The best high level UX considerations

The key to a good UX strategy is to truly understand your user. It’s the name of the discipline, it's the point of the profession - guiding the user through the experience. 

That being said there are still some best practices that should be considered when embarking on a new, or refresh of your online user experience.

We’re going to briefly outline some of the high level things to keep in mind when working on your new UX strategy. However if you'd like to know a little more about the ins and outs of user experience (UX), you can read all about that in our deeper dive here.

Design for what's in your hand

By this we mean mobile.  We get it, mobile is often not as fun. It's a smaller screen, less space for creative interactions and more focus on scrolling. However if you’re neglecting mobile you’re neglecting a massive chunk of the market and will only be a detriment to your own conversions and user interactions. Over 54% of online sales happen on mobile, and if your target demo is skewed younger that percentage will only grow. Factoring in mobile and responsive experiences to your UX strategy is imperative to your success, 

Keep it simple 

In most instances, simple is best. Clear, concise interfaces mitigate confusion and help in ensuring the customer knows where they are and what they’re doing. It’s also the best way to make sure there is space for the information that's needed to really sell your product or get the message across. 

Navigation should be easy 

Your navigation is your website’s compass or map - therefore it shouldn’t be hard to find and it shouldn’t be hard to navigate. Focusing on clear navigation comes down to format, space, the way it interacts as you scroll through pages and also the language used. Having obvious category and subcategory names should be a no-brainer but is often overlooked. Stick to convention and keep things streamline across pages to avoid confusion, and don’t underestimate the power of search. Search capacity in navigation gives customers the power to go directly for what they’re looking for - and since our job is to serve the customers, this is something that shouldn’t be forgotten with your User experience strategy. 

Content is king

There’s an ever growing debate around whether design or content should come first - and to be honest there are arguments for both. The most important thing for a UX designer to keep in mind though is to have space to share the content effectively. Having high quality imagery and video content is a must nowadays, though that typically sits with the content creation team, the UX team should find the best possible ways to display that content - to get the customer excited and help them in their decision making process. 

Don’t skimp on information

For an eCommerce store, this falls into product detail pages especially. Information is ultimately what will sell your product. The UX designer's job is to display that information in digestible, easy to find ways. When it comes to the product detail page, this is where the bulk of that information should sit. Large product photos, customer reviews, bullet point features and size guides are just some of the information that makes it easier for consumers to make decisions. If you want to know more about writing converting product descriptions you can read up on that here.

Think about your user and product

The golden rule, and what we started with - think about your user and design for them. This is the number one thing to keep in mind when embarking on a UX strategy or redesign - and it’s often clouded over by thinking of what would be cool or copying trends. At the end of the day if your user doesn’t get it, you’ve failed. 

Creating something for the user means taking time to get to know them, understanding how they navigate and most importantly getting their feedback. The best designed user experiences have taken time to think, test, validate and iterate. 

So in summary - we can’t tell you exactly how to design, but we can guide you into how to think about UX and what aspects should need more consideration. 

Do you need more information on UX best practices for your business? We would love to hear from you. Get in touch.