Design is subjective, especially to online users. You may have been certain that users would respond positively to a redesign, but you discovered quickly that the new design only confused existing customers and did nothing to motivate new customers. What you may find as an appealing design may not resonate well with your visitors. This is when taking a client-centric, visitor-focused approach will help you deliver a design that works for your potential clients. As you work through your website design to enhance trust, we recommend the following guidelines:
Start by making small changes on a page. You can use these changes to learn more about your visitors’ behavior, and then build upon these changes with further improvements to the site. Changing too many elements on your website will leave you confused about what worked and what did not. Small iterative changes will produce more results in the long run than drastic measures. By following this approach, you will arm yourself with the knowledge necessary to make educated changes instead of randomly throwing together combinations.
Many clients ask us whether they should focus on redesigning their websites or on using conversion optimization. Redesigning a website with no prior knowledge of user behavior has failed for a number of companies we talked to.
Chapter 9 is dedicated to testing because it is an integral part of the optimization process. Conversion optimization remains part art and part science. Testing will allow you to validate whether your design is working for your visitors.
The following discussion highlights some areas of design that you must consider from a trust and confidence perspective.
Having a functional website with a user-friendly design is integral in terms of allowing your site visitors to have an enjoyable site experience. As visitors go through the site, their confidence in your brand increases. To continue growing that confidence, the site must be user-friendly. When we conduct an initial review of a website, one of the first areas we consider is the general functionality of the site. If an area is not working properly, it must be addressed immediately.
Users can take different navigational paths around your website. You should measure the effectiveness of each path in getting the user to the end conversion goal. One user may utilize left navigation, while another uses top navigation, and yet another uses the search functionality. Users can get to their desired service or product page in several other ways. Site navigation is one of the biggest culprits when it comes to usability. It is also an area where you might run into technology limitations when attempting to change it. Maintain that everything works properly by:
Before conducting a usability study, it’s important to create path scenarios based on analytics. What paths do users most commonly take to get to a conversion goal? Evaluate the paths along the way to determine whether the functionality is working properly. Common paths should have prominent placement for visitors to find what they are looking for faster.
Based on your vertical, 10% to 30% of your website visitors will rely on search functionality to find what they are looking for. If your search function does not display the most relevant results for visitors, you should consider removing it from the forefront of your page.
Continuity is crucial throughout the user’s experience on your site, up until the user reaches the order confirmation page. Provide continuity from page to page by ensuring that any images or text your users click on appears in some way on the next page.
There are common areas where users expect certain elements, such as descriptions, images, benefits, and call-to-action buttons. Visitors expect links to be underlined in blue, for example. However, some sites try to do things differently and present an unorthodox layout, navigation, and design. It’s important to measure the effectiveness of any changes and their impact on conversion. Online shoppers are generally unaccustomed to change, so when you present them with a different layout and design, they may not know what to do, which increases anxieties.