With so much pressure being placed on the web presence for businesses, you’d think you would want to offer the best experience you could. Unfortunately, 70% of online businesses fail because of poor website usability!
No surprise since 88% of online shoppers said they’d never return to a site that they had a bad user experience at. So how do you keep yourself from failing?! Learn some tips to keep your UX and UI skills fresh and honed.
A Quick Rundown of UX
UX stands for User Experience and the design process surrounding it is the process of creating features, systems, and a variety of products that contribute to that experience.
This could include aspects of branding, functionality, usability, and many other attributes. The UX designer stands at the important meeting point of human-computer interaction.
UX and UI designers work closely, often with many crossovers especially with items like Angular Frameworks such as in this article. These work to form client-facing applications with implications for both UX and UI
Consistency Is Key
Keeping elements across all pages consistent is important for several reasons. Consistency creates a brand impact, it creates a cohesive product, and it makes all of the content easier to consume.
If you are using any type of shadowing, text or otherwise, remember where your light source was initially placed from. It is a glaring problem for a visitor when there are three different types of shadows on the pages.
There once was, and for some still is, the idea that you needed a minimum of two typefaces on a page. This is not the case, you can achieve all you need by using different sizes, color, and weight of a single.
Whitespace as a UX design element
Do not simply think of whitespace as the unused areas on the various pages of your site. Whether you use it to a large degree or only minimally, whitespace can be utilized as a very strong design element.
By arranging the various elements in a page you can draw attention to one item and away from others, this allows for the prioritization of information and content.
Additionally, with effective whitespace between each element, your design will look more professional and more polished. This will provide a stronger impact and a better impression.
Small Changes Big Impact
There is not a need for sweeping changes to make a large impact. You will find small changes much more effective on both the conscious and unconscious levels, while also being far less jarring.
Slight darkening of text on lighter backgrounds, small contrast changes, very subtle overlays, slight shadowing, these are all things that are very small changes but will bring focus to items and will make others easier to view.
Keeping with the high output-low input idea, a strong visual trend has been the “hero banner”. This will bring a strong focus to text and potential CTA items. All it takes is a desaturated photo and a bold color!
Responsive Design Is Essential
This needs to be on your mind at all times. Responsive design is essential in this day and age, to the point that it is a given and not an afterthought or a problem that is addressed.
The tech world is becoming more and more mobile-centric and you must design with that at the front of your mind. What may work in one format does not always work in another.
You need to account for the variety of mobile devices, screens, and potential software types there are at this point in the market.
Promising a Users Top Experience
Now that you know what it takes to keep your UX at its best, what is keeping you from getting that design optimized? Make sure your web presence is offering the best its visitors can find!
Once that’s done you’ll have plenty of time to come on back and see what other tech information we can help you with here on our blog!
