By Henry Brown
Even before today’s customers have set eyes on your products and services, they will have already judged you. By surveying over your website, consumers will make a split-second decision whether to carry on or give up. Even if they choose the former, as to how far they will carry on is just about anybody’s guess. That’s why leaving nothing up to chance in your website design is a fundamental route for user experience satisfaction. But how would you begin to satisfy your customers just through the design of your ecommerce website?
From left to right
Look on any search engine and you’ll find that the page writing and links on are on the left-hand side. If a customer was to click on your link, their cursor would inherently be on the left-hand side. So putting the most popular links closer to their natural cursor position will smooth the experience. Using the UserZoom solutions for designers, you can create functional prototypes and staging environments for which to test your layout. They will also recruit the kinds of testers from the general public that would be most likely to shop in your industry. Thus you’re receiving feedback that is relevant to predicted experiences. Using their heatmap solution, you can see which links are clicked on more. If you see whether a link on the right side of the page is more popular than a link on the left. Switch places accordingly so the user doesn’t have to move the mouse so much and their eyes match their desires.
Custom-made graphics
In the last decade, the business website saw the rise of automated video backgrounds. When a user would enter the website, there would be a video playing in the background, showing what the business was about. However, everything else had small incremental changes done to it. For 2020, it seems like custom-made graphics are going to make a return. The average user has far better internet now than a decade ago. Thus, despite past fears that motion graphics might slow down the machine of your consumer, this doesn’t seem to be realistic today. This gives you plenty of opportunities to not just express who you are but to make your business website unique. How about a mascot that moves on the page at the start of the load? Perhaps the logo could move when one were to hover their cursor over it. Animated links might also be something to consider. The more your website moves, the more it feels alive.
Stop with the contrasts!
Notice how most websites now have an obsession with contrasting gradients? It’s shockingly overdone, so don’t fall victim to its now inherently blandness. Most of the time, the contrast will be of a sheer white background with a color that is taken from your logo. No more contrasts, get more creative with your drawing and function or service descriptions.
Keep the most popular links close to the left-hand side of the page as it makes for a far smoother experience. Custom graphics makes your website design unique, which is always a highly desirable trait.
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Henry Brown is an online marketing executive. When he isn’t talking shop, he’s roaming the streets of London, uncovering the extra-ordinary in the ordinary.
