As part of your web design, the User Experience (UX) should be an important consideration. This can have a big impact on traffic retention as well as boosting company image and increases sales or sign ups.But when it comes to UX for web design, should you follow the best practices, instead of testing? Well, here at Pumpkin Web Design Manchester, we are Manchester’s leading web design professionals. From Wigan to Southport, we work with companies across Manchester and the surrounding region to deliver high quality web design solutions that really get results. As a result, we have produced this guide to everything you should know about UX best practices.
How can UX best practices replace UX testing for websites?
Following the standard best practices for website UX design is a great way to ensure that your website will provide a high quality user experience for your potential customers and clients. At the same time, testing elements of your UX design has also been regarded as an important development step, traditionally. So, can following the steps for UX best practices replace UX testing? Well, the simple answer is yes. And this is for a number of reasons, including:
- We already know what works
- UX testing is more effective on a large scale
- Your web design team have experience and expertise
UX best practices are evidence based
By following the UX best practices, you are following the steps that are known to be effective for websites. These are evidence based and there is a lot of research that can support these design decisions. As a result, there is no real need to UX test your design if these best practices have been followed and adjusted for the requirements of your potential customers and clients, as well as your overall web design.
UX testing is more effective on a large scale
Testing elements of web design has been proven to be effective, with some changes to website check out processes resulting in an almost 5% increase in sales online. But this is not as simple as it may seem. In fact, due to the expenditure required for UX testing, both in terms of cost and the financial expense, UX testing is much more effective on a larger scale by bigger international brands. This is because large brands can afford to pay more for UX testing which may have a 0.1% return. Smaller companies and especially SMBs would struggle to pay the cost, and may not have the guarantee of success at the end. As such, UX testing is simply more profitable at a larger scale. But don’t be disheartened. The work that larger companies do to test and polish aspects of UX design becomes clear, and this knowledge filters throughout web design materials which allow the rest of us to learn from their experience. This means that changes can be applied where relevant or applicable, without undergoing the cost of testing.
Rely on your web design team
When you hire a professional and experiences web marketing and web design team like us here at here at Pumpkin Web Design Manchester, you can trust in the expertise of your team. Not only will you design team be aware of the UX best practices, but they will also have the expertise to apply the right techniques and elements in the right ways, to complement your web design and your branding.