In this web design tutorial, we will discuss some of the common user experience design mistakes that web developers and designers tend to make, which could result in a poor experience for users visiting your website. This, in turn, could affect repeat visits, sales, and even your ranking in the search engine results pages (SERPs).
A website plays a massive role in determining how potential customers perceive your brand. If the site offers a solid user experience (UX), you will have a better chance of building trust and converting those potential customers into loyal ones. What can prevent a solid user experience from taking place? The following UX design mistakes. So whether you are about to build a new site or have an existing one, make sure to avoid these UX errors at all costs.
What makes a website “slow”? If it takes over four seconds to load. Further, if a user is visiting your website on mobile, you need to cut that number in half, as smartphone users demand even snappier speeds.
A slow site not only makes for a negative user experience, but it also can hamper your search engine optimization (SEO) efforts and hide you from potential customers. To improve site speed and boost your UX, try the following:
Read: How to Optimize Your Website’s Performance.
Developing with a responsive design in mind is a must. In other words, you need to make sure that your website looks good and functions well across various environments so that all visitors have an enjoyable user experience, regardless of how they are viewing the site – whether that be via mobile device, tablet, laptop, or television screens.
Does your site adapt to a user’s screen size, regardless of whether they are viewing it on a smartphone, laptop, tablet, etc.? Does it look good on both large and small screens? If you can answer yes to those questions, then you have a responsive design. And thanks to that design, users will stay on your site longer and remain engaged, which increases the likelihood of you converting them into customers. It also ensures that your site navigation and content is usable and readable as you intended.
What does a non-responsive site design look like? It is one that is not mobile-friendly, which is a no-no nowadays, since so many people use their phones to browse the Web. A non-responsive design is also hard to navigate, has poor readability and image quality when switching between devices, and produces a negative overall user experience.
To keep yourself from developing a site with a non-responsive design, start small. Test the site to ensure it loads correctly on small screens and mobile devices. Once it does, you can then work your way up to larger screens and devices, such as tablets and computers.
You can also use tools to ensure your website design is responsive, such as CSS3 Modules and Media Queries to help you quickly adjust content according to varying screen and device sizes.
Read: How to Improve Your Website’s UX Design.
A visitor should be able to move seamlessly from one section of your site to another. If they can not, they will not be able to find your content, which will decrease the UX and crush your conversions.
Some tips to ensure your website is easily navigable include:
When you visit a website for the first time, do you read every single word you see, or do you skim? It is probably the latter, as most of us lack the patience to dedicate a ton of time to a single site, and reading online is also harder. According to statistics, reading text on a screen takes 25 percent longer than in print, which is why making sure your content is easily scannable is a must.
When confronted with a massive wall of text, many visitors will not read a single word, even if the topic interests them. Add in all of the distractions on a page, such as video, photos, hyperlinks, and animations, and it is no wonder why making content scannable is so essential to a good user experience.
To make your content scannable so you can improve your site’s UX, do the following:
Read: 4 Best UX Design Tools for Web Designers and Web Developers.
Pop-ups are nothing new, but that does not make them any less annoying. Can a popup serve a practical purpose? In some instances, sure, as they can help catch someone’s attention, increase potential ROI, get conversions, keep visitors from exiting a site, and increase browsing time. But many users are not fond of pop-ups because of the following reasons:
To prevent popups from negatively impacting your site’s UX, do the following:
Users like to feel like they are in control when visiting a website. What happens when you visit a site and are hit with videos that auto-play with sound? You feel like you are not in control, making you want to exit the site as quickly as possible.
Are videos helpful to websites? Absolutely, as they can snag a user’s attention, convey information with ease, and increase conversions. But unless you have a professional news site, visitors probably do not want to see or hear videos without their consent.
If you feel like you must use autoplay on your site, perform an A/B test first. One version of your site can use autoplay, while the other can let users click play themselves. And if you find that autoplay is a necessity, at least try to mute the video when it plays so you can reduce its irritation factor. Both Facebook and Twitter use silent autoplay, so use them as examples.
Read more User Experience (UX) design tutorials and tips.
The original home of HTML tutorials. HTMLGoodies is a website dedicated to publishing tutorials that cover every aspect of being a web developer. We cover programming and web development tutorials on languages and technologies such as HTML, JavaScript, and CSS. In addition, our articles cover web frameworks like Angular and React.JS, as well as popular Content Management Systems (CMS) that include WordPress, Drupal, and Joomla. Website development platforms like Shopify, Squarespace, and Wix are also featured. Topics related to solid web design and Internet Marketing also find a home on HTMLGoodies, as we discuss UX/UI Design, Search Engine Optimization (SEO), and web dev best practices.
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