User experience is something that every business should consider when building its website or even an app, in order to create a smooth process for each customer. User experience (UX) is everything that happens to your users when they interact with your business or organisation via your website or any form of online communication. It includes everything the user sees, hears or does and even their emotional reaction.

Businesses over the years have realised that user experience has a direct impact on their bottom line and so it has become more and more important to ensure you have a high level of user experience at all times, particularly if you have an e-commerce site.

What do you need for a good user experience?

To meet the basic requirements for a good user experience, you simply need to make sure that your website or application meets the exact needs of the customer without fuss or bother. However, to go above and beyond, the elements you need for a high quality user experience include a seamless merging of services from marketing to interface design. User interface (UI) is an important part of design.

Understanding your users and creating a design that is tailored to them is key. Market research can help reach this goal. Another way to gain good user experience is to measure the way in which a user navigates around the site; how users interact with your website is crucial for success. Which areas of your website get the most activity? Do your users click through several pages deep or do they return to the homepage a lot? Measuring this ensures you build a user experience that is targeted efficiently to the people using your site.

With an e-commerce site, important aspects such as the shopping cart and simple filters can ensure your customer stays on board throughout the purchasing process. Item photos are also an essential addition from an e-commerce UX point of view. Accurate item availability is also crucial, especially around busy times such as Christmas, whether it be a clear indication that something is out of stock, or letting the customer know how many of that item are left.

What can user experience achieve for your business?

If you have created a successful user experience, you could reap huge benefits. If visitors to your site have a good experience, then your website could see a number of positive changes.

A good user experience can increase sales and online conversions; if your website has a good user interface, people will be driven back to your site as they will have encountered a positive experience.

Having a well-designed website that provides user experience also means that brand perception is highly improved. A strong brand image across your website or app can mean that users interact more positively with your site as will therefore associate their good experience with your brand in the future, potentially creating repeat customers.

If your UX design is satisfying to enough customers to raise customer retention by 5%, you could see a profit increase of at least 25%.

Why is user experience important?

In 2014, Google and Facebook shifted their focus to concentrate on user experience. Google’s algorithm meant user experience is their top priority, with content marketers being pushed to think about the reader in order to produce valued content as opposed to sales-driven posts. Similarly, Facebook altered its News Feed after conducting a survey for users that revealed they wanted more from Pages they cared about and friends rather than promotional Page posts.

With the huge increase in mobile use when it comes to the internet, user experience should also cater to mobile. Traffic from wireless and mobile devices has been predicted to rise to 66% of all traffic in the next 4 years.Mobile devices should be able to handle sites and apps just as well as a desktop; user experience must be carefully considered in the development process and websites should be mobile friendly, perhaps through a responsive design.

If your user experience is high, you have more chance of being found online. When someone is seeking information on the internet, they should be greeted with formatted, labelled and organised content. UX designers should be aware of techniques to make sites easy to find on the web.

User experience should be an ongoing process; updating and rejuvenating your website to continue attracting sales is key. Simple measures such as a redesign for Christmas or adding big sale promotions to your homepage can boost UX.

If you’re looking to improve or create an online brand experience that can drive engagement and results, get in touch with an experienced digital branding company such as creative spark to get the ball rolling today.