Keeping your website visitors engaged can be quite challenging. Besides interactive and interesting content and graphics, the User Interface (UI)) of the website also matters.
The UI needs to be simple yet interesting. It should be able to satisfy three main criteria – The UI should be beautiful, engaging and should be able to strike an emotional response with the user.
This is easier said than done. As part of the User Experience (UX), the UI needs to encourage website visitors to click on the Call To Action(CTA) buttons and submit their details for further conversion. Nobody has the time to interpret complex design, it is in every website designer’s best interest to have a simple, user-friendly UI.
If any website is difficult to navigate, takes its own sweet time to load or has a design that does not ‘connect’ with the audience, interested website visitors will not have the patience to skim through the website even for a mere 3-4 seconds.
How to avoid UI design mistakes? Here are some of the main UI design mistakes that should be addressed ASAP.
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1. Unresponsive Design
About 80% of all internet users are now online through their mobile phones. If your website isn’t mobile-friendly, visitors may lose interest in the first 2-3 seconds and move on to your competitors. Additionally, Google also ranks web pages in its Search Engine Result Pages (SERPs) based on how responsive it is for mobile. In one way, if your website isn’t mobile-friendly, you not only lose the interest of website visitors but also lose SERP rankings.
2. Too much clutter
Website visitors like to have a simple and user-friendly website interface. Too many buttons or features can look confusing to the visitor. If the user has to literally find the CTA button, this can be another reason to close the webpage and move on to your competitors.
3. Difficulty in navigation
The visitor should be able to navigate from one page to the other effortlessly. He should be able to navigate to any other page on the website through the menu bar, footer, breadcrumbs or internal links.
4. The website should have a set hierarchy
This means each page should be available where it is generally available as a rule of thumb. For example, the footer, as well as the menu bar, should have a link to the website’s ‘About Us’ page. Also, there shouldn’t be too many pages in one sub-heading that can confuse users. Each drop-down menu should contain a maximum of 5-6 web pages.
5. Unimpressive CTAs
Using stock photos can be pretty predictable and boring. They do not entice the viewers to click the CTA. If your main aim is to get leads, you need to take the time to get graphics designed that evoke interest. If you are explaining something, you should add some infographics so that website skimmers can understand in short what is being explained.
6. Unimpressive Graphics
Your website needs to reflect everything that is going on in your business. If you haven’t updated your website for quite some time, getting it done immediately is the need of the hour. You would not want potential leads to ditch you just because there wasn’t the required information of your products/services.
7. Feedback and sharing features
Though reviews, feedback and social media sharing features may not be core UI elements, they are needed to give a boost to branding and sales. The more shares and comments are there, the more chances you get of conversions. In fact, in absence of sharing and commenting features, there is a high risk your product or service may not get the sales you were hoping for.
8. Too much text
Most of the visitors to your website are just going to skim the page- no one has the time to read through paragraphs and paragraphs of text. This can overwhelm your visitors who may not be eager to click on the CTA after reading so much.
9. Slow loading speed
Studies have shown how people lose interest in a website if it takes more than 2 seconds to load. This is true for both desktop and mobile. For the best results, do hire a UI/UX designer or an experienced website designer who can help to solve this issue.
A few last words
As it is said, the first impression is the last impression, each page of your website has to be designed to create a killer first impression. Every aspect of the UI needs to be looked into to ensure maximum conversions. If you are a novice and want professional help, you can appoint a UI/UX service company for the best results.
