5 Essential Design Details to Improve User Experience on a Website

In a digital world where popularity of internet solutions and online shopping continues to reach new heights, user experience on websites has never been more important.

No matter how good your product or service is, if users can't easily navigate your website (and enjoy the experience while they're at it), you're probably not going to land a sale.

That's why today, we highlight five web design essentials and tips for improving user experience on a website.

1. Call in a Design Professional

First off, just to get it out of the way, if you don't have training or experience designing websites, you should engage the services of a professional UI design agency.

While this will obviously come with a certain level of outlay, it is an important investment in your business and will cost you far less than having a poorly put-together site that loses you sales and leads.

Professionals are on top of what works and what doesn't, and they know how to create a site that converts. In short, they can make your online presence shine while you focus on building your business.

2. Have Fast Load Times

Another thing that isn't considered as much as it should be is your page load speed. Not only is this vital for search engine optimization, but it could also be the difference between someone becoming a lifelong customer or abandoning your site before it (slowly) loads.

For every second that your page takes to load, leads are slipping away. So, it is important to optimize your site to function as quickly and smoothly as possible.

3. Be Mobile-Friendly

It really shouldn't need to be said at this point, but a mobile-friendly website is vital to your success.

With smartphones being the main way users access the internet these days, a mobile-friendly (or even mobile-first) design is an intelligent choice indeed.

4. Minimize Pop-Ups

We all know how important it is to grow your mailing list, especially when you're first starting out. Those hot leads are your easiest conversions, and having a collection of direct contacts is a great way to share insider promotions and information.

Unfortunately, too many people have decided that the best way to grow their mailing list is to spam them with pop-ups until they relent and enter their details. In reality, all you'll succeed in doing is annoying your audience and scaring off potential customers.

There are even guides on how to block these pop-ups functions on websites. People hate them that much.

Stick to a single pop-up that has an option for it to not be displayed to the user again. An additional pop-up may be accepted in the event of a promotion or sale, but any more than this and you'll really be stretching the relationship.

5. Link Properly 

Finally, in terms of user experience, few things will annoy someone as much as a link that doesn't go where they expect it to lead.

Anything that can be clicked should clearly show that it is clickable (whether that be through the use of different text color, underlined text, a button graphic, or some other method).

More importantly, it should go exactly where the user expects it to go based on the text included.

If I promised you a recipe for chicken but then sent you to a page about pork, you'd be pretty mad, right? The same goes for your customers if you suggest that something will take them somewhere and then they end up someplace else entirely.

Now you know how to improve the user experience on your site, it's time to put these tips into action. Good luck!