Are you losing users due to a poor customer website journey? Many of our customers are looking to improve conversion rates, drive increased revenue and increase retention. So it’s little wonder we are often asked how to optimise and measure user experience.
As the number one digital solutions provider in and around Brisbane, optimising is the cornerstone of what we do. We understand this area very well. So join us to find out the definitive way to ensure your visitors have a first-class user experience. Understand your target market and research needs. Discover how visitors are using your site using tools such as scroll maps. Make sure your site has a simple design, uses visuals and is optimised for mobile. Measure experience using average time on task, task success, user error KPIs and other ways.
Research, Research, Research
Although it’s crucial to understand your target market and reach the right audience for your brand, all your hard work could be for nothing if you don’t effectively optimise and measure user experience. Before fully giving your users an outstanding experience, research is king. What exactly do you want your site to do, and who is it for?
Survey, polls, statistics
Understanding entirely what your users want and expect is the critical place to start when optimising user experience in Brisbane or anywhere else across the globe.Answer questions before you begin, such as what will you offer your users that competitors don’t? How can I best meet their needs, and crucially, who is my audience?
At the design stage of your website, you need to know as much as possible about your target market. The best way to get up to date information is to conduct your own surveys and polls, alongside gathering statistics and using Google searches.
Understand User Behaviour
The latest figures from experts tell us that at the time of writing, there were a colossal five billion users across the globe. So it’s more important than ever to ensure a smooth and meaningful user experience for your visitors. Understanding how your users navigate your site is crucial to giving visitors the best experience.
Scroll maps
A scroll map is a simple tool that, in a nutshell, shows where your visitors are doing the most activity.White or red indicates the high points, blue spots are areas of your site's little used and green shows the spaces in between.
Simple Design
Although it’s tempting to add a myriad of bells and whistles to your site, a simple, straightforward design will give your visitors a much smoother ride. Try to stick to two colours, three at most and give your users plenty of white space. This will give your users a much more clickable layout, which will bring more conversions.
Use a maximum of two fonts plus your logo to not overwhelm your users. A clean and simple design is more engaging and helps to optimise your user's experience.
More Visuals
When faced with a huge wall of text, many users will be put off and most likely run to your competitor's sites, especially if they are more visual-based. Sites such as Pinterest have nailed this, and it’s pretty clear from its success that images, when done well, can help drive crucial revenue. Adding a simple gallery or an occasional video can help give your users a break from the text. Mix up the formatting to keep your site fresh and engage your users in a more relaxed way. Add photos and screenshots to blog articles for a more straightforward user journey. By breaking up lengthy posts with a few images, you can create a better environment that will prompt a longer time on the page and drive sales.
Devices
With the number of mobile users in Australia alone reaching a staggering 23.6 million by 2026, it’s no surprise that mobile users will make up a significant part of your audience. Making sure your site is as mobile-friendly as possible is crucial as this segment of your users is set to grow. Our expert web designers choose mobile-friendly themes from day one. We also make sure that menus are created with the best user experience in mind.A chaotic menu can make it tricky for users to find what they want. A good selection of clear sub-menus will mean mobile users have a simpler, more uncluttered experience when navigating your site.
How to Measure User Experience
With some of the ways to ensure your customers can easily get what they need from your site, how can you track whether it’s working? Take a look below at some of the important metrics, and KPIs needed to capture crucial customer success.
Average time on task
This key performance indicator (or KPI) lets you know how long a visitor spends on any specific task on your site. In a nutshell, the quicker they can finish a task, the better the overall user experience. For an even better measurement of user experience, this works well when broken down into two parts: how long they spend the first time they attempt the task and the length of subsequent attempts.This works well on tasks your users need to do repeatedly, so it isn’t as useful, for instance, on-site registration.
Task success rate
As the best digital designers in Brisbane, it's crucial to make sure our websites are simple to use to maximise user experience. So, alongside the length of time that your users spend on each task, the ultimate success of each function your user performs is important when measuring their experience. This can help digital designers have a fundamental understanding of how your visitors experience your site and at each stage of their journey. Any task with a defined result, such as signing up or adding a product to a cart, can be quantified to enhance your user's experience when using your website.
User error
This KPI measures wrong entries attempted by your users. They are known as UERs. The most common way digital designers in Australia and worldwide measure user error is how many times it’s possible to make the same error. Looking at the dates of birth field can help identify visitors' experiences on your site. This website area is often one of the most incorrectly added by customers. Higher UER scores mean a less user-friendly site.
System usability scale
This is a simple 10 point questionnaire that helps understand how usable a website is for its visitors. The System Usability Scale, known as SUS, can help designers locate any common problem areas on the user's journey. A website needs to score 68 or over. A lower score indicates a website with some potentially serious issues.The questionnaire has five answers ranging from strongly disagree to strongly agree and requires respondents to choose the most suitable.Therefore, if your website scores below 68, it will typically have serious flaws and will need to be optimised
In Summary
We hope that anyone seeking to improve visitor journeys and also how to accurately capture and measure that information, head over to discover how we can help here.
As one of Brisbane’s leading digital agencies, we help drive solutions by offering powerful branding, content and advertising. Our digital experts understand how important it is to give your website visitors a seamless, engaging experience while providing an on-brand, well-crafted website.
