Five Elements of Website User Experience Design Guide in Singapore
Today we will talk about “Five elements of website user experience design”, you will improve yourself after getting a knowledge of its whole and learning to break down and adjust.
When the website has begun to take a shape and is difficult to change the entire framework, in order to get better user experience we should give up the dregs and retain the best. In order to be outstanding to excel one aspect of the dross, in order to be better in some areas and give up other less important aspects.
1.Clear objectives: Understand user key needs and focus on contents of user needs
Before starting to determine the goal of optimization, ask yourself: “How i can provide what users need while achieving my goal?” To answer this question, firstly you need to know what the goals of user and yourself are? Comprehensive collect and analyze user’s explicit needs, and detect the hidden needs through full data analysis, and try to think and combine their own goal, roughly determine a web presence type(blog, album display, ecommerce etc.) We need to consider what the core product and advantages are, and focus on related areas of outstanding product cases. Maybe you will feel the website is good in many ways, but the best advice is: focus on two core strengths, focus on the areas that are best at delivering high quality contents.
Before you start everything, ask yourself the following questions:
- How will users find my website?
- What are their features?
- What are they looking for?
- Can i offer the contents they want?
- Do they forget some aspects?
- What do i want to get from users?
- How can i get ideal response from user behaviour?
If you are running a IT technology information website, after considering all the above issues, the simple conclusion can be drawn are as follows:
- Most users are from search engine
- Through keywords they enter the page directly
- We display detailed pages of the entire page for them on the landing page.
- Though our website supply related contents, but user seems not satisfied they should need more information help.
- Our goal is to make user take part in the interaction, stay more time, read more contents, and keep on follow our website.
The real difficulty lies in how to achieve this goal. We can show user there are other related and valuable contents on the website and encourage them to go on reading. This can be achieved by adding some related and hot discussed articles tables on the bottom or the right sidebar.
2. Clear structure: based on the business, design clear website information architecture
No matter what page user wants to reach, our website should attract their attention through the first screen in seconds, and show our main contents. Generally, using easy layer we can build clear website structure, base on the business good classification can provide guidance for users and make the contents turn out.
We need to pay attention to the information architecture. It would be better we use a consistent way to organize and show the website information, thus user can find familiar web page from unfamiliar webpages. If the website structure is inconsistent from the user’s expectation and isn’t logical, they will feel confused, don’t know where to go next. This will bring confusion on the website whole recognition, and leads to user leave their website.
Proper use of these simple web design tips can make the pages organized.
Grids: Use simple grid arrangement of elements on the page can bring organize feeling.
Size: Size is the easiest design way to lead user, be daring to use large and eye catching elements to draw user’s attention to the most important information on the page.
Contrast: Try side-by-side display of different colors, saturations or transparency on the page’s elements.
Alignment: Related elements are arranged on the same axis, giving a sense of harmony overall.
First screen: Take 600 pixel as the height of first screen to get the maximum compatibility.
Leave blank: Leave blank space around specific elements, to make them more eye-catching so that user pay special attention to these elements.
Font: Don’t use two or more fonts or two or more colors to ensure consistency.
Simple example: News types websites often devote a great deal of effort to build information structure through hierarchies. Breaking news and important news dominates the screen, in this way to ensure user can see them firstly. The title of important head news will be larger and bolder than the similar contents on the websites, thus users who scan the website can easily and quickly find them. The contrast and size of title and photo can help to lead user scan website.
3.Simple and easy operation: UCD design and clear web interaction operation flow
Ensure user know what the next step to do on our website. When user comes to our website, where they first focus, the next focus, these should be very clear. What’s more, no matter to click”BUY” or read more, the next operation should be clear and easy.
When making meaningful promotion, you need to consider user centric methods and use the following keys:
Easy: Don’t use more different operation to disrupt the web. Think carefully what you want to guide users to do and prioritize these in your design.
Highlight: Use size, color and contrast or leave blank to highlight promotion.
Navigate: With navigation, no matter which page user are in, user won’t get stuck and can’t leave this page.
Typesetting: The common website layout error is the definition of incorrect line height and value of margin.
Motivate: Motivate user to do operation. Include reasonable encourage in discounts, gifts, sweepstakes or more.
Proximity: Be sure to place your advertising slogan in the proper place on the page. For example, if the main content of a page is an article, you’d better place the slogan under the article Do not deliberately disrupt users’ reading.
Proximity: Be sure to place your advertising slogan in the proper place on the page. For example, if the main content of a page is an article, you’d better place the slogan under the article. Don’t deliberately disrupt users’ reading.
Consistent: Show the promotion slogan on the whole website, and keep the appearance consistent.
4.Think user scenario: consider user’s context and provide a consistent user experience.
Whenever and wherever, once user needs, your website should provide good user experience. You should consider what is the difference when user use the website in different conditions, this factor is important. Be sure to consider user’s time limit and whether they are using a mobile device or computer.
Think the possible conditions when user visits our website:
Situation: In what situation do users find information on your website?
Limitation: The mobile version of your website should include core function, thus can help user find the necessary information, and eliminate other advanced features for the desktop version because users spend slightly more dwell time on desktops than mobile devices.
Speed: Consider user’s time is not sufficient, so your website must be loaded as soon as possible. Google’s Page Speed tool can provide some ways of improving website opening speed, of course, if you want to get a more comprehensive web page performance analysis tool, i would recommend you to use WebPagetest to do testing.
Fault tolerance: User often make errors, especially when using mobile devices. You need to provide them an experience they can easily undo without the BACK button, easily return to the original location or status.
Example:
Suppose we are doing a restaurant review website. What are the difference between mobile behavior and desktop user behavior? Firstly, we offer responsive website version, considering mobile users are more likely to go out, even browse while shopping. They won’t have time to browse restaurant’ details as much they do with desktop versions. They expect website to locate their location through the GPS in the mobile phone, and use it to search the popular restaurant nearby. Because users have no time to read long comments, our site can even optimize users’ reviews by showing the hottest and short reviews, just right to design the most appropriate user experience scene. This experience is unknowingly given to the user at the same time allow users to touch the moments of a sudden, then touch users.
5.Multi-channel: Multi-channel to contact users and launch high quality contents to attract users
In the previous discussion, we have introduced: know user needs and provide the contents they need. You may think how to make user return to your website again and again? Repeat users are the lifeblood of the online and offline business. In order for users to patronize again, answering their questions simply is not enough, and you need some of the ways you can get them back to your site.
Here i introduce several method maybe can help you turn one time visitors to repeat customers:
New contents: Firstly and most importantly, you need to bring new and premium content. Then, you should to make sure the new content are shown on popular landing pages.
Related contents: Show user similar contents on elsewhere in the site. Draw a region that provide links to the popular contents for the convenience of users, this will attract users to browse more contents.
Social: Make it easy for users to interact with you through their favourite social networks. All the main social networks provide widgets and can place them on your web, for user’s convenience. Once you attract this kind of users, be sure to show the most popular contents to push them to come back.
Emails: Ensure user can subscribe your email lists for updates and newsletters.
User engagement: Enable users to interact with your contents from forum, rating or referrals.
Example:
If our website is to provide VPS rental discount information website, which means that users can search for the latest VPS rental discount information in your website, then you can first prompt the user to register, and guide the user to choose the most concerned about the major VPS service providers So that they can be notified by email when new offers that match their interests are available. We can also show the number of users recommending this offer so that users can see which service providers are offering more deals.
- Interface and kinds of interaction design should face user, allowing user to easy control, easy operation.
- Disease user’s memory burden, thinking time: Don’t let your user waste time to hesitate.
- Keep the consistency of website, don’t allow users to feel dazed, finally helpless to leave.
Wrap up
Please remember: The goal of user experience should be shaped in the process of product concept: the product should be always user centric. The main body is user, the object is the product, this is the basic cognition. The follow up user experience optimization comes from details, and throughout every details. To create beyond user’s expectation, and bring user surprise.
The aim of user experience is to hope users can finally be willing to give feedbacks we expect, for example, buying product, brand recognition, promotion reputation and so on. You can say user experience is the unique product factor that can trigger user emotion. The concept of user experience from the physical industry until now network virtual user experience has become a new product value. Technology is no longer the core product competition, the product competition is essentially user experience competition. What users focus is no longer the performance of the product, but the value and pleasure that the product brings.
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