You’ve probably already heard of UX strategy and UX design, but you may not necessarily understand why it’s important for your business’s website. Technically, “UX” is short for “User Experience” — and when you boil it down, “User Experience” (UX) ultimately means “usability.” A good UX strategy means that your website meets your visitors’ expectations with an appropriate solution. In other words, your site should be user-friendly.
What makes a UX strategy successful? Simply put, your viewers should be enticed to take some kind of action — specifically, an action you want them to do. If you have a business that works through phone-call interactions, then you’d want visitors to call you, right? By using the best practices of UX design, you’d want to have your business’s phone number displayed prominently at the top of your site. That’s UX strategy. That’s UX friendly. That’s the way it should be done.
Take action. Follow guidelines. Get results.
Here’s another great example of using best practices for intuitive UX strategy and UX design: always provide users with a call to action. Whether it’s a phone number, filling out a form, downloading a file or purchasing from your website directly, you want your viewers to take action. They’ve already come to your site. Having your viewers take one step further makes your sales lead that much closer. And, remember to make these calls to action short and sweet. “Buy Now.” “Call Now.” “Download Now.” Now, you have their attention.
Useful tips for UX design and content.
Keep these guidelines for best practices in mind when creating content for your site.
- Be clear. The main theme of UX writing is clarity over cleverness. That doesn’t mean your writing shouldn’t have personality — it definitely should. It just means that if your user doesn’t know what to do after reading your content, it hasn’t done its job.
- Be empathetic. Know your customers' state of mind. If they just completed a significant task, write messaging that celebrates their accomplishment. Conversely, if you’re writing an error message, it’s safe to assume they’re frustrated, so be intuitive — don’t be insensitive.
- Be specific. If a customer makes a specific mistake, give them specific feedback. For example, if they forgot to include their name on a form, don’t say “Sorry, please try again.” Instead, tell them “Whoops! You forgot to tell us your name." Users appreciate personality along with (seemingly) personalized messages.
- Formatting is your friend. Don’t make users dig through a paragraph of features — use numbered or bulleted lists that state benefits, not features. Keep paragraphs short; they’ll look less intimidating, so users will be more likely to read them. Use bold text (sparingly) for important points.
- Leave your pride behind. Writing is subjective. The copy you love may not resonate with users. Test it to find out. And, if your preferred language doesn’t work, well, you have to decide if you’d rather your site contain clever language or convert leads into sales.
When it comes to UX strategy, you want your customers to take action. In order to do this, clearly state the benefits of your business, products, or services.
Monitor. Improve. Evolve.
Have a way to measure what your site is doing, so you can continuously improve and iterate. Google Analytics is the most common way to look at traffic sources, see what people are clicking on (and what they aren’t), and where you might have intuitive opportunities to change things up to enhance their journey, as well as your results.
The UX journey: Test. Tweak. Repeat.
Run basic usability tests to keep up with your progress. There’s a free and easy way to get feedback on your site using https://peek.usertesting.com. Use this five-minute test to find possible flaws and use it to make some tweaks. Avoid just showing it to those closest to you because you want honest feedback. These are important guidelines to follow. Instead, ask a fellow colleague or another entrepreneur in your community. Heck, find the university student who studies at your nearby coffee shop. That’s the person you want to ask. Get to it.
Enhance your UX.
Now that you’re more familiar with UX design and UX strategy, you might want to start putting your newfound knowledge into practice. If you already have a website, follow the aforementioned guidelines, make some updates, and see if you can identify any significant changes. If you don’t have a site yet, you can always buy a domain and build a website in under an hour for free. Learn more at godaddy.ca.
