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In modern web design, a focus on UX is a central ingredient of success. Learn more about UX design, including its benefits and how it can enhance your entire marketing strategy.
It’s tempting to build your website based on the services you offer. But what if you focused your development and design on user needs first?
The two of course aren’t mutually exclusive. But it’s still a concept worth contemplating. Focusing your build on the experience your visitors will have, hugely increases your chances of engaging and converting them into customers.
That’s what makes user experience design a central part of any successful website design. Done right, it can go a long way to saving you time, and increasing your marketing and business success. It can even improve your other marketing efforts.
Let’s dive into the two concepts of UX and UX design. We’ll take them from abstract to actionable in a way that helps your business grow.
At its most basic UX (short for user experience) “encompasses all aspects of the end-user’s interaction with the company, its services, and its products.”
In the web design context, that means building a website specifically designed to help your visitors accomplish their goals. To solve their pain points, and enjoy the process of doing it.
Compared to that relatively broad definition, UX design is more specific. It describes the how behind UX, typically through a data-focused approach. This helps businesses (and their web design partners) understand who is using the website, what they’re looking to get out of it, and how a design update or overhaul could benefit them.
In other words, it’s more than a simple add-on to an existing web design project. Instead, UX design integrates into the entire process. With data-driven insights into the user journey, informing every decision related to the navigation, interface, content, and more.
We have a basic definition of the concept in place. Now let’s focus on just what makes UX design such an important part of modern web development. These five benefits are especially relevant for businesses considering whether they should take a UX-first approach:
As mentioned above, UX design is not an add-on, but rather integrates into the entire web design process. It’s also not limited to entire new website builds. Almost any website can benefit from a UX review and subsequent actions at any time.
Everything starts with user research. UX designers will dive into a broad audience understanding, developing initial concepts and wireframes based on existing website personas or creating these personas to turn demographics into motivations, behaviours, and preferences.
Then wireframes of key pages can be created. Rather than incorporating colours or specific graphics, wireframes show the relationship of the various site elements on the page. From hero image to header, main content, sidebar, and call to action. The personas can be used to ensure the different user journeys and needs are met.
These wireframes are then tested with real audiences, leading to tangible insights that can be used to guide anything from structure, to designs and content.
Prototypes are then tested again, resulting in further insights and guidelines that ultimately guide the actual creation (or update) of the website.
From there, it becomes an ongoing process. Periodic user tests allow the UX designer to understand exactly where the finished website succeeds, and where it falls short. These findings lead to further improvements, tested again to determine performance and make further improvements. The cycle is designed for continuous improvement, with ongoing iterations never stopping to improve the website.
Of course, not every UX design is that comprehensive. The same basic concept might be applied to a single campaign or landing page. Leading to one-time adjustments that can still improve on important KPIs. The underlying focus on user needs driven by data, though, always remains the same.
Finally, it’s important to realise that while UX design is especially relevant when building or updating your website, it doesn’t have to stop there. The same insights can lead to improvements across all of your marketing channels. For example, you can:
In fact, all of your user research can lead not just to marketing communications improvements. It can even lead to insights and improvements in your service or product design. Building your marketing strategy based on the same insights as your website, increases consistency in both your messaging and strategy.
UX design may feel like an add-on to simply building a website. But in today’s environment, it’s far more than that. Done right, it integrates into everything you do. Not just when building and updating your website but throughout your marketing efforts.
That’s why UX design is at the heart of all of our website projects. In addition to comprehensive redesigns, we also offer a UX audit to help you understand where your website currently stands, and what improvements you might want to make. Learn more about working with us on a UX Review today.
