Have you ever come across a website/blog finding yourself lost, confused or failing to find a connection to what you read? If the answer is yes or if you are on the other side of the screen afraid your users might nod in approval, please read on.
What we described above is termed as user experience (UX). In effect, it’s how a user feels while interacting with a digital product. It differs from the term usability since UX focuses more on the emotional experience of the product rather than its ease of use. UX builds loyalty and trust since, if designed and planned with care and thought a user can leave the site feeling positive resulting in a guaranteed revisit.
WordPress UX
WordPress, as popular as it is, can seem a little daunting for someone new to it. However, if you aim to give your users a positive experience and want them to explore and revisit, you need to understand some WordPress UX basics before you carry forward. We will make it simple for you by putting forward a set of questions which, if you find the answers to and implement in your designing of WordPress UX, will result in a major thumbs up!
#1 Is your design simple or a mess?
It’s as simple as it sounds. No user wants to visit a site and feel like they were bombarded with loud colors and fonts, multiple images with multiple animations, all in an effort to be unique and intriguing. Always remember that a user will always prefer functionality over form. We as humans are driven by predictability where the familiar feels more comforting. Yes, a unique design with over the top layouts might win you a certificate for innovation, but it is most likely to overwhelm your users.
Choose a WordPress theme with a simple layout, and format your work with bullets, paragraphs and subheadings to keep a crisp and clean look, yet striking and beautiful. If you need any customization or there is any room for optimizing the site design then consult a WordPress web designer to enhance your website design.
#2 Is it easy to navigate from one point to the next?
Have you ever tried asking for directions? The best guide would be the one who would give you simple instructions than one who made you roam around in circles before actually arriving at the destination. It is, in effect, the same when deciding an efficient design. You need to be able to give users easy navigations that prevent a user from feeling like they have to put in an effort to get from one point to the other.
Use a navigation bar, categories list in the side bar, search box (an essential item) and breadcrumbs. Breadcrumbs are an excellent way for visitors to see where they are on your site and immediately find their bearings. For example: Women > Beauty > Skin > Food for good skin
#3 Is your WordPress website mobile-friendly?
This is a very self-explanatory point. Mobiles in today’s day and age are the most important and common medium for any form of communication. Make sure your WordPress website is mobile friendly and can be easily visualized on a mobile without any compromise on quality.
This can be done by using a responsive theme which allows users to have a unifying experience across all devices. It prevents the user from having to twist their phones, find the text too small or too large, icons too small to click on, creating an experience equally enjoyable as on a desktop.
#4 Is your WordPress site too slow?
Time is money, a phrase that could not have described the world we live in today, better. On an average, you have only 3 seconds to grab your user’s attention! 3 seconds before your visitor decides to click to go back thus it should definitely not be wasted on your site loading.
There are several ways to make your website faster than ever. Use a good hosting service or even a content delivery network (CDN), install a caching plugin, optimize your website’s theme, images, coding, and framework, limit the use of plugins, and consider showing only excerpts of content so the pages load quickly.
#5 Does your site make social sharing an easy task?
If you want to be able to attract users or expand your target audience, you need to make social sharing easy on your site. In today’s day and age, people hardly spread the word by meeting someone. Users need to be able to share what they like right then and there and be able to locate sharing options easily.
Make the icons available for multiple social media sites and keep them in places that are easier to catch their eyes, such as, at the beginning or end of an article, next to the navigation or sidebar, The most efficient way would be to use the floating icons option in WordPress that allows the user to have the icon in sight always.
#6 Is it easy for the user to find information about you or contact you?
This is something that is so often ignored, leaving users feeling disappointed right when they were beginning to develop interest in your site, because they were not given the opportunity to interact with you. Also, users want to know what your company is all about. They want to know who you are and what you stand for. Visitors want to trust that you are the right company for them.
Solving this is as easy as making the “contact us” and “about” icon large enough to catch the user’s eye instantaneously. Do not make them scroll all the way down. Do not make them click through a bunch of pages to get to the contact form. Put these things on your primary navigation menu and make it easy.
Conclusion
Hope these tips help you build a good relationship with your user. Also, always remember that you are not the user and you will not always know what a user finds confusing, thus constant feedback and reviews is essential in keeping the bond growing stronger with each passing day.
