Understanding User Needs: The Foundation of UX Design
Bit of a misstep I keep seeing with this user needs malarkey is the assumption that knowing the basics of your average customer is good enough. There’s an air of overconfidence in how data-driven insights from say, Google Analytics, or a “user persona” found on page 17 of the junior designer’s notes can create a site the masses would love. It seems like there’s something about the idea of “understanding users” that might bring up images of a crystal ball, as if there were some way to know exactly what they’d do next - which is why so many people set out to make sites they like more than their audience.
Feels like stating the obvious, but this is all well and good until you realise that it’s rarely quite that straightforward. It doesn’t matter how many blind studies we do, or how many questionnaires we force upon random passersby for a little bit of statistical significance. Numbers and projections and cold facts can only get us so far when trying to understand what a user wants.
No one really wants ten different pop-ups, no matter what common sense may say about them improving engagement rates. Getting around this sort of thing requires an understanding of people as they are, rather than just how they appear to be in the dataset du jour. Using UX research tools can help with this.
Sometimes, though, you might find yourself at a dead end. Maybe you’ve learnt that your average user is an 18-year-old college graduate living in New South Wales earning $40K per year - but you haven’t learnt anything about why they’re on your site. What are their motivations. This isn’t something you can figure out with an AI-powered plugin and a membership to a research organisation.
At the heart of all this is keeping an open mind - maybe one day, they’ll decide something else is more important to them than the user needs you thought you understood. If you can keep up, that’s when you’ll see the difference between guessing and knowing.
Intuitive Navigation: Guiding Users Seamlessly
I’ve noticed that when some business owners start thinking about navigation, they tend to overcomplicate it. I mean, they seem to think the more options, the better. Add enough drop-downs, pop-ups, scrolling banners and videos - and you end up with a dog’s breakfast of a website. The way I see it, and while there’s a certain lure to impressive design elements and a page teeming with features, the truth is that this is like throwing all your kitchen ingredients in a bowl hoping for a michelin star meal.
And if we’re going with food metaphors, you need to plate it up right for people to enjoy their meal. Or in this case, find what they’re looking for and buy your products or services.
The trick isn’t so much about showing off all the bells and whistles as much as figuring out which ones make sense for your audience. At the risk of sounding like an old curmudgeon, less is rather more seems like an appropriate approach here. Now where things get rather tricky (and fun.
) is in striking that balance between function and form - minimalism can be great but not when it starts resembling Soviet era interiors. You want your site visitors to see at first glance what you do, what you offer, and why they should give you their money.
It needs to be intuitive but also welcoming - with enough white space for eyes to move around easily but also enough CTAs to nudge them further down the sales funnel. I think at the end of the day (forgive me this once), it comes down to what value your brand brings. And how you communicate that through your website navigation without confusing people with too many choices.
If customers can move through your site with little friction and have great experiences while shopping, booking services or even just browsing for now - then you’ve cracked the code.
Mobile Responsiveness: Adapting to Every Device
People tend to get quite hung up on the idea that mobile optimisation means shrinking a desktop website down and crossing your fingers. That’s rarely effective. Appears To Be some might say there’s a persistent confusion between mobile-friendliness and true responsiveness.
And if I’m honest, it surprises me how many retailers are happy to set and forget on this front – assuming once it’s been “optimised” for mobile, that’s it. Truth is, mobile responsiveness means so much more than a site squishing its content to fit an iPhone screen. It means every feature, font, button, image, scroll depth and navigation must reconfigure elegantly whether you’re using the latest Android tablet or an old hand-me-down phone with a cracked screen. There’s an expectation of seamlessness now - where users can start shopping on their laptop at work, continue on the train home via their phone, and pick up exactly where they left off on their smart TV while scrolling with their remote.
It would be dishonest not to admit that creating that continuity is a bit of a rabbit hole. In fact, it is. Coding for thousands of combinations of screen sizes, operating systems, browsers and device quirks.
Even seasoned designers feel a twinge of pain with that one. It seems like but this is what makes the difference between a window shopper bouncing off your site after thirty seconds and a repeat customer who trusts that no matter how they engage with your brand online – they’ll be able to find what they’re looking for. So when we’re talking about enhancing user experience through mobile-responsiveness, it’s absolutely about keeping up with technological change and investing in good developers who know what they’re doing.
But it's also about empathy – thinking about your customers’ lived experiences and understanding what makes their shopping journey easier or more difficult depending on where or how they’re interacting with your website. That’s what converts browsers into buyers.
Fast Load Times: Enhancing User Retention
I think people tend to forget the importance of website speed. Sure, we all like a pretty page but no one wants to wait forever for it to load. When websites were first created, we thought loading times would get faster as technology improved. In reality though, it’s a balancing act between speed and creative content.
There’s nothing more infuriating than waiting for a website to load only for it to crash once it does - and so many designers seem to be missing the mark on this. It seems like a big mistake many make is assuming users will wait for a big video or high resolution image to load because they must want that content that badly, right. It’s sort of hard to judge what keeps users coming back or what makes them bounce before your carefully curated homepage even loads up completely. No matter how many other features you have worked into your UX design plan, if your load time is a bit slow people are going to leave before they find out what you’re about.
It’s not ideal - especially when you are spending so much money getting your brand out there, only for it not to be visible because people don’t want to wait half a minute for the home page. Everything you put together should be compressing as quickly as possible so people aren’t waiting long. We can’t really take attention spans into account when working on the best UX design but we can make sure that sites are optimised across different devices (it should work fast on mobile, tablet and laptop) and loading times are fast enough that everyone gets a chance at seeing all the great features you’ve worked into their experience with your brand.
Engaging Visuals: Captivating Your Audience
I Expect far too many people seem to think that engaging visuals means lots of colour and in-your-face graphics. But the reality is, people are drawn to things that naturally catch their attention. It doesn't always have to involve an actual human being, but it's clear that people feel a certain emotional connection to other faces. Bringing this into a digital context means people like to see real images of people - not just stock photos either.
Now, that's not possible for every business or brand, but there are ways for brands to explore their visual identity with real imagery and still create engagement. It's important to understand that engaging visuals shouldn't lead your audience away from your intended message, otherwise you lose out on the impact it could have. Some might say it's more complex than it is. I do think there's some truth in that.
Sometimes with websites and online brands, you end up with a lot more requirements than you anticipated and then imagery can be lost in translation. It can become an afterthought when it's one of the most important parts of making sure your website or online experience is pretty much engaging. But that's where my perspective comes in - what I've seen work is having the right balance between people and colours that complements your brand's image. That's all it really comes down to.
Find what works for your brand, look at other examples in your industry that seem to be working for them, and make something similar yours by adding your personal touches and identity. It's easier said than done sometimes but as with everything else, it pays off with some effort.
Clear Call-to-Actions: Driving Conversions Effectively
It seems like people always seem to think a clear call-to-action is just a loud, bright button. “Make it pop. ” they say, while pointing at some garish green rectangle that screams ‘SHOP NOW’.
But I think they’re missing the point. A call-to-action (or CTA) is less about what’s eye-catching and more about what’s meaningful - what’s valuable for your customers. A button alone doesn’t make someone take action. And I know this from experience.
Customers take action when their specific goals are met, not because you’ve told them to. It starts with their motivation. You want to show customers that their problems are being solved as soon as they enter your site. So, yes, use a clear button but tailor your messaging and language to your customers’ goals for maximum conversions.
It seems like the formula is simple but powerful: place your cta in the right place, write relevant copy, and then make it stand out visually on the page. I understand that visual hierarchy can be a complex thing to master, especially if you’re designing a webpage yourself, but the fact remains - use colour or scale to make your CTA prominent so that customers aren’t left guessing where to go next. A great call-to-action will turn a browser into a buyer so don’t be afraid to let your site do the talking when it comes down to it.