User Experience

User experience, or UX for short, refers to the overall experience your user has with your website. It goes beyond the mere use of your product or service and includes the entire experience, such as the purchase, the packaging, your support in case of queries.

Right at the beginning – What is the difference between User Experience, Usability & UX Design?

The relevance of UX

A good user experience on your website is a clear competitive advantage for you. The user of a website does not have the motivation to deal with a web page, an order process or the search for information in detail. This quality of the UX on your site is a lever with which you can directly influence the conversion rate. The length of the dwell time the user stays on your site can also have a positive effect for you. If the user feels comfortable in the environment you have created, the risk of a bounce rate is lower and the user will visit your site more often to get information, products or services.

Is user experience a ranking factor?

The user experience is a factor that indirectly affects the ranking in the SERPs. According to Google, they evaluate key figures such as the dwell time of your users, the bounce rate and the click rate, which are included in the evaluation of your website.

What methods are there in user experience design? The most important for you at a glance

Online surveys

A quick and easy-to-implement method to find out how your target group thinks about your product and what they need. The participants fill out an online questionnaire. Based on the collected data, you can precisely describe your target group or compare target groups with each other.

In-depth interviews

In one-on-one meetings with participants from your target group, key needs, motivators and concerns are analyzed. From this, you can derive the added value of your product as well as the requirements for the conception and design.

Field studies

Here, we observe under real conditions how users and customers search for, buy and try out a product on the Internet. With field studies, you learn how your target group approaches the purchase of your products and can quickly make improvements if necessary to make the purchase of your product an experience. You also get the opportunity to discover innovation potential in your products and thus create a competitive advantage for yourself.

Focus groups

A moderated discussion takes place in groups of about 10 participants. This gives you a differentiated opinion of your users on a particular issue. The group dynamics within the discussion can show you new creative perspectives. In addition, you get information about opinions and ideas about your product. Unfortunately, individual opinions can get lost in the group during focus groups. In order for you to be able to analyze the results optimally later, the discussion is often recorded on video or written down.

Card sorting

This method is suitable for you especially for the redesign and optimization of website navigation. The advantage for you is that relevant content can be found more quickly by the users of your website. For this purpose, the test persons improve the navigation structure by grouping related points for themselves and defining a category name. The result is a comprehensible navigation of your website from the user’s point of view.

Eye-tracking

There are two different variants here. Eye tracking in the lab measures the user’s eye movement. This tells you whether relevant messages and interaction elements are perceived or which elements distract the user. The result provides you with a detailed analysis of the eye movement, but the evaluation of the results is very time-consuming.
The second variant is virtual eye tracking. In contrast to laboratory eye tracking, here the eye-tracking is simulated by modern software tools. This method is more cost-effective than the complex analysis in the laboratory and is particularly suitable for analyzing landing pages or home pages. Through the simulation, the scrolling behavior of a real user can deviate from that of the software.

What are the phases of the user experience design process?

1. Research: Research is one of the most important points in the UX design process. Without it, you don’t know who you are developing the website for. As part of your research, you consider, among other things, which target group you want to address, what their needs are, and which layout appeals to your target group. You can imagine a fictitious person who combines all the characteristics of your target group. This procedure is also called creating a persona.

2. Analysis: Once you have completed your research, you move on to the analysis. Here you can take a close look at your competition. How is it positioned, which topics does your competition have and how do they solve (product) problems. Get as much inspiration as possible in this phase and note down “best practice” examples and “worst case” scenarios. This way you can create the optimal website for your customers.

3. Design: Now it gets creative. Your first draft doesn’t have to be too detailed. For example, create a wireframe that shows a simplified form of the later design. A wireframe does not yet contain any images, texts or the corporate design.

4. Concept & visual design: As soon as you are satisfied with your design, it’s time for the visual implementation. For this purpose, remember the corporate design and the needs of your target group. Your design should be consistent across all pages, your visitor will perceive this subconsciously. Fill your previously created wireframe with life and give it texts and graphic elements.

5. Implementation: Your concept and design are ready. Now it’s up to you to implement the whole thing on your website in the backend. Always make sure that your site meets the requirements of your target group. Always keep an eye on your PageSpeed during the implementation to make the site as performant as possible.

6. Evaluation: Your website is almost ready. Now you have to test, test, test. Do all your buttons work? Are all internal links and all backlinks set correctly? Is your menu navigation logical? And most important: Does your target group enjoy using your website? As soon as you can answer these points with “yes“, it’s time to publish your site.