Your website is a salesperson that’s available 24/7. For your website to be an efficient salesperson, you need to keep user experience in mind while creating an efficient and professional website design.

What is the user experience? In short, your website should be easy to use and pleasant to navigate. Users should be able to figure out what you sell or do in a few seconds and decide if it’s what they’re looking for. How can you make that happen?

Here are thirteen website design tips to help you put user experience foremost in your web creation.

Know Your Users

To give your users a good user experience, you need to know them. Who’s your target audience? A website targeting senior citizens won’t look or feel the same as a website targeting teenagers. Once you know who your target audience is, you can design your website according to their needs and wants.

Loading Time

Make sure your website loads quickly. Users expect to get the information they need right away. They don’t have time to wait. If the loading time is too long, they’ll go on your competitor’s website. One main reason that slows a website is image file size. Compress all your images before loading them on your website.

Mobile Friendly

More and more people are on the go and need information right here, right now. Everyone owns a mobile and does multiple kinds of research on the internet per day. Design your website so that it’s mobile-friendly. Your website should be easy to use, whether it’s accessed from a cell phone, a tablet or a desktop.

Practicality

Creativity is good, but not at the expense of practicality and usability. Users are familiar with a certain website layout. Don’t make them look for the menu, search bar or logout button. Keep the layout simple and user-friendly. Content should be easy to find.

Consistent Pages

When users go from one page to the next, they shouldn’t be wondering if they’re on the same website. Keep your pages coherent, and design them around the same theme. Spacing, fonts, coloring and heading size—to name but a few—must be consistent throughout your website.

Headings and Bullet Points

Users scan websites, they don’t read them, which is why it’s important to have well-written headings. Headings should be easy to spot as they guide users through the website and help them find what they’re looking for.

Use bullet points to segment key information. Bullet points also help users quickly get the information they need.

Quality Over Quantity

The quality of your words is more important than their quantity. People get easily bored, so make sure your words and sentences are clear, precise and to the point.

White Space

White space used correctly makes it easy for your user to process the page. An overcrowded web page sends visitors running. White space doesn’t have to be white. It can be any color, as long as there are no images or text, and it gives your website a fresh and open look. Put the most important information at the top of your page with a lot of white space surrounding it so your user can assimilate everything easily. It’s a clean, professional way to highlight what’s important.

Calls to Action

Calls to action should be found on every page of a site. Action buttons should be easy to find and should use a verb that incites users to do something. Choose one color for your buttons and use it consistently throughout your site. When choosing the button color, think about color psychology. What feeling do you want to convey? Trust? Reliability? Intelligence? Choose colors according to the message you want to give.

Hyperlinks

Don’t use “click here” in your text. Instead, hyperlink your words. Hyperlinks are usually blue and underlined. Leave them that way so your users know it’s a link.

Images

While stock photography gives you high-quality pictures, it fails to connect with your users. Use pictures of your real team and products. Real pictures stand out as unique and engage your users. Images should be strategically placed throughout your website to support the text, so make sure they’re relevant.

Broken Links

Verify that there are no broken links on your website. Ending up on a 404-error page is frustrating for users, who might end up going to a competitor’s website instead.

Website Creator

Choose a website creator that takes user experience into consideration. Website creators like Wix.com give you almost limitless possibilities. Answer a few questions, and Wix creates your website based on your answers. If you prefer, start from a template and personalize it to your image. In both cases, Wix helps you create a website with user experience in mind. And it’s free. 

Get Creative!

With these tips, no doubt you’ll be able to design your website with user experience in mind while achieving the feel and look you’re looking for.