Is your site user-friendly? You may have heard this question numerous times and there are times when you get annoyed. The best you can do for your website is to make it more user-friendly. Your business website has a huge impact on customer service and correlates the communication channels being deployed. This term cannot be neglected and overstated. Perhaps, it is the crux of having a business website as the ultimate goal of any website is to satisfy user objectives.
The great user-friendly website is a combination of design, content, functionality, and features, all coalesce to give a seamless user experience. However, the moment you lack in any of the aspects of web development, someone else takes the advantage and outsmart you. Just remember one thing, users have a plenitude of options to choose from and the moment they don’t like a website they look for alternatives, on the other hand, you have only one website one shot to either make or break your brand image. As there’s no point in having a website if the site is not user-friendly enough. Instead of enhancing the conversion rate, you’d lose out on some potential customers and that’ so opposite of what you want, isn’t it?
Key elements of the user-friendly website :
- Mobile compatibility
- Navigation
- Mobile Optimization
- Browser Consistency
- Loading Time
- Good Error Handling
- Readability
Let’s look at each of the following aspects of web development and why it is important to have a user-friendly website.
Mobile Compatibility:
The number of mobile phone users has already surpassed the desktop users and the number is increasing at a prodigious rate. As more and more people are using mobile devices and has become the new internet access point, you need to focus on the mobile compatibility. First, you need to check how your existing website appears on mobile devices. You can even use Google mobile site for testing its performance across mobile devices. After checking, you can decide if your site needs a makeover or not. You can create a mobile version of your site with the help of web-based mobile builders or outsource it to a mobile app development company.
Navigation:
The user navigates your site, therefore, you develop sites keeping user interface in mind. How will the users access it? Will it be easy to navigate through your site? In simple words, organizing content and structuring the site as the user navigates through it, checking by relevance and usefulness so that it’s easier for users to have access to information. Keep navigation as simple as possible such as adding a simple search bar, simple menu system etc. so that users don’t get lost in between the site and end up not finding what they were looking for instead of scrolling through web pages.
Simply put, avoid any design or functionality that can be detrimental to user experience. Don’t take risks in what you think might make it more user-friendly but is doing the opposite. It’s always advisable to play safe, therefore, keep the content simple yet informative.
Mobile Optimization:
Creating a mobile optimized website has become a necessity. Mobile phones have become an integral part of our lives, hence, adopting according to the situation will only be more beneficial to you. Meaning that mobile optimization has become an indispensable part of any website. Smartphones are widely used for navigating the web. Users are dependent on it for navigating purposes and that’s where you can hit by presenting your business mobile app.
Load Time:
There’s a common notion that if a website doesn’t load within few seconds, then it’s slow and the probability that users would give it a miss will be very high. Slow loading time not only prompts users to seek other alternatives but also hurts search engine’s ranking. Try to minimize the size of the files you use like videos, images, fonts, animations etc. Heavily using them can cripple the load time of your site. Resizing can help eliminate such issues. Another step is to limit the number of external links on your site. Redirects not only lowers the loading time but they require time to time update and updating frequently can hinder the loading time.
Browser Consistency:
Although there are so many techniques for making the site look enriching and perfect. Also, many browsers have evolved with time bring more efficient. But, browser compatibility is always overlooked. You need to maintain consistency throughout the site making it more readable. It is important to ensure that the site appears consistent across all the browsers such as Internet Explorer, Firefox, Chrome, Opera, Safari and much more.
Good Error Handling:
Descriptions are good from both user’s and site’s perspective as it eases navigation and enhances usability. Good error handling ensures the site is responsive and robust and is free of bugs. Displaying the right error message improves the user experience and the overall usability.
If your site is not user-friendly, then you’d miss out on lots of opportunities. Even though you think that your business is moving forwards but actually, it is going nowhere it’s right there, where it was in the beginning. Having a robust and user-friendly site ensure maximum conversion rate and other uncountable benefits.