Are you still baffled by the underwhelming reaction to your most recent website redesign? Avoid obsessing about it. There is a lot that goes into creating a user-friendly website that interacts and responds to its audience. As a result, if you’re new to UI and UX, pay close attention! We’ll guide you through the simple methods and do’s and don’ts of designing user-friendly websites.
Whether you were assigned other tasks, you must grasp what web designers can do for your organisation and which web design principles they follow. So, before we begin, let’s establish what we’re discussing so that we’re all on the same page.
What Are User Experience and User Interface Design, and Why Is It Matters?
UX is a shorthand for User Experience Design, whereas UI is a shorthand for User Interface Design. Simply described, User Experience Design is the process of developing and improving the quality of interaction between a customer and a website. UX may be defined as a “human-centred” approach to website development.
If, for example, you have an online store with a long and confusing checkout procedure, your UX design lacks to provide a satisfactory experience for the user, and they are unlikely to come back and may even leave the checkout basket entirely in their disgust.
A UX designer’s responsibilities are broad; they include competitor and consumer analysis, product planning, prototyping, testing, and collaboration with UI designers and developers.
Meanwhile, User Interface Design is responsible for a product’s appearance, feel presentation, and interaction in order to improve the user experience. It is the activity of visually leading the user throughout the website’s interface by using interactive features on all web pages. User interface designers work together with developers or coders.
The UI designer’s tasks include website branding and graphic creation, UI prototype, and site interaction and animation. They also ensure that a website adjusts to all device screen sizes and that the appearance of that adaptation is consistent. Finally, they work closely with the technical team to bring their ideas into action.
As you can see, UX and UI are inextricably linked and operate in tandem. The phrase “web designer” is increasingly being used to refer to a user interface designer who also works as a developer. While UX does not necessitate the use of code, UI is a task that will necessitate it as part of the process of constructing websites.
Increase Your Site’s Engagement Through Interactive Websites
If you feel that all websites are interactive, you’re probably right. As a matter of course, you’ll be visiting and interacting with any website. However, what is the best ways to get consumers to interact with your company? This post includes a few examples of interactive websites that are sure to attract your interest.
What Is An Interactive Website?
To begin, let us establish the value of interactive websites: Users can connect and participate more effectively with interactive websites. If they can communicate with your brand, you may develop a positive connection with them online, adding value to your business.
To improve your website’s conversion rate, you must provide a good user experience. If people love using your site and find useful content, you instil confidence in them. It instantly increases engagement. Earn the trust of your users; this will increase conversion.
Additionally, the click, response, and loading rates are excellent user experience indicators with certain design aspects of interactive websites. If you intend to create interactive websites, you must first understand your visitors and their preferences. Users who aren’t able to find the information they need will leave your website.
A similar conclusion can be drawn if they grow tired of or discouraged by their attempts and receive no response. Consider the type of content you’d like to offer before you begin. Determine the most important aspects of the project. Once you’ve got their attention, you can keep it with the use of interactive website features like modules, designs, animations, and animations.
As your online interactions with users become more positive, so will your level of engagement. Conversion is impacted as a result.
Why Do You Require Websites With Interactive Designs?
Every business in the digital world is competing for new customers. The majority of them, on the other hand, fail to recognise that simply increasing traffic is not enough. Users who remain interested and involved are more likely to convert. An interactive company website is a must if you want to keep visitors interested in what you offer.
- Increases engagement. Interactive business websites may help your website become less dull, resulting in more activity.
- Users will spend more time on a website that engages them in conversation. This improves conversion rates, lowers bounce rates, and can help your website’s SEO.
- Websites with an interactive design provide a more customised user experience, which can result in satisfied users.
- Users who are engaged with a website are more likely to develop a long-term engagement with it.
- Websites with an interactive design may leave a lasting impression on users. This increases your brand’s visibility and reach.
- Interactive websites encourage people to promote and connect to your website.
- Increased conversions increase your chances of earning a deal.
What Is The Best Way To Create Interactive Websites?
Sections that are animated capture the user’s attention. Consider the following examples to help you spice up your website:
- Section heads that are animated
- A selector with animated hovering effect
- Audio and video files
- Interactive galleries
- Components that are active as you scroll down
- Codes that track the cursor
- Scroll indicators with pulsating scroll bars
- Display of a webpage that may be customised
- Without logging onto the site, you may post and comment.
- A forum for online interaction with friends
- An interactive chatbot or an animatronic figure
- Online video games
How Do Interactive Components Increase UX And UI?
Everyone needs some incentive. Interactive components may compel visitors to act and fill out a form, click a button, or watch a video or do anything else you want them to do.
Listed below are some advantages of interactive features.
Bounce rates are reduced
Bounce rates are a measure of how often people abandon your site without taking any action. Reduced bounce rates can significantly improve your site’s search analytics. Consider this. If you can persuade people to do an action on your website, you have essentially eliminated bounces.
On average, there is a 43 per cent bounce rate. However, a page with interactive components should have far reduced bounce rates.
It Improves Your SEO
It’s virtually self-evident that interactive components will boost your SEO. SEO is more than meta tags and robots.txt. However, they are necessary components.
SEO, and by extension CRO, is all about optimising the user experience. Enhancing the user experience and adding interactive components can help boost your SEO.
Which of the following are examples of interactive elements? What interactive elements can you use on your website to increase conversions?
Forms
Forms are a typical conversion mechanism and one of the most often used interactive components on a web page. They are a standard feature of traditional landing pages but may not be as effective as they may be.
Actions On Social Media
Integrating social media into your content is a highly effective way to increase user engagement. Given the significance of social media in modern life, it would be absurd not to include it.
One common method is to provide tweetable quotes in your content. There are several methods to include social media interaction in your website. The most important thing to keep in mind is to make it as easy as possible for the user to follow along.
Anything Clickable
Interactivity does not have to be a difficult development technique. Making anything clickable is sufficient. Users will be kept on the website and connected to the content by clicking “picture,” “poll,” “video,” or “quiz.”
Videos
A common kind of interactive media is to include videos on a page. In comparison to a quiz or other activity, a clip often provides a lesser level of engagement. However, the user is engaged in a different way.
Including Interactive Elements Can Boost User Engagement
When it comes to web design, interactive elements can be a powerful tool. You may utilise interactive elements to change a static and forgettable page into something that grabs viewers’ imagination and keeps their attention for more extended periods of time.
In addition to adding genuine value to a website, interactive elements may also be quite handy in terms of personalisation.
As a bonus, there’s also the entertainment factor to consider. To their credit, many of the amazing websites we’ve seen have made it their mission to include user involvement whenever possible.
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Infographics That Are Interactive
With interactive visualisations, web designers can take their infographics to a whole new level by incorporating interactive elements into the design.
By incorporating layers of interaction into visual aids such as these, the content becomes significantly more intriguing and engaging.
In this day and age, infographics may be as basic or as sophisticated as they need to be. There are countless possibilities for bringing information to life via visual representation. There are a variety of alternatives available here.
There is no “ideal” method to show information in an infographic means that you may be quite creative (as long as you don’t go too far and ruin user experience in the process). Simple interactive adjustments can be used to focus a user’s attention on certain portions of a page or urge a user to continue clicking through to find out more information.
Personalised infographics, which are meant to convert data according to a user’s requirements, are included in the more advanced versions. For instance, a user may enter detailed information about their financial situation, age, or locality, and the information presented on the infographic might be altered as a result.
Also possible is the use of interactivity to demonstrate the impact of other elements on the data, such as time of day, geographic location, financial situation, life stage and so on.
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Product Testing In A Virtual Environment
With virtual product testing, eCommerce has access to a whole new set of possibilities. Clients are increasingly buying online for a variety of products, but the one obvious drawback is that they can’t actually test out the goods before making a purchase.
Virtual product testing aims to alter this by allowing people to check out things in the virtual world before purchasing in the real world. A wide range of products and services are now being tested using product testing technologies.
Customers may now preview how goods look on their skin by visiting online beauty businesses such as NYX Cosmetics, which utilise interactive elements. The “try on-tool” will assist users in selecting the proper shade of beauty products for their complexion by requiring them to upload a picture of themselves.
This idea instantly appeals to a user and encourages them to spend more time on the website.
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Animations That Are Interactive
Companies today must work extremely hard to distinguish themselves from their competitors in today’s intense economy. First impressions are important, and websites only have a tiny window of opportunity to make a good one.
It is possible to significantly improve the first impression that consumers get of your website by using animations. You may show visitors that your website is offering something unique by using user-interactive animations, which may keep them engaged long enough for them to continue browsing the site’s homepage content.
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Quizzes and Calculators
Few of us can say no to a quiz or an interactive calculator, especially when we’re looking for something to do while we’re doing something important.
Tools like this have been used to captivate consumers’ attention for quite some time. Still, as technology has progressed, we’ve begun to see more customised, bespoke versions of these attention-grabbing aspects.
Such data may be readily converted into actionable solutions that can be utilised to improve the customer experience while also improving overall company performance. Quizzes may be designed for any audience, brand, or organisation, and can be customised to their specific requirements.
With quizzes and games out of the way, calculators are another effective method for improving engagement by providing users with a practical tool that assists them in solving a specific problem. Calculators are frequently used on websites that provide financial services, although they may be found in practically any industry.
In this scenario, users are rapidly engaged with a series of questions that ultimately assist them in creating a monthly budget plan for their household. It is educational, beneficial, and provides a genuine service to people experiencing financial difficulties.
It is simple to integrate interactive components such as polls and poll results to a marketing mailing account because the tools frequently need users to provide their email addresses. The data may also be utilised to generate segmented, highly detailed lists based on individual users’ unique interests and requirements based on the collected information.
Email lists that have been established through interactive content are pretty beneficial since they tend to provide various benefits from marketing communications efforts. Creating interactive quizzes and calculators isn’t as difficult as it may look at first glance. There are several user-friendly tools available to assist you.
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Surveys
Customer feedback is critical in every organisation, but obtaining this information is frequently more challenging than it seems. Using customer surveys, you may not only encourage consumers to contribute their thoughts and ideas, but you can also learn how to serve them over time. Furthermore, by guaranteeing that all customers feel heard and respected, these brief questionnaires contribute significantly to enhancing the customer experience.
Many businesses prefer to distribute surveys automatically to customers as soon as they purchase a product or service.
For instance, when a user arrives at their destination using a Grab, they will be prompted to evaluate their driver and provide feedback right away. This increases the likelihood that a client will remain to use the service due to the increased engagement.
Airbnb allows customers to review their hosts and provide precise input on the accessibility of certain things in their listings. This helps the site deliver a better experience to prospective visitors while also providing the organisation with the chance to remedy any concerns.
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Buttons For Social Media Sharing
When it comes to increasing brand exposure and generating word-of-mouth referrals, social media continues to be a tremendously effective marketing tool. To promote users to share pages, many websites include social sharing buttons across their websites, making it easier for visitors to do so.
User engagement with your website content is made simple with social sharing buttons, quick and straightforward to deploy. Consider incorporating personalised sharing buttons alongside high-interest content like infographics, quotes, and statistics to maximise engagement.
The Top 19 Most Common UX/UI Mistakes
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Incorrect Content Placement
Content placement on a website might play a cruel joke on you, resulting in a UX mistake. The crux of the issue is that submitted content is inaccessible, and the ordinary user cannot rapidly locate the information they want. Consequently, the user who viewed the site will be unable to obtain the information they want, and their motivation to continue going to the website would dwindle to nothing.
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Visitors Are Confused By The Categories
Before selecting whether or not to hire a service or purchase a product, clients will seek background information and a further understanding of the service or product. If the navigation of the site is not built appropriately, this may result in a UX/UI mistake, with no promise of future gains.
After failing to find the service or product that the customer is looking for, the client is more likely to leave your website than use the search feature, which is why every design element on your website’s main page must be packed with fundamental information.
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Inadequate Logic In Station Transfers
This is a pretty common UX issue. As a result of the visitor’s refusal to explore your site further, the user may visit your competitors’ websites.
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Attempts To Charge Clients Through Covert Interaction With Payment Systems
This situation might lose your target audience since buyers would perceive you as a fraudster if they discover anything weird or unnecessary additional charge on your site.
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Microsites And Issues Involved With Its Utilisations
Developers frequently use microsites linked to the primary site to maximise UX while searching for specific information. If microsites include identical content to any other webpages on your main website, Google will not consider them to be unique, leading to a low ranking. All microsite content must be innovative, relevant, and often updated to maintain high results. Simply said, there are no quick cuts to effective search engine optimization.
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The Site’s Search Quality
A web’s search function is one of its most prominent yet, at the same time, weakest features. Unfortunately, this feature frequently fails to function correctly, resulting in users leaving the site and visiting rivals’ websites.
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Filters And Associated Errors
The primary purpose of filters is to enhance the site’s usability. While filters are beneficial for UX, wrong settings and attempts to please everyone at once might result in the filter having a detrimental effect on the situation rather than enhancing it. Unfortunately, UX errors with filters are a common mistake.
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Excessively Lengthy Papers And Descriptions
Regardless of how thoroughly the issue is described and how attractively the solution is offered, a big element may scare the user and create a UX mistake. Bear in mind that consumers typically read the text for relevant info rather than reading the entire piece.
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Problem With Incorrect/Broken Link
A broken link is a web page that a user cannot find or access for a number of reasons. When a user attempts to visit a broken link, web servers frequently produce an error message. Additionally, broken links are sometimes referred to as “dead links”. Such a mistake will irritate your visitor and will leave you with a bad review regarding their UX.
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Ignoring Your Target Audience’s Needs
This is a critical issue that will undoubtedly result in UI/UX. Preferably, you should evaluate the target audience’s requirements, perceptions, and prior experience while creating and developing a web resource. It would be best if you hire a marketing agency to grasp what your consumers want, why they stay on your blog, and what can cause them to quit prematurely.
When you create a web product to your specifications, you increase the likelihood of receiving dissatisfied clients.
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Autoplay Audio And Video
When the video and music autoplay, a slew of UX-related questions arose. For a time, Flash held a monopoly on the market for multimedia content, but the advent of HTML5 altered everything.
Why is this critical? Because HTML5 makes it much easier to import video and audio, developers are increasingly opting for simple solutions. However, a profound evil lurked beneath a seemingly lovely (at first glance) notion. Users would blame autoplay and loop for loud videos and music that begin playing immediately upon opening a particular website, without their authorisation.
Generally, it is preferable to enable consumers to select whether or not to play something. If you insist on autoplay, consider the following details to avoid aggravating your clients. To begin, inform users that the music or video will now begin playing.
Avoid excessive use of the loop property to achieve infinite playback. This might turn off your customers and perhaps cause them to quit your website.
For instance, you may include an equaliser with a variety of presets to control the media content.
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Redundancy
Redundancy is opposed to one of the fundamental principles of effective user experience design: simplicity. There is nothing wrong with the concept of cramming as much relevant information as possible into a single page. On the other hand, there are two points to consider. To begin, the content must be truly pertinent (definitely not animated banner or Gifs.)
The second point is that implementing this concept is highly challenging and requires strong design abilities. Otherwise, you risk showing a terrible interface design to your client. Would you continue to visit a website after viewing such a user interface design on the front page?
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Incorrect Forms
Web forms are pretty popular. Contact information, registration, and authorisation are only a few of the many conceivable uses. Even with such a simple feature as forms, it can create a slew of UX errors.
The following are the most often encountered issues:
- There are too many questions.
- There are too many necessary fields.
- The validation is misconfigured.
You should have a firm grasp of the aim of the form and be aware of the optimal amount of questions. A form with an overwhelming amount of questions may cause shoppers to abandon it before completing it. A prominent example is a startup that sells second-hand gadgets. Despite excellent technological solutions, consumers did not register or make purchases on the website due to its poor user experience design.
The issue is that they were required to complete a lengthy registration form consisting of many pages. Buyers responded accordingly and shifted to buy from your competitors. Validation (in the context of online form UX design) occurs when the correctness of the related fields is verified. The most frequent UX error is a too complicated or odd validation.
For instance, running a tiny forum devoted to microelectronics seems weird to require users to create a complicated password consisting of 10 symbols and many registers.
There is a possibility that customers will wish to comment on anything or receive a response. They will not create a password to meet certain specifications. Additionally, such a UI/UX approach may be acceptable for situations involving medical or money.
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Issues With Sign-In/Sign-Out
Another standard UX design error is a hastily thought-out registration/authorisation and sign-out routine. The most frequently encountered concerns are the absence of social network sign-in, excessive data required for registration, and a complicated sign-out process from a particular dashboard.
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Portable Electronic Gadgets
Perhaps nobody would be shocked that a mobile version of a site is a must. Nevertheless, it can be concluded that some website owners continue to disregard mobile customers. As a result, keep in mind that the UI design should be optimised for mobile devices and the user experience. The reality is that consumers’ behavioural behaviours on mobile devices will be markedly different. That is why you must consider making the best impression possible while using your resource on mobile devices.
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The Rule Of Three Clicks
The three-click rule is a pervasive concept that every user should only make three clicks to access any page on a website. We wish to emphasise immediately that this restriction may be waived for specific portals or unique resources. Though in other circumstances, this method is an offence due to a UX design error.
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Intuitive Design
Intuitive design. It refers to the simplicity, usability, and clarity of an online resource for most consumers. Pursuing a stylish design frequently devolves into a hunt for a happy medium between simple/understandable and sophisticated/creative.
The ability to develop a wholly intuitive and elegant design is an accurate indicator of a designer’s proficiency. There is a proverb that states, “A user interface is similar to a joke.”
That is entirely accurate. Building a website that potential clients cannot comprehend is a massive error from a UX standpoint. It would be best if you keep your target audience in mind. If you have to clarify anything, it probably isn’t that good.
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Colour Pallet
Colour’s effect on individuals has long been recognised. Marketers have effectively employed it for several decades. According to US studies, 85 per cent of customers chose a product based on its colour. Thus, it is necessary to recognise that the proper selection of a colour palette is a critical UX/UI component.
The most frequent errors include incorrect colour contrast, usually inappropriate colours, and disrespect for the uniqueness of a target audience. Always use complementary hues that do not cause eye strain. Additionally, depending on the topic of a website, you should understand that a specific palette may be more suited from a UI standpoint.
For instance, banks and insurance company frequently design their websites in blue hues.
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Concerns About Technical Optimisation
Despite its technical nature, this place on our list has a significant and direct influence on UI/UX. The first technical point worth noting is the website’s load time. The standard average load speed, according to studies, is two seconds. The longer it takes for a website to load, the more likely a client will depart for a rival.
The user experience requires regular attention and development. Always keep your target audience’s interests in mind and build your website to be as user-friendly as possible.
Final Thoughts
Make Use Of Interactive Tools To Increase Participation And Engagement
User engagement may be significantly increased via the usage of interactive elements, which will, in turn, boost the return on investment of marketing initiatives.
When it comes to incorporating interactivity into a website, the possibilities are virtually limitless. It is well worth your time to explore various choices and decide which interactive features would connect most with your target audience.
If you want to include interactive elements on your website, the good news is that you don’t have to be a technological wizard. The process of adding interactive components to a website is no different from creating a website using a website builder.
The bottom line is that any interactive element may be created using one of the several tools we’ve listed and then instantly integrated on any website you like.
