A Good Looking Website Design with Poor User Experience is NOT a Good Design.

Written by: Jeff SokolWeb Director

You can find someone cheap who can design a decent looking website, just about anywhere. The problem is that not all designers really know how to design the UX (User-Experience). And even if they do know how to do it, they certainly aren't going to do it for cheap. A great design with a poor UX is like matching with a 10 on Tinder and only getting 1 word responses to your lengthy and creative questions. Ugh… So, what makes a good UX Design? I am glad you asked.

Number One. How the user feels.
The feeling your users have while interacting with your website is the first and most important part of creating a good UX. If a real human person has any sort of struggle with your website, the user experience is poor. If they feel even slightly stupid for not being able to find what they are looking for, the user experience is poor. If they feel anything other than comfortable while perusing your website, the user experience is poor.

Number Two. How the user feels.
No, I did not make a typo. How the user feels is that important. Let me give you an example of a terrible user experience. You need to buy some new undies, you’re getting older, it happens. You enter a department store, the door has a handle so you pull it, the door opens. Your expectations were met, so far so good. You shop around, you pay, you are ready to leave. The same door you entered from has a handle on the inside, you pull it. It doesn’t open. WHY DOES IT HAVE A HANDLE IF YOU ARE SUPPOSED TO PUSH?! It should have a plate so I physically can’t pull on it and look like some dolt who doesn’t know how doors work.

Number Three. How the user feels.
Are you annoyed yet? I am. And thus, this list of 3 things that are all the same is now displaying another example of a poor User Experience. If you are even slightly annoyed, THAT is why UX is the most important part of good design.

Now that we know the importance of good UX Design, let’s talk about what it takes to get there.

How to get the perfect User Experience.

The way we do it at Avenue 25 is by first becoming experts in your business. We spend the time to really understand what you do, how you do it, and who you do it for. We are experts at putting ourselves in your shoes. And once we understand what your user’s wants and needs are we can develop user profiles that allow us to not just think of the user in general terms, but understand their specific perspective. We can then focus on the most important parts of the User Experience:

The visual design. This is what you see. The colors, layout, textures, etc. It does need to be pretty.

The organizational structure. This is the sitemap. It’s how the content is organized. Is it by service, or by market, or both? Is all content easily accessible, or is everything 3 clicks away?

The content. This pertains to both graphics and text. What the user reads and sees needs to correlate and most importantly, be useful.

The interface. The user controls need to be intuitive. Don’t create a new way to scroll the page. Follow standards. Would you be frustrated if the navigation menu was only at the bottom of the page? What if you had to use the search feature to find the phone number?

The functionality. You should only have functionality that you need. If all 5 pages of your website are in the navigation, you don’t need a search feature. If the chat operator is going to ask me for my name and reason I’m chatting, I shouldn’t have had to enter it on the previous screen.

Satisfaction. This goes back to how the user feels. Satisfaction is key. The user needs to feel like they accomplished what they needed to. The found what they were looking for, gained information, or accomplished a task. User satisfaction is the key to a great website.

Are you convinced?

If you haven’t been able to perfect your user experience, let us help. We love a challenge.