What is user experience, really?

In short, User Experience (UX) refers to how easy and enjoyable it is for someone to interact with, well, anything. While UX can be applied to all manner of products or experiences, when mentioned here it is specifically referring to the digital experiences of mobile apps and websites.

No UX is a bad UX

A lot of businesses make the mistake of assuming their UX is something that can wait until later. “We’ve decided we’re not ready to invest in UX” is something we’ve heard time and time again. But here’s the kicker, while investing in a good UX is technically optional, having a UX is not.

Your website’s user experience exists from the day it goes live. It exists from the first user to land on your homepage and exists, good or bad, whether you’re “ready to invest” in it or not.

By delaying any optimization or evaluation of your UX you’re allowing its problems to negatively impact your user’s experience—and that impact only compounds the longer it remains unaddressed. A negative UX may damage your user’s impression of your brand, their likelihood to convert or reengage, and their inclination to suggest your business or service to others.

The more significant a role your website plays to the success of your business the more critical it is that you work to improve its UX.

The impact of ignoring UX

First impressions & brand credibility

While it’s no surprise that first impressions matter, as many as 94% of users base their impression of a brand on its website, while 75% of users report making judgements about a website’s credibility based solely on the design of the site.

The first impression of your website sets a critical tone for the rest of a user’s experience. More critically, that impression is typically formed within the first 50 milliseconds that a user is on your website.

Loss of customers

It’s reported that as many as 88% of users will not return to a website after a frustrating experience such as a bad first impression, unresponsive page loads, or confusing navigation. In fact, 49% of consumers report having left a brand because of bad UX.

Decrease in Revenue

If you’re still not sure whether or not the cost of investing in improving user experience is worth it, it’s important to note that brands which prioritize UX optimization see a reported 42% improvement in customer retention, and up to 400% increases in conversion rates.

It’s estimated that every $1 invested into UX can see a return of up to $100 in revenue — that’s a 9,900% return on investment.

Bad news travel faster

It’s well known that people tend to be far more vocal about their negative opinions then they are about their positive ones. While 23% of users are likely to share a positive experience with 10 or more people, 13% of users who have a negative experience will inform 15 or more people. That impact is real, and it can spread.

Common mistakes businesses make

There’s a lot of factors that go into ensuring your UX is as strong as can be, but some of the biggest issues we see businesses make include the following:

• Investing in aesthetic-only sites that hide business contact information, or make it difficult to know how to purchase or signup for a service.
• Having unclear navigation that frustrates users and causes them to leave the site early.
• De-prioritizing mobile and winding up with experiences that are broken, hide or remove functionality, or feel unrelated to the desktop version.

5 Questions to ask when evaluating your own website

If you don’t know where to start, here are 5 simple questions to ask yourself when looking at your website:

1. Can someone find your hours, prices, or contact info in under 30 seconds?
2. Is your checkout, signup, or inquiry process too long — or too intrusive?
3. Are your fonts readable?
4. Do your buttons look clickable?

Practical Tip: Ask a friend or family member who wasn’t involved with setting up the website or business to try completing a task on it. Do they find what they were looking for with ease, or do they seem confused?

Recap: When to recognize your UX needs work

If your making some of the following observations it’s probably a sign that your experience needs some support:

• User retention issues like high bounce rates, low conversions, or complaints.
• Dated or inconsistent branding
• Mobile display issues

Here at AccelerateUX our goal is to empower you to begin recognizing and correcting issues with your website or product yourself, but you may find that at a certain point it makes more sense to hire an expert. When looking for a designer or agency make sure they ask about your customers, their needs, and your goals as an organization instead of just your preferences for the website.