Precedence should be given to User Experience Design (And Why You Should be Concerned About Such Spending).Small companies falling prey to visual design crazes and getting persuaded to work on the front end first is also very common.
It’s very easy to say, I want that. Looking at things this way, developing a user interface that ignores user needs is no different from painting the house before building the foundation.
It is even more difficult and unreasonable to backtrack the design. On the other hand, wise design will lessen the need to encounter such issues first hand.
Getting these earlier on a design gives you a user experience that guides design and behavior opposed to a hunch of, “this looks good.” Users are the ones determining a solution to a design challenge which in turn makes it easier to decide on design dollars. It makes it easier to avoid “screen decorating” a design.
A fitness gear retailer had spent around 50,000 on a recently redesigned website, which is losing around 23% of web site visitors. This new website is losing buyers supposed to be impressed their ammunition, paens, and colors showcased enthralling.
What went wrong? It moved a comparison feature customers valued and shifted the digital checkout platform to the end of a long flow series. The new design and and UI burned more scrolling instead of clicking.
Some user testing showed the site lacked the ability to limit displayed gear to either home or commercial for 68% of users. This is the flagship primary user increadibly needed sorter tool. The site needed a quick navigation bar, uncluttered filters and checkout streamlining. However, within the next 8 weeks nothing in the designs was changed and conversion shifted a compounded 34%.
Here’s what many small business owners get wrong: they start with visuals. They see a competitor’s sleek website or a trendy design on Dribbble and think, “I want that.”
But starting with user interface design before nailing down your user experience design is like choosing paint colors before you’ve figured out where the doors go. It’s backwards, and it’s expensive to fix later.
A solid UX strategy answers critical questions first:
When you invest in UX first, you’re building on data and user behavior, not hunches about what looks good. This foundation makes every design dollar more effective because you’re solving real problems, not just decorating screens.
User interface design, to be clear, is as important as any other part of a given project. It is only when the building blocks of user experience design have been set that user interface design should begin stream as a brand passion igniter.
Good user interface designs portray polished professionalism, instill user confidence, and are critical to showing that a given site is polished and professional. Good user interface designs also drive users attention to the right repetitive activity at the right time contributes to achieving an impressive and sustaining cohesive design. More importantly, such design contributes to lessening the design competition gap in the marketplace.
To summarize this point for small businesses:
A new start up business design budget should assume not more than 30% of the budget is earmarked for user interface design, with the other 70% for user experience design. This is because for any design, the depth of the structure and the ease of functionality needs to be the star of the design.
Companies refining their website have first User Experience Design Integration. Prior to any design work, implement design features assisting users find their way around and reduce the difficulty to access and use the website functionality.
Budgetless design companies User Experience Design should be the base of their work. The overall usability and access to the website is more beneficial and the interface can be kept simple, devoid of functionality for added visual embellishments.
Still not sure where to focus? Ask yourself these questions:
If you answered “no” or “I’m not sure” to any of these, you have UX problems that no amount of pretty UI will fix. Working on accessible design principles, as outlined in building accessible websites, should also be part of your UX foundation.
The difference between UX and UI is especially important for online businesses. The functionality of product pages directly impacts whether a business will be able to turn visitors to the website into paying customers. Usability is completely defined by things like clarity of product descriptions, unimpeded navigation flow, presence of trust logos, and minimal friction payment steps. Gradient buttons are animations do not matter compared to these.
We have witnessed e-commerce customers becoming fixated on the color of the buttons ( which relates to UI ) rather than realizing that the checkout process includes going through 11 separate fields ( which is a UX disaster ). Without any updates on the UI of a website, one of our clients experienced a 41% increase on conversion rate by just streamlining their checkout process and allowing guest checkout.
Here’s how to approach UX vs UI for your small business:
Your prioritize needs, they need all of them, but the order some together is needed to make sure that the bottom does not get ignored; especially when the coffers are thin.
Focus initially on User Experience Design, spending the time making the site intelligent, functional, and useful to get the desired conversions. Once that is achieved, and not before, focus on User Interface Design.
You end up with faster ROI, less costly redesign, and aligned goals when total attention is on the business goals. They prefer websites that work over merely good looking ones every time all the time.
Not sure if your site has UX issues holding back conversions? Get a complimentary website audit from our team. We’ll identify the friction points costing you customers and provide actionable recommendations to improve your user experience—no commitment required.
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