The Importance of a User Friendly Website
A website is the simplest and most effective way to connect with your current customers and to attract new ones. However, a dated website that isn’t mobile-friendly just won’t cut it anymore. In fact, 57% of mobile users won’t recommend a business if their mobile website is poorly designed or unresponsive. That’s a serious number of lost leads and missed opportunities. The progression of the Internet over the last number of years has also changed the way that people process information. Luckily, a beautiful and simple website can help your business stay open 24/7, virtually at least.
As you create a website to showcase your business, you need to consider readability, navigation, mobile-optimization, and load-time. Let’s take a look at these 4 important keys to
designing a user-friendly website and how this can help your business succeed.
As you create a website to showcase your business, you need to consider readability, navigation, mobile-optimization, and load-time. Let’s take a look at these 4 important keys to
designing a user-friendly website and how this can help your business succeed.
Readability
The majority of website users quickly scan a website looking for the information they need. You can make it even easier for them by designing your website so that it’s easy to gather the most important information at a glance.
The first step you can take to achieve this is to format your content for easy scannability. To do this and to break up your information on the page, you should include:
- bullets
- subheadings
- short paragraphs
- white space
Nobody likes to search through huge blocks of text to find what they’re looking for, so choose a short and simple layout that’s also aesthetically pleasing.
The color scheme of your website is another factor that helps to increase readability. There must be enough contrast between the background color of your webpage and the font color to easily read all sizes and types of font that are on the webpage.
Finally, speaking of fonts, a sans-serif font is the recommended font type for website copy. This refers to lettering that doesn’t have the extending features, called serifs, at the end of the letter strokes. A sans-serif font typically denotes modernity and minimalism.
AaBbCc (Serif Font)
AaBbCc (Sans-Serif Font)
The color scheme of your website is another factor that helps to increase readability. There must be enough contrast between the background color of your webpage and the font color to easily read all sizes and types of font that are on the webpage.
Finally, speaking of fonts, a sans-serif font is the recommended font type for website copy. This refers to lettering that doesn’t have the extending features, called serifs, at the end of the letter strokes. A sans-serif font typically denotes modernity and minimalism.
AaBbCc (Serif Font)
AaBbCc (Sans-Serif Font)
NavigationThere’s tough competition out there, and if your customer can’t find the information they’re looking for, they’ll likely just move on. It is important to have a clean website with a design and layout best suited to your customers’ needs and habits. Organize your content by relevance and interest as your customer would navigate through it so that they’ll find your best stuff first. Keep your menu simple to prevent users from getting lost, confused, or giving up on your website.
If you have many pages on your website, consider adding a search bar so users can easily find what they want. The header and footer of your website should also be designed to add value and make navigation effortless. When in doubt, use the grandma test. If your grandma can successfully read and navigate the website, you’re probably good to go.
Load Time
If your website doesn’t load within 4-6 seconds, it’s too slow. A slow website doesn’t just drive away users, it also ranks you lower on Google search results. Large image files and external links can cause your website to lag as it’s loading. You can reduce this time by compressing image files or limiting your use of external redirects.
The load time of your website also affects how potential customers perceive your brand. A study noted that of the respondents who had a negative reaction to websites with long load times, 28% would visit a competitor’s website, 27% would not trust the website, 18% would not visit that page again, and 13% would think the site may have been hacked.
The load time of your website also affects how potential customers perceive your brand. A study noted that of the respondents who had a negative reaction to websites with long load times, 28% would visit a competitor’s website, 27% would not trust the website, 18% would not visit that page again, and 13% would think the site may have been hacked.
Benefits of a Mobile-Friendly Website A website that’s optimized for mobile use enhances user experience, improves your Google rankings, and provides convenience for your customers, making it easier for them to reach you.
Enhance User ExperienceAmericans spend an average of 3 hours and 10 minutes on their smartphones everyday. When a website is optimized for mobile use, information can be easily accessed and interacted with. A website that isn’t mobile-friendly forces users to pinch and zoom their screen, often frustrating customers to the point of giving up on the entire process.
In fact, 88% of Americans have negative feelings about brands with poorly performing websites. Mobile-friendly websites provide a clear call-to-action, which can boost a company’s communication and customer conversion rate.
In fact, 88% of Americans have negative feelings about brands with poorly performing websites. Mobile-friendly websites provide a clear call-to-action, which can boost a company’s communication and customer conversion rate.
Improve Google Ranking
Did you know that Google’s share of mobile search traffic is over 85% globally? With the highest share of mobile users in the world, you want to be on the first page of Google’s search results because only 0.78% of Google users click results on the second page. Having a mobile-friendly website is one of the factors that Google considers when it ranks its search results. You can check if your website is easy to view across all devices with Google’s helpful mobile-friendly test tool.
Greater User Convenience
Having a website that people can access from their smartphones allows you to reach more customers faster. A mobile-friendly site adds credibility to your brand and positions you as a trustworthy source of information to your customers. The average attention span of a person is 8 seconds. That’s the amount of time you have to grab their attention and gain their business or lose it. Consumers are constantly looking for products, tools, and services that can increase their convenience. With a great website, customers can reach you and get the information they need when it’s most convenient for them, even if that’s outside of your regular business hours.
A user-friendly website will help your business attract new customers and succeed. If your website is in need of some updates, or isn’t currently optimized for mobile use, our team of professionals can help you design the perfect website for the unique needs of your business in the medical industry.
At Pulse ISM, we understand the importance of having a well-designed user-friendly website. For more information or to set up a consultation, give our staff a call at (913) 662-1405.
I was surprised when you said that a person’s average attention span is 8 seconds, so we need to grab their attention within that small time frame. My boss mentioned that she thinks creating a website for our small business would help us become more relevant and accessible to our customers. I’ll suggest we use a professional web design service that’ll know about common methods for keeping the attention of potential customers!
Rebecca, we completely agree! Having a professional, stylish website is new standard to get attention of potential customers! We provide just that!