What is UX design?

User experience design, also known as UX design, is the process of designing a product with the user in mind. UX design focuses on improving the usability, accessibility and enjoyment in interactions with your product. A website that utilizes UX design will be easy for the client to navigate through. This means that prospective or current customers will be able to find the information they want on your website quickly, and they will have plenty of chances to interact with your website. These interactions include filling out a contact form or watching a video.

The purpose of a company’s website is usually to help or inform prospective and/or current customers. A good website should be designed around what users want from your website. For example, if you own a retail store, users may want to find your store hours or shop online. If you own a restaurant, users need to be able to find your menu quickly and the menu (as well as the whole website) must be mobile responsive.

What can you do to make your website more user-friendly?

At WebDesign309, we have met with many clients who already had a website, but their website wasn’t converting into new customers. The most common reason why their websites were not converting was because their original websites were not user-friendly.

Luckily, if you’re worried about your website’s usability, there are some simple ways you can make your website more user-friendly.

1. Make your navigation simple and convenient

You don’t need every page on your website to be visible in your navigation. However, users should still be able to use the navigation bar to find that they need. If you own an insurance company, it would be a bad idea to have all your services visible in your navigation bar all the time because the navigation bar would be too cluttered. Instead, you can have a button in the navigation that says “Services.” Then, when a user hovers over the “Services” button, a drop-down can appear with all your different insurance services listed. This way, someone who is only looking for home insurance or business insurance can easily find what they need.

2. Increase speed by decreasing photo and video files

If your website is loading slowly, customers will become frustrated or bored and leave. One quick way to increase website speed is by compressing your website images. You don’t need to upload images that are 2 MB or larger. These will cause your website to load slowly. Instead, resize photos before you add them.

Videos will also cause your website to load slower than the average website with no videos. To solve this problem, you can place videos on your website that are fed through another site, like YouTube. This way, the video file isn’t on your website and does not take up extra space in your server.

3. Make sure users can contact you

Last but not least, you want your website to convert customers. In order for your website to convert, users must be able to contact you. Add your phone number in the header of your website, include a contact page with your email address, phone number, address and directions and add a contact form for people who would rather contact you through your website. Increasing the ways users can contact you and making it easier for them to find your contact information will help increase conversions.

Want to learn more about UX design?

These are just a few ways to make your website more user-friendly. If you would like to learn more about UX design, call us today at (309) 213-9398. You can stop in for a free, no-obligation consultation. WebDesign309 is here to help businesses grow.

Now that a wealth of information can be found online and on smartphones, most business owners know how important it is to have a website. However, there are many factors you need to consider when building a website. Making sure your site is mobile responsive is important to today’s users, and so is getting on page #1 of Google search results for relevant keywords. Once your website is built and optimized, the next important factor is finding the right web host.

Choosing the Right Web Host

You want users to find your site through Bing, Yahoo and Google, but where is your new website parked, and who is making sure nothing happens to it? A web host is a company that stores your website’s files on their server so your site can be delivered to your customers’ browsers.

Our Web Hosting Tips

At WebDesign309, we are asked about the differences between web hosts frequently, and we offer standard and premium web hosting to protect our clients’ websites. To help every business owner decide where to place their website files, here is a short list of features you should consider when comparing web hosts:

1. Backups: There are many reasons why you might need a backup of your website one day. In case an admin of your website messes up the layout while trying to edit your site or your site gets hacked, you can use a backup to restore your website from before the edit or hack.

Any changes made on your site after the backup was taken, though, would be lost. That’s why it’s not just important to make sure your web host will save backups of your website, but that they will save backups of your website frequently.

2. Security: There are skilled hackers out there who have figured out that best way to hack many websites at once is by hacking a popular plugin. You want your website files in the hands of a web host who will not only scan your website for vulnerabilities, but also fix problems or security threats that they detect.
3. Customer Service: Do you have a number you can call for questions about your web hosting package, or if you detect that your website has been hacked? You should be able to trust your web host to keep your website safe and to answer your calls.
4. Updates: Oftentimes, plugins used on your website or the theme used to build your site may require critical updates. A good web host will regularly check your website for critical updates and make sure they are taken care of. If someone isn’t checking for updates, this could break your website’s theme.

Contact Us About Web Hosting Today!

If you need help choosing the right web host or if you have questions about hosting, call our office today at 309-213-9398! At WebDesign309, we are happy to help our clients make informed decisions about their websites.

Today we launched a new website for Captain Moe’s Lucky Fleet located in Key West, Florida.  Be sure to visit their website for information on the Best Fishing in Key West!