What Is UX Plus 5 Core Principles of User Experience for Websites

Bloggers, small business owners, e-commerce retailers, and many others start websites out of necessity. When you dont have a lot of experience with web content, concepts such as user experience (UX) can be confusing, yet absolutely vital for a high conversion rate.Fortunately, UX is made up of a handful of core principles that provide a clear path to its understanding and implementation. Once you get them under your belt, you may even see an increase in traffic, conversions, and revenue.In this post, well introduce you to UX and why its important. Then well walk you through five of its key components so you can start working them into your website. Lets get to it! UI is just one aspect of UX.Sites that are confusing and difficult to use understandably tend to put visitors off. For this reason, poor UX will often lead to higher bounce rates, and therefore lower conversion rates and less revenue. Given the over-saturation of sites on the web, users have no obligation to stay on a low-q uality site – they can simply get what they need elsewhere.Just as you probably wouldnt open a brick-and-mortar store that was disorganized and difficult to navigate, you shouldnt content yourself with a site with limited UX. Whether you work with a developer or take the DIY approach  to your site, implementing UXs core principles is a must.Five core principles of user experience (UX)There are many ways you can improve your sites UX. However, generally speaking, most of the changes youll want to make will fall under one of the five principles listed below.1. RelevanceVisitors come to your website with a purpose. They have an end goal in mind, and its your job to provide high-quality UX to help them reach it faster. As such, you dont want to clutter your site with a lot of random elements that arent useful to your users.Relevance is all about knowing what your users want and providing only those elements to them. On our own site, youll notice that our two most popular themes , Neve and Hestia, are right at the top of the home page:We know lots of people come to us looking for quality WordPress themes, so weve put them front and center. We also display our plugins and a link to our blog, which is full of useful guides related to WordPress. These are also relevant to our primary audience – WordPress users, just like you.2. UsabilityRegardless of whether users are making purchases, sifting through your blog archives, or something else, your guests should find it easy to accomplish their goals. Here are a few processes you might want to audit on your site:Checkout:  Is it simple and streamlined for easy purchasing?Forms: How easy it is to find, fill out, and submit any forms you expect users to complete?Account creation: Can users find the signup page, and is the process simple and straightforward?Browsing:  How difficult is it for users to move from one blog post to another, or one product page to another?Well use our own site as an example agai n. Our checkout process is a short, simple form that appears as a popup when a customer clicks on the  Purchase  button:Instead of a multi-page checkout experience with lots of steps, this small feature makes it less likely our users will abandon the process halfway through out of frustration or because its taking too long. The easier you make it to carry out key tasks on your site, the more likely people are to complete them.3. NavigationIt can be easy to forget about the importance of site navigation. Your menu takes up so little room on the screen, and yet it plays a vital role in your sites UX. The larger your site, the more important a clear navigation system is.Its vital to have a menu that visitors can use to find key pages on your site. Any content necessary to completing your users primary goals should be directly or indirectly available in your menu bar. Well break this idea down by looking at our own menu:The main tabs include  WordPress Themes, Plugins, Blog, Suppo rt, About Us,  and  Login. Theres also a magnifying glass icon, which most people understand to be a link for performing a site-wide search.Represented here are the three things our audience comes to us for, which we mentioned earlier:ThemesPluginsWordPress-related contentThey are the most easily accessible pages on our site. Each menu tab also includes a drop-down to individual product pages or some of our most popular posts.Customers who are having trouble with a plugin or theme can also easily find our support team, and anyone who is curious about ThemeIsle can read more on the  About Us page. Finally, our members can log in. Anything a visitor would want to do is available via the menu.4. AccessibilityMaking your site accessible is a courtesy to those with disabilities who might be using screen readers or otherwise modifying their online experience. Any visitor who comes across your site should be able to use it to accomplish their end goal.The best way to make your site a ccessible is by following the Web Content Accessibility Guidelines (WCAG). If you dont have a lot of development experience, meeting some of them could be difficult. However, there are a few best practices you can easily handle on your own, even if youre new to web content creation.For instance, alternative or alt text is a short description displayed when a browser cant load an image. Its also used by screen readers to inform visually impaired users of what images contain. Especially if youre a WordPress user, its easy to add:Adding alt text to your images takes very little time and is a simple way to help make your site a little more accessible.5. FamiliarityMost site owners want their website to look unique. While this is an understandable and admirable goal, its still important that your site follows some of the expected norms for web design.Given how widespread internet usage now is, people have expectations about how websites should look and where certain elements are likely t o be. If your site doesnt meet these expectations, visitors are more likely to experience confusion, frustration, and difficulty finding what they need.Looking at our home page again, you can see several web design standards on display:Here, we have:Our logo in the top-left cornerThe menu across the top of the pageA call to action (CTA) above the foldA search feature in the headerThough you cant see it here, we also have our social media icons in the footer. All these elements meet web design standards and expectations.ConclusionIf youre new to site ownership, web design concepts such as UX may feel confusing. However, its also key to the success of your website that you provide visitors with excellent service so theyll stay on your site and become returning users. Navigation. Giving users the most popular site elements within your menus helps them convert better.Accessibility. Differently-abled web users need to know theyre catered for – it could mean an extra sale for you.F amiliarity. Making sure users can do things consistent with the rest of the web helps UX immeasurably.Do you have any questions about UX or its core principles? Let us know in the comments section below!Free guide5 Essential Tips to Speed Up Your WordPress SiteReduce your loading time by even 50-80% just by following simple tips.