In marketing circles, we often talk about the importance of good UX and UI for a business. Poor UX and UI can lose you business and damage your brand, but what is UX and UI?
In this blog post, we will explain what they are, and why you should take them seriously. We will also provide some valuable insights into how you can make great UX and UI work for you.
Making it super easy – and enjoyable
So, what is UX?
UX or “UX design” refers to the term “user experience design”, while UI stands for “user interface” or “user interface design”.
Both UX and UI are similar, but there is a difference. User experience (UX) is about how a customer interacts with a company and what their experience is when interacting with your brand while user interface design (UI) is more about the appearance when presented to a user – such as an app or your website. UI is typically more focused on digital products since there isn’t any “interface” for physical products.
The user interface (what the customer or user sees) should have the right colours, branding and layout that’s consistent with your brand and what you want to achieve from the app or website. It should also have the right wording and buttons.
For the rest of this blog post, we will refer to both UX and UI together, especially when talking about the marketing of your website.
The benefits of great UX/UI
In his book “Steve Jobs”, Walter Isaacson talks about how Steve Jobs was so picky and demanding when it came to design and user experience. Even when most of his team were happy with the design of a product, he would tear up the design plans and tell them to start again and make it better.
In one scenario, delighted team members showed Steve Jobs how an Apple Mac could animate drawing a simple box on the screen (this was groundbreaking at the time), only to be told by Steve that it didn’t look good enough – and that all the corners on the box needed to be curved to make the overall shape more stylish.
He then took a team member on a long walk to show him various signs and structures to highlight the importance of great-looking design!
And where has this left Apple today? They are the market leader in mobile phones with sleek, great-looking iPhones that have a user interface that’s simple in design and easy to use.
This is an example of how great UX/UI design of a product can help build a brand over the long term, and it also applies to website design.
A website that offers a great user experience and that’s easy to use is more likely to attract customers and build trust with potential clients.
Let’s look at this from a slightly negative angle – would you buy from a website that’s a pain to navigate, the images are blurred and poor quality and the wording is very badly written?
Trust plays an important role in helping someone decide if they should buy from you – and a shockingly awful UX/UI design can lower that trust and put doubt in the customers’ mind.
Tips for a great UX/UI
There are many things to consider for a great UX and UI design, but the best approach is to focus on keeping everything as simple and consistent as possible.
Fonts, colours and styles should be consistent with your brand throughout. If your app or website has various style of buttons that are different sizes and shapes then this can confuse the uer – and make it harder to use. It can also reflect badly on your overall branding.
By simple, we mean easy, hassle-free and enjoyable for the user. A menu on a webpage, for example, should help the visitor to access certain information quickly. If you add too many options then it can become harder to find things. The user experience isn’t so good.
Equally, the more someone has to click on linkson your site, or the longer a web page takes to load, the harder it is to enjoy the user experience, and it can even become frustrating.
Here are 3 things to consider when creating a great user experience:
Make the end objective THE easiest
Have you ever been to a website that’s full of links and text, but you can’t find a way to contact them? Understand what your web visitors are more likely trying to achieve and make that action as easy as possible.
If you know that the primary aim of your visitor is to get n touch to order from you, or to buy what’s in your online shop, then make the Contact Us or Buy button stand out.
Make them the easiest clickable part of your website.
So you’ve got links to Facebook, LinkedIn, Blogs, your privacy statement and much more… great, but all of these options distract from what most visitors (and you) really want, which is to explore your services and buy from you.
If a user can’t do what they want to, they will lose interest in your brand.
A clutter-free quality layout
The early days of the world wide web saw cluttered websites full of text and links – and very few images. Things have changed.
Today, a great looking website with clear, good quality images is vital.
Make sure that items don’t overlap and that there’s space around elements and – since most visitors to your website now access it on a mobile phone, make sure to have plenty of space between buttons. This helps to avoid visitors clicking (or pressing) on the wrong button!
Test your user experience and get feedback
When building a great user experience, it’s too easy to get too close to the project and not see things from a different perspective. A great way to overcome this is to test your design on other people (friends, colleagues, your closest customers) to see what they think.
This helps to raise feedback and ideas for features that you might not have considered. These improvements can lead to an even better user experience, and it reduces the risk of issues when you launch.
The last thing you want when launching a website or product is to have users say that it doesn’t do what they want it to – and you weren’t aware that might be an issue!
Need help with UX and UI?
At Kamreno, we work with clients to help develop and improve their UX/UI, whether that’s for website or product development. Get in touch today if you would like help with creating the best user experience and interface for your business – and more importantly, for your customers.
