Having a User-Friendly Website Makes an Impact
Humans have a shorter attention span than a goldfish.
Yes, you read that right. According to a study by Microsoft in 2015, the average attention span of a human has decreased from 12 seconds to 8 seconds, while the average attention span of a goldfish remains at 9 seconds. This means you have 8 seconds to draw your audience in to your website.
Getting consumers to your website is the first task. Getting them to stay is the second. A user's likelihood to stay on your website has a direct relationship with how user-friendly it is.
What makes a website user-friendly?
User-friendliness is the ultimate goal when designing a website. Below are some key factors to making sure you're providing a user-friendly experience:
Readability
Keep it to the point. Your target consumers should be able to skim through your website to find keywords they're looking for with ease. Readability can also be affected by design elements such as color, contrast, and placement.
Navigation
When designing your website, put yourself in the user’s shoes. The more work the user has to put in to get to where they want on your website, the more interest they will lose in it.
Mobile friendly
Nearly 8 in 10 customers say they would stop engaging with content that doesn't display well on their device. In today's digital world, it's becoming more and more common to view a website on a mobile device rather than a desktop. It is important for your content to be functional on both mobile and desktop to enable user-friendliness to all users.
Minimal load time
An ideal load time speed should be close to 4-6 seconds. Images are common culprits for decreasing the speed of your website's load time. If your website is image heavy, you should resize and compress them to mitigate their effect on speed. Regular website maintenance may be necessary to keep your website performing at its maximum speed.
Organized content
Break your content down into separate, easily digestible sections. This will help improve readability and navigation at the same time by minimizing the content your users need to skim through.
What are common website mistakes?
The following mistakes are common, but should be avoided to optimize your digital presence. If your website is making any of these mistakes, there's no doubt it is affecting your business in a negative way.
Hiding important information
Don't make your users search for information that should be made easily accessible to them. Whether this be what products/services you offer, how to contact you, or your prices, it is your job not to leave your audience hanging.
Not getting straight to the point
Simplicity is key. Your users don't want to scroll past a bunch of unnecessary content to get to what they need. Get straight to the point so they can get straight to the sale.
Not keeping your website up-to-date
An outdated website may still work, but not effectively. If your users think your website looks outdated, chances are they think your products or services are too. Keeping your website up-to-date lets your audience know that you're constantly looking for ways to innovate and provide them with exceptional care.
Summary
Bad user experience can be detrimental to your website. If your website isn't user-friendly, it decreases the likelihood of a user taking action on your site and recommending it to others. When it's done right, user experience makes your business more money.
At WynHouse Software, we make user experience a priority. Worried that your business's website might be lacking some of the key factors we mentioned? WynHouse Software can build or transform your website to a user-friendly experience in no time.