When some people hear the expression of user interface (UI) design, they immediately think of strands of code and the back end of a website. But what most don’t realize is that UI is an integral part of every website and enables the user to have a streamlined, simple, and productive experience. It also means that businesses can target customers quickly and suggest to them the calls to action that the business wants them to take. But how is UI design used to improve a business’s website?
The user interface design is key to ensuring that the website’s user follows the steps that the user experience (UX) designer has laid out. This could be finding information from the ‘About’ page and then following a call to action to make a purchase. Alternatively, some sites may want you to sign up to their mailing lists, while others have content for you to view. Studies show that 60% of consumers feel better about a brand after consuming their content, while 70% prefer finding out about the company through a blog rather than an ad.
Others may just want to show you their product offering and signpost you towards the products they want you to buy. They might have some drop-down menus for sorting through products beginning with ‘Featured’, while others automatically show you the higher-priced items. The creative design of the site is informed by the user and how they will interact with the site.
UI for New Customers
One of the key UI design challenges is presenting an industry or concept to people who have limited knowledge of it. Being able to signpost customers to where they need to go and allow them to understand an industry in the few seconds before they click off the page can be difficult. But there are many ways in which UI can be used to help new customers engage with a product or industry they are aware of but new too.
For example, Duolingo might be one of the biggest names in language learning, but it can be difficult for someone unsure of how they want to proceed with a new language.
The site provides simple questions and a list of the languages they cover to help new customers ease into it. We see that UI helps customers see a vast range of titles and rooms on live casinos, giving them the opportunity to skim games before committing on sites like Betway. There is also a brief explanation of each of the main live game variations below. Mindful provide a simple manual for those completely new to meditation to help them understand what it is and why to do it through text, diagrams, and video. Indeed, statistics indicate that 73% of customers are persuaded to purchase a product based on seeing video content, so outlining the unfamiliar brand with a video could result in a sale.
UI Based on Other Users
Sometimes the UI is defined by other users. Sites that show popular items or best sellers use data on what people seem to enjoy purchasing to highlight key products. This helps if a customer unsure of what to purchase stumbles upon the site. It also helps track which products are doing well, which informs wider business strategy. The likelihood of customers engaging with bestsellers is high. 93% of people say that online reviews have an impact on their purchasing decisions – both positively and negatively.
TripAdvisor understands that their business model trades in trust, so makes sure that users can immediately see what others have rated particular tourist attractions, as well as more qualitative reviews and imagery. Yelp runs on a similar model, with services that receive better reviews being more accessible to users. These methods use user’s experiences to build up the site and use this data to make the results more accurate and reliable for future uses, as a good example of UX in action.
UI for Personalization
The whole point of collecting cookies and allowing the sharing of data, preferences, and our web history is so that experiences can be more personalized. This will save users time and will make them feel more endeared towards brands that they feel are catering to them. The experience also helps establish loyalty, which is an important currency in industries with such heavy competition. 74% of customers feel annoyed when a web experience isn’t personalized, while marketers who have personalized their web journeys find a sales increase of 19%.
Starbucks, for example, use purchase history and user-set preferences to make suggestions. This saves time as customers don’t have to spend ages searching for their go-to drink. Similarly, online grocery shopping sites list items that have been bought before as favorites, which saves time when filling the basket. They also remind customers if frequently purchased items aren’t in the basket, which could be invaluable if someone is in a rush and has simply forgotten one of their regular purchases.
The design of a website is key in achieving a positive purchasing decision. The products could be a great value or could be marketed well, but if the site is hard to use or complicated, then the user may begin to look elsewhere. There are many reasons for different user interfaces, which are dependent on the user experience (UX) design. Some focus on showing customers industries they may be unfamiliar with, while others use data created from previous users or data from the customer themselves to offer better experiences on the site.
