The Impact of Good Web Design On User Experience

If you’re taking the time to read this article then you probably already have an understanding of just how important your online presence is, and want to find out more about web design in Northern Ireland and what it can do for your business. Discussions of web design can sometimes get bogged down in abstract notions of style and aesthetics and the minutiae of typefaces and colour psychology. There’s a place for topics like that, but in this particular article we’ll be looking at the day to day impact of good web design – how it enhances the user experience, and how that can be leveraged for your bottom line.

The Impact of Web Design

There are currently more than 1.5 billion websites in the world, of which 200 million are active. That’s the size of the crowd your website has to stand out from, and just to make things even more daunting there is a much-quoted statistic (taken from Forbes this time) which states that users take just 0.05 seconds to form an opinion about a website. An additional statistic underlining the importance of web design comes from the Persuasive Technology Lab at Stanford University, and states that 75% of users admit to making judgments about a company’s credibility based on the company’s website design.

There are lists that pull together multiple statistics of this kind on the impact of web design on the initial appeal of your website, but visual cut-through – vital though it may be – is only the start of the story.

User Experience 

As an experienced web design agency in Northern Ireland we know that good web design is about much more than impressive visuals. An effective website is one which uses the principles of great design to deliver an effective user experience (UX). Look at your site and ask yourself some simple questions:

  • Can a user get what they want – can they find the goods or services they went online to look for quickly and simply?
  • Can they do this from any part of the site?
  • Is it easy for users to find answer to any questions they might have – such as your delivery costs or returns policy?
  • How simple is it to make an actual purchase?
  • Is the site intuitive and engaging?
  • Are there any pain points – parts of the site where the experience slows down, becomes difficult and complicated and stops delivering the required solution?

There are a couple more statistics that can be referenced to bolster the importance of UX to the bottom line of your business:

  • 89% of customers will refuse to revisit a site – opting to shop with the competition – following poor user experience
  • 90% of customers will revisit an online shop if they had a positive user experience previously
  • Spending on UX can deliver a ROI of 100%

UX and Web Design

The realisation that web design is about UX as much as the appearance of your site needs to inform every aspect of the design, from the earliest planning to the actual launch of the site. Whether you’re working with a web design agency in Northern Ireland or designing/revamping your own website, you need to break the question of web design down into manageable chunks and put the aim of a seamless user experience at the heart of each one.

Usability

To maximise the usability of your site you first need to firmly establish the users your site is aimed at – who are they, how will they approach your site and what do they want from it? The user interface should be designed with the answers to these questions in mind, and in a way which means that navigating the site and finding what you’re looking for is intuitive and simple. The structure of the site is vital here, with content set out in a logical order and design choices such as clear headings, bullet points and shorter sentences prioritised to enhance accessibility.

On a practical level the design also needs to work in a way which emphasises speed. The quicker the pages load, the better the UX will be, so designers need to take practical steps such as:

  • Compressing images without impacting the quality, using tools such as TinyPNG, ImageOptim and EWWW Image Optimizer.
  • Minify the code used across the site, using tools like HTML Minifier, Minifier.org and UglifyJS to combine files and minimise spaces, breaks and commas to speed up loading times
  • Make sure that the content which is ‘above the fold’ – i.e. visible before any scrolling down the page – loads first
  • Analyse the plug-ins running on the site and get rid of any that aren’t really needed, then make sure that each plug-in is the least data-intensive version of what the site requires
  • Use a Content Delivery network (CDN) to ensure that any user is downloading content from the nearest server, speeding up the load times

In addition to improving the UX of your site faster loading times, in common with the other outcomes detailed in this article, will help to boost the SEO of your site, meaning it ranks higher in search results.

Accessibility

Making sure that your site is as accessible as possible will broaden the positive user experience to a wider potential audience. In simple terms, accessibility means that the website needs to be usable by people with disabilities such as cognitive, visual, motor or auditory impairments. The Web Content Accessibility Guidelines set out an internationally accepted standard for web accessibility, based around four principles:

  • Perceivable – Users can perceive the information and interface components
  • Operable – Users are able to operate the interface, with no interactions excepted
  • Understandable – Users must be able to understand the information on the website
  • Robust – The information should still be accessible as technology – particularly assistive technology – advances

Practical aspects of website design which play a part in delivering these principles include captions and transcripts for audio and video content, navigation which is possible via a keyboard, and the careful use of colours to ensure that written content is easily readable against the chosen background.

Visual Design

The visual design of a website, as the statistics quoted earlier in this blog illustrate, can have a direct impact on the perceived credibility of a that site and the wider business. It also plays a key role in delivering a positive UX:

Colour Scheme – A consistent colour palette will deliver a cohesive UX across the site, avoiding unsightly clashes and feeding into the wider branding of your business. Examples of businesses which have chosen a defining colour and applied it across both their on and off-line presence include:

  • Netflix – Red
  • Amazon – Orange
  • Spotify – Green
  • Microsoft – Blue

Typography – as with the colour scheme, the choice of typography should reflect the wider branding of your business and the sector in which you operate. In terms of UX, the typography needs to be clearly legible across a range of devices and screen sizes, making it easy for users to explore the site and find the information they need.

Images – Visual cues which are high quality and relevant can make it easier to navigate a website as well as helping users to decide whether your business offers what they need. This is particularly true of ecommerce sites offering images alongside descriptions of the items on sale. Optimising the images for fast loading will enhance usability without compromising the visual appeal of your website, or the information being conveyed.

Icons – The use of icons and CTA buttons, prominently placed and clearly visible, can make navigating the website a much simpler and intuitive experience. Maintaining a consistent design of buttons and other visual cues throughout the site will encourage visitors to explore by making it easier for them to find what they need.

Navigation – clear and carefully organised menus and search bars, as well as the intuitive icons and links previously mentioned, make interaction with the site easy, and can be used to quickly guide users to pages such as the checkout and FAQs. The addition of something as simple as breadcrumb trails and/or a site map can help to ensure that users never feel lost when exploring your website.

In Short

Good web design is important when it comes to the aesthetic appeal of your site, and this in turn helps to create that vital first impression, as well as establishing credibility. Above and beyond appearances, however, effective web design in Northern Ireland needs to focus on the UX of the site, and on creating an online presence which works seamlessly and intuitively to deliver exactly what any visitor is looking for. As a result, visitors will be more likely to convert into customers, and to return to the site.