11 Step Checklist for a Great Website User Experience (UX) Design

It's no secret that your website is the face of your business in today’s digital world. But for it to be effective, you need a good website user experience (UX) design that converts visitors into customers and keeps them coming back.

However, a website UX is more than aesthetics. It’s how your users feel on the website, the ease at which they can navigate and find information, and most importantly - trust your business. 

When done right, website UX wins the heart of your visitors and makes for a smooth website experience—two of the things most important for customer loyalty and higher conversion rates. But on the other hand, if website UX is overlooked, it could hurt your website with metrics like bounce rates. 

Image source. 

So in this blog, we’re discussing what website user experience (UX) is and the checklist that you can run your website through.

‍

What Is Website UX (and Why Should You Care)

User experience—simply put—is the experience your users have when interacting with your website. However, designing an impressive website user experience is not a cakewalk. Instead, it requires anticipating your visitor's next steps and ensuring it's free of hiccups.

Developing a memorable user experience requires understanding the psychology of your users and creating a website that helps them:

• Find the right information
• Navigate with ease
• Feel valued
• Make friction-less interaction with the website

Peter Morville, a well-known Information Architect, defines the integral aspects of website UX with the help of this excellent user experience honeycomb that covers all the essential facets of UX.

Original Source.

It explains the 7 elements that amalgamate a great website UX. Together, these elements create an enticing, memorable, and positive experience for users.

Now that we have a decent understanding of website UX, let's look at the 11-point checklist you can run through when building your website.

So let's dive in.

‍

11-Point Website UX Checklist

1. Ditch the Snail-Paced Website

The first impression can make or break your website's reputation. The industry standard defines 2 seconds as an impressive website loading time. While you might not think that it's long enough for visitors to leave, anything slower than this will send them running in search of something more interesting - creating a higher bounce rate.

In short, slow websites repel visitors. That's why it's integral to enhance the speed of your website by eliminating elements that add weight to your website. Light websites load faster, making an excellent first impression.

2. Tell the Tale With About Us Section

What you do as a business and serve your audience is the core of any business and reflecting the same on your website is crucial. 

If users can't find value in your precious services or products, they're not likely to stick around. While on the other hand, if they can see themselves on the website, understand what your business has to offer, and feel valued, they'll stick around. Not only that, but it boosts your chance of conversion by clearly telling what your business does. Make the best use of the about us section and impress your visitors with a clear value proposition.

3. Make Going to and Fro Easy

Image source.

Website navigation is yet another UX feature you must place a higher emphasis on. Imagine walking in a supermart only to get lost. Clear direction to categorized silos and the payment counter will make you feel comfortable and easily find what you're looking for. 

Similarly, the website navigation bar is your place to show readers the way to other pages and a way back to the home page. 

4. Consistency Is the Key

While you want to ensure navigation is the smoothest on your website, you also want to look for consistency. 

The last thing you want your users to experience is clicking on a page and feeling like they've landed on a different brand's website. So making its colors, theme, typography, and other elements consistent across each page is vital. This point is so integral that it bleeds into another one - colors. 

5. Colors Play an Important Role

Image source.

There's a reason Facebook is branded in blue color, and Zomato has a shade of red - color psychology. 

Blue color radiates trust, and softer shades of red show warmth and are associated with food. A good rule of thumb is to stick with 3 colors and 2 font families on the entire website. Anything more than that is likely to confuse your visitors.

6. Strategically Place Your Text and Action Buttons

The placement of text, buttons, images, forms, and every other element captures user attention and earns clicks. 

Various psychological patterns are shown to retain users, like following an F-pattern for website layout, as several studies show how it affects user experience. 

Finally, make your most desirable action - the call to action - prominent so that it doesn’t blend with the rest of the text; instead, it stands out.  

7. To Err Is to Be Human. But What's Next?

Image source. 

Sometimes, a user clicks on links that take them to an error page or a dead end. Other times, it's simply a mistake. 

Either way, 404 or error pages are inevitable—just like mistakes are a part of life—but it shouldn't make visitors feel lost, guilty or confused when landing on these pages. 

To remedy this situation, tell a user what they should do if they land on this page and why this error happened. If something goes wrong, a pop-up notification encouraging the user to try again is also a good idea. Finally, show visitors how they can reach back to the home page. 

The error page can either maximize retention or repel visitors, depending on how you design it.

8. Celebrate Completion

An action means you've successfully helped a visitor do something you wanted without any friction—it's time to appreciate it. 

When a user completes an action like filling a form, signing up for a newsletter, or checking out, reward them with content that induces a sense of accomplishment coupled with the next steps. 

For example, the green tick animation GooglePay shows after successful payment. 

9. Ensure Scalability

The design of a website is rarely a one-and-done process. As your business grows, it ventures into new markets and gives birth to new features and updates; your website must reflect those changes. 

While these developments are a good sign for your business, these could quickly bloat, or worse, break your website if the consideration is not given upfront. Therefore, when designing the website, know how it will sustain and support new developments. 

10. Make Reaching Out Effortless

Roadblocks are enemies of conversion, and you want to take every step to remove them. 

One of the biggest roadblocks is anxiety for users. Therefore, to establish trust, ensure the customer support system is there when anything goes south by making reaching out easy. 

The option to live chat is one of the best options you can give to your users. Other ways of reaching out can include mentioning email addresses or contact forms.

11. Primary and Secondary Calls to Actions Should Be Distinct

It's easy to get confused between two options; for example: subscribe or cancel, go premium, or signup for the free version. In addition, there are many places where visitors can abandon a site rather than take action, so ensure you are explicitly conveying which step the user should take. 

‍

Conclusion

Designing a website user experience is more than aesthetics -- it involves understanding psychology, anticipating your users’ next steps, and making interactions a breeze.

When you successfully attract visitors and earn their clicks and conversions, it positively impacts your business goals. 

Thus, website UX design is critical. And while there’s more to designing website UX, this checklist is a good starting point.