These days, a business’s website is responsible for a massive proportion of its success. With this in mind, you need to do everything in your power to make sure your site is engaging, intuitive, and never overly complicated. Over the past few years, user-friendliness has quickly become one of the most important staples of any website. If this element feels a little hard to pin down, here are some tips for accomplishing it…
Keep Your Content Readable
Content is among the most important factor in convincing any of the organic visitors you get to stick around, rather than bouncing back to a page of search results. Delivering content that’s fresh and easy to read is the first integral stepping stone to ensuring your website is totally user-friendly. Make sure your content is fairly easy to scan, making use of sub-headings and brief, concise paragraphs. Have all your content written in an accessible typography, with enough colour contrast to make it stand out clearly. It’s also a good idea to include a decent amount of white space. This is a helpful design element for highlighting elements of your page, and avoiding the possibility of a content-crowded, confusing website. As a final note, make sure you’re not leaving any broken links in the content you publish. These will just confuse and frustrate your visitors.
Pick Up the Pace
Time management is absolutely crucial when it comes to the user experience of your website. Modern consumers are extremely impatient, and if you keep them waiting a few seconds too long, it can send your bounce rate through the roof! Loading speeds are among the key focuses of most user experience consulting firms, so take it from the pros, this is one thing you can’t afford to overlook! Ideally, your site should be loading on most web browsers in under four seconds. There are a number of ways to do this, such as limiting and avoiding large image and video files, compressing your code, and keeping the number of redirects to a minimum. By making site speed a priority, you’ll do wonders for your user experience, and avoid letting any prospective leads slip through your fingers.
Work on your Navigation For A More User-Friendly Website
Clear and clutter-free navigation is one of the best things you can assure for your website in terms of user experience. Make a point of limiting the number of menu items as much as possible, and avoiding overcomplicating things at all costs. This will facilitate the browsing of your site massively. No matter what page they’re on, your visitors should be able to see all their options, and navigate from area to area with a single, easy click. Generally, the best places to position your navigation is the top-left hand of your site, or in a longer bar running along the top. You may want to make your site stand out with a more unconventional layout, but in this particular area, it’s always better to run with the pack.
Prioritise these three elements, and your site will be on its way to excellent user experience.