So, you’ve attracted a prospective customer to your website – great news! But what are they seeing once they arrive? Outdated designs? Frustrating menus? Overly complex user journeys?

First impressions are crucial when it comes to website conversion. If your website UX (user experience) and design are poor, visitors won’t linger, and they’re almost certainly not going to convert. In today’s fast-paced digital world, we’ve grown accustomed to getting what we want when we want it. If a prospective customer navigates to your website, it’s usually because they want something; they’re not there for fun. It’s your website’s job to provide the information they seek in the most convenient manner possible. If it’s not doing this, it’s not functional.

In this blog, we’ll run through 7 key websites UX and design best practices to help boost your website’s conversion rates.

The Importance of Website UX and Design

Understanding website UX and design is essential for creating a positive online experience for visitors. UX, or user experience, focuses on how users interact with a website, aiming to make their journey smooth and intuitive. Design elements, such as layout, colour scheme, and typography, play a crucial role in capturing attention and conveying brand identity. By comprehending UX principles, businesses can optimise their websites to meet user needs, enhance engagement, and ultimately drive conversions. In today’s digital landscape, prioritising website UX and design is key to staying competitive and building lasting relationships with online audiences.

Website Ux And Design Practices

1. Keep It Simple, Stupid!

Overly complex, flashy designs may come with that ‘wow’ factor, but they can quickly exasperate visitors if overused. Generally speaking, ease of use is always more important than aesthetics. Style over substance is a real problem that plagues website design. Your website is here for a purpose; its design should:

• Reduce friction for the customer.
• Use recognisable, easy-to-discern colours.
• Consider the density of text (too much text all at once can be overwhelming).
• Feature varied modules to retain interest and function.
• Dynamically move where relevant (too much movement can be distracting).

The best websites are the simple ones. Get to your point quickly and efficiently – visitors will appreciate it!

2. Prioritise Your Visual Hierarchy

Your visual hierarchy refers to the arrangement and prioritisation of elements on your website. A good visual hierarchy should draw users’ attention and help them navigate and understand your content. You can use visual hierarchy to guide visitors to the most important information and your calls to action. You can achieve this using:

• Size: Naturally, larger elements get more attention than smaller ones. Make your important headers and buttons bigger – it helps!
• colour: Contrasting or vibrant colours serve to draw attention to specific elements, which is especially useful for highlighting CTA buttons.
• Alignment: Consistent alignment of elements helps establish a sense of order (and people generally like order!). Good alignment makes your website more legible.
• Typography: Font styles, weights, and styles are crucial. You want to balance unique style with readability. Fancy fonts are pointless if they’re hard to read!

3. Easy Navigation

Your website’s navigation ties your pages together. Messy, hard-to-use navigation bars will almost immediately turn a user off. Make sure that pages are clearly defined from one another, and it’s obvious where links lead. We also recommend cutting down on the number of options in your nav. Again, simplicity is key. Many businesses make the mistake of cramming everything they do into their navigation (this never works).

For businesses in Cardiff looking to improve their navigation, a professional web development company in Cardiff can help streamline your site’s structure and enhance user experience.

4. Keep Your Branding Consistent

• Your brand sits at the core of your business. You need to ensure that your webpages, campaigns, and communications are all branded consistently.
• There’s nothing quite as confusing as working your way through a website that’s branded like Joseph’s Technicolour Dreamcoat.
• Many businesses find that their brand evolves over the years, as does their website. This can often lead to a website with a hodgepodge brand, which can turn people away.
• A reputable web design company in Cardiff can help maintain brand consistency across your website, ensuring that your online presence aligns with your brand identity.

5. Optimise for Responsiveness

A responsive website automatically adjusts itself to fit different-sized screens and views. As you stretch or compress a website, it should still fit in a logical way. This means that different versions of your website look consistent across desktop, mobile, and tablet.

Not only this, but Google rates websites on their mobile responsiveness and load times. If your website performs poorly on mobile, Google won’t rank it as highly. Additionally, it’ll be horrible to use for mobile users. Take note: mobile accounted for 58.7% of average website traffic in 2023. If you’re not optimising for mobile, you’re alienating a significant portion of your users.

6. Clear, Concise Copy

Words are great. But using too many can be overwhelming. Get to your point as quickly and clearly as possible. Avoid overflowing your website with too much content. Produce blogs and guides for the users who want to know more; drive everyone else to contact you.

A professional web development Cardiff can assist you in creating clear and concise copy that resonates with your audience and drives conversions.

7. Test, Test, Test!

You’ll rarely get your website spot on your first attempt. Even experts often need to analyse website data to understand what’s working and what needs to change. A/B testing can be used to determine what new ideas are working. This process is ongoing. Websites constantly evolve alongside your business and landscape as you scale and diversify your offerings.

A web design company in Cardiff can provide the tools and expertise needed for continuous testing and optimisation, ensuring that your website remains effective and user-friendly.

Conclusion

At Head45 Ltd, we create cohesive marketing strategies, including SEO, PPC, and content marketing, to help you achieve your growth goals. Improving your website’s UX and design is crucial for higher conversion rates. Follow best practices to make your site user-friendly, visually appealing, and functional. For expert web development and design in Cardiff, partner with Head45 Ltd. Contact our specialist team to discuss your digital marketing strategy and achieve your business goals.