BUSINESS
Reassuring them that your products are safe
can only help matters. Also posting things
like MSDS sheets and brand information may
seem like overkill to some, in truth it can only
help matters for this new type of customer.
Stand behind the products you use and remain
transparent in how you use them, and your
customers will likely appreciate it.
USER EXPERIENCE
Do you ever wonder why some websites are
so much easier to use than others? Or why some
people seem to fail at attempting to find things
on your website. This process of interacting with
a website is called the User Experience.
User Experience Design (UX) is the study of
how humans interact with things like a website’s
CONSISTENCY IS KEY
interface and then improving upon it based on a
predetermined set of goals. These goals can be
Consistency plays a huge role in how people
interact with your website. People expect certain anything from selling merchandise in your online
store, to lead generation for your carpet cleaning
things when visiting a website, for example, a
business. Once you have your goals, you can
phone number in the contact area. Some people
then study how your customers engage your site
expect your website to have a contact form. I
think it’s also safe to say that the majority expect and decide whether your process is working or
the navigation on each page to be consistent with failing.
the previous page.
One of the best tools for this type of study is
Google Analytics. It’s free and quite simple
If you look at the majority of today’s award
winning websites and fortune 500’s, there seems to install on your website. Once you learn the
basics of the program, it can provide you with
to be a commonality amongst them. They all
a plethora of invaluable information that can
look and feel remotely similar. They have a
help you meet your customers’ needs while also
header, a navigation mechanism, a storytelling
meeting your goals. You can find out simple
mechanism, and content. Throughout the
things like how many hits you received on a
site, these items tend to remain in their place,
particular page, to more complex things tracking
consistently. This is for good reason. People
funnel conversions.
don’t really care for change that much. Think
about it. You visit a website where you decide
Some key questions to ask yourself when
to watch a video that was linked on the home
thinking about your website’s user experience:
page. After clicking the link, you are taken to
• Does your user interface make sense? Is it
a new page, where the brand is still the same,
designed logically or do you need to have
but everything else is different. The entire page
some insider knowledge to use it?
is foreign. While the video plays, you have
• Is your site consistent in its method of
absolutely no idea how to get back to where you
delivery? Does the user need to re-learn each
were because you have to re-learn the site layout
page because nothing is cohesive?
all over again. You become frustrated and leave.
• Does your website address mobile devices?
While generally the scenario is not as extreme
If it doesn’t, would you like it too?
as this, it’s unfortunately an all too common
occurrence that can be avoided with some
• What is your end users likely goal when
simple planning and forethought on how the end
coming to your website?
user will interact with the website. If you, as
While you may have an opinion on the majority
a business owner, research your customers and
of these questions, it’s generally just that, an
think about what you would want to see if you
opinion. While an educated opinion can get you
were in their shoes, you could save yourself quite part of the way, to really engage your customer’s
a bit of heartache in the long run.
needs, you will likely need to do some deeper
testing.
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