The 7 Biggest Online User Experience Mistakes You’re Making Right Now
Growing your online business today greatly relies on providing a unique and engaging online user experience. It doesn’t take long for users to decide if they want to engage with your web application or bounce to another that they find more suiting to their needs. If you want to boost your metrics and sales you must create a user experience that your visitors are looking for and avoid the most common mistakes. Here is a list of the most common user experience mistakes for mobile and online applications today.
The 7 Biggest User Experience Mistakes
1. Slow loading: A whole new generation of online users have most likely never experienced getting on the web through a modem. Speed is important to users or they’ll leave in a big hurry. “The end user expects an image-rich shopping experience, but will not wait for sluggish load times,” said Brendan MacArthur in Yottaa’s article about the end-user experience. A slow application will lead to a lack of conversions. With a well-thought-out end-user strategy, along with the proper technology, you can alleviate the pain of waiting on a page to load. Understand more about why your mobile site is slow and how it affects user engagement, here.
2. Confusing Navigation: A good user experience is often brought on by easy web and mobile application navigation. If a user finds it difficult to navigate through your page they may conclude that you simply just do not have the information they are looking for. Shari Thurow from Omni Marketing Interactive claims that confusing navigation can also have an effect on a user’s “perceived download time”. “If users cannot find what they want on a website, they will regard the download time as slower than it actually might be.”, says Shari. A simple solution to this issue could be utilizing a simple application layout design. If a user finds it too difficult to locate the information they want, they will search elsewhere for it.
3. Not Basing Content and Design Changes on Data: You do not want to make changes to your design or content based on an opinion or a “feeling”. All application decisions should be formed around what your data is telling you. According to the McKinsey Global Institute “a retailer using big data to the fullest could increase its operating margin by more than 60 percent.” Listen to what your data is telling you first, and then make the necessary changes. Are you using Google Analytics for performance data analysis? Read this article by Ari Weil.
4. Not Engaging the User: When users visit your web application they should feel engaged by what they see. If they do not, they will simply go somewhere else with one click. Luckily it is easy to make your application more interactive. Pushkar Gaikwad of InBoundio tells us, “You can embed widgets, have infinite page loads, cross-link content of other sources, and use web forms to make your content more interactive.” Utilizing these tools can help to make your page more interesting to your visitors and will allow them a more engaging experience. Yottaa talks about user experience tips specific to eCommerce applications in our article “Fix Shopping Cart Woes: User Engagement is Key to Success”.
5. Forgetting Mobile It’s becoming more and more apparent, mobile is taking over the world. Forgetting to make your application available on mobile is one of the biggest mistakes you could make when trying to improve the user experience. A Google report said 90% of mobile users use multiple screens sequentially to accomplish a task over time. If you are not taking advantage of mobile commerce then you will be missing out on plenty of potential customers. Moz gives some excellent tips for on-site design, search optimization, and page load speed in their mobile optimization guide.
7. Complicating The Check Out Experience “The best e-commerce websites create an online experience that makes visitors fall in love with their products. The shopping experiences are emotional, guided, and clearly encourage visitors to add a product to their cart.”, said Nirav Sheth, the creator of Awesome Checkout. It is a big mistake to make the checkout experience more complicated than it has to be. Want to know why users are abandoning their shopping carts? Start here. Great web and mobile applications offer a great user experience. It doesn’t have to be complex, but it must be fun, engaging, and easy for the user to navigate. Avoid these 7 mistakes as you create your user experience and you should see positive results and returns. Learn more about captivating your mobile consumers on the go in Yottaa’s Mobile Moment ebook.
