Website User Interface - Why a good one is vital for your business

22nd Dec. 2015

We all want our websites to look good, but could you be making some classic mistakes with your user interface that could be harming your conversion rates, your sales, and, ultimately, your profits? In the digital age, it’s not enough to have a good-looking website. The purpose of a website has evolved significantly over the years, from simply a source of information to something that is responsible for business growth and development. Regardless of your content, your products, and your marketing strategies, your user interface can make a huge difference when it comes to business success.

Here are just some of the reasons why having a good user interface is vital to business:

Information Placement

The information you provide to consumers regarding your products and services is hugely important, but at the end of the day it all means nothing if your website visitors don’t even see it. Smashing Magazine reports that a whopping 77 percent of first time visitors won’t scroll, which means that anything you place below the fold is unlikely to be viewed. If there’s content that you specifically want your visitors to see, place it above the fold. Some information that should always be placed above the fold includes company name, benefits for consumers, and website navigation.

Image & Text Layout

Does it matter where you place your images in relation to your content, and vice versa? Yes! There have been many studies undertaken that focus on eye tracking, and the findings are largely consistent. One of the most important conclusions is that we have a natural tendency to look at faces. This is something we can use to our advantage, by placing important content close to facial images. Tracking maps also suggest that our eyes are drawn to wherever the person in the image is looking, so we can use images as a way of attracting website visitors to specific sections and areas of the web page.

Font Considerations

Using bold text is a very effective way of drawing the eye towards certain buzzwords. However, there’s a time and a place for being bold. A study called ‘Evaluating the Usability of Search Forms Using Eyetracking: A Practical Approach’ found that using bold labels on online forms - newsletter sign ups, for example - increases the time a visitor spends looking at the text by up to 60 percent. We don’t want our visitors ‘hanging out’ in the wrong places of the website. We want them to spend most of their time looking at the products and services on offer and making
purchases.