with the following stakeholders seeking business online:
Brand: Franchises such as the food, clothing, and electronics industries benefit from having CRO to help understand their customers better; their preferences and needs, in order to effectively market to them.
Content-Based: News websites and blogs are two examples of content-based websites, and each generate revenue from; selling advertising spaces to organizations, via e-commerce (receiving direct profits from the sale of products/services on the website), and affiliate marketing, which involves promoting a product/service for a merchant, and receiving a portion of the revenue if the site leads to a sale.
Why is Conversion Rate Optimization Important?
We’ve mentioned that CRO is the ratio of site users to the percentage of those who take the intended action (purchases, etc). The benefits of CRO are endless, with the main objective to learn about potential clients, in order to ensure they become satisfied consumers.
Ecommerce Training Academy suggests the implementation of testing, which charts how users interact with a website, their preferences and turn-offs, and builds personas within it that allow for a greater marketing technique variant.
Benefits of CRO include the following:
Increasing Website Profits: When even a 1% profit increase is significant, then you know you’re on the right financial track. CRO ensures all profits go directly to your organization not the advertisers. Let’s take a look at some figures;
- For every 100 users visiting a website, 5% purchase an item for $10 from the product page at a cost of $5.
- Cost of sales for 5% = $25, Gross Sales = $50.
- Therefore, Profit is $25.
With a Conversion Rate increase, profits can double instantly leaving a healthy balance for other endeavours such as social media marketing campaigns.
Furthermore, Google will continue to send customers back to a website that generates continuous revenue.
Why is it Important to be User-Friendly?
First thoughts when it comes to this is accessibility – the ease with which it is to navigate through a website.
Blogger Courtney Boyer cites the importance of “user experience” in her article “Why is it Important to have a user-friendly website” as “the feeling that a website was solely designed for its customers” (Boyer, 2018).
SOASTA’S 2013 Website and Mobile App Survey showed users in the U.S. that had a negative reaction to a poorly-performing website would either visit a competitor’s website, lose trust in the existing website, refrain from using it again, and even suggest the site was being hacked.
So what tools does a website require in order to be “user friendly?”
Speed
Several tech publications cite “4-6 seconds” as optimal loading time, but in a day and age where a 15 second Tik Tok is deemed “too slow,” the preferred loading time is closer to 1-3 seconds.
Aesthetics
A balance of text and appropriately-placed visuals makes it easy for the user to navigate through their needs and find access to what appeals to them.
Mobile Platform
Apps are more efficient than websites according to Deshdeep in his article, “App or Website? 10 Reasons why Apps are better” (2020) therefore organizations would benefit from utilizing newer forms of technology.
Traits companies should look to evolve with include the following;
Improved Personalization
Offering users a chance to enter their personal details, preferences, location, and usage behaviour is an astute marketing strategy to gaining personal information without the need for market research.
Mobile App Notifications
Push Notifications are sent no matter what the user is doing on their phone while In-App Notifications are sent only when an App is opened. This enables the user to choose how and when they receive messages regarding a product or service.
In-App Features
As mentioned earlier, efficiency is the reason for the development of the App, and such features like phone calls, GPS Location, and camera allow the user to save time and headaches.
Design
Rather than wait the “suggested” time of 4-6 seconds for a website to refresh, the option to choose between; tap, swipe, drag, pinch, hold, etc not only efficiency, but also improved functionality.
App – Website Ratio
According to Flurry Analytics (2020), mobile users spend 86% of their time on Apps, and 14% on mobile websites.
How being User-Friendly helps Conversion Rates?
Now that we’ve established what Conversion Rate Optimization is, and why it’s important – as well as the importance of having user-friendly systems, let’s look at how the user-friendly systems help conversion rates grow.
Self-professed “Information Architect” Peter Norvile strategically designed a seven hexagon “User Experience Honeycomb” Diagram to help understand clients how to define priorities when it comes not only to the usability of a website, but also the accessibility and credibility.
Norville’s Honeycomb outlined each user experience feature as follows:
Useful
Simply put; are the product/service, and website useful and with that; the more useful, the better the experience. The better the experience, the more chance the customer will purchase, or return to purchase.
Usable
How easy is the website to navigate? The less complex provides fewer headaches for the user, and is necessary according to Norville, but not sufficient.
Desirable
Norville cites image, identity, brand, and emotional design as factors of efficiency.
Emotional Design: In his article, Emotional Design: Why We Love (Or Hate) Everyday Things (Norman, 2003) author Don Norman cites emotional design as, “our willingness to spend thousands of dollars on Gucci bags and Rolex watches” (pp.1).
Findable
The ability to create a website that allows the user to find what they want with efficient navigability.
Accessible
Ethics play a large part in accessibility, with the thought process behind this being the marketing toward people with disabilities.
Web Accessibility: Web Accessibility, as defined by Mullin in his article, “The Optimizer’s Guide to Web Accessibility” (Mullin, 2017) is, “the practice of removing barriers that prevent people with disabilities from accessing and interacting with sites.
This is important, because, as the author notes, “56.7 million people (19% of the population) had a disability in 2010)” (Mullin, 2017).
Credible
Credibility is key if users are to trust the website, and suggest it to other parties. Earned Credibility is what organizations should strive for as this revolves around ‘personal experience,’ such as satisfactory customer service, and authenticity. If you trust a website, you’re more likely to submit your credit card details.
Valuable
Profit-seeking websites are to ensure customer satisfaction and provide exactly what they said they would. For non-profit, the user experience is to “advance the mission,” which means to provide a donation to a legitimate cause, using three separate donation pages (general, campaign, and instant). This makes it easier for the user to choose where their allegiances lie.
Norville’s ‘Hexagon’ is a great starting point from which to grow further analyses based around human condition, the Psychology of the brain, and the appeal and hindrances of websites. Furthermore, Patel’s article, “How to Increase your Conversion Rate with Intuitive Website Design” (2020) goes further in-depth to understanding users and catering to them.
What is Customer Base?
What is customer base, and why is it important? Well, the Business Dictionary definition of ‘customer base’ is listed as the group of customers who repeatedly purchase the goods or services of a business, and it serves three functions; to differentiate between recurring revenue, loyal customers, and general customers.
Recurring Revenue: A service that typically has recurring fees typically has recurring views its active subscribers as its customer base.
Loyal Customers: Customers who regularly make purchases.
General Customers: Unique customers who have made purchases over a period of time.
Source: Spacey, J. (2017) https://simplicable.com/new/customer-base
The Importance of Customer Base
Customer Base is pivotal for a company’s growth as it allows them to continually build and maintain relationships with clients, therefore understanding their behaviours, attitudes, and preferences in order to implement market strategies designed for their benefit in the short term, and the company’s in the long term.
In a cut-throat world influenced by an influx of media resources, short attention spans, and endless competition, organizations have to stay ahead of the game.
How to Stay One Step Ahead of the Rest
With increased competition must come savvy reminders of where the users’ loyalty lies – and, indeed, where the organizations loyalty lies.
Here’s how to regain and retain an attachment to a customer base:
Tools of Attachment:
What sounds like a bad B-movie is actually just a reminder that reinforcement can be made through social media and digital marketing, thus creating more of a personal identity for the brand.
Online Surveys and Competition Giveaways:
Let’s be honest, how many of us actually fill out a survey, or write an employee / organizational referral? Well, according to No Spam Surveys (Vision Critical, 2015) a stunning 72% of users claimed that surveys interfere with website experience. Furthermore, 52% said they’d not spend more than three minutes filling out a survey, while a whopping 80% said they’d abandoned a survey halfway through.
Therefore, the inclusion of an incentive, such as a competition giveaway, discount off a purchase, and special membership services hold a better chance of retaining users.
In his article, “7 Steps to Run a Social Media Contest that Converts Like Crazy” (Teo, 2018) the author suggests ways to appeal to users without causing distractions or stress, all the while making it appear a necessity to complete a survey or referral.
Email Marketing:
While emailing may seem outdated, bulk email marketing programs such as MailChimp do carry a modicum of success. Allowing for the inclusion of video, audio, testimonials, and other useful information MailChimp is basically the online version of a more efficient newsletter, and generated $400m revenue in 2019.
So, How Important is Website Design for User Experience?
The importance and benefits of website design for user experience cannot be stressed enough.
The knowledge of Customer Rate Optimization is the first step to determining how hard to push the content, design and overall layout of a website. Additionally, realizing why CRO is important will result in the increase of website revenue, and increased consumer awareness of a brand, product, or service.
Knowing what it is to be User-friendly and then utilizing user-friendly tools are the next approaches with regards to putting the pieces of the website into place, while recognizing the importance of Customer Base will provide the necessary tools to stay ahead of the competition, and remain the standard-bearer of the business industry.
What’s Next?
By now, you should have the tools to carry-out further research into YOUR needs and desires with regards to the look of YOUR website.
1st on the List can help implement those desires into a complete and thorough business plan that will put you one step ahead of the rest.
Increase your Conversion Rate with a Savvy, Structured Website Design
1st on the List are YOUR go-to SEO company and will put YOU number one. For more information: call 1-877-563-0459 or email us at [email protected].
