“User experience” or “UX” is a big buzz-phrase that everyone in web design seems to love throwing around nowadays. Mind you, with Google’s ever-increasing focus on semantic search and the premiums it puts on user experience (especially where mobile is concerned), that isn’t terribly surprising. You probably already know about the prime factors that impact someone’s experience on your site - how fast it loads, how easy it is to navigate, how many ads are on-page, what sort of information it provides.
What you may not know is that in addition to the big components, there are plenty of little things you need to account for as well, elements that are often overlooked in the pursuit of SEO. Here’s the thing though - they shouldn’t be. Mark me well when I say the factors I’ve listed here today can have every bit as great an impact on what people feel about your site and brand as any ranking factor or signal.
What Colors You Use
Think about something: how do you want people to feel when they browse your site? Do you want them to be energetic and impassioned, or cool and collected? Do you want them to be relaxed, or excited?
The color scheme of your site - and your brand imagery (more on that in a moment) - is a major determining factor in how people feel when they’re on-page. The color red, for example, is vibrant and forceful, it commands attention. Blue implies trust, peace, and intelligence.
Choose a color scheme - or set of colors - that not only complement one another, but drive home exactly the sort of emotion you want to inspire in your most loyal customers.
“Color psychology absolutely plays a role in how we perceive websites, and the impression we get about them within the first few seconds,” reads a post on the Kiss Metrics blog. “While most sites err on the side of caution and choose a typical blue background and white content area – this popular choice also makes it harder for your own site to stand out from the crowd. In recent years, there’s been a surge of bold, bright hues and simple, direct statements that shout out amid the din of “me too” color schemes.”
This guide on One Extra Pixel, this one on User Testing, and this one on Usability Geek give a better overview of how color psychology changes one’s browsing experience. I’d suggest having a look at them all, and then rethinking your own colors.
Your Domain Name
Consider the following two (completely fictional) restaurant URLs:
Where would you rather eat? What site would you rather visit?
If you’re like 99% of people on the Internet, you’d choose the first one - mostly because it’s both memorable and seemingly trustworthy (in addition to giving some idea of what kind of food Bob’s serves).
Your domain name is like your digital brand. It’s the first thing a lot of people on the web see, and how they’ll find your site in future, if they decide to come back. A spammy, poorly-written domain name (or worse, a horrible one like the sites listed here) WILL cost you traffic.
A study carried out by Microsoft Research in 2011 confirmed as much. According to the research team’s findings, websites with a credible, trusted domain name have an advantage. Searchers pay attention to the URLs they click before they click them, which means that a bad one can put them on guard before they even see your site (if they even do)
Imagery and Branding
It isn’t just color that impacts how people feel about your site, of course. The imagery you use - and how you lay things out - also changes how people feel about and engage with your web content. Using the right imagery can bring in scores more loyal customers.
Using the wrong imagery will do the opposite.
Smashing Magazine gives an excellent idea of how your site’s imaging can improve the user experience. Drawing from Marc Hassenzahl’s User Experience model, it talks about how a website designed with a ‘vintage’ look and feel reminds us of the ‘good old days’ - of our childhood, our time in high school, or a bygone era.
Transparency (Or a Lack Thereof)
I’m going to come right out and say it - users today do not like being lied to. They don’t like feeling as though they’ve been manipulated or treated like fools. If part of your online marketing strategy even vaguely involves something underhanded - hidden fees, a confusing TOS agreement, etc. - it’s going to come back to bite you.
People are going to start feeling as though they can’t trust your brand and they’ll start gravitating towards competitors that put up a warmer front, businesses that they feel won’t lie to them or treat them as expendable wallets.
Your Font
The style and size of the font on your website impacts readability. Readability impacts user experience. Seems like a pretty basic connection, right?
“Font style seems more like a designer’s preference than something that would cause your conversions to dip, but it’s definitely worth looking at,” explains Kissmetrics. “It used to be that if the font size was too small, users would simply leave and take their business elsewhere. Today, most modern browsers let their users adjust the text size accordingly – although many people have no idea that this is even possible. What’s more, reading fonts with “feet” on the edges of the letters (such as Times New Roman and Courier) tire the eyes more quickly on screen, making Arial or Verdana (fonts without “feet” on them) a better choice.”
One last word of advice? If you want to be taken seriously in any capacity, don’t use comic sans. Just don’t do it.
Closing Thoughts
Everything about your website - from the smallest graphical quirk to the highest-trafficked landing page - influences how people feel about it, and your brand by association. By understanding the factors that go into maintaining a positive user experience, you can equip yourself as a webmaster with the capacity to provide a better experience - one that leads to more conversions, more satisfied users, and a healthier brand overall.