User Experience: definition and techniques for improving UX
User experience, generally referred to as UX, is a component of customer experience. Building a good user experience makes it easy to buy or use a product or service, while creating a positive emotional impact.
In the digital world, good user experience design (UX design) enables you to offer your customers and prospects a quality point of contact on any technological interface (website, blog, application, tablet interface, etc.). It is particularly important in the context of the digital transformation of businesses.
To build a better user experience, it is entirely possible to call on UX professionals who can provide you with their specific expertise (image and communication professionals, developers, web designers, ergonomists, marketing experts, etc.). If you want to get started yourself, this article will give you the basics and show you how to build a good user experience. Discover the opportunities for improvement available to you right now!
What is user experience?
Definition of user experience
User eXperience ( UX ) is a broad concept that relates to the experience that users have when they benefit from your offering. It brings together all the strategies and actions implemented to optimise the customer experience and, by extension, the relationship between a brand and its customers. It can be applied to products, services or digital systems.
The term 'UX' was coined by Donald Norman, an expert in human-centred design who worked at Apple for many years. Let's start by listening to his definition of user experience in the following video:
Lead UX designer Pierre Lannes gives us the following definition:
User experience is the overall perception of the qualities of a product, service or system that make it more or less relevant or meaningful to the end user.
This overall feeling is the result of use, which produces a level of subjective satisfaction, and of the imprint left in the memory.
For a product, service or system, the user experience is built around the following 5 criteria:
- Is it accessible? Does it adapt to the user's context, profile and condition?
- Is it easy to understand and use, and therefore effective?
- Is it useful? Does it meet a real need and add value for the user?
- Is it desirable? Does it arouse desire and trust, and appeal to its audience?
- Is it credible? Does it offer reliable content, is it based on expertise?
Finally, it must also meet the company's objectives.
As this infographic summarises, UX is at the crossroads of three areas:
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User-centred design
The term UX is often associated with the digital world, with the growing scope of new technologies, but in reality, the user experience is not limited to the digital world. It is omnipresent and essential.
Even more than the functional or technical characteristics of the product or service you are selling, it is the whole experience created around it and by it that is central: the sensations it provides, the ease it brings, the emotions it arouses, the memories it leaves behind, etc. This experience will encourage the interaction of users with your product or service. This experience will encourage people to interact with a brand and will contribute to a good customer relationship.
Working on UX means adopting a user-centric vision.
Taking a UX approach means adopting a user-centred approach, i.e. focusing on the needs and expectations of users. From the design of what you sell to the way you communicate your service or product offering, UX is above all based on emotion.
Design thinking : a UX design methodology
Design thinking is a process used by designers to carry out innovation projects. This process places the user at the centre, i.e. it identifies a problem and attempts to solve it by developing solutions that meet users' needs. It is based on an iterative approach:
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Design thinking is used in UX design to create a good user experience by following the following steps:
- Empathy: putting yourself in people's shoes to understand how they will interact with the product;
- definition: defining the problems to be solved
- Ideation: finding solutions by giving free rein to your creativity (brainstorming);
- Prototyping: selecting the most suitable solution and creating a trial version;
- testing: testing the concept, accepting new ideas or redefining the problem in order to improve the prototype (and therefore the product).
[Focus] The user experience in a web project
UX design and UI design: two different concepts
The terms UX design and UI design are often confused. As we have seen, the former refers to the design of the user experience (UX) in the broadest sense, while the latter refers to the design of the user interface (UI). These two concepts are different, but closely linked.
UI design is based on technique
Interface design is based on the technical, codified aspect, and aims to organise the textual and graphic elements based on technical standards. It includes visual identity, graphic design and editorial guidelines, all of which are primarily aesthetic in nature.
UX design focuses on the user
The user experience applied to digital interfaces (websites, applications, etc.) embodies the functional aspect in the broadest sense and aims to present web users with a navigation system that is as intuitive as possible. It therefore includes the design of a good interface, but takes other parameters into account, such as its accessibility, compatibility with different systems, consistency, etc. to create a fluid and harmonised experience across all digital media.
The product must be accessible, easy to use, intuitive and ergonomic.
The interface must not only be adapted to human capabilities, but must also give Internet users their rightful place within the system. That's why UX is subject to the sensitivities of users: it takes account of their expectations and needs to offer them a fluid, pleasant and effortless environment.
The versatility of UX
Finally, UX encompasses many aspects, at the crossroads of a variety of disciplines, and UI is only one part of it: ergonomics, graphic design, marketing, systems engineering, and so on.
8 techniques to improve the UX of your website
Technique no. 1: simplify the navigation menu and categorisation
To make the experience fluid, it is advisable to prioritise information to highlight the most relevant. To do this, you need to :
- identify what visitors are looking for when they come to your site and give them the opportunity to find the answers quickly ;
- pay particular attention to the structuring of categories and navigation.
In particular, you can :
- reduce the size of the menu using the drop-down option,
- place a secondary menu in the footer for less important pages,
- organise your main menu items in a precise and logical order according to the information that is important to your audience and the steps you want them to follow, etc.
Technique no. 2: choose your visual environment carefully
It's important to carefully define a graphic charter to ensure consistency and visual comfort for your visitors. This includes in particular
- colours
- fonts
- illustrations
- visual sizes.
Bear in mind that it's your brand image that Internet users discover and experience when they start browsing your site.
Taking care of your website means offering a pleasant experience and projecting a positive brand image.
Technique No. 3: Plan a home page
Some companies may have started out on the web with a blog, but don't yet have a home page. Internet users arriving directly on the blog have no general presentation of the site, do not know what they can expect to find there, and may therefore lack a reference point.
The home page plays the role of the front door, the one that people go through to visit your site. The idea of the home page is to announce your offer and begin to orientate your visitor. As the first point of contact, it needs to be carefully designed to hold visitors' attention and make them want to stay, because everything happens in a matter of seconds!
Technique No. 4: Add call-to-action buttons
A natural progression through the pages of your site can be established by using call-to-action buttons. A call-to-action button acts as a guide. It directs the user while encouraging them to continue browsing and find out more, such as :
- finding out more about your company and your mission
- consulting the offers on offer
- filling in a contact form to obtain more information, etc.
The content of each web page should encourage the visitor to go and look at the next page, so don't hesitate to include some on all your pages.
Technique no. 5: Insert a search bar
One or more search bars will make it easier to navigate your website, especially if it contains a lot of information. Internet users will be able to obtain the information they are looking for directly. The search bar should be easily visible on the page: in the header, sidebar, footer, etc.
Technique no. 6: Enhance your editorial content
As well as improving SEO, it's important to have a solid editorial strategy to create a quality experience. How can you do this? By focusing as much as possible on responding to users' needs. Your content should be :
- useful: it provides information that meets specific needs ;
- targeted: aimed directly at a defined audience;
- Qualified: it provides real, unique and differentiating value;
- personalised: it creates links and engagement.
A good UX is directly linked to an editorial experience capable of offering high added value to readers.
💡 To take care of your copywriting, keep the following ideas in mind:
- Precision and explanation, but always a degree of conciseness,
- Adaptation to the interface and brand positioning,
- Proximity to the target audience: dynamic, positive and lively language,
- Choice of semantics, etc.
In addition, by working on the UX through content, you can at the same time increase the time spent on the site and limit bounces. To arouse visitors' interest and guide them through the pages of your site, it may be a good idea to highlight popular or recent content, for example using images, clickable graphics, etc. Finally, providing visitors with quality content helps to increase the conversion rate.
Technique no. 7: Simplify the customer journey
Simplifying navigation on your site helps to make the customer journey smoother, and thus the buying experience. You can go a step further and offer assistance on your site.
💡 Why not install a chatbot, that virtual assistant with which your users interact in real time? Your visitors can chat with your brand, from a simple request for information to customer service. There are then two possibilities:
- they get an instant automatic response ;
- they will be redirected to the appropriate contact.
With the BOTNATION.AI chatbot creation solution, you can easily engage your audience, improve the customer journey and, ultimately, increase your sales.
Providing a conversational interface supports customer service and helps to enrich the company's database. The iAdvize conversational commerce platform enables you to engage your customers, advise your visitors in real time, and also configure a chatbot.
👉 Optimising the user journey helps to increase customer satisfaction, loyalty and conversion.
Technique no. 8: analyse your data
By analysing the data on your website, you can obtain essential information about the preferences of your visitors and prospects. Choose the most relevant indicators to observe in relation to your activity, and use the results to improve the user experience and, at the same time, the performance of your website.
The Q°emotion software solution enables you to detect what your customers like or don't like about your company's services, in particular by studying written content (comments and opinions on your digital platforms, messages sent to the chatbot, complaints forms, etc.). This analysis tool enables you to acquire, engage and retain your customers, while offering the possibility of improving their customer experience.
Enchanting users to build loyalty
To give your users or customers the most enjoyable experience possible, you need to align the product's conception (design) with its actual use (usability). Even more than the functional aspect, it is emotion that will play a predominant role in the user experience.
On a digital interface, design is not an accessory: it is an integral part of your customer's buying journey. With a high-quality, high-value-added experience, the chances of attracting, retaining and converting your customers increase considerably. Conversely, a poorly thought-out user experience has a radical consequence: the user will go and visit your competitor's site.
By implementing the techniques suggested in this article, you have a good chance of improving the user experience to encourage your visitors to return. The aim of a successful user experience is therefore twofold: to provide satisfaction in order to achieve your objectives!
A successful UX 💫 = a delighted customer 😊 = a good ROI! 👑
What about you, have you given any thought to user experience? What means do you plan to implement to improve it?
Article translated from French