By: Christina Nguyen
Here at Stingray Advisory Group, we help transform businesses by assisting in a variety of ways, including with website design. After all, a business’s website is central to its brand, as it’s where prospective and returning customers will go to learn more about your organization and what your brand is all about.
That’s why it’s so important to have a website that’s easy to understand and use. People are more likely to return and buy from a user-friendly website, which directly correlates to customer satisfaction and, at the end of the day, your bank account (investing in UX gives you serious ROI). So it’s essential to keep your designs up-to-date and convenient for your users to navigate through.
Here are some tips to keep your website easy to use so your customers won’t become frustrated:
If you have long pages, keep your navigation sticky.
It’s not the most convenient to have to scroll all the way back up to reach a page’s navigation after you’ve been scrolling down for several minutes. Especially if your customers are likely to use the navigation quickly, such as viewing their shopping carts or account details, having navigation that sticks around when a user scrolls is highly useful. Keep this in mind when you have an important call-to-action, such as a “Donate now” or “View demo” button as well.
Make your forms provide instant feedback if something is entered incorrectly.
Some of us have felt the frustration after spending several minutes entering personal information into a form, hitting “submit,” thinking it’s all over, then being hit with a message in red along the lines of “your password needs to be between 8-13 characters and contain a special character.” Isn’t it nice when the form just tells you right away that your password isn’t long enough? Be sure to add these types of validations or field tips throughout your site to help streamline navigation.
Personalize user content.
If possible, see if there’s a way you can personalize content for your users based on their browsing activity on your site. For example, if you’re an e-commerce business, you can recommend products based on their browsing history and the products they’ve saved to their favorites. If you’re an ed-tech company, you can suggest courses to your users based on their profiles. Similarly, if you’re a nonprofit, you can recommend the appropriate mentors and services based on the needs users have submitted on their profile.
Let users know the status of their actions.
Suppose your website features actions that take quite awhile, such as uploading files, add little features like progress bars to show that the user’s file is actually uploading. When it’s done, add a prominent sign communicating this, such as a green checkmark.
So even if these above tips won’t give your site a dramatic visual makeover, they’ll definitely make your user experience much more seamless and less frustrating. The easier your site is to use, the more likely your customers are to come back and even recommend you to others!
What are some design tips you’d like to suggest to others? Let us know in the comments below!
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About Stingray Advisory Group LLC: Stingray Advisory Group LLC is based in Grand Rapids, Michigan and is a proud member of Local First and the West Michigan Hispanic Chamber of Commerce. We help businesses grow. By creating customized solutions, we empower businesses and entrepreneurs with the tools to further their development.
Email us at info@stingrayadvisorygroup.com to schedule a consultation. Follow us today on Facebook, Twitter, and Instagram for more helpful tips!
To learn more, visit us at www.stingrayadvisorygroup.com.
