Capturing Visitors’ Attention Online: 7 UX Design Tips

Tip #4: Pay attention to the thumb zone.

When it comes to mobile design, make sure that most of the important features and content are within the thumbs reach. The further away something is from this zone, the less likely it is that the user would be able to reach it with with the thumbs.

Tip #5: Employ F-shaped and Z-shaped patterns.

Many users don’t read the content of pages in its entirety. They just scan the text and other elements superficially to determine a product or site’s main purpose. To make scanning easier for people, try applying F-shaped and Z-shaped patterns, as follows:

• F-shaped patterns—These patterns are the best choice for Web sites with a lot of text content—for example, blogs and educational portals. Users typically read horizontally, across the top of a page, then move their eyes down the left side of the page, go back a little, then read across, repeating the initial horizontal movement, without going to the end of the page—this forms the F-shape.
• Z-shaped patterns—These patterns also help users to perceive the information on a page, but are more common for laying out smaller blocks of text. Z-shaped patterns mean users scan the content in the following order: from the upper left to the upper right, then to the bottom left and the bottom right.

Tip #6: Minimize the number of clicks.

Avoid unnecessary elements that don’t benefit the user experience. As an example, let’s consider making a quick call on Skype: users just need to log in and select the account they want to call.

Comparing Skype with Microsoft Teams and Zoom, it’s evident that they are not as convenient to use. Making a call requires many more clicks and viewing a lot of additional elements and screens that are not integral to the user’s task and, thus, make the user experience of placing a call less pleasant.

So when you’re designing a user interface, it’s better if you can limit it to a couple of buttons with a high-quality appearance rather than creating many different elements and steps. (Be sure to study best practices for buttons.)

Tip #7: Less is more.

Concision and minimalism are essential to creating an effective user-interface design. Eliminate any element, block of text, or button that doesn’t help users reach their goal. Superfluous elements present obstacles to users’ attaining their goals. Even though such an element is not useful, the user must process it and store it in working memory. But never choose minimalism at the expense of quality. Avoid the use of strong colors, huge UI elements, and massive images unless they provide real benefits to users.

User-interface designers originally learned that, according to Miller’s law, the average person can store 7±2 elements in short-term memory. However, this law, as stated, is obsolete. Researchers have since learned that those numbers were overly optimistic. In actuality, people can store only three elements, plus or minus one element, in working memory. Therefore, when you’re creating a page design, you should decompose information and design elements into small, consumable chunks.

Final Words and More Recommendations

Design always plays a decisive role in interactions between the user and the product. The clearer, simpler, and better the product’s user interface, the more likely the customer will choose your product rather than a competitor’s.

Here are two bonus tips:

• Tip #8—Sometimes it’s not rational to develop an entire UX design from scratch, especially when your deadline is tight. In such situations, look for inspiration or UI components online.
• Tip #9—If you cannot objectively and reliably evaluate a design you’ve created, conduct usability testing. Once you’ve gathered the users’ feedback, analyze the results with your team, and make the necessary design changes.

Keep all these tips in mind and apply them in your design practice to achieve the best user-experience outcomes!