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It’s easy to be daunted by a technical term like website UX… but really, the concept is extraordinarily simple. UX stands for user experience, and all it means is that, when someone visits your website, you want to make it as easy as possible for that visitor to locate the information they seek. In short, you want their experience on your website to be smooth sailing, never frustrating or onerous.

UX is important for myriad reasons; in fact, it can impact almost every key metric. Your SEO rankings, conversions, bounce rates and dwell time all rise or fall according to the experience you offer the end-user.

Something else that’s important to note is that pretty much every aspect of your Web design impacts the UX in one way or another, either positively or negatively. Today, we’re going to focus on the latter. Here are six things that, however innocent or well-intentioned they may be, can actually erode your website UX.

6 Things That Can Harm UX

1. Lack of direction. When someone visits your website, it should be immediately clear to them what they should do next, whether that means scrolling down or clicking a link. If your website makes it difficult for the visitor to reach their desired endpoint, that’s a problem. Make sure you always have clear navigation, and also calls to action on every page that prompt the user for how to proceed.
2. Lack of mobile-first design. Just because a website looks good on the desktop, that doesn’t guarantee that it will look good when shrunk down to mobile-sized screens. If users have to do a lot of zooming or scrolling to make your website accommodate their screen, that’s a problem. Always double and triple-check that your site looks sharp on all device types and on all browsers.
3. Too much text. It’s good to give people information. It’s not so good to give people so much text that it makes their eyeballs go numb. By all means, present some valuable content, but make sure you break it down into small paragraphs and easy-to-digest sections. Allow the end-user to skim through your site with ease as they look for a particular piece of information.
4. Slow loading time. Nobody wants to wait for a full minute for your site to load… especially not if you have competitors whose sites load more expediently. In fact, statistics show that most Google Search users are only willing to wait four seconds or so before they give up and move on to the next site. Be sure you eliminate any bad code or large files that make your website slow loading.
5. A cluttered appearance. The human eye needs a little white space. That means, if your site barrages the user with images and text, it may be too overwhelming for them. Make sure you allow for some negative space along the margins and between design elements. Don’t feel like you have to fill every square inch of your website with stuff.
6. Confusing architecture. Finally, a good UX requires you to have a navigational structure that lays out just a few simple options for the user to choose from. If your home page points off to 30 different pages, that may overwhelm your user; rather, it should lead naturally to just a handful of secondary pages, which in turn may branch out into additional pages, etc.

Does Your UX Need an Overhaul?

As you consider your website, it’s critical to look at it from the end user’s perspective… and to ensure the strongest possible UX. If that’s something you’d like to learn more about, reach out and let’s chat. Contact the design team at Driven2020 to discuss your specific UX needs.