UX flaws in your website can negatively affect your company’s conversion rates. While it might be tempting to perform a complete overhaul of your website, you should take the time to consider the smaller, overlooked issues your website might have. UXAX breaks down the four most common UX flaws that web designers overlook.
Where do you want to draw your customers’ eyes toward? The CTA? The daily promotion? Whatever it is, the desired action should jump out to your visitor. Play with visual elements such as color, positioning, contrast, shape and size to organize and place an emphasis on the components you want visitors to focus on.
Check out Skype’s homepage:
What did you notice first? Chances are your eyes went to the call to action because of its contrasting and prominent, blue button. Although it’s not smack dab in the center of the page, the button somewhat offsets from the rest of the color scheme and is easy to identify.
Using visual and directional cues can also help guide your visitors’ line of sight. For example, directing a photo of a baby turned toward your webpage’s copy can draw your viewers’ eyes toward it. This phenomenon is demonstrated in the photos below.
In the competitive online market, you need to clearly articulate why customers should choose you over your competitors. This is where your value proposition comes in. However many online businesses have trouble conveying this. Follow these four tips to help you stand out:
1. Recognize the need: Understanding the customer’s need is the most important thing to recap in your value proposition.
2. Introduce the solution: This is where you have the right to brag about what your product can do for the customer and all of the benefits.
3. Show differentiation: You should never drag another company through the dirt in order to get a leg up. Instead, subtly point out common complaints customers make in your business and present your ways of solving them that are unlike any other.
4. Provide proof: Testimonials, research, case studies and success stories helps to give you some serious credibility.
Here’s an example of a killer value proposition by Uber:
Without candidly saying so, Uber highlights all the reasons why taking a traditional taxi is often cumbersome and costly. With Uber, a car comes directly to you with a simple tap. Your driver is already aware of where you’re heading and payment is completely processed through your smartphone — no cash needed. No longer do you need to worry about waving down a taxi, trying to explain to a flustered cab driver where to go or fumbling for extra cash.
You need to eliminate any obstacles stalling your customer from making a purchase. Every hurdle a customer has to jump is another chance for them to reconsider their buy. Here are some of the many reasons why customers abandon their carts:
The good news is, many of these issues can be fixed through design changes. For instance, many visitors do not want to sign up for a store account in order to purchase something online. Many customers would rather not deal with numerous emails that tend to accompany a store membership. Free People does a great job not only giving you to option to checkout as a guest but also to not receive promotional emails by unchecking their little blue box. It is reassuring to know I won’t receive endless emails and just a confirmation email about my order.
Progress indicators are also a great way of showing a clear funnel to the checkout and all the required steps to get there. This also shows the customer that there is an end to the madness and they don’t have to keep guessing when they’re almost done. Dollar Shave Club is a prime example:
Mastering the design of your checkout process is a tricky thing to do. Just last year, the average cart abandonment rate was 76.8%! If your checkout is poorly designed, then your conversion rate will inevitably suffer. Therefore, you should make sure your checkout is eye-catchy and clear.
First impressions mean everything when it comes to a website’s design. If yours looks like it was designed decades ago then you’re in trouble. Visitors will assume you’re either no longer in business or are untrustworthy.
Keep up with the latest trends in web design by checking on your competitors and conducting some of your own research. Your content or copy may be genius, but just one glance of something like this will scare everyone away:
I really doubt that your website is this dated. But, sometimes the best way to learn what a good design looks like is to look at the bad ones, too. A small detail such as a font or color scheme can indicate that you’re stuck in the times.
It’s easy to overlook small details that turn visitors off in a matter of seconds. Everything your website does should be about the user’s experience and constantly optimizing ways of improving it. To get your conversion rates just where you want them, you’ll need to experiment and test a good bit with the smallest of details. After all, testing always beats guessing.
