How to Make Your Website More User Friendly‍

What makes a website user-friendly?

A user-friendly website is one that meets visitors' expectations. This is a site where information is easy to scan, content is well organized and aesthetics are on point.

If you want to improve your UX design practice, follow these suggestions:

Make it accessible

Everyone should be able to navigate your site, from kids to elderly people. An accessible website uses clear letter fonts and colors, informative headings and a concise menu.

Make it consistent

Follow a structure and design your website accordingly. All the elements in your site need to look coherent as a whole to engage your audience. The typography and page layout must stick to your brand guidelines.

Make it attractive

Everybody loves a good-looking website. To make your site more visually appealing you can embrace color psychology and add multimedia assets where applicable.

This is just the tip of the iceberg for website usability. Next, you’ll find an in-depth guide that will help you build a more welcoming and memorable site for your business.

4 hints to creating a user-friendly website

Design an intuitive website

Source: LateralConcept.

Intuitive web design makes people's life easier. Intuitiveness refers to the ability users have to perceive naturally what comes next and what steps they need to take to complete an action.

When customers visit your homepage, they should be able to know what product you offer at a glance. They should know how to open the main menu and go to your blog or contact form page. In 10-20 seconds, you need to get their full attention and give them a seamless navigation experience to make them stay for longer and make a purchase.

According to a study published by Nielsen Norman Group , this is the average time a user spends on a website before leaving. This means you have just a few seconds to convince potential clients your services are better than the ones of your competitors.

How can you make your business website intuitive to use? Here’s a list of the best UX/UI practices top companies like Airbnb and Dropbox apply on their sites:

• Short and engaging copy

  Go straight to the point and tell your users how you can help them on your homepage. For example, ‘Store. Sync. Share. Sign. Simple.’

  
  

• Conversational language

  Talk like a human, not like a robot. For example, ‘What product can we help you find?’

  
  

• Descriptive images

  Images talk to people. Use pictures that relate to your industry and generate a reaction from your audience. Avoid stock images.

  
  

• Gentle color palettes

  Use colors that are pleasing to the eye. Red causes excitement, while blue and green are calming colors.

  
  

• Smooth transitions and animations

  Risky, but highly effective if done well. Users interact with the website and enjoy a fun experience before buying.

  
  

• Easy purchase

  Guide your customers through a simple 3-4 step purchase process. Anticipate their decisions and close the deal.

  
  

Build a responsive website

Did you know that 60% of web traffic comes from mobile phones? As of May 2022, more than half of people navigating the internet use smartphones to check social media or buy products online.

If you want to build a user-friendly website, you must offer customers a consistent navigation experience across all platforms and devices. Whether they're working on a desktop or a tablet, they need to feel that all of their needs are met.

A responsive site adapts to different screen sizes and layouts. To optimize your business website, consider these aspects:

• Set the responsive breakpoints

  These are the screen size values from where your site ‘activates’ responsive mode. Check the most popular screen devices' resolution to adapt the content to your user’s requirements

  
  

• Choose a pre-designed layout

  CMS like WordPress or Wix have multiple free responsive themes and layouts you can use. Pre-designed layouts are easier and less time-consuming to implement

  
  

• Add responsive media elements

  Use tag attributes or dynamic values when adding images to your site. Some CMS do this process automatically with no coding involved

  
  

• Test your site

  Check how your website appears on all types of devices with a responsive testing tool

  
  

Website responsiveness plays a key role in SEO. Search engines favor mobile-friendly and responsive websites over those that aren’t optimized. Google ranks better sites that are designed to work both on desktop and portable devices.

Make your business website fully responsive to get on the first page of Google and boost your traffic!

Follow your brand guidelines

Source: Behance

Consistency is one aspect to keep in mind when building a user-friendly website. Does your content follow a logical structure? Does it reflect your brand identity?

To answer these questions, first, you need to create brand guidelines for your business. If you haven’t spent time yet thinking about your personality as a company, focus on these elements:

• Colors

  Set a color palette and use it across all your brand channels and communications. Choose a core color and 2-3 secondary colors. Think about your industry and the reaction colors can have in your target audience

  
  

• Typography

  Find a font that connects with your brand identity. See how shapes and letters arouse emotions in the readers. Learn from your favorite brands and how their customers can easily relate a font to a product

  
  

• Logos

  Design your primary logo and other variations. You may want to include symbols and text to differentiate the multiple versions. Use a free design platform to create your logo and add your brand's colors and typography

  
  

• Images

  Produce in-house media elements and try not to use stock images. Decide when and where you want to use pictures, illustrations and infographics. State in your style guide what type of images are the ones that enhance your brand mission and values

  
  

• The tone of voice

  Decide how you want to transmit your brand messages to your audience. This can vary depending on who’s your buyer persona. Is your brand voice functional? Is it aggressive with some bits of acid humor?

  
  

Following brand guidelines show you care about your product and it powers your brand character and reputation. Customers will be able to recognize your business with a word, a picture or even a color.

Be coherent and build a well-structured website to improve your client’s user experience!

Add effective CTAs

A call-to-action (CTA) guides prospective customers and converts them into clients. These are links or buttons that persuade users to click and complete an action, typically a purchase.

CTAs are essential to set up a user-friendly site. They tell visitors what to do next and they facilitate the buying cycle. An effective CTA sells a product or service on its own. No need for jargon. No buzzwords. Just a clear and short message that can make you win the buyer’s heart.

Make sure you follow these tips to create compelling CTAs and improve your click-through rate:

• Use command verbs

  Be clear and concise. Tell your customers exactly what they need to do with verbs like ‘buy’, ‘download’ or ‘subscribe’. The shortest and more direct the text, the better

  
  

• Provoke emotions

  Sell your product or service using primal human emotions. Create a sensation of urgency, play with pleasure desires and encourage the feeling of love.

  
  

• Add numbers

  Proof your statement with powerful data. Use stats and great discounts to convince users to click the CTA.

  
  

Do you want to check the CTA's performance on your company’s website? You can test your site’s usability and see if users are clicking on the CTAs with a UX software like PlaybookUX.

Final thoughts

To revamp your website traffic and overall performance, you must make your site more user-friendly. This will not only increase clicks and visits but also help you build trust with your current customers and strengthen the bond your brand has with them.

Think about implementing these methods to take your company’s website to the next level:

• Design an intuitive website
• Build a responsive site
• Follow your brand guidelines
• Add effective CTAs

These 4 hints can improve the user’s experience and ultimately help you sell more. Create a roadmap and stick to it to get faster results.

Remember this: customers always go first. They are the most important stakeholders in your company. Offer them a top-notch website experience to build long and meaningful relationships with them.