You may have created a site with a stunning design, but you still notice that after a few seconds on a site that you have designed, users leave. Yet, you have followed all the advice I have given you so far. But what do you think is going on? Maybe it's time to look at user experience UX?

🌈Survey

What are the reasons why someone might leave a website (no matter how beautiful its design may be)?

The content is not of interest to him

The site is not pretty enough for his taste (lol)

He has trouble navigating the site

Others ? Don't hesitate to share your ideas in comments 😉

None of these suggestions are wrong, but what interests us most is the third one: site navigation . Besides, when you go to a site and its interface is not at all intuitive, what would you do? Are you sure you can stay there for more than 3 minutes? In any case, I doubt it...

That's why, today, I decided to tackle the subject of UX design on websites. Discover in this guide the best practices to offer an optimal UX user experience!

Contents

1. Choose your own pattern 🐶 (your style)

2. Never forget the sitemaps for an optimal structure

3. Use a sticky menu (well thought out)

4. Write well and be concise and speak simply

5. Finally, how to perform tests

Video

1. Choose your own style

Of course, I often advise you to keep an eye on the web design world. If you want to outdo yourself (or better, others), being aware of the trends is the best thing to do. But remember to stick to one type of design. That way you can master that design and offer your users a better UX experience.

Now, there are 3 main types of design that you can choose from:

• The flat design

This type of design is mostly characterized by 2D elements. This is the simplest design of all. Flat design usually uses simple typography, but bold colors - the perfect combo for a design website.

• The material design

This one is a bit like the flat design, with the difference that we add a reference system to the mobile application like Android. This, in order to make the whole more functional.

• Minimalist design

Minimalism is the most fashionable at the moment. A bit of a mix of the 2 previous styles: flat and material design, it uses other elements such as white spaces and negative spaces. It also plays on a limited color palette. The objective, with all these new elements, is to make the site fast, but especially, to maximize the conversion rate of prospects into customers. How do we do this? By making sure that the navigation on the site is intuitive, both on mobile and on desktop. This kind of site needs the least amount of maintenance.

2. Never forget the sitemaps

The creation of a sitemap is not a simple formality. It has a very specific objective: that of making clearer the hierarchy of the various pages of a website. Indeed, in the sitemap, we group its pages by theme, category ...

The web designers (webdesigner, developers, writers, graphic designers...) should not be the only ones to know more about the site in question. Internet users also have the right to know, because it will facilitate their navigation on the site.

💎 How?

📌 Internet users need to understand the purpose of the site design quickly.

Before creating a site, you must always set an objective (for example: to bring Internet users to buy a product or a service, to make contact, to request a quote...). Each design decision is therefore made according to this objective.

When presenting your site to a person (or team), you should be able to speak clearly about its purpose, and explain why you made certain decisions and not others.

📌 On the other side (if we're going to talk about the team that will design the site, and not the web users, this time): the presence of a sitemap facilitates everything, teamwork in particular.

A web project (unless it is very simple), requires the intervention of a whole team. Thus, to allow each member of this team to carry out its work, it is necessary that a sitemap is present. One will understand for example that a modification on a certain page will have an impact on other pages (this relation is indeed visible by the sitemap).

📌 We can also optimize the whole site.

The prioritized information will show which pages are futile. If there are any, all you have to do is delete them. In the same way, duplicate content will be avoided. There is no chance that users will come across 2 similar pages with duplicate content. In other words, the user experience UX is optimized.

3. Use a sticky menu to encourage users to explore the site

A sticky menu is a menu that is attached to the header of the site and remains displayed there even when you scroll down. This type of menu has even become standard. The reason is that it is very practical! No matter what level of the page the users are on, they will always have access to the main pages of the site.

💎 Only, you need to follow a certain rule to ensure the effectiveness of the menu:

📌 Items displayed on the menu should provide value.

Let's assume that the purpose of the site is to get people to contact the site owner. In this case, the contact page must absolutely appear in the menu. Then, be careful not to display non-essential elements.

📌 The menu should be set to the correct contrast level.

A good balance is the key! When scrolling down the page, the contents in the menu must be visible enough while not being extravagant and too present. If they are flashy, they may distract from the content of the page.

📌 Makes content easy to read.

To do this, make sure that the menu does not exceed one line of text when scrolling. A menu that is too thick could actually disturb the reading.

📌 Sticky menu on desktop doesn't necessarily mean it has to be absolutely present on mobile. Internet users should be able to feel free, they should have their own space, enough space above all! That's why sticky menus don't necessarily have to be present on mobile. On the contrary, when users scroll up, the menu must be shown.

4. Write well and concisely

UX is as much about design as it is about writing. As for the navigation, each element (from the small buttons to the welcome message, through the menu texts...) that compose the site must guide the users to a precise action.

💎 Here are some tips for good UX Writing:

📌 Only write about interesting things.

To help you, you're going to need to know your audience well, specifically their needs. Then, when writing anything, think about it! You also need to think about the main purpose of the site.

📌 Be concise in your sentences.

As the saying goes, "simplicity is the ultimate sophistication." In writing, this adage is just as true, because you have to convey a message. You might as well do it simply! People need to be able to read and quickly know what actions they need to take.

To give you a better idea, here are 2 examples:

• a complicated sentence: do you want to save the changes?
• a simple sentence: save changes.

📌 Uses familiar terms.

This tip is similar to the previous one. By using terms that are familiar to Internet users, you are sure to be understood, i.e. the users of the site will know exactly what they should (or should not) do.

📌 Adopts a certain conformity.

Throughout a page (and on all other pages of the site as well), you should keep the same styles, tones, voices, terminologies... Not only does this guarantee a better UX user experience, but you are sure to gain the trust of users.

5. Finally, the tests!

How to be sure that a site is up to scratch? The only way, in my opinion, is to perform tests. These steps allow you to identify any problems on the site as soon as possible. Thus it is possible to remedy them as soon as possible.

💎 Here's how to perform these tests:

📌 Do it with a prototype.

There is no question of attacking the final product! You can never be too careful, so let's avoid taking unnecessary risks.

📌 Address the right user profiles.

What's the point of testing if you're doing it the wrong way and, more importantly, with the wrong targets? The ideal user profile would be one that is among those who will actually use the product once it is actually finished. Maybe demographic and psychological data can help you too?

📌 When testing, you need to have the objectives in mind.

This way, you can be sure to detect any important mistakes.

📌 Take the test.

Putting yourself in the users' shoes can also help you see things more clearly. You will see some of the problems for yourself. Take the opportunity to find solutions.

📌 Allow time for post-test interviews.

A few minutes is all it takes. Don't worry either, because simple questions will do the trick! Your ultimate goal is to collect as much data as possible about the user experience during the tests.

Conclusion

The design of a website is not enough to keep a person a little longer on a site, no matter how good the content is. UX plays a big role here.

Sure, it evolves, but the best practices to ensure a good UX remain the same.

I invite you to visit the site :

Human interface Guideline:
https://developer.apple.com/design/human-interface-guidelines/

Material design: https://material.io/

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