5 Ways to Verify That Your Website is User Friendly

From the moment you start working on your website, there’s an important goal to achieve — its user-friendliness. Successfully achieving that mission will enable your business to grow efficiently, and to retain customers.

The same goes for apps. Take a look at Revolut. They developed a user-friendly app that totally reinvented banking.

The same principle translates to the structure of your website. A simple one that’s easy to navigate will consistently outperform other complex websites. The average consumer wants a website they can easily use without having to read a manual. For example, Ikea products come with manuals, but many of them are so intuitive to assemble, that the manual is not needed. 

Now, at the surface, things may seem easy, but there are multiple things to consider. A lot of business owners want to impress their potential customers by using breathtaking designs. They forget about their practical side and simplicity. 

That approach can quickly complicate things, making a business website less user-friendly.

Keep reading to discover ways to verify that your website is easy to use. Avoid falling into the trap of building complex tools that won’t get used. Instead, use the following ways to bring your product closer to your target audience.

 

1. Usability testing

User testing is the best way to verify how user-friendly your website is. Aside from user experience, you can use this process to discover other unexpected issues. It’s the perfect option for product development and the auditing process.

If you’re creating a new website, opting for this process will let you build a sturdy foundation for your users from the start. On the other hand, if your website is already live, you can use the process to make incremental improvements to optimize conversion rates.

Crucial points to consider are:

• Opting the in-person or remote testing
• Picking either moderated or unmoderated approach
• Setting a precise testing goal
• Finding your target audience
• Creating a detailed scenario so the user knows what they should do
• Analyzing the results

The whole process requires thoughtful planning for getting the most optimal results. Deploying usability testing tools is a great way to simplify the entire process by keeping all the essential information in one place.

 

2. Analytics metrics

User behavior is a great way to check how approachable your website is. You’ll need different analytics tools that monitor user behavior. A heatmap will help get detailed information about the user’s behavior.

It shows where the user is clicking from the moment they land on your website. These details are helpful as you can get the user’s point of view and see elements they believe are clickable. 

Also, you can see what their last click was before they’ve left your page, showing the potential issue in your design. For example, if you notice that a high percentage of users are leaving your cart page, you can analyze that page to find the root of the problem.

To get the best results, it’s necessary to combine it with other analytics that display bounce rates, page views, and page session length. Combining all the feedback will indicate which parts of your website are easy to use and which are not.

For example, Bear Mattress used heatmaps to optimize just one part of their customer’s journey. “The frequently bought” section had to go through a much-needed change for a better cross-selling strategy. The redesign based on heatmap analytics turned into a complete success as the brand was able to improve its cross-selling conversion rates. Its adds to carts increase ranged from 36% up to 73% resulting in annual revenue growth of 23.22%.

 

3. Customer support data

The department that receives the most complaints about your brand is customer support. Turning to that department and the data it collects is one of the best ways of improving products and growing customer satisfaction.

Create a unique strategy that will let your customer support team classify the variety of issues reported. That way, you can seamlessly collect information about the ease of use of your website.

Focus on reports that mention difficulties with using your product. A good example is paying attention to customer support queries regarding your checkout process. After understanding what the repeating issue is, you can start working on its solution.

Uber used such an approach for its customer support department. The company was able to achieve a 7% reduction in its ticket resolution time, but more importantly, increase customer satisfaction as well.

With such a tactic, you won’t be able to capture only current challenges, but you’re setting up a system to enable you to improve ease of use.  

 

4. User experience polls

Asking your users about their experience is another option for detecting any issues with the website’s simplicity. For example, in WordPress, there are various plugins designed explicitly for poll creation. 

With all the technical challenges out of the way, the only thing you should worry about is where to place your poll forms.

A couple of options to consider are:

• Homepage and a landing page — Allow your visitor to evaluate the quality of your UX from the moment they land on your website. However, keep in mind that the call to action to fill out the form should be inconspicuous. Use a pop-up or other subtle way to let the user know they can participate in a poll.
• High bounce rate pages — Add the forms on pages where people abruptly leave. They might help identify the cause.
• Cancelation pages — Add polls on pages where people decide to unsubscribe from your services. You’ll get to discover a wide range of issues your website might have, allowing you to act fast and improve its quality.

These are only a couple of ideas for you to consider where placing a poll might be effective. If you think of a better one for your website, go for it. The goal is to get as much feedback as possible to know which parts of your website require improvements.

 

5. A/B testing

Deploy different pages and see which performs better. A/B testing is a very effective method of improving your website’s user-friendliness. The goal is to create several landing pages with different designs. 

You could create pages with different calls to action, copywriting styles, and colors. Then, you should deploy them and monitor the results. That’s where analytics will be beneficial, as you’ll immediately be able to see which pages are easier to navigate. 

Over time, as you explore various pages, you can pick the most intuitive one to use.

A good example of a great A/B testing approach is Groove. The company used specific language that’s closer to their target audience and managed to almost double their conversions by growing them from 2.3% to 4.3%.

A/B testing is an ongoing process that you should repeat from time to time. It’ll allow you to build the ultimate landing pages that are easy to use and convert more customers.

 

The power of a stable foundation

Making optimizations to ensure that every user can easily use your website is an ongoing process that takes numerous tweaks. However, to ensure that there’s less work, you should create a strong foundation that guarantees a certain degree of simplicity from the start.

You can achieve this goal by thinking of the following things:

• Supporting multiple platforms — Don’t forget to use a responsive design that adapts well to mobile devices. More than half of your website’s visitors will come from mobile.
• Fast loading time — Visitors want to access content on your website quickly. Make sure that your pages load within 3 seconds.
• Easy-to-read content — Structure your content with plenty of subheadings and small paragraphs. Your visitors will be able to easily scheme through it and read the parts they prefer.
• Simple website layout — Don’t add too many elements to your website. That can be distracting and will confuse the visitors. Keep things simple with an intuitive design.
• Make CTAs visible — One element that needs to stand out is your call to action button. Make them easily discernible so your visitors can spot them from a mile away.

With a foundation like this, further optimization you’ll have to make will be minor. Of course, before you launch your site, you can rely on usability testing to see whether you’re on the right track. That way, you’ll ensure excellent ease of use from the moment your website goes live.

 

Concluding thoughts

High customer satisfaction should be the primary goal for all businesses. Given that the customer journey starts with your website, it’s a good idea to ensure it’s easy to use. Use one of the abovementioned ways to verify that the web pages are easy-to-use.

Remember that the process takes time, and building the perfect website that’s simple to use takes a lot of patience and testing with a dash of creativity.