yUXer.com is where we love answering Qs about web design and user experience best practices, to help you improve your web presence.
If you are struggling to decide what is the best layout for your site or you have any questions about how to find out what your users are doing, you gotta keep reading!
Wanna know what you need to have on your homepage? Don’t know where to focus your efforts to improve your website? We got you covered!
We have collected some of the most popular questions that bloggers, web designers and UX designers are asking every day.
Website design
What are landing pages? How are they important to a website or blog?
Any independent page can be called a landing page. However, to make it simple, our recommendation would be to differentiate between your home page, Landing pages (homepages for each section of your site) and other pages like each post page in the case of a blog.
The importance of landing pages comes from the idea that these pages act as hubs or main points of entry for your users. As a hub page, the goal would be to present a clear message to the visitor about what it will be found in that section.
When designing a UI (user interface), how do you balance it to serve both beginners and experts?
Experts is a very subjective concept. I’m pretty sure you have heard of KISS (keep it simple stupid), simple is always better.
Beginners and experts, we are all lazy by nature and on top of that, we don’t have time to read complex instructions or learn new ways.
Straightforward will always be appreciated and more useful.
What are the elements that should be included in a website to create the “best” user experience?
The elements INCLUDED in a website will depend on the purpose of the website. For example, you may need or not a contact form or a map, etc.
To create (or better…provide) great user experience you have to make sure that those elements included are serving the users in a straightforward manner.
These are some points where we suggest to focus on:
- Navigation: It should be clear, as simple as possible, accessible at all times and responsive.
- Visual elements: Fonts, pictures, graphs, they all should be readable, visually appealing and convey a clear message.
- Special features (e.g. like a shopping cart): The principles are the same clear and straightforward, they should guide the user step by step making sure the journey is naturally logical.
In general, a website should always have a clear identity and a clear purpose. The elements included should always support the purpose, follow the brand identity and provide a clear message.
To summarize:
Your website should follow the principles of:
- Simplicity and straightforward information architecture and navigations options.
- Readability: Clear and unambiguous language to convey a particular message.
- Portability: Sounds obvious but your website needs to work …really work… on any screen or device.
- The ultimate focus should be on satisfying user needs that match the business goals.
Consider: If the user doesn’t need it, maybe it shouldn’t be a business goal.
Which comes first, layout or content?
Does the layout of the website matter even if it has high-quality and relevant content?
YES, it does!
Assuming your content is rich in value for what your audience is looking for, we still won’t read it if you make it difficult for us.
We are lazy by nature and over-saturated with information.
We need to be handheld to find even the things we are interested in.
That’s where the layout and navigation play an important role.
The website should guide me through what I need.
It is difficult to keep everyone happy. One interface could work for one person but not for another. How does one strike a balance?
Short answer: YES, it is difficult to keep everyone happy.
Reality: You don’t need to keep everyone happy. You CAN’T.
User interface design (which is not the same as UX design) can be very painful if you let everybody have an opinion. Design tends to be seen as a very subjective matter where everybody feels like they can have valuable input.
Normally, there will be an initial idea of how the interface should look like, include and behave. It is not a bad idea to start the design phase with that, but you definitely need to validate the proposal with the real audience of the product. You need to test it with the people that are meant to use it.
The results of those tests can be used to communicate to other stakeholders what is the right solution, and what works best.
Content SEO & Design
Do you think it’s important to know about SEO aspect of a site while designing?
Having a look at Google’s ranking factors, some factors definitely tap on the design part of your site:
- Page loading speed via HTML
- Page loading speed via Chrome
- Image optimization
- Mobile-friendly update
- Mobile usability
- Hidden content on mobile
- Content hidden behind tabs
- Multimedia
- Bullets and numbered lists
- User-friendly layout
- Site Architecture
- Breadcrumb navigation
- Mobile optimized
- Site Usability
- Link location in the content
- Link location on the page
- Popups or distracting ads
- Full-page interstitial pop-ups to mobile users
- Ads Above the Fold
So Yes it definitely has an impact. As a designer, you will need to be aware of those aspects not just for SEO purposes but ultimately to provide a great experience to your readers.
What are your thoughts on content that is more geared towards search engine ranking rather than on the target audience?
Short answer: Most likely it is useless content. :)
Reality: There is always a need for balance. There are reasons why search engine favours certain content (although nobody knows the whole formula).
Trying to follow blindly the few tips found online that promise a straight climb to page 1, is not gonna make you any favours in regards to how your audience sees you.
You want your audience to come back and engage, and that’s only possible if the content provided serves their needs (and not because you are on their face all the time).
Your priority should be to create valuable content that serves the needs of your audience. Make it easy to digest and accessible, everything else becomes secondary.
Tools
What websites are the best platforms to start building a new site for beginners?
There are many options. If you want to start a blog as a hobby we would suggest using a platform like Squarespace, Wix or WordPress.com
If the intention is to start a business, we would suggest considering wordpress.org but keep on mind there is a learning curve.
It will also depend on how much technical expertise you have. You will need to choose hosting which you could DIY or have a service like Siteground.
There are many options. However, WordPress is not your only option. Weebly, Joomla, Drupal are also available.
Which are the analytic tools to track the impact of a website?
Tools that we recommend to track the impact of a website would be:
- Web metrics: Specially bounce rate, entry and exit pages. It will give you an idea of the journey your users are taking and where are they leaving. Other metrics to look at would be session duration, referrals, and conversion goals.
- User interviews: There is no better way to know about the impact of your website than talking with the directly impacted, your visitors.
- Keep your communication channel open with your users.
- Use surveys to build a database of volunteers that you can contact later.
- Use social media to talk to followers using your website.
Tip: Collect volunteers for your tests from your pool of survey respondents.
Design as passion or skill
What skills are needed to work in the UX field? Are there specific credentials the person should have?
Recruiting a web designer or a UX specialist can be tricky. Credentials are not what we would focus on.
Depending on the specific role you want this person to fulfil (e.g visual web designer, UX designer, UI designer) different skills should be proven.
For a UI and Visual designer, we would go for someone with a clear understanding of website behaviour and some proven record of creating digital products, here a portfolio will come in handy. Plus, we would look into their skills to handle whatever tool we need them to use (sketch, photoshop, figma, adobe suite any of those would be ok). However, if the person is familiar with one tool, other tools will be easy to learn.
For UX designers, a clear understanding of human systems interaction patterns is needed. This requires a wider vision of what design is. It doesn’t stop with a creative eye but it goes into skills to recognize needs and be able to communicate them.
How is to work as a UX specialist? Is it a stressful job? If yes, what should yo do to cope with the pressure?
Is like any other job :) It has its hectic times and some other not so much.
The key to avoiding burnout is to focus on the goal and continuous progress. Progress keeps the team motivated and looking forward to seeing the final product working.
UX and web design for small businesses and bloggers
How would you describe UX, could you provide more detailed information regarding it?
User experience (UX) is the feeling that is left on a person when interacting with a product or a service. Excellent and/or delightful user experience is the goal of the project, is within the product or service.
Delightful UX should be the outcome and not a task. As with any other project goal, you need to keep it in mind at all times.
USER is the key in UX so we always make sure the USER is part of the design and development process and that the new ideas are validated by the user and match the business goals.
What are the core values of UX and how do you make sure to maintain them in this ever-changing world of business?
The core principles of UX are timeless.
- Clarity
- Defined Information Architecture
- Goals and priorities that bring together user needs and business objectives
If the user doesn’t need it, probably shouldn’t be a business goal!
To achieve the above, you may need to do some research. In other words, it means to keep an open channel of communication with your users.
With changes constantly happening based on what works when trying to get clients online, do you find some of the things that worked yesterday are becoming obsolete today? How do you select tools to use to ensure your clients benefit from your recommendations for a long time to come?
Human behaviour and thinking evolve every day and part of that is due to changes in technology.
So it’s a bit of a cycle, technology evolves, humans adapt, new needs arise and the cycle starts again.
We can’t assume at any moment that the solution proposed and implemented today will last forever. Digital products are live products in constant evolution.
Reaching out to your users should be constant, and research should be constant, that way you will have the input you need to know when is the right time for a change and what is the next step.
What resources would you recommend for someone who is thinking of learning UX design on their own?
There is a lot of great content online. However, the two things that we can recommend are
1. Reading the basics, here are some options: 10 Books about UX and design
2. Practice and experiment by observing users’ behaviours, and trends that work and don’t work, interviewing potential users, wireframing with pen and paper, etc.
How important is online customer support for web-based services?
As important as air is important for breathing.
If your services are online, customer service should be provided online and 24/7.
Making sure that your customers have always a way to reach out for help or further information will make a difference in your conversion rate.
Design Process
What are some of the problems you encounter when you are designing?
BIAS will always be a problem. It can come from the design team, the management team, the customer or even the user.
It can cause trouble at any stage of a project, during design, during interviews, validation, and brainstorming.
How to avoid it? We are biased by nature so avoidance is not an option.
BUT, a structured process, clear goals and constant validation with the real audience will help mitigate the effects of personal bias.
Can you give an example of how you incorporate the user’s experience in the web design process?
User experience is not a step in a process. Excellent or delightful user experience is the goal of the product, it is within the product or service.
Basically, delightful UX should be the outcome and not a task.
As with any other project goal, you need to keep it in mind at all times.
USER is the key in UX so we always make sure the USER is part of the design and development process and that the new ideas are validated by the user and match the business goals.
How can one carry out a usability test inexpensively?
From recruiting to execution you can do it all almost for free.
Here is a summary of the process we follow
Here you can get an idea of which tools you need (free options)
The Product design and UX industry
How does UX make technology user-friendly, after all, because of ever-changing icons, interfaces, updates, malware and viruses, the “End User” has limited trust in anything that promises to be new and better technology.
We tend to disagree with this statement about limited trust from end users.
If there is one thing social media has shown us is that we put more trust in technology than we possibly should.
UX design aims to provide the desired and delightful experience expected by the user.
As in any other profession, UX designers should not forget core values like honesty and respect for others.
How is the tech industry different in each country?
Working with people from different countries makes you realise that there is always a bit of truth in stereotypes, though more than the culture of origin, each person is very capable of adjusting to fit in a different culture. So, when working on an IT project, the cultural aspects that affect the project will be more related to the team or company culture rather than each person’s culture. In saying that, however, travelling and working in different teams and different languages helps us to become more tolerant and more open to different ideas, priorities, triggers, and of course…processes.
The biggest cultural aspect that affects a project is how open the company or the team is to change. Most of the time conflict starts when there is resistance to change. How conservative the environment is, will typically signal how open or closed the team will be to change.
In regards to the tech industry, the level of development differs from country to country, but that may not necessarily affect the projects you work on. For example, we have worked in a country that was considered to be very developed, though the company we worked for was very conservative and not receptive to change. It was essentially stuck in its own bubble.
How do you measure your success against other web design companies?
We don’t measure our success against other web design companies.
Instead, we measure the success of our projects.
For that to happen, we mainly go back to the user and “measure” (maybe its better to say assess) levels of satisfaction and perception towards the final product.
How? Many ways…survey comparison, user interviews, usability testing, and web metrics analysis.
Here is an easy way to perform usability tests that can be used at any stage of the design or development process.
Conversion rates are also a key indicator of success against business goals.
About yUXer – All about web design and user experience practices
Is yUXer.com a consultation company or can clients hire you to design websites for them?
Both! We are into everything that helps to create better websites that serve the needs of the users and the business. However, we focus on user behaviour, website reviews for best practices, and alignment of business goals with user needs.
What does the research division of yUXer.com do? What are you working on regarding tech development?
yUXer.com was created as a place to engage with other UX experts to share knowledge, experiences and kick off projects together.
We have helped companies to improve their web presence by finding better ways to reach users and keep open communication that helps us serve their needs.
If you wanna know more about what we do and what our plans are, please feel free to reach us at yUXer.com, Facebook Twitter @yUXer_com
What is your mission in the tech world? What steps have you taken to ensure they come to life?
Our mission in regards to technology is to spread the love by sharing knowledge :)
Regardless of how much or how little knowledge we have, we will always make sure we can share and also learn from others.
We have created yUXer.com with that purpose in mind.
We want to make the Internet a better place. So let’s share our knowledge and let’s all be part of that change with great content and mindful experiences.
What are the benefits of using the yUXer services for freelancers and small businesses?
yUXer.com was created as a place to engage with other UX experts to share knowledge, and experiences and kick off projects together.
We have helped companies improve their web presence by finding better ways to reach users and keep open communication that helps us serve their needs.
What is your greatest strength when it comes to web design?
We have a natural drive to find the right solution. But we have to confess that we love user research, we love finding out what the user does and what need before they even know :)
User testing and almost any user research methods are our cup of tea. we love doing it and finding better ways to do it every day.
What’s your favourite design project you’ve done? Why?
My favourite is always the last one we have finished. Every project brings a new challenge, therefore, we learn a little more every time.
At the moment, the last one was a full redesign of a large website. The biggest challenge was to get all the stakeholders on the same page and
Who do you consider to be your ideal clients?
Our ideal clients would be those who are full of passion and really crave the success of their products.
This makes interaction and progress much easier.
Where are you currently based? Do you offer your services online?
Location-based services are a thing of the past ;)
What is the best decision you have ever made in your career?
Exploring new fields. Decided to change the course of my focus and learn new things.
Getting out of our comfort zone by working in an intercultural environment in an unknown field has been the best thing we could have done for ourselves.
Do you have plans to expand in the future? What would that expansion look like?
We have tons of plans and ideas for the near and far future!
Right now we are concentrating on reaching out to the community of UXers that want to collaborate and share experiences.
How does one get to contact yUXer?
If you are interested in kicking off some projects together, drop a line at admin@sandracholes.com, on twitter @yUXer_com or Facebook