We always aim to give your clients a great experience when building websites. If folks are going to engage with your page, it needs to be appealing and exciting. But a great story isn’t all that matters – accessibility is really important, and browsing your website should be easy.
And that’s what UX is all about.
So, what does UX do?
If you aren’t up to date, UX has become a really important practice in design over the past few years. The user experience is what visitors to your website see, hear, watch, and read. But it’s not really about what’s in the content; it’s the design choices that bring everything together.
Your website’s accessibility, navigation, and load speed matter to your future clients. Their time is precious, and they won’t waste it on a page that doesn’t work like they’re used to. There shouldn’t be a learning curve to using your page; have it tailor-made to be simple for everyone.
So, to make the websites that we lovingly craft with our clients a real hit, we put in a tonne of effort to make them as accessible, simple, and enjoyable as possible. An enjoyable website is an engaging website, and that’s our goal.
Building a smooth experience for the general public is a pretty simple benchmark, but that can leave a whole lot of people behind.
People are unique, so websites should be accessible.
Here’s a fact; the World Health Organisation estimates that there are around 217 million people in the world with some form of significant vision impairment. That’s a lot of people that can’t engage with your brand if you don’t cater to them. Fortunately, making a website accessible for those with visual impairments is not very difficult. You can use colour contrasts for readability, shapes rather than colours to differentiate elements, and space out content to avoid clutter. These accessibility decisions are good for everyone; as it makes the page easier to read.
Many people with disabilities use a host of tools to access the internet. Page readers, keyboard navigation, and screen filters are great when they work, but there needs to be some consideration from the developer to allow it. Building a website that’s friendly to these accessibility tools isn’t much work, but retrofitting them can be a little costly. That’s why it’s so important to consider accessibility in your UX from the start.
Diversity online isn’t only catering to people with disabilities.
People from different backgrounds, cultures, and even levels of education all experience things in different ways, which can be a real challenge for consistency. So, how do you create a website that caters to such a broad group of people?
For the vast majority of projects, simplicity is absolutely key. You’ll rarely lose interest by making your page simple and easy to interact with. Life is complicated enough without every webpage trying something different. And, if you’re in the not-for-profit space, hosting an intuitive, smooth experience is even more critical.
Getting the most out of a great user experience.
The marriage of story and style is how you build trust with your audience, and through that, you inspire positive action.
A heavy focus on UX makes your website much more accessible to a diverse group of people, which not only helps you get more eyes on your page, but it generates a lot of goodwill in the people you choose to work with.
But you have a website for a reason, especially in the not-for-profit space. You want your website to leave people with the right impression. And, through engagement, trust, and an easy experience, people will be more likely to choose to work with you, employ your services, and interact with your business.
That leads to positive interactions, like donating to your organisation, using your online systems, contacting you directly, and participating in conversations.
But a smooth UX also opens the door to having your message heard.
Your story is vital to your brand; it’s why people choose to get involved with you. Building your website with the user’s experience in mind enables people from all walks of life to hear your story.
Using intuitive icons, easy-to-read fonts and colours, simple images, and well-spaced content is the difference between someone being truly engaged or just switching off and clicking away. Presentation is really key, so get it right and spread your message the right way.
If you’re interested in how we build websites for the person at the keyboard, then we’d love to tell you all about it. And, if you have any questions, tips, or stories of your own, let us know!
