User experience, or UX, is the process of creating a design that provides a meaningful and relevant experience for users as they browse. User experience design is often used with terms such as “user interface” and “usability” as prominent UX design elements, but the concept covers many other areas. It encompasses the whole process of acquiring and integrating a service or product, including aspects related to branding, design, usability, and troubleshooting.
What is user experience?
We have experiences with everything we use. Whether it’s a can opener, a glass door in a busy office, or a more complex web service such as a netbank. In business terms, the consequence is that even if you have a brilliant idea, if your customers or prospective customers have a bad experience when using your website, it is doomed to fail in the long run. This is where user experience comes in.
UX is a multidisciplinary design methodology that aims to influence the user experience. The ultimate goal is to ensure that users leave as satisfied as possible after each touchpoint.
UX design (UXD) is very similar to the methodology of science: we research users, develop solutions to user and business problems, and test whether our ideas work in practice.
Although it’s a complex process, it’s still possible to find easy-to-apply, almost always successful UX improvement options. Here are a few:
1. Consistency should not be a bargaining chip
Consistency means that the design looks the same from page to page, device to device (mobile and desktop). So consistency gives them a sense of security, so they’ll be happy to return to consistent websites and apps later.
2. Simplicity is your friend
The impressive design is important, but most users don’t come to a website to admire its appearance.
Instead, they navigate to a website to perform a specific action or find information. Self-serving features only hinder the achievement of their goals. For example, it is easy to find out from web analytics if a feature is not being used by visitors. This is exactly why I will focus on one of the best web analytics tools, session replay, at the end of this article.
3. Speak the language of the user
One of the important principles of usability is that “the system and the real world are comparable”. In other words: speak the language of the user! The user will read everything he or she needs to, but only if it is written properly. Communicate in a human tone, to the point, without roundabouts and foreign words.
4. Load speed above all else
The user is always in a hurry. You can’t blame them for that, because the system is for the people, not the other way around. If the user doesn’t get what they’re looking for within 10 seconds, they leave the site. Consider this number as a rule of thumb and develop pages that load lightning-fast.
5. A mobile-friendly website is not an issue
Some fashionable web design trends may be obsolete tomorrow, but mobile accessibility is not one of them. People browse from mobile while traveling, sometimes at work, and anytime when a desktop computer is not nearby. They understandably expect information to be quickly accessible regardless of device.
6. Use identifiable links
It may seem unbelievable to mention this, but to this day a common usability flaw we encounter on the web in our projects is that links within a page are not recognizable. A link should have three simple properties:
- Recognisable by color (often blue)
- It is distinguishable by color even if it has been clicked on before
- The link text tells you where it leads
Try to apply these three simple principles consistently to links within your site.
7. Write 404 pages!
A 404, or page not found, is an unexpected response from the user’s point of view, so they have little incentive not to leave if they encounter it. Regularly monitor 404s (for example, using Google Search Console) and try to keep their rate close to 0.
8. Help your users
Ideally, your website should be so well designed that you don’t need help to use it. Sometimes, however, help can come in handy for more complex applications, in which case provide your users with easy-to-access and understand user guides.
9. Have a usable internal search engine
On a website, the internal search engine, or more specifically the search results page, is one of the most popular page types. It’s critical, for example, for online shops, users who use it are more likely to make a purchase (if it works well, of course).
The most important thing is that the results are relevant. In specific cases, such as a significant number of product attributes, use filters to help the user navigate.
10. Ask your users
From a UX point of view, it’s a given that your users are using your website, not you. You can’t figure out most user experience bugs yourself, simply because you know too much about your site to do so.
The best way to change this is to ask flesh-and-blood people what their problems are with your website.
Now, let’s move on to how web analytics and session replay relate to improving the user experience.
What is session replay?
Session replay is a web analytics tool that allows web developers to improve the performance of their websites. They visually represent a user’s mouse movements and clicks, scrolling and typing during a website session.
Session replay is a tool that analyses user behavior to improve your website’s usability and conversion rate. Understanding visitor intent is a good way to target marketing or product development efforts. Session replay is a great tool to find out what consumers are experiencing and why they are leaving your site or app.
Session replay is a great way to find out what your visitors are struggling with and why they are leaving your site or app. Then go back to the beginning and repeat the process for fewer “game-changing” problems.
Why is session replay useful?
1. Session replay can increase conversion rates
This is undoubtedly the most significant benefit of session replay. It has the potential to greatly improve the functionality of your website. This tool will give you a significant competitive advantage over your competitors in this sector.
With session replay, you can find sessions that have errors (e.g. if a click results in a JavaScript error). Identifying problems and potential errors on your site are critical if you want to provide an easy-to-use user interface. Session replays are useful for identifying where on your site users are not finding what they are looking for and leaving.
2. Session replay can help you better understand your users
By observing how users navigate your site, you can better understand them. You can see all their mouse movements, scrolling, and clicking, so you can get a good idea of what they’re thinking. It can also help you to better understand your users, for example, what they like and don’t like about your site.
3. Session replay can detect user frustration
The session replay tool records all visitor interactions and can also detect signs of user dissatisfaction. Some programs can detect angry clicks that occur when users repeatedly click on certain elements of a website. Some session replay tools can detect when users leave your site or application.
4. Session replay can prevent hacking
Who wouldn’t want to own a secure website? Some tools available on the market can detect potentially harmful attacks on your site. Not least, you can use session replay to detect suspicious activity on your site.
5. Session replay can improve your company’s customer service
Customers must be properly served, and session replay can also help you do this. You may wonder why one of your customers contacted your customer service department.
Viewing session replays can solve problems with a lack of information. Customer service can also use the session replay feature for shared browsing to find out what users are seeing and help guide them through the site.
6. Use session replay to fix bad UX design
Session replays help improve conversion rates, reduce bounce rates, and provide feedback about your site. In terms of design quality, users are generally quite demanding, so a poorly designed site can turn them off and leave them abandoned. It is possible that the overall design is not ideal and needs to be improved if there are no errors or broken links on the site.
7. Session replay helps with presentation
If you have an idea to present to your superiors and you want to implement it in your company, a session replay comes in handy. These session replays can be used as a graphic illustration to show users some of your problems.
Summary
As you can see, there are a lot of things you can use session replays for, and they can help you to have a higher conversion rate for your website and improve the user experience. All it requires is that you need to take the offer of an external web analytics provider and invest in this web analytics tool. It’s an investment, but believe me, it will pay off and you’ll be the owner of a much more effective website and your website traffic will improve. Just go for it and trust the service provider, they will surely recommend the best for you.
