Have you ever heard of usability and intuition? The importance of a good website lies not only in its design but also in its usability. We asked website expert Axana about the 4 principles of UX design so that your website will not only be beautiful, but also user friendly.
Everyone wants a beautiful website for their brand or business. And it may sound strange to say, but a beautiful website is not enough. When creating a website you should always consider the 4 principles of UX design, user experience design. Or in other words, the way you cater content and structure to potential customers or website visitors so they can interact better with your website and find what they are looking for.
1. Hierarchy
When a user comes to your website they will scan it visually with their eyes. It should look attractive but also be arranged logically. For example, elements that are important should stand out more than elements that are less important.
Most people are not fans of reading long texts. Therefore, it is important to make sure that the information the user is looking for can be found clearly right away.
To give an example of hierarchy, headings always have a larger font than regular body text. On the other hand, interactive elements such as links and buttons have a different color to catch the user’s attention.
A good tip for guarding the hierarchy of your website is to define the colors and text sizes in advance. This way it won’t be a mix of everything and you can implement hierarchy consistently.
2. Consistency
When talking about consistency, we come quite close to what some might refer to as how “beautiful” website is. A mix of everything is not pleasing to the eye. It is important to follow a style guide and determine in advance which fonts, colors and styles you want to use. The whole thing should form a nice coherence and radiate a consistent image.
For example, it is confusing to use different styles of illustrations. Some tips for guarding consistency:
– Stick to the predetermined color palette
– Use max 2 fonts (1 for the headings and 1 for the body text)
– Use the same style of illustrations and photos
– Consistency also goes far beyond the overall design. Think of the use of buttons, text links, forms, display of photos, …
3. Familiarity
Familiarity sounds like a difficult word but is actually quite simple. The bottom line is that there is no need to reinvent hot water. For example, there are many things that users are already familiar with. We don’t think about it but our behavior when using websites and apps is largely based on patterns we have already learned….
To give a great example of why beautiful is not always good. Suppose you have created a very nice menu in the shape of a circle in the middle of your homepage. Most of the users are not going to realize that this is a menu. It’s confusing and weird to use because everyone is used to finding a menu at the top of the page.
The less a user has to learn to interact with your website the better and smoother their experience is going to be. Because admit it… Do you like to spend 10 minutes on a website searching for what you need? Or have you ever found yourself closing a website when you can’t find certain information?
4. Usability
Are you convinced that your website is user-friendly? Then you can always go a step further. This is done by means of usability testing or also called user test. You will test your website with your target audience based on a user journey. This way you will learn more about how people from your target audience behave on your website, what they expect and what their thought process is.
The most important thing of a user test is that you find 2 or more people from your target group. They are your target audience and can give you valuable information. A quick test with your grandmother or an aunt makes little sense unless they belong to your target audience.
After you have collected the right people you can ask simple questions to the test person. For example, you can ask them to look for a specific product and place it in their shopping cart. Or you can ask what questions remain unanswered after going through your services.
It is important to ask open questions so no yes / no questions to get the best insights.
Bonus: Accessibility
Finally, I would like to raise a much forgotten point. That is accessibility. In short, this means that your website must also be user-friendly for people with disabilities. They use the Internet in a very different way.
For example, there are readers who will read a website to people who are blind. Others who are visually impaired will view your website enlarged. Or people who are color blind use a special program to adjust the colors and contrasts.
We hope these tips will help you get started with making your website as user-friendly as possible. Do you prefer to outsource this? At Konk they are happy to help you further! Need more business tips? Then be sure to check out these articles.
