A poor user experience can lead to anger and frustration, causing potential customers to abandon a site or app. In contrast, a well-thought-out UX design can increase a Web site’s conversion rate by up to 200%. Thus, flawless UX design is key to retaining customers and driving revenue growth.
In this article, I’ll consider the business impacts of effective UX design, look at some typical UX design mistakes, share design best practices that can help businesses retain their customers and boost their revenues, identify potential financial impacts of poor UX design, and describe some ways of identifying UX design issues.
Champion Advertisement
Continue Reading…
Understanding the Business Impacts of Good UX Design
Let’s look at eight ways in which UX design can affect your business.
1. Improves User Satisfaction and Loyalty
A well-designed user experience enhances user satisfaction by providing a seamless, enjoyable experience that enables users to find what they need quickly and effortlessly, increases user satisfaction, and leads to greater customer loyalty. For example, Fenty Beauty’s Web site provides easily accessible features such as “Try Shade On,” which lets customers switch between shades on a single page. Figure 1 demonstrates the ways in which Fenty Beauty’s Web site pleases customers. As a consequence, loyal customers are more likely to return, recommend the brand, and become brand advocates.
Figure 1—Fenty Beauty’s Web site
2. Reduces User Frustration and Errors
Poor UX design often results in user confusion and frustration, leading customers to abandon a site or app. Focusing on clarity, simplicity, and easy-to-use navigation reduces user errors and frustrations. For example, instead of displaying another page, Fenty Beauty created a side panel where buyers can check their shopping bag and enjoy the seamless purchasing experience shown in Figure 2.
Figure 2—Fenty Beauty’s shopping bag
3. Increases Task Efficiency and Completion Rates
Efficiency boosts user satisfaction and improves conversion rates. When a process is straightforward and painless, users are more likely to complete it. Positive experiences also encourage users to stay on a site longer, explore more, and enjoy hassle-free shopping. For example, creating a streamlined checkout process on a Web site can significantly reduce cart-abandonment rates, thus positively impacting revenues.
Look at Amazon as an example. Instead of a user’s adding a product to the cart, going to the cart, then checking out, the user can simply click Buy Now when buying a single item, as shown in Figure 3. While this might not seem like a big deal, a one-page checkout reduces the time to check out and increases the completion rate, which is particularly crucial during a brand event when efficiency can drive higher engagement.
Figure 3—Amazon’s Buy Now button
4. Boosts User Engagement and Retention
Good UX design incorporates interactive elements, engaging content, and clear calls-to-action (CTAs), keeping visitors interested and active on a site. Increased engagement leads to higher retention rates because users return when they’ve had a positive experience. Take a cue from Apple’s Web site, shown in Figure 4. Their Web-site visitors can check out as guests. This means buyers can purchase items without a tedious signup process. It’s a win-win situation since customers get what they want more quickly and Apple reduces their cart-abandonment rate.
Figure 4—Apple’s Web site
When shopping for a product such as an iPad, Apple provides a side-by-side comparison of their different models, as shown in Figure 5, so buyers can make an informed decision.
Figure 5—Comparison shopping on Apple’s Web site
Finally, they provide contextual Frequently Asked Questions (FAQs) on product pages to alleviate any doubts potential buyers might have.
5. Builds Customer Satisfaction
When users have a positive experience, they associate those feelings with your brand. This positive association builds trust and credibility, which is essential for long-term customer relationships. For example, Supergoop, which is shown in Figure 6, has created a seamless online-shopping experience with a highly navigable Web site and excellent customer service.
Figure 6—Supergoop Web site
Their home page opens with an immersive video experience, followed by their bestsellers and product categories. They also have a Chat button in the bottom-right corner of the screen, so visitors can instantly resolve their queries, contributing to high customer satisfaction. With a simple shopping experience like this, customers return and establish long-term loyalty to the brand.
6. Creates Trust and Credibility
A professional, user-friendly Web-site design looks polished and is easy to navigate, fostering trust and credibility. Trust is the foundation of any customer relationship, and an effective UX design ensures that your site meets audience expectations, reinforcing their confidence in your brand. For example, Duolingo's onboarding experience has a clean layout, as shown in Figure 7, with a progress bar at the top, encouraging users to complete the onboarding process quickly.
Figure 7—Duolingo’s onboarding experience
7. Encourages Repeat Business
A well-thought-out UX design encourages repeat business because users feel valued and well understood. For example, customers know they can easily navigate Amazon’s site, which is shown in Figure 8. Since they can find what they need, they’re more inclined to return, increasing Amazon’s orders.
Figure 8—Amazon’s Web site
8. Creates Differentiation from Competitors
Investing in User Experience helps an organization meet its users’ expectations and sets their brand apart, giving them a competitive edge in attracting and retaining customers. Take inspiration from Moment’s Web site, which is shown in Figure 9, which offers
inclusive design
proper implementation of the aesthetic usability effect
easy access to customer support in the navigation bar
Figure 9—Moment’s Web site
Common UX Design Mistakes
Now, let’s consider some common UX design mistakes.
1. Cluttered, Confusing Layouts
Overwhelming users with too much information, numerous buttons, and an excessive number of visual elements can make it difficult for them to find what they’re looking for. This increases user frustration and the likelihood of their abandoning a site. For example, as Figure 10 shows, Woset’s clean, well-organized layout and clear navigation paths help visitors effortlessly move through the site and find the information they need.
Figure 10—Woset’s clean layout
2. Slow Page-Load Times and Other Performance Issues
Visitors would likely leave a Web site that loads too slowly, not even waiting for it to fully load. The results would be lost traffic and poor search-engine rankings. Optimizing images, minimizing JavaScript, and reducing HTTP requests can improve page-loading speeds and ensure a smooth user experience. In Figure 11, GTmetrix shows how Amazon creates its first meaningful view in under one second.
Figure 11—GTmetrix ratings for Amazon’s Web site
3. Poor Mobile Optimization
Web sites that aren’t optimized for mobile devices can be difficult to navigate and might display text that’s hard to read and buttons that are challenging to click because of their being poor touch targets. This leads to a frustrating user experience and higher bounce rates.
You can ensure that a Web site is responsive and mobile friendly by designing for various screen sizes, ensuring touch-friendly interactions, and optimizing page-load times. For example, the first viewport on the Allbirds mobile site clearly shows the site’s product scope, keeping users engaged, as shown in Figure 12.
Figure 12—Allbirds mobile site
Identifying the Financial Impacts of a Bad User Experience
Poor UX design has significant negative results in lost revenues from frustrated users. In fact, companies lose annual revenues of $2.6 billion because of “sluggish Web-site loading times.”
When users encounter a difficult-to-navigate Web site, they might leave without making a purchase. For instance, an ecommerce site with an overly complicated checkout process could cause users to abandon their cart, negatively affecting sales, as shown in Figure 13.
Figure 13—Revenue losses for ecommerce sites
AWS research shows that a bad user experience could cause a business to lose up to 35% of its potential sales. Such heavy losses could lead to long-term business problems because frustrated users would be unlikely to return.
Plus, a business might incur increased costs for customer support because of a bad user experience. Users often need additional help to accomplish their goals when a Web site is not well designed. This increases the volume of support queries, necessitating more resources to manage them.
Finally, a business’s brand reputation can have far-reaching financial implications. A poor user experience can increase negative reviews and word-of-mouth, damaging a brand’s image and reducing sales and market shares. With a negative reputation, a company could find attracting new customers challenging because trust and credibility are crucial to growing a business.
Identifying UX Design Issues
How can you identify and solve the problems that a poor user experience presents?
1. Usability Testing and Gathering Customer Feedback
Observing real users as they interact with a Web site or app can enable you to pinpoint specific painpoints and areas of user confusion. For example, conducting usability tests during which you ask participants to complete tasks can reveal obstacles in a navigation flow. What’s more, you need only five participants to discover 85% of a site or app’s usability problems.
Gathering direct feedback through surveys and user interviews provides valuable insights into user frustrations and suggestions for improvements. By engaging in such feedback loops, you can ensure continuous improvement and align a product with users’ expectations.
2. Analyzing User Behavior Data
For a quantitative approach to identifying UX design problems, track user interactions using Google Analytics, Hotjar, or Crazy Egg. These tools reveal patterns that indicate UX design issues. For example, high bounce rates on specific pages might suggest that users didn’t find what they needed or were encountering usability problems. Heatmaps and session recordings can show where users click, scroll, or drop off, helping to identify troublesome areas.
Holger Sindbaek, designer-turned-developer and owner of WOCG, has reported, “After acquiring WOCG, delving into user-behavior data, we found that many players were abandoning games due to slow load times and overly complex game rules that weren’t clearly explained. Analyzing heatmaps and session recordings, we pinpointed where users were dropping off—primarily during the initial game load and rule explanation screens. We then streamlined the game rules and optimized site performance, leading to a 37% increase in game completions and a 22% boost in returning players. This experience underscored the value of using user-behavior data to address UX issues and enhance player satisfaction.”
3. Conducting UX Design Audits
A UX audit evaluates a design against established UX design principles and best practices. During a heuristic evaluation, experts review a site for common usability flaws such as inconsistent navigation, unclear CTAs, and poor mobile responsiveness. For example, an audit might reveal that a Web site’s checkout process is overly complex, leading to cart abandonment. Systematically assess each UX design element to uncover hidden issues and get actionable recommendations.
Best Practices for Improving UX Designs
Now, let’s consider some best practices for improving UX designs.
1. Prioritize Mobile-Friendly Design
A significant portion of Web traffic comes from mobile devices. Ensuring that a site is responsive and displays well on a variety of devices means it automatically adjusts to different screen sizes and orientations and, thus, provides a seamless experience for mobile users. Mobile-friendly design includes designing for touch interactions by providing larger buttons that are easy for users to tap and displaying legible text that doesn’t require zooming.
If you want to create an ecommerce store and are contemplating Shopify or Etsy, both platforms prioritize mobile-friendly design, ensuring that users can easily navigate and shop from any device. Plus, it’s important to ensure that an AI chatbot is easily accessible to all users. There’s no need for a complex design. Focus on making sure the chatbot can effectively answer all your customers’ questions.
2. Simplify Navigation and User Interfaces
Clear, easy-to-use navigation helps users easily find what they need. Organize content logically and use straightforward labels for menus and buttons. For example, New Balance displays a megamenu at the top of the screen. When a visitor hovers, the megamenu displays all the categories in each section, simplifying navigation, as Figure 14 shows.
Figure 14—New Balance’s megamenu
Also, implementing breadcrumb navigation can assist users in understanding their location within a site, enabling them to easily go back if necessary, as shown in Figure 15.
Figure 15—Breadcrumb navigation
Finally, reduce clutter by minimizing the number of clicks necessary to reach important information. Creating a clean, minimalistic design that prioritizes essential elements makes focusing easier for the user.
3. Ensure Fast, Responsive Performance
Fast, responsive Web performance means higher conversions, while slow page-load times can drive users away. If a site takes one second to load, it has a 5x chance of converting a customer, as shown in Figure 16.
Figure 16—Conversion rates versus page-load speeds
Optimize images, use browser caching, and minimize server requests to ensure quicker performance. Enforcing the use of a Content Delivery Network (CDN) can also distribute content more efficiently.
Responsive design ensures that a Web site performs well across different devices and screen sizes. For instance, a site that quickly adapts to mobile, tablet, and desktop views without sacrificing functionality keeps shoppers engaged and satisfied. Take a cue from the Sephora Web site, shown in Figure 17.
Figure 17—Sephora Web site
Conclusion
Poor user experiences lead to frustrated users, increased support costs, and damaged brand reputations. To improve a site or app’s user experience, do the following:
Simplify its navigation and user interface to provide better usability.
Ensure fast, responsive performance to keep users engaged.
Prioritize mobile-friendly design to cater to users who are on the move.
Investing in good UX design attracts customers and boosts revenues. By addressing UX design issues proactively through audits and customer feedback, you can retain your customer base and drive sales.
As the founder of Ranking Bell, a software-as-a-service (SaaS) marketing and organic-growth agency, Mehdi helps SaaS businesses drive organic growth and customer acquisition through search-engine optimization (SEO) and data-driven, content-marketing strategies. Mehdi spends his spare time musing about startup growth strategies, personal productivity, and remote work. Read More
