You can grow and advance throughout your career if you’re open to learning as you go and expanding your skill set. When building a website, for example, there are multiple aspects to consider beyond the coding alone to create something that end users trust and come back to, over and over again.
Here, we’ll take a look at some useful and unexpected web design tips and tricks for building sites that users love.
1. Provide a Full Circle Experience
According to a 2013 study, closure following the submission of an order, form, or question increases their level of satisfaction with their online experience.
Providing a full circle experience, then, is as simple as communicating to the user that the process has been completed and nothing further is required of them. To go a step further, you can provide some information regarding what to expect next, such as “Your purchase has been completed. Your tracking number will be emailed to you within 24 hours,” or “We received your request. We’ll be in touch with you soon.”
2. Build From an End User Perspective
Put yourself in the end user’s shoes. What will be their primary use of the site? What information might they come to the site in search of?
Put those things on the front page, if possible, in a non-overwhelming and aesthetically pleasing way. For example, if 90% of users are logging into the site before they do any browsing, consider providing a quick login option in the upper right corner. If most users are coming to get contact information or hours of operation for the company, consider a side bar on the front page.
3. Make it Fun
While end users enjoy the convenience of completing necessary tasks online, they’re still looking to connect with somebody or identify with the company. By infusing the culture and brand of the company into the site, you can provide the end user with the familiarity and connection they seek and keep them coming back.
To infuse brand and culture, use the logo on every page and match the color scheme to the company’s past marketing materials. Allow opportunity for the end user to interact with the site, and ensure the site is visually easy (i.e. plenty of white space).
4. Consider Mobile Users
How will your site translate for those who access from their phone? More and more online activity is done from a mobile device, which means your pages are being viewed on a five-inch screen instead of a 19-inch screen. If end users have to zoom it and then reposition the frame and then zoom in and then click four times to get the right button, they won’t complete the transaction and they won’t come back.
Think about how your site translates for these users and work to make it as mobile-friendly as possible for the best end result.
5. Don’t Play the Waiting Game
Unfortunately, users don’t wait for slow-loading websites. If your site takes more than a couple seconds to load, users give up quickly and move on to the next opportunity.
Ensure you choose the right host and their bandwidth meets your needs. Test your site for speed from time to time to ensure it still loads as quickly as you (and your end users) would like it to.
6. The Fold is Imaginary
The use of Facebook and other infinite scrolling platforms has made the fold less relevant than ever before. Users would rather find everything they need on the front page of a site by scrolling than clicking to navigate from page to page. As long as you incorporate white space and follow the KISS principle, you no longer have to keep your content above the fold. Go crazy!
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