Understanding User Flow: The Basics
I Think there's always a lot of buzz around seamless digital experiences, isn't there. But i like to think it boils down to something much simpler - understanding how a user moves through your website. It’s like watching someone with a new board game - are they tossing the box away and diving right in, or reading every single instruction aloud.
Both are valuable bits of information. Knowing how people interact with your site will help you guide them to what they’re after. Or it might even tell you if something isn’t working.
Understanding user flow is less about telling people exactly where to go and more about listening and observing. If there’s a step or two that needs tweaking, you’ll be able to pick up on it early on. Mapping the user's journey can help enhance their experience, all while allowing you to build a stronger relationship. You can build a better narrative within your website that makes it easy to engage with and builds trust.
It seems like i say narrative because it is exactly that - a story you share with your audience. I personally feel that there’s very little that can take the place of keeping tabs on user experience. It's as vital as looking at performance or market trends. At the end of the day, if your site is a challenge to navigate, all else is lost.
The Importance of Intuitive Navigation
I Assume sometimes i wonder if we’ve made websites far too complicated. I miss the days of clean, single-column layouts with about three links at the top and maybe a search bar if you were fancy. Now, when you go to a new online store, a lot of time is wasted trying to figure out where things are.
That’s where intuitive navigation comes in. I think most people take it for granted, myself included. It’s only when we stumble onto poorly designed websites - and still persist on using them - that we realise the importance of good navigation. Big retailers spend hours upon hours conducting research into what works best for their user, and with years of recorded data now available to us, it would be silly to ignore it.
The truth is: basic principles always work best. In most e-commerce cases, that means keeping navigation simple and following general web conventions that have been around since the early 2000s. There’s no reason to get creative here - save the unique design choices for your product pages or images instead.
Intuitive navigation can often make or break your website’s conversion rate as even regular users will get frustrated by unnecessary lag, excess buttons or complicated overlays and pop-ups that often serve no real purpose other than pushing some vague promotion that doesn’t apply to them anyway. Sort of.
Key Elements of Effective Navigation Design
Remember when we thought "a good website" was only about looking good. Clearly, those days are gone. Today, we’ve realised that the secret sauce is quite simple, but at the same time, it’s really not: user flow.
An effective user flow gently guides your customers on a seamless journey through your website - from initial engagement right down to the big finish - the conversion. So, how do you make this work. One: keep it simple. No one enjoys being led in circles.
Optimising your navigation design comes down to remembering that your audience is (in some way) looking for something specific. Make sure they can find it without any hassle. Not to sound negative or anything, but there are a lot of other websites that probably offer what you do, so keep things clear and concise if you want to keep their attention.
Design-wise, fonts matter. Colours matter. And call-to-action buttons matter. You want everything to be easy to read and find.
A common mistake is using smaller-than-average font sizes that require users to squint or zoom in unnecessarily. In the same breath, bland CTA buttons are also where you might lose potential customers.
These are meant to be eye-catching and interactive. While we’re not necessarily fighting for our audience’s attention, we are tasked with earning it. And this is exactly why effective navigation design is key.
Analyzing User Behavior for Better Navigation
There’s something slightly terrifying about the way the internet seems to know more about us than we know about ourselves. And yet, when it comes to shaping navigation within a fashion ecommerce store - or any ecommerce store for that matter - an intimate understanding of consumer behaviour is everything.
It isn’t enough to analyse how many people dropped off from your homepage or at what point they left the checkout process - you need to go all in. The good news is that there are plenty of analytics tools out there that can help you figure out exactly how your consumer moves through your website and what the sticking points are. It seems like in my experience, consumers never really do what you want them to do and the reality is that your navigation will rarely serve every visitor the same way.
The trick, then, is to optimise user flow by creating multiple navigation pathways for different types of shoppers. More or less. Use heatmaps and recordings as well as digital analytics to create drop-off visualisation reports. You might think that a homepage product block of new arrivals in bold colours with a bold heading will move all your audiences along seamlessly but actually, it may just get some people stuck.
That’s right: shoppers who want a clean shopping experience without overwhelming visuals might get stuck on a homepage that is too loud and difficult to navigate through. These shoppers should be able to access other navigation bars or visual blocks quite easily - without getting overwhelmed by bright colours or jazzy elements or by copy that doesn’t speak to their needs at all. The final step is seldom to remember that navigation has nothing to do with navigation bars. Instead, getting people from A-Z on your website is actually about user pathways so think about those links and buttons strategically and see where you can make slight adjustments so everyone can get what they came for.
Testing and Iterating Your Navigation Strategy
Getting navigation spot on takes a lot of guesswork. Which is why it makes more sense to test and iterate - rather than keep guessing. There are methods such as A/B testing, heat maps, click tracking, user feedback, and analytics that can point us in the right direction. The truth is that navigation, or user flow, can be an art form, too.
At least when we’re trying to create a seamless experience for our users. Of course, everyone’s experience is different - one of my friends tested her navigation and got totally different results than I did. Because some of these tools go by user activity and behaviour.
For instance, with A/B testing, you compare two versions of your site to see which one performs better for conversions. So these tests are subjective in their own way. There are hardly ever also session recordings that allow us to track how users behave on our websites - but here again the question arises as to how relevant this data might be. It all boils down to context at the end of the day.
Also, how we use this data and what changes we make based on our findings. Because while all this data helps us improve our navigation strategy - it’s also important to go beyond and experiment a little. Take risks if you will - because the creative element can a bit be so crucial in creating an experience for your users that’s memorable in the best way possible.
Case Studies: Successful Navigation Optimizations
There’s so much talk about how navigation helps improve user flow and conversion but we don’t see enough of its real-life application. Makes Me Think Of i’ve been thinking about it quite a lot - so i decided to look at three very distinct examples. Myntra and Uber have both made an effort to put their users first with navigation. On Myntra, the mobile-first user interface allows you to easily search for anything in the sea of products that they have.
Their bread crumb approach makes sure that you’re able to go back or forward without feeling confused. The way I see it, they also use filters and collections to make sure that you’re able to find what you’re looking for with as little fuss as possible - which is sometimes a point of contention for me since my appetite for browsing does not love filters. On Uber, clear categorisation (whether it’s rides, deliveries or other services) and a modern and clean design ensure that users have no trouble navigating from one step to the next.
Again, filters do the heavy lifting here by providing all relevant information at a glance so that there is no delay in decision making or executing the action. The use of minimal icons draws your attention to only the most important elements. But really nothing stands out more than Netflix when it comes to navigation.
And while there are many who will be critical of their algorithm-driven content delivery and design choices - I’m inclined towards praising them. They are known for small bits of content like carousels, tags and custom collections that allow you to filter through all their content until you find something you like. Their extremely intuitive search makes sure that you get what you need - even if they have thousands of titles on offer across languages and genres - I think this is incredible. Netflix proves why navigation must be intentional, intuitive and intelligent if it is being used as a tool for better user experience and conversion.