User experience is now the most important part of website designing. According to one survey users decide whether they like a website within the first few seconds of landing at the website. So the design must be effective in a number of ways. It should provide the best navigation system so the users don’t get confused or lost, it should also provide an appealing view to the users and a number of other things must be there in order to engage the users and to make their experience better. Here are some tips that will help you make the best user experience out of every other website designing project.
Create User Centered Designs
Majority of the websites and online stores are targeting specific clientele. A website designer and developer must know the users and target audience he is designing for. The second important thing is to make the users understand that this design is for them. For example if you are designing a specific ecommerce store for 18-30 year old golf enthusiasts, then it is unlikely that you know what they really are looking for. But when the client provides you detailed information like “a learning school and shopping portal for 18-30 year old men/women golfers who are trying to learn the game of golf”, it will be must easier to understand the specific needs of the potential visitors of the website. Another important piece of information that helps designers in creating the right website design with the best user experience is a little background information as to why and when the user will be visiting the website. Every user visits different website for a specific reason and identifying this reason is important for website designing companies to create the best user experience. Such information is usually provided by the clients but if it is not provided then the website developers and website designers can ask for it.
Get User Feedback & Pay Attention to it
There are many websites that are looking for redesigning their existing online stores. Talking to the existing visitors and gathering their feedback will be helpful in creating the best possible website design. If you are looking to redesign an online store, create a group of users that can be used for usability tests a few times to create the perfect design. This is a common practice all over the world in different industries. Game developers have specific groups of users who will test the games and give their valuable feedback.
Another way is to ask specific questions from the users and use the given feedback to identify the right features, colors, positioning of the website. Taking user feedback is a great way of comparing your services with the user expectations and meeting up where you lack.
Design Iteratively
Website designers are at ease of having a chance to modify their products based on client reviews or user feedback. This luxury makes it easy to do website designing with constant tweaking with colors, logo, fonts, layout and other factors.
Website designing companies are today using the latest technique of Continuous Integration which allows them to develop changes, test them and apply them on the live websites without stopping or interfering with the functions of the website. A CI based approach is also good in case if anything goes wrong. CI based approach is also good for upgrading services, applying changes on daily bases. For example an online ecommerce store has been redesigned and is constantly receiving user feedback. The developers and designers can then update the latest changes without taking the site from the live server.
Create Prototypes
The best way to have a firsthand experience is to build prototypes of your designs. Such prototypes can be made by using different software available for download and website designers generally use them. This will give you a foundation of the final design to work on. It will also help you improve the visual design of the website.
Such designs are also used for providing the clients with a working mock-up design as this process is one step towards making the final product. Don’t worry if your prototypes fail because they are created for making the perfect design for the actual product. So if your client rejects the first few prototypes, don’t lose your heart.
Follow Industry Giants
An ecommerce website does not necessarily need to be completely unique and different from its competitors. Off course it should not be a copied design and must have some uniqueness. But there are several parts of the website designing process that don’t need too much effort. Like the login/sign up forms, forgot password form, checkout process etc. that don’t need to have an extraordinary design. These parts of the website are usually similar to other competitors but mix well with the originality of the design. You can look at similar websites and competitor websites for similar design patterns and modify them according to your requirements.
Use your creativity and efforts on the more important parts of the website designing like home page, product pages, company info pages etc. where the user will spend more time. For this purpose you can take a look on competitors and see what they are doing. Then depending on the used designs, you can create the best possible design solution what is unique and has the best user experience.
Designing for a different audience than yourself is a tricky business. A website designer has to put themselves into the shoes of the user and try to meet up to their expectations along with the client and search engines. An experienced website designing company uses the above tips to see things from the user perspective and design for the people sitting on the other side of the screen.
