Web Design Usability

Web design usability is probably one of the most obvious and yet over looked factor in web design and planning. It goes without saying the idea behind most websites is to offer customers and users access to either product or service information. Alternatively you have a lifestyle or information source blog. However , the rules are the same and the prime motivation for the website will be to communicate key information to your web users. So what happens when users don’t find what they are looking for? They leave is the obvious one here but they also leave with a negative experience of your business or brand.

However, great web design usability will not only create a good customer experience it will also benefits how search engines categories your website and rank it.

Web Design Usability Tips

Website Search

One of the most important factors effecting your website usability is the search. A website search box will offer users instant access to what they want and when they want it. This could explain why search engines are the most popular websites on the Internet. Thankfully we can use that technology and include Google on site search for your users. If you have a large product portfolio or services information, it is essential for those users to access this information with ease. Websites like Amazon and EBay are focused around search, which has given them the competitive edge online. Do the same for your users web usability.

Titles, Keywords and Descriptions

Once again all very obvious but sometimes not so much to your users. Having descriptive titles and keywords reassures users they are on the right path to their chosen area. It also worth remembering people don’t like spending large periods of time reading online and are more search/task orientated – that’s why you must offer users ways to skim content by titles and descriptions so they can find what they are looking for. Another good trick is to ensure keywords or links for keywords are represented at the beginning and end of paragraphs. Good web design usability is about copy structure.

Site Maps, Bread Crumbs and Descriptions

Having a clear, accessible, broken down by category site map is another way for users to find what they are looking for on your website. People will not always know what they are looking for but with a broken down by link site map users will both be able to get an idea of the site navigation and contents.  Great web design usability is about offering your users ease of access.

Contact Information

Offering users the ability to contact you on the site, particularly areas which present shopping intent ie at the checkout, along the product path, service path, etc will add better usability to your website. Email address, phone numbers, maps, etc will all go towards offering your user a better website experience – and will directly contribute to your bottom line. Great web design and web design usability is about offering your users communication.

Rich Media

Those all important pictures offer both comfort your users are in the right place but also communicate visually what your copy is saying. Rich media means anything from photo’s, videos, slips, etc. People are also far more engaged in video than traditional writing – so from capturing and retaining attention these are important factors in web design usability.

Here at WebAgency we understand the governing factors around web usability and the effects on your bottom line.

What’s SEO Web Design?

SEO Web Design or friendly SEO Web Design is the practice of creating and building user friendly website that will also maximize online visibility on search engines. Apart from people typing in your exact web address to reach your site or through back links, search engines are going to be your main traffic driver to your site. It’s essential when you decide to design a site that you are aware of the implications you can have on search traffic with seo web design.

The most beautiful site in the world is going to fall down fast if it is not indexed and crawled by search engines. That’s why our experienced SEO web design experts know how both web design and search engines work. We specialise in web design strategies that also integrate with your commercial requirements, driven by user experience and search engine friendly design.

We can design, build, code and activate superior websites that draw on best practice user experience and are fully search engine compatible. What makes us different? We draw on our SEO expertise when developing every site.

The top 3 SEO Web Design mistakes

Flash Page

Web designers LOVE flash and it’s easy to see why – visually it can be brilliant. However, Google, Bing, Yahoo or other search engines cannot read flash and instead just ignore it. This can be detrimental to your website traffic, especially if you have a big enter sign before your site loads (yes, we see a lot of this). Worst case scenario is the enter link is embedded in flash and won’t let the spider in to crawl your site.

Flash menus

Once again they look great – you know the ones, they fade in and out and look “slick” – however, you are stopping the search spider from travelling through your site and stopping any chance of SEO web design best practice.

Ajax over load

Developers love trying to impress user with implementation of Ajax and features – especially for site navigation, however this is a big search engine optimization faux pais. Do to dynamically loaded content, Ajax elements are not crawled or indexed by spiders.

e commerce website design

Website Design

E commerce website design is probably one of the most challenging and rewarding projects we do for clients. A good web design agency should be able to understand your communication objectives, commercial requirements and most importantly end users needs. It’s the ability to take all of these points and create a unique and pleasurable shopping experience for your customers that drives a successful online shop.

Once you have made the decision to create an online market place to sell your goods and services to existing or new customers, its time to consider what kind of shopping experience you want those customers to have. If you have an offline shop its important to understand why people choose your business and where can you increase customer satisfaction online.

Online and offline retail is different, however its the ability to meet your customers expectations and deliver on your promise that will ensure customer loyalty and recurring revenues.

Things to consider when creating an e commerce website:

E commerce website design

The website design for ecommerce websites should be clean, simple, easy to navigate and product accessible from multiple points. Its the ability to present your offering and not overwhelm your user will ensure they find what they want when they want. Things such as product ratings, user reviews and technical/product info will all increase trust and drive sales.

Search engine optimisation

This is probably the most important factor when planning your e commerce website design. This is critical if you want your store homepage, product pages, review pages, to appear when your potential customers are searching for your product or services. Because over 60% of your website traffic will eventually end up coming from search engines, its critical that before, during and after the web design stage search engine optimization (SEO) is at the centre or your customer acquisition strategy.

E commerce tools

There are a number of e commerce tools for consideration when setting up your online store, including e payments, shopping carts,  payment gateways, invoicing, post purchase communication, email confirmations, Realex or Sagepay integration, Paypal, etc.

It is important to communicate trust to the user at critically important decision making times on the shopping path. A user must be assured they are dealing with a reputable retailer and feel comfortable exchanging sensitive personal and financial information. Good web design and clear communication will reinforce message and trust.

Marketing & advertising

Once the website design, development and third party e commerce integration is complete you will need to start promoting your online store. This is where many small businesses fail to follow through and capitalise on the work done so far. It’s important to understand that without a customer acquisition strategy it will be impossible to drive sales.

Marketing and advertising consist of; search engine optimisation, online advertising, online pr, search engine marketing, display advertising, pay per click advertising, email marketing, social media marketing, discounts, vouchers, competitions and more. It’s important to know your budget and customer acquisition costs.

E commerce website design has the ability to significantly increase customer satisfaction – and in turn your bottom line.

How to do good landing page design.

The need to design a good website landing page / home page for your site is essential.

This is the single most important page on your site. From here your users will have to be reassured this is the site they are looking for and they can reach their intended goal either immediately or within no more than a couple of clicks. This all needs to be communicated with good landing page design and copy.

This has to be the page where most websites go wrong. Why do most websites design bad pages? Well it’s down to trying to communicate your thoughts and goals and not seeing it from the users perspective. Websites should be built with customer in mind and work back from there. So here’s what we typically do before designing your site:

Investigate your current metrics or analytics
From reviewing your analytics we can see where your current site is performing and falling down from a landing page design perspective. Firstly we need to review your traffic sources and bounce rates. Anything over 30% bounce rate and you have a problem.
By looking at the keywords your customers are finding your site with we see what they are actually looking for. If your site is not meeting their expectations from the landing or home page then you will have a high bounce rate. Remember the proposition which brought the user in must also meet their expectations – otherwise you are over promising and not delivering.

Keyword research (secret to good landing page design)
Typically we run keyword research for exact and related key terms to your business. With this information we can tell what what your customers are actually interested in and how they search for your business. This is great information as it allows us to tell you how people search for your business and not how you think they are. People tend to search by using language that comes naturally to them as apposed to your industry vernacular. This is how your website needs to communicate with those potential customers.

The research carried out here will help you catagoriese your business as well as helping your understand what real-estate to devote to each part of your business/service/product.

Website real-estate and importance
This is the part where you decide what is the most important part of your business and how you want to present this. We now utilise heat maps or heat signatures of the web page in order to ensure your key message is presented in order of importance. It’s very iomportant to remember the largest viewed section of the site is the “above the fold” area and from left to right. Your imessage of importance needs to take advantage of this.

Good landing page web design is about understanding what your target market are looking for and giving them what they want.

Welcome to our web design blog

This is the first in a series of many web design blogs we’ll be putting together to let our customers know what’s happening in the world of digital design. Of course there will be general best practices for all user design interface (UI) but we’ll also be focusing on specifics such as landing pages and conversion funnels, e commerce, content optimisation, social media integration, newsletter design and metrics to help you reach your goals.

We are passionate about good web design and visual communication – but also user experience. Websites must be innovative, intuitive and most importantly a pleasure to use. We look forward to sharing best practice wed design and digital marketing techniques with you.

If there are anything you would like us to cover please just ask.

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