Striking a balance is the key when it comes to website design with user-experience as the main goal. Yes, aesthetics is important, but so is easy navigation and understanding of the web page at first glance. Software development companies have to make sure they have got the right balance of seamless user-experience paired with impeccable website design in terms of UI, that is optimized in all aspects.
At the end of the day, you need a happy visitor that finds your website user-friendly. How to achieve that when designing the website? By starting from understanding ‘user-intent’. This is where your journey towards a winning website design optimization begins.
What Exactly Is User Intent?
In the simplest of forms, it can be described as the intent with which a user visits your site. What is he or she looking for? What is his end goal? Is it to learn about your brand? To make a purchase? Once you are aware of your users’ goal(s) – you will now optimize your site that caters to their goal by providing that entire experience to them in the easiest and simplest way, ultimately converting them as customers or loyal visitor(s).
Once your extensive study of user-intent is in place and you have categorized the types of users your site will cater to – you can move on to the optimization part. But before you do that, let us briefly look at HOW to learn about your site’s user-intent and its kinds?
User Flow Report from Google Analytics
A great tool provided by Google Analytics that enables you to track user activity that includes: where they started from, what they did on your site, and where they left. Once you have the report compiled, all there is left is to analyze the data affectively and draw out conclusions (preferably the types of users and their end-goals).
Looks like this:
Via Sivart Technology LLC
Now with conclusions at hand, you are fully equipped with the knowledge about the types of audience and their interaction flow on your site. With use-intent and your current website in front of you – you can identify the weak spots or entirely compromising design elements that were putting your site and business at a loss.
One of the best ways to start website design optimization is from the most crucial yet underestimated aspect of a website – The navigation bar. How is that? Well, navigation bar is where the entire user journey starts from. So best solution would be focusing there and making necessary changes. Let’s see how!
Navigation Bar Revamp
First things first, identify all categories and their subs and create a content hierarchy – do this for all your products, services, and other important additions that are part of your business. Once everything has been acknowledged – check if they were clearly defined and easily understandable by your audience.
Important Note: Navigation bar is exactly how it should be, so try not to think of any wacky ideas. It serves a single purpose and straying from navigation bar conventions would do you no good. By ‘Revamp’, I do not mean bringing out the creative wand on this section, but only re-structuring and re-organizing according to the user flow report generated via Google Analytics.
Having difficulty deciding what to prioritize as top level elements and how to keep it in line with user-intent, then we compiled a list of things that will help you with this job.
Product-Centric Approach
This approach allows you to build your navigational categories from the products and services that you are offering to your audience/potential leads. So try to be as clear and possible when categorizing your products and services – since that will decide your user’s entire journey or the fact that if they would want to begin one in the first place.
Take the biggest beauty brand Mac Cosmetics for example. If you look at their navigational bar, you would find how easy they have made their navigation through effective categories and their sub categories narrowing down to the products. It is a big brand with a plethora of products, so you can take them as a perfect example.
User Intent Grouping
A simple and hassle-free way is to just go by the user-groups you have identified. For your informational users/learners, create an ‘About Us’ page. For educational ones, establish a blog with informative and engaging blog posts. And lastly for your transactional ones (the most important one too), have a well-planned out navigational bar that isn’t crowded and makes decision-making easy.
Last approach? Obvious Grouping
This approach is perfect for certain websites, let’s say you have a specific tenants and renters section like TransUnion’s Smart Move division. Simply make separate groups and have relevant categories underneath.
Via Convinceandconvert
What did we learn?
- Website design needs to be optimized according to users’ journey.
- User Flow Report by Google Analytics will help you achieve that.
- Once types of users and their intent is defined, navigation bat should be the first target of optimization.
- There are a few ways you can go about navigation-bar re-structuring and those include:
- a) Product-centric approach, b) user-intent grouping, obvious grouping.