According to the SBA, over 19 million small businesses have websites, but many drive little to no traffic/sales. The necessity and urgency for a business to have a website has been clearly established, but many are not realizing that without a seamless UX/UI, your website is little to no use.
What is UX/UI?
UX stands for User Experience and UI stands for User Interface. When talking about UI usually we are referring to the design elements and the overall visuals of a website/app while the UX is talking about how a user may navigate through a website or application. UX/UI usually go hand in hand and work together to create a better overall user experience. One compliments the other and without each other, a seamless UX/UI cannot be made.
Trust and Sales
Many consumers first impression of a business is based on the UX/UI their website. Also many bounce and leave a website when it is difficult to navigate through pages such as checkout and/or lead generation forms. A study by Stanford University says customers will judge a company’s credibility based on their website design. Leaving a good first impression will give businesses the potential to convert more customers and have them coming back. Just think about the last time you were on a poorly designed website that was difficult to navigate around. You most likely did not visit the website again unless you were required to do so.
Companies apparently lose as much as billions of dollars worth due to poor UX/UI on their websites.
Case studies
If you take a look at the most valuable companies in the world, many if not most of them have a great user experience and beautiful user interface.
For example, Apple, Amazon, Google, and Netflix have beautiful and easy to navigate UX/UI. Even Jeff Bezos, CEO of Amazon, invested 10X more in UX/UI than advertising in the first year of starting Amazon.com Many startups and fortune 1000 companies have already begun to adopt and invest in UX/UI
History & Trends
The most basic principles of UX can be traced as far back as 4000 BC to the ancient Chinese philosophy of Feng Shui. In practice, Feng Shui is all about arranging your surroundings in the most optimal, harmonious, or user-friendly way.
Even the ancient Greeks valued ergonomics and the placement of many buildings was based on ergonomic principles. Many modern companies today such as Toyota, Apple, and Disney were all built upon the principle of creation and design for people.
Flat design and smooth UX have been trending since the start of the Silicon Valley boom. If you take a look at many of the startups coming out of the Valley, many have been already adopting and investing in their UX/UI. There are also many job postings related to hiring UX/UI designers for many companies particularly startups.
Examples of great UX/UI
Call to action
Without a call to action such as a lead form, point of contact, or a “Learn More” button, visitors on your webpage will get easily distracted and not know where to go at the end of the page. You would lose potentially valuable information and have your customers leave your website losing interest.
Simple and clean designs
Sometimes the “Less is more” concept applies when creating a seamless user interface. Although you may want a lot of information on your website, it may be overwhelming or distracting to page visitors leading to a higher bounce rate. Simple and clean designs can deliver a message more clearly and keep the visitor focused on your message.
Clear copywriting
Copywriting is also an overlooked part of a website. With copy that is easy to read and understand, visitors will be able to quickly comprehend what your business offers and keeps them more engaged toward your content.
Summary
Overall the main message of this blog post is to emphasize the importance of a seamless UX/UI and without it, a website is of little to no use because nobody will convert. If you want to build trust with your customers and have stronger sales, an investment in your UX/UI wouldn’t be so wasteful. Considering many profitable companies are already adopting and heavily investing in UX/UI, the importance of it is clearly strongly demanded and providing results for these enterprises. The last thing to leave with is, try to build a website that is designed to your customers’ perspectives in mind.
Thanks for reading!
