Website Design: How to Convert Browsers to Buyers
User experience (UX) and User Interface (UI) work together to create a good website. Functionality, ease of use, and intuitive design can make or break your product. Use UX and UI to your advantage. Promote your business with a website that gets the job done and looks good doing it.
Creating a User Experience
The first step in marketing a good product is marketing a good experience. Business owners that are creating an online presence for the first time want to focus on simplicity. Straightforward functionality and ease of use will keep customers coming back to your site, not your competitor’s.
UX is integral in building your website. It is the substance behind the skin. Business owners with established websites that are stagnating will want to go back to the basics. Good research is the base that UX relies on.
- Walk in the shoes of your target audience.
- Develop high-quality interactions between your audience and all aspects of your business.
- UX applies to both real-time and digital experiences
Take a look at the global success of Amazon for instance. According to UX designer Jacob Butler, Amazon’s CEO Jeff Bezos invested heavily in developing a good consumer experience. He has built a strong business focusing on a vast audience. Because the company markets products to such a wide audience, they don’t need to fine tune their UX to one specific niche.
When You See an Advantage, Take It.
The broad spectrum mantra of putting the customer first is sage advice. Amazon has focused on the user experience from start to finish. Amazon.ca was a vector allowing many Canadian businesses to reach customers through Amazon’s online Marketplace platform. This service wasn’t just to give charity to smaller businesses. Amazon watched and learned.
Starting as a bookstore, savvy market research techniques helped the company expand into other e-commerce categories. Amazon’s research identified which items customers were purchasing from vendors on the Marketplace. It extended research practices to include analytics. Customer behaviour patterns were scrutinized. The company tracked customer purchasing preferences and realized that customers had similar buying patterns.
The company turned this observation into a way to enhance UX. Amazon recognized that customers which bought a certain item from a vendor were likely to buy certain other items. This research driven observation of customer behaviour allowed them to suggest items to people who were likely to buy them. The company then began selling products under their own brand, using research accumulated from their Marketplace platform to ensure success.
Taking advantage of that observation gave Amazon products an edge. Suggesting likely products based on purchase history was an example of how digital UX can be refined to more efficiently serve customers. The company didn’t stop there. In the quest to refine their UX, they thought about real world experiences too. Amazon considered the user experience every step of the way, from purchase to delivery.
Don’t Leave the Customer Hanging
After purchasing an item, customers may have problems and need to make a return. To address this possibility, Amazon focused on making the return process of items bought from their company extremely easy. By streamlining the return process they achieved the Holy Grail of business, consumer loyalty. Many customers will choose an Amazon product over a similar one sold by another vendor simply based on the ease of return.
Attentive UX was complemented with functional UI. When businesses are putting the skin on the user experience, usability is paramount. The purpose of UI is to interest the consumer in trying the product, service, or website. An engaging, efficient user interface directs the consumer to experience the website, product, or service the business offers.
A simple, straightforward website is important. Businesses would do well to take a page from the Congo’s Sapeurs. Dress your website in no more than 3 main colours to impress. Get in touch with Adaptive Marketing to learn more about customizing UX and UI for your website.