Optimize User Experiences (UX) for the Best Performance of Website

The term "User Experience (UX)" is very important for all kind of websites and to the website designers, developers and website planners. Optimizing user experiences would increase the performance of any websites and help to achieve the main goals of any business. From shopping sites to business-to-business (B2B) websites, business-to-consumer (B2C) websites or any type of websites, optimizing user experiences should be the first step in any user friendly website design and development process.

Meaning of User Experience (UX)

The term "User Experience" is described differently from sorts of user experience professionals and organizations. Below is a short brief of this term -

User Experience Definition from Wikipedia - User Xperience (UX) is about how a person feels about using a system / product / services. User experience highlights the experiential, affective, meaningful and valuable aspects of Human-Computer Interaction (HCI) and product ownership, but it also covers a person's perceptions of the practical aspects such as utility, ease of use and efficiency of the system. User experience is subjective in nature, as it is about an individual’s feelings and thoughts about the system. User experience is dynamic, because it changes over time as the circumstances change.

User Experience Definition from Nielsen Norman Group – User experience encompasses all aspects of the end-user's interaction with the company, its services, and its products. The first requirement for an exemplary user experience is to meet the exact needs of the customer, without fuss or bother. Next comes simplicity and elegance that produce products that are a joy to own, a joy to use. True user experience goes far beyond giving customers what they say they want, or providing checklist features. In order to achieve high-quality user experience in a company's offerings there must be a seamless merging of the services of multiple disciplines, including engineering, marketing, graphical and industrial design, and interface design.

User Experience Definition from SitePoint – The term "User Experience" refers to a concept that places the end-user at the focal point of design and development efforts, as opposed to the system, its applications or its aesthetic value alone. It's based on the general concept of user-centered design.

Design websites to ease and encourage efficient and effective human-computer interactions. Designers should ensure every effort to decrease the user's workload by taking advantage of the computer's capabilities. Optimizing user experiences is also an important step to ensure SEO best practices for any website. Below are some guidelines to ensure the best user experience for any websites -

Minimize Page Download Time

Minimize the time required to download a Web pages. The best way to facilitate fast page loading is to minimize the number of bytes per page. There are also many development techniques to decrease website download time. Now Google considers page load time as an important SEO ranking factor. People bounce the website if it takes more time to load and Google considers it as the negative SEO signal. Google also applies several filters to avoid showing the slow load website from its organic search engine listing pages to ensure the best user experience.

Show Users the Required Download Times

Indicate users the time required to download an image or document at a given connection speed. Providing the size and download time of large images or documents gives users sufficient information to choose whether or not they are willing to wait for the file to download. One study concluded that supplying users with download times relative to various connection speeds improves their Web site navigation performance. A sample of websites download time -

Connection Rate - Download Time

14.4K - 167.31 seconds

28.8K - 88.26 seconds

33.6K - 76.96 seconds

56K - 49.86 seconds

ISDN 128K - 21.65 seconds

T1 1.44Mbps - 10.28 seconds

Avoid Displaying Unsolicited Windows or Graphics

Do not show unsolicited windows or graphics 'pop-up' to users. Surveys from users have shown that unsolicited windows or graphics that 'pop up' are annoying and distracting when they are focusing on completing their original activity.

Format Information Properly for Reading and Printing

Prepare information with the expectation that it will either be read online or printed for offline. Documents should be prepared that are consistent with whether users can be expected to read the document online or offline. One study found that the major reason participants gave for deciding to read a document from print or to read it online was the size of the document. Long documents (over five pages) were printed, and short documents were read online. In addition, users preferred to print information that was related to research, presentations, or supporting a point. They favored reading it online if for entertainment.

Help Users to Remember Information on a Website

Assist users to remember information from place to place on a website. Users can memorize relatively few items of information for a relatively short period of time. This 'working memory' capacity tends to lessen even more as people become older. One study found that working memory for the younger group performed reliably better than the older group. When users have to remember information on one webpage for use on another page or another location on the same page, they can only remember about three or four items for a few seconds.

Employ Users' Terminology in Help Documentation

When giving guidance about using a website, use the users' terminology to describe elements and features. There is varied understanding among users as to what many website features are called, and in some cases, how they are used. These features include 'breadcrumbs', changing link colors after they've been clicked, the left and right panels on the homepage, the tabs at the top of many homepages, and the search capability.

Research found that the average website's user experience is not very supportive for users or consumers. As a result, the websites fail to provide business value or website purpose because they ultimately turn prospects away rather than turning them into leads. The only good news is that most websites can dramatically enhance their value by simply following some usability guidelines, and thereby offer a more user-centered environment or user experiences.