This is a guest post from Charles Richard at TatvaSoft UK.
When it comes to UX design, doing it well can be complex at best.
As we go along, a wide range of unexpected UX challenges begin to unfold, and unfortunately, that’s the reason why many sites aren’t very user-friendly. In fact, only 55% of companies are currently conducting any user experience testing.
But that’s no way to treat the visitors, leads, and customers that make online work possible.
In tandem with web development, user experience design is of paramount importance, a deciding factor of success or failure for your website. According to one study, every $1 invested in UX led to $100 in return.
Cracking the right UX code has been a mystery for years. The advent of new technology, tools, and techniques is definitely a boon, but even recent developments can have their fair share of problems.
Read on to discover what those UX designing challenges are, as well as how to deal with them through UX A/B testing.
Top UX designing challenges
1. Gathering data
Now, how can gathering data be an issue? Marketing and sales teams these days require tons and tons of customer data to make their strategies and campaigns successful. But collecting data isn’t always easy, especially since people now have more power than ever over how and when their data is collected.
What exactly is GDPR? Get the facts.
While data protection is crucially important, collecting relevant consumer data isn’t all bad. In fact, the right data can go a long way in providing relevant and personalized content for users.
Try using more engaging and subtle data collection methods, like interactive opportunities: quizzes, polls, or surveys.
According to sources, interactive content converts buyers 70% of the time compared to just 36% for passive content. Consider unobtrusive approaches to succeed.
These 6 interactive methods will improve your engagement.
2. Implementing personalization
Is it challenging to offer a personalized experience? At times, yes. Most of the time, personalized experiences can boost sales and customer satisfaction, but website designers are taking personalization a step further by optimizing landing pages for each specific customer, and this can be overwhelming.
Try going for smart personalization and offer things in moderation. How? Test what works and what doesn’t; Iterate when something isn’t successful.
Marketing teams and web designers must have a deep understanding of who their customers are or what it is that they want, so that, the next thing they know, they’re receiving personalized offers or coupons for related items.
Is personalization enough? Find out here.
3. Selling products online
Product showcasing is pretty common these days. One of the biggest drawbacks here is that you never really know what you’re getting until it shows up.
There are hundreds and thousands of sales options available around, and more and more brands are working to create confidence and communicate why their product is the one that customers should go with. Simply relying on product pictures and ratings from past purchases may not be enough, especially as markets become saturated.
Still, a little creativity and technology can go a long way.
With emerging disruptive tech, like augmented reality and virtual reality tools, companies can show their customers 3D models of their products for a virtual “hands-on” shopping experience (e.g. the IKEA app).
This ability to display products online in this way is a big advantage for brick-and-mortar stores.
See how 1,000+ ecommerce owners spend their time.
4. Consumer behavior code
Knowing what motivates customers to make a purchase or complete an action, as well as how to use this information to improve conversion rates has always been a challenge for web developers and designers across the globe.
Make better and more confident UX design choices that are proven to get results. The biggest advantage here is placing CTA buttons or important content along the path that a customer’s eyes will naturally fall to (left to right).
Optimize your CTAs in 10 steps.
5. A/B testing inaccuracies
A/B testing is helpful when trying to determine which ideas or designs might be the most effective with your audience. Unfortunately, many web development professionals tend to choose strategies that are limited.
Known as split testing, A/B testing is done to find out which of two versions performs better—like an ad, digital product, or email subject line. Web designing teams divide users into two groups and show each the different variants. One half sees version A, and the other sees version B. The results of the tests will determine which design was more effective.
To measure the effectiveness, one needs to delve into different criteria such as page views, clicks, or sales leads. However, the choice of criteria for measurement depends on what goals a company or a creative team has established.
A well-constructed A/B test includes:
- Identifying the project scope
- Isolating macro and micro metrics
- Assessing key page elements
- Randomly showing two different screens to users
- Carefully evaluating your findings
A/B testing for UX improvement
Mobile app developers need to choose carefully, as well as plan a clear and pleasant interaction and navigation system to enhance user experience. However, what once worked well may not have the same effect after a while, so it’s important to update your findings periodically.
A/B testing assists web designers in making careful changes, so users won’t feel inconvenienced. All the needed data and metrics can be collected while people continue to use an app or website. Certain elements to consider when it comes to A/B testing include:
- Placement, size, color, or copy of CTA buttons
- Headings with their subheaders
- Images (especially on the landing pages)
- Presentation of clients’ form on websites
- The entire copy (length, placement, and content)
- Where the offer is displayed
- Videos (presence or absence)
These tests can be performed at any time to ensure you’re always giving your users the best experience possible.
Step 1 – Data collection
The main objective of A/B testing is to optimize, irrespective of the reason—be it revenue optimization, user experience improvements, or just a product upgrade as a whole. By gathering lots and lots of data and analyzing it, you’ll know exactly which part of the UX design needs to be optimized the most.
Additional tip: do you have any pages with low conversion rates or CTA buttons with the least amount of clicks? They’re the ones that need to be taken care of first.
Step 2 – Set the objective.
To make things work in the correct order, web developers need to set goals in regard to the result. Do you wish to increase your subscriber list for the recent blog or website you’ve been working on? Check how many clicks on CTA buttons you receive and keep doing relevant changes. Setting small goals changes everything.
Step 3 – Hypothesis
After gathering all the relevant information and setting appropriate goals, it’s time to create some hypothetical situation and analyze whether things will work out or not. How will the current version hit the market, and is there any room for improvement from a client perspective?
Step 4 – Create side A and side B.
Fortunately, we have plenty of free and paid tools around. What’s more, you can also consider reaching out to a web development company featuring a skilled team of techies, designers, and QAs who make sure that everything goes as it should.
Step 5 – Analyze.
When the experiment is complete, designers work on implementing the information based on the results.
Wrap up
As you’re building and designing your site, email, and other marketing efforts, good UX may feel like a challenge. Luckily, it doesn’t have to be. Through UX A/B testing specifically, you can easily see what’s working best.
A/B tests for UX design ultimately lead to:
- Cost-efficiency
- Quality instead of quantity
- User-centered design
- Fast and easy analysis
- Reduced scope of risk
By researching and gathering data about your user-base, personalizing their experience, and constantly testing, you can build a positive experience for subscribers, customers, and everyone in-between.
Charles Richard possesses over 10 years of experience in the business analysis profession. He also enjoys mentoring BA professionals, and his well-rounded knowledge base in engineering concepts provides an easy way to make non-technical people understand basic theories. Currently, he works at TatvaSoft UK, a leading iPhone app development company based in London.