User experience plays an integral role in the success or failure of a website. With the correct choice of UX, you can improve audience perceptions, time spent browsing the site, and how users feel about using your company after they leave.
For obvious reasons, optimizing your website’s UX should be at the top of your to-do list. Here are 4 UX factors to consider when creating a website.
1. Layout
Your website layout plays a huge role in how users will experience it. If the layout is simplistic or too overwhelming, it will drive users away because they won’t like what they see. On the other hand, if your layout focuses on neatly arranging useful information, and reflecting your brand style and company goals clearly, the users will definitely like it.
In general, the website layout should provide a clear pathway for navigation within webpages and bring out the most important elements front and center. The best website layouts offer a superior user experience regardless of the devices your visitors are using.
2. Branding
Some people often consider branding and UX as two separate disciplines. However, UX is about understanding users and then designing websites that encourage positive experiences.
The problem with a generic UX is that, while it will save you time and money in getting a website out quickly, it will hurt your brand name in the long run. This is because UX is a brand differentiator and controls how people feel about your business. It can be part of the reason a customer chooses to engage with your company or its products.
The logo, for one, should be present on all pages of your website. It has to be placed strategically so that it gets imprinted in the user’s mind. In the same vein, every element of your website design should make your branding look great and improve the user experience.
3. Navigation
It is important for websites to be scannable because visitors won’t be reading every single thing. They will only scan the items that matter to them the most. Visuals and infographics are important tools that convey instructions and information to users without overwhelming them.
This goes beyond just applying H2 and H3 headers. Navigation is mostly about using the right menu interfaces, strategic use of negative space, visual hierarchy, and making everything simple and clear.
4. Color Palette
The use of color in website covers more than just creating a palette that looks cool. Designers have to incorporate better use of colors in their design without needing to redo the whole design. This can be hard because of the infinite number of possible color combinations out there.
It is also worth pointing out that some 8% of men and 0.5% of women have some form of color blindness. The most prominent form of color blindness is with folks who have trouble distinguishing reds, greens, and yellows of similar values.
You can check out the free color blindness simulator by Color Oracle here to test your website’s accessibility.
Wrapping Up
So these were just 4 main factors that go into UX factors and website design. Of course, this list goes well into a dozen other factors that we can’t explore right now because of limited space. Let us know which UX factors you think are important in web design and we’ll try to cover those in the next listicle.
