USER EXPERIENCE:
HOW TO IMPROVE IT IN 2023
Applying User Experience methods is an important step for every business. FRAMR gives you advice on what to consider.
In this article:
- User Experience: How to improve it in 2023
- What is User Experience?
- Why is User Experience important?
- How to improve User Experience: Tips and tricks
- User Experience and how to improve it on mobile devices
- How to measure User Experience?
- Conclusion
- FAQ
User Experience: How to improve it in 2023
Growing competition requires innovation and outside the box thinking. Only about 15 years ago companies with a website had a strong and tight position on the market. In 2023, this belongs to the past. Customers are given more possibilities and in every niche there is lots of competition. Search engine optimization and social media are the first steps, but one aspect is often overlooked: Getting the target group to not leave the website and interact with call to action buttons and / or contact fields. In this article we’ll give you valuable information on how to improve your User Experience and which opportunities you have.
UX Design: An important factor in terms of mobility | © Amélie Mourichon
What is User Experience?
Most people have heard of User Experience (UX), especially regarding websites and their usability. That answers the question about the definition: User Experience sums up all aspects of user interaction and usability with a product or service. That doesn’t only include the experience with apps or websites but how users interact with a product or service as a whole. User Experience is measured by communication between business and customer, possibilities in mobility, how easy it is to interact with a website and how short the ways are to call to actions (e. g. contact form, newsletter button etc.).
Why is User Experience important?
It is no secret that user experience was an important topic even before digitization, but the focus was on other aspects. User experience was taken for granted because analog applications were considered easy to use and on-site contact with companies meant there was appropriate help from staff. In the digital age, however, the focus is on automated processes and it is precisely this that causes difficulties for many users / customers.
Such difficulties are particularly apparent with websites: The dwell time of visitors is shortening due to growing competition. Consumers know that they are only a few clicks away from a comparable provider and accordingly look for uncomplicated solutions. Companies often find themselves in the situation where their website generates a lot of visitors, but the bounce rate is relatively high. The solution is obvious: no focus on user experience. And since user experience is also a competitive criterion, there are additional disadvantages compared to competitors.
So the need for user experience exists because otherwise your competitors will have advantages over you and at the same time customer satisfaction will also drop. Google is also increasingly shifting the focus of content marketing to usability – for years, search engine optimized content was considered the most important aspect of good content, but core updates from 2023 (e.g. helpful content) aim to prioritize user-oriented texts and content.
How to improve User Experience: Tips and tricks
The high bounce rate of websites requires the right and especially solution oriented behavior. With our following tips you’ll reduce the Google Analytics bounce rate of your website as well as you will improve your company’s image.
Communicate your USP and VP as direct and understandable as possible
Your unique selling proposition (USP) and value proposition (VP) make you stand out in comparison to your competitors. When searching for the right product or service, the number one question of potential customers is: Why?
There are many competitors on the market which all offer similar solutions – constantly improving your offer won’t make things better, what matters is the way to communicate the value to your target group.
Every business has a unique selling proposition (What makes me stand out in comparison to my competitors?) and a value proposition (Which value / advantages can I provide to my target group?) with which you reach your potential customers. Ask yourself if it’s clear for customers to recognize both the USP and VP the moment they visit your website.
Technical terms? Please not!
As important as it is to represent your company as a serious business, too pragmatic texts won’t reach your audience. Technical terms, very long texts and boring content won’t reach your target group. Many businesses fall for the so-called “SEO trap”. That means companies optimize their texts based on SEO relevant criteria but forget to take a closer look at their target group. Sure, texts which are too “salesy” aren’t appealing either and especially technical products require less salesy texts than beauty products for example. But still, good texts awake emotions and needs in potential customers.
Easy usage of the website
A big sitemap, sub pages with too much content and an user unfriendly design – these aspects of User Experience is what website visitors notice first. In case a website appears too full, some visitors don’t know where to start or how to interact with it. Therefore, they will leave the website.
Barrier free usage: Access for everyone
Another positive aspect of digital progress is that everyone takes advantage of it, even human beings with handicaps. Specific apps and plugins for websites give access to functions for barrier free usage. These include functions such as reading texts, changing size of letters and optical changes.
Responsive web design: Mobility is more important than ever before
More than 70 per cent of website visits come from mobile devices such as smartphones and tablets. Even though a responsive web design isn’t as appealing as the desktop version, optimizing a website’s design and content for mobile devices is crucial in 2023.
Ask yourself the right questions
In the first step, good User Experience is defined by a target group friendly website. The process goes beyond that because the product or service itself shouldn’t make the lives of consumers harder. But: To reach this step in the first place, interest of the target group is required and in 2023 the first contact of potential customers with a business is mostly through the website or other marketing methods such as paid ads or social media channels.
Ask yourself the following questions to improve the User Experience:
- How can I effectively communicate my product / services to potential customers?
- How does the value of my products / services appear to my audience right away when they visit my website and how can I use, for instance, use cases to communicate advantages?
- Do I consider important aspects such as mobility or barrier free experience?
- Is it clear for my target group what to expect on my website?
- Are the ways to the call to action button (contact form, newsletter subscription etc.) too long?
- Does the content of paid ads and social media fit with the content on my website?
- Can we use methods to improve communication (e. g. through chatbots)?
The last question is important for the complete online performance: Even when using social media or paid ads, User Experience shouldn’t be a secondary thing. Bad written texts and hard to understand descriptions of products and services belong to the most common reasons why users don’t click on a website.
Mobility: Don’t underestimate the impact on User Experience | © Taras Shypka
User Experience and how to improve it on mobile devices
Relevance of responsive web designs increases especially with the given possibilities in app design in comparison to just a few years ago. But more possibilities in IT and programming also means that products become more complex and that on the other hand requires a better focus on User Experience.
But not only do the possibilities in app design expand because in the area of mobile devices there is also lots of progress. A good example is digital signage software.
Digital-visual screens which display content through software – many know them as information terminals. Possibilities for users have developed in the past years and that offers more opportunities in general. Goal of digital screens is the compact display of easy to understand content and simple usage. But to improve User Experience even more there are smartphone integrations. FRAMR offers an uncomplicated as well as a very fast connection with the smartphone through QR code and a great User Experience thanks to cross platform design. Our team sets a good example for User Experience and makes an important move to use digital signage software independently.
This is how you combine user experience and innovation
The relevance of responsive web design continues to grow, especially because the possibilities in app design are more extensive than they were a few years ago. However, more possibilities in IT and software development also mean that products have more complex features, which in turn requires a closer look at the user experience.
A good example of this is digital signage solutions. These are digital-visual screens that play out content thanks to software. The goal of digital signage is the compact reproduction of easy-to-understand content and good usability to promote interaction between the company and the user. To improve the interaction with users, digital signage combines other innovative methods from marketing, for example gamification.
FRAMR enables a straightforward as well as split-second connection with various hardware devices and provides a simple-interactive user experience through cross platform design. Our team leads by example in user experience and moves away from the location-based use of a terminal, we also offer a wide variety of different functions.
How to measure User Experience?
Measurement of results provides important information on how successful the chosen (marketing) methods are and that creates new possibilities to save more money. To measure User Experience, the bounce rate of websites is a factor to take a closer look at. In case users find your website, you can be sure your marketing does well. However, if the interaction rate is low / or the Google Analytics bounce rate is more than 60 per cent in comparison then you should improve the User Experience.
But don’t only take a look at User Experience when you analyze the results because other factors have an impact as well. It’s possible that someone finds your website through keywords that don’t really represent your offer. Here it gets clear to figure out which causes lead to the given numbers or which reasons speak for an either good or bad execution of User Experience.
Article → Hardware and software: Differences and connections
Conclusion
User Experience: More than just a word in 2023. It dominates the competition between companies. Thanks to digitalization we are given the possibility to create more complex products and market them in many different ways which requires further explanation of their usage. Most businesses are aware of that and use qualified UX designers who build up your marketing step by step.
FAQ
Still some things unclear about User Experience? Following we will answer the most frequently asked questions regarding the topic of this article.
User experience and usability help to make the interaction between businesses and their target groups easier. That promises advantages in competition as well as it will have a positive impact on the image of a company.
Usability only describes the process during the interaction with a product or service. User Experience on the other hand goes beyond that and targets the subjective experience during the complete interaction process with a product or service.
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