Insights into the purpose and benefits of optimizing the user experience
The collective goal of addressing a website’s visual composition and the user’s experience and user journey is to maximize the appeal to the needs and wants of your specific audience. Small changes to a website’s design and behaviour can have profound effects on the conscious and subconscious experience of the user as they interact with it. Below, we have summarized our insights into the purpose and benefits of making these improvements
Making the Information Digestible
Creating varied and complementary font sizes help direct the reader’s subconscious to absorb and recognize the order and significance of the content they are reading. In the example below, we increased line heights to make it easier for the user’s eyes to follow the hierarchy of information. In addition, letter spacing was adjusted to increase the clarity of words and improve absorption. These adjustments collectively improve content legibility; content being the primary purpose of the user’s visit.
Modernizing the Aesthetic
Using higher-quality professional photography can draw more inspiration and establish deeper connections with a brand. Often times, a lifestyle photo can help evoke a desired emotional response and make an association with a brand stronger than a generic product photo. For many clients, this is better than having a technically correct but aesthetically unpleasant representation of what the brand can offer. To complement this approach, using stylish and appealing typography within brand guidelines acts as a progression of the brand’s natural evolution and can help users distinguish the site and perceive it as being of higher quality than its competition.
Maximizing the Real Estate
With the recent attention given to making websites responsive for mobile devices, an ever-increasing segment of users has been overlooked – those with very large monitors, typically of company decision makers. When viewed at 1920×1080, increasing the page wrapper from the old standard of 960 pixels to a more generous 1440 provides more space for content and enables it to occupy the page more comfortably. This also helps adjustments to the size of the text happen more easily without compromising the visual harmony of the page.
Improving User Navigation
Optimizing and modernizing navigational features can pay dividends beyond aesthetics. We often combine a traditional navigation with a modern, dynamic “hamburger” menu to help users better find their intended destination. This complements our further optimization of the site for mobile phones and tablets to create a more seamless experience between different devices. This type of design and organization has the added benefit of better accommodating less computer-savvy visitors.
Making the Visit Memorable
Designing and programming every aspect of a website for the benefit of the user’s experience should be the driving principle behind every consideration to user interaction. It’s critical to distinguish your site by making the best use of visual assets, arrangements, and interactions. Not only should menus, buttons, and galleries function flawlessly, but using them to create an immersive experience can be key to making a website more memorable. This can be accomplished in part by adding feedback to every interactive element, as well as having tasteful embellishments such as elegant animations and custom page transitions. Furthermore, curating the user journey for a specific persona and target audience can vastly increase user satisfaction.
Search-Engine Optimization
Many aspects of search engine optimization can provide immediate benefits to end users. Giving pages clear, concise titles and descriptive URL’s can help users perceive the arrangement and context of your content. Constructing page sections with a proper hierarchy of sub-headers and paragraphs, along with relevant images and captions not only help search engines rank your page higher, but also help users better understand, retain and possibly share your content.
