Websites are the digital equivalent of a brick-and-mortar store. They help businesses tap into the innumerable markets that exist online.
So, it’s a simple decision for a business to have one.
But, just like physical stores, it does not create all websites equal.
Some display an immaculate understanding of online audiences and strike a chord with the customers they target.
On the flip side, many websites don’t bring any actual business value.
It’s tempting to single out bad visual design as the singular culprit here, but there’s more to the phenomenon than meets the eye.
On top of great visual design, websites need to facilitate a great user experience.
UI and UX – Discrete Entities That Are Part of a Shared Whole
People seldom refer to UI (User Interface) and UX (User Experience) as discrete entities and use the term UI/UX Design as if it is one thing.
That’s because designing a website is a collaborative endeavor. Great UX paves the way for great UI, and vice versa.
But, what’s the real distinction between the two?
Now, that’s a question that can simply be answered if we define both terms properly.
UI (User Interface) entails all the visuals that you see on a website. It envelops all elements of the ‘interface’ that you (the user) interact with.
UX (User Experience) is more about the emotional response you have while interacting with a website. It is concerned with how easy or difficult the interactions feel.
Think about it this way.
When you drive a Tesla, you interact with its steering wheel, the seat you sit on, the pedals at your feet, and the dashboard touchscreen. These form the car’s UI.
Though the UI affects your driving (user) experience to a great degree, it’s not the experience itself.
Depending on how your interactions with the car’s UI go, the experience may thrill, futuristic, comfortable, or even downright confusing.
Now, remember the UI design team at Tesla works to provide the experience that the UX design team (or Elon Musk) wants Tesla owners to have.
The case of websites is no different.
UX Designers brainstorm the experience that they want visitors to have and create prototypes for the website’s flow.
Then UI Designers take over and create visual elements that realise the UX team’s vision.
Over time, UX designers collect data to identify pain points that website visitors experience and work in sync with UI designers to eliminate such problems.
In the end, UI and UX teams come together to create a conversion-ready website.
5 Quintessential UI/UX Tips to Maximise Website Conversions
- Design for Short Attention Spans
Our average attention span has been going down ever since the year 2000.
As of now, even goldfishes have a longer attention span than human beings.
So, you can’t expect people to stay on your website unless you get their attention in a snap.
In fact, every extra second your website takes to load reduces customer satisfaction by 16%.
And if your website takes over 3 seconds just to load, just kiss conversions goodbye.
- Keep Design Consistent Across the Whole Website
If the UI elements in your website take a 360-turn when visitors move from one page to another, that’s bad news.
Internet dwellers don’t respond kindly to websites that have an inconsistent design.
That’s because inconsistent design cannot reconcile with how visitors expect it to behave and violates the principle of least astonishment.
So, it’s wiser to keep UI elements consistent throughout the website.
Even slight variations can spell trouble when they are huddled together.
- Keep CTA Buttons Above the Fold
CTAs are key to conversions.
When they’re placed in non-obvious places, even the best of CTAs cannot garner clicks.
No wonder why conversion experts give so much importance to CTA design and placement.
They lay great emphasis on the fact that CTA buttons need to be visually distinct from the other elements on the page.
That’s not all though. Conversion experts also urge designers to place CTA buttons above the fold.
And why wouldn’t they?
Evidence suggests that above-the-fold CTA buttons are 84% more visible than those that are pushed under.
- Design for the Right Audience
Good designers don’t create websites in a vacuum. They craft user experiences for a target audience.
Under no circumstances do they create websites without potential visitors in mind.
But, what does designing for the right audience entail?
Well, it’s about acknowledging your own biases and relying more on audience research than your whims.
It’s about iterating and reiterating to figure out design elements that your audience actually connects with, and discarding the ones that they don’t care for.
That’s what conversion optimization is all about.
- Design for Accessibility
Being inclusive in your design is a pleasant thing to do.
Even a target audience is composed of people with varying abilities.
Even from a conversion perspective, wouldn’t you want your website to have the widest reach (within the target audience) possible?
Still not convinced? Know that websites with accessible interaction design also rank better on Google.
The higher rank you occupy on SERPs, the more people you invite to your website. More visitors mean more chances of conversion.
The math here is pretty straightforward, don’t you think?
Conclusion
Would you choose to shop from a store where items are incorrectly shelved, and there’s no staff around to help you find things?
Or would you choose some place where everything is labelled right, and helpful staff members are readily accessible?
You’d obviously choose the latter, right?
And wouldn’t you feel even better about the store if it had adequate provisions for specially abled people?
That’s another yes, isn’t it?
If you’ve carefully read all that we’ve discussed in this blog, the parallel we’ve been trying to imply should be obvious.
Just like brick-and-mortar stores, conversion-ready websites need to check off a few boxes on the list.
The UI/UX principles we’ve talked about are a good place to start.
Well, we say that because the tips we’ve given you are ones we at CREAA Designs follow ourselves.
Implement them without fear, and let us know about the new conversions you make.
We’d love to hear about your successes!
