User Experience (UX) design is the process design teams use to create products that provide meaningful and relevant experience to user. As a content marketer you’ve probably built up a fair number of assumptions about your audience. But are these assumptions actually correct? Researchers have recently done some testing of website users and they have discovered that some of those regular assumptions we make are actually totally wrong. We have been lying to ourselves about our website users and how they react to what they see online.
Lie 1: Users Want a State of the Art Website:
Users generally do not come to your website because it has flash features. They come there to do something, buy something or learn something. They want to be able to do their aim as easily and quickly as possible. They have little patience for slow-loading websites that look pretty. They have been conditioned to believe webpages react in certain ways, and do not appreciate it if your page reacts differently. If you want to be innovative, and try something totally new, test it well before it goes live for your audience to see and experience.
Lie 2: Users of Your Website Always React in the Same Way:
Despite website users liking familiarity, as explained under Lie 1, that does not mean that they all react in an identical fashion. Different people have different ways of doing things. They also have different reasons for coming to your website in the first place. They have different tastes, and in the case of an e-commerce website they have different expectations of your products or services. Thrift shoppers will search and use the internet very differently from those people who are after specific brands and labels. The three types of learners – visual, audio and kinetic learners – will all react differently to different sections of your site. You want to provide material on your site that will interest a variety of potential users. As well as providing a number of different methods and ways for them to do things.
Lie 3: Your Website Users are Most Interested in your Home Page:
Some web developers and their clients focus all their energies into having the perfect home page. The reality is that it is just a staging point for most web users. They are far more interested in the content and the pages where the information they actually want is located. They may use the home page as a staging point, to get them to where they want to be, but that is about that. Often they will have followed a link to a specific page and will not go anywhere near your home page. Most search results for your business will lead to specific pages, rather than the home page. Make certain that you put as much effort into the creation of the content pages as you do your home page.
The home page should serve its purpose as a staging point, though. Make certain that it summarizes and displays the best features of the business. It needs to have very clear menus and navigation, so that the users can easily find the content that they want. The feature content displayed on the front page needs to be fresh and regularly changing. Possibly include attractive product advertisements, highlighting your products.
Lie 4: Users will stop Searching for Something after 3 Clicks:
This three-click-then-stop rule seems to be a generalization that has built up over time. Website users are only prepared to spend a limited time looking for something. But there is no magical number of clicks at which point they will give up looking. People will continue to search in a site as long as they can see clues that they are getting closer to their desired result. As long as your content is organized in a logical structure your users will continue to drill down through it. To find what they are looking for – they just need to have clues to suggest that they will find what they want.
Lie 5: The Color of the Button is Important:
This myth really does insult your users’ intelligence. While colors do admittedly affect people’s emotions. It would be naive to think that different colored buttons will influence your users’ decisions on whether to part with their hard-earned cash or not. Studies have shown that a button color has little impact on conversion rates. Your users will be affected by how professional your site looks. Though, and the colors you choose to decorate your site in does have an impact on that.
The overall color scheme may have an impact on different sexes and cultures, too. Test out and experiment with your color schemes, but don’t spend too much time worrying about the color of your BUY NOW button. Although by all means try some A/B testing on a red button versus a green button. If it does make a difference with your particular website users, change the button to the better-performing color.
Conclusion:
There have been many lies told over the years about what makes a successful website. Common belief is not necessary fact. There are many different types of website users and they all have their own patterns of behavior. The best way to build a successful website is to experiment. And take note of what works, and what doesn’t work, with your particular users.
About The Author
