What does UI Design have to do with sales and conversions? Short answer: Everything! Whenever users visit your website, they’re having an experience. This type of experience has a significant impact on their decision to continue interacting with your brand. Every aspect of your website needs to be carefully created with user interaction in mind.
If your users have a bad or jarring experience on your website, they are not going to return to it – let alone turn into customers. Any kind of frustration caused by poor design or complicated interfaces will damage your brand and in turn your bottom line.
Your website needs to be accessible, credible, valuable, and most importantly intuitive to use.
As per Ryan Singer, there are three main steps to design a good experience:
- Know what’s common to all people.
- Know what’s special about your users.
- Be empathetic to your users.
Designing a good website can be challenging and hard. Keep the following points in mind as you focus on your UI design.
Elements of Great UI Design
1. User Persona
The importance of focusing on your user first can not be overestimated. Visitors are going to decide in just a few minutes if your website is worthy of their time. Having attractive colors and a clean layout is not enough to convert your audience. Great UI design effectively communicates the personality of your brand and creates a good experience. It provides value to your target audience and builds loyalty. Keep your focus on the user’s needs during the design process. Don’t get sidetracked by shiny designs and trendy features.
2. Simplicity
Your UI design works best when your website visitors can figure out easily where they’re supposed to click to get what they want. The best page layouts and interfaces are frictionless to the user. They avoid unnecessary distractions and employ clarity in their messaging. When adding features or elements, be purposeful and consider whether it will enhance or diminish your visitor’s experience. Make sure to start with what’s absolutely essential and keep the interface clean and simple. Add and optimize your images, animations, and design elements so that they don’t slow the site down.
3. Consistency
Consistency is the key to a great user interface! Users will be more comfortable when you use common UI elements. Their eyes will get used to your website and they will be able to navigate your website and take actions seamlessly every time. Keep all your design elements consistent – be its page layout, navigation buttons, typography, color schemes, etc. Create patterns in layout, design, and messaging all across the site for efficiency.
4. Visual Hierarchy
Arranging elements in the order of importance is the crux of visual hierarchy. Consider which elements are important and structure them in a way to draw attention to the most important ones first. Play with fonts, size, color, images, white space, and style. Creating such a hierarchy will increase clarity and readability.
5. Navigation
Your website needs to have a clear path for the visitor to take. A clean navigation setup improves the possibility of the user finding the right information they need to complete the desired action. For long pages or one-page designs, you could include directional arrows to direct users through each section. Add a handy “Back to Top” button to take users to the top of the page.
Modern website and UI design are not restricted to aesthetics. A great user interface affects the audience’s perception of your brand, their behavior, and also influences your SEO and entire web presence.
