Picture this: you’re carless and you need a ride. You open your Uber app and request a cab. Done. Now, imagine you had to input your credit card details every time you wanted a ride. Yuck.

The Uber app is intuitive and works seamlessly. This is because they’ve taken user experience (UX) into careful consideration and you should too.

Don’t go Googling — we’ll explain. User experience is all about taking user satisfaction into great consideration when designing any product.

Now let’s discuss how UX affects your company’s bottom line.

The user journey

Your company’s online presence needs to look amazing. But a pretty website, platform or app comes in second behind a user-friendly one.

All your digital touchpoints need to look great and function optimally. Paying the majority of attention to the section you feel is most important is an outdated way of doing things. What if a user finds you through a highly specific Google search? Their first point of contact could be anywhere. You need to make a considerable impression, no matter where they land.

Ecommerce sites are the perfect example. Think about it — if you have a seamless online shopping experience only to arrive at a messy check-out, you’ll be less likely to complete your purchase.

All processes need to be clear. They cannot frustrate or intimidate. That’s precisely where UX comes in.

Each touchpoint has a goal. The elements of every section of your platform must work together to ensure users complete these goals. Guide them through their journey so that they do what you want them to. In short: Good UX = repeat customers.

Design for humans

Remember that you’re dealing with humans. Humans who respond well when they feel recognised and understood. A functional digital presence that considers all points of the user journey (from beginning to end) is key.

Functionality extends to all aspects but let’s look at one that’s especially important: forms. They’re everywhere. You might not think so at first but something as simple as a search bar counts as a form.

If a user makes a mistake when filling in their details and is met with a robotic ‘invalid error’ message, they feel like they’re the problem. This is what you don’t want (even if it’s true). Explain what’s happening. Advise. If people feel like they don’t know what they’re doing, it’s goodbye.

A captive audience

You want to keep people on your digital assets for as long as it takes them to complete the goals you’ve set for them. That said, users are easily distracted. Account for this by letting them do more than one thing at a time.

Anything that makes it easy for people to navigate elsewhere, like external links, should be limited. If other distractions are just a click away, what’s going to bring people back?

Get people to stick around by making navigation easy. If people filling in a form want to ‘go back’, they shouldn’t have to re-input everything because they want to click around.

Short attention spans go hand-in-hand with laziness. No one wants to type their password every time they use your platform. Remember for them. If they forget their password, they’ll only request a new one if they really need your services. Otherwise, it’s goodbye.

Can you see how user continuity comes from easy interaction? You need to consider every step of the process and behave like your consumer.

It’s not a DIY exercise

There’s an entire portion of psychology dedicated to the field of UX. No, really. This is highly specialised and well-researched stuff. It’s important, endlessly useful and ever-changing. You’re well behind the times if you’re not employing it.

by Nicole Samakosky, Content Strategist at Cavalry Media

___________________________________________________________

Cavalry Media is a design, development and content marketing agency based in Johannesburg, South Africa. Cavalry services both local and international clients across the banking, insurance and retail sectors.