5 More Vital Signs of Great User Experience
Welcome back. If you read the first 4 Vital Signs of Great User Experience, you’ll like these 5, too (hopefully). So, here they are.
5. Great content.
Content is central to any website. Good content is relevant, informative, gives the message and tells the story. Great copy is not necessarily short, as long as it “flows well”. It should be easy to read, broken up into short, easy-to-digest paragraphs, with interesting headlines and sub-headlines. And of course, good grammar and spelling are definitely called for …
Content should also be engaging and interesting. It can be classy, funny, emotional, cute, whatever. As long as it keeps the user reading. This will make him feel comfortable (remember: it’s about good user experience!). But it should never be boring (though that could be a challenge if you sell high-pressure valves, ISO 9000-certified CNC machining software, or books on calculus …).
Interesting copy (which you can further spice up with great RSS feeds, blog posts, contests, quizzes etc.) will keep users on your website much longer, will engage them and actually make them look forward to returning. Converting them into customers won’t be far off !
Great content is also key for good SEO and higher search result rankings. We have already touched upon that subject in our Google Strikes Back article. A further article will follow in the near future.
6. Irresistible offers.
It goes without saying that well photographed, persuasively and clearly described and yes, logically arranged, items and services give excellent UX. That, plus super terms, special discounts, or time-limited offers can add up to an irresistible package. That’s from a user-friendliness point of view.
From a business perspective, a word about prices: naturally, pricing is key – though this doesn’t mean that the lowest prices are always the winners. Pricing is a chapter (or a whole book!) to itself, and a web designer who has extensive business experience can be a major asset in building a successful website.
7. Feeling safe.
If a visitor doesn’t know your company, he will want to be credibly reassured he’s dealing with a reputable vendor. After all, he will usually have to pay up front, at least for merchandise. It will help if you provide testimonials, and any memberships in business associations or Chambers of Commerce. You also need to clearly state your terms, price and quality (if applicable). Important: an iron-clad satisfaction guarantee and a generous return / refund policy.
8. Great communication.
Imagine a visitor who walks into a store but can’t find the information she wants and can’t even get to talk to a knowledgeable staff member. We would put the chances of her becoming a customer as pretty slim, to put it mildly.
A website is no different. There should be comprehensive and detailed information in the first place. But for those who need more info, there must be a user-friendly infrastructure in place for quick, ideally instant, and, if at all possible, personal assistance. Nowadays, anything else is bad user experience.
9. First-class e-commerce (if applicable to your website).
A stable, logical, easy to navigate e-commerce system that makes it all a breeze: shopping carts, saved items, purchases, payments, shipping, returns, and follow-ups. All with confidentiality in place. And continued communication.
We guess that’s pretty self-explanatory.
We hope you found this article useful. Did we leave anything out?
Questions? Comments? Challenges? Reach out to us. We’re here to help.
>>> Read the first 4 Vital Signs of Great User Experience
>>> Read the other 2 parts of this User Experience series:
Part 1: Why User-Friendliness is a Must
Part 3: Google Strikes Back
>>> Access All Knowledge base articles.