Designing a website that can sell your products or services, showcase your company, and help to grow your business, is no easy to task. And although most businesses want to create a website that will help their company, you need to take a different approach. Instead of concentrating on what a website can do for your business, you need to think about what your website can do for your potential customers. And changing your focus in this way means that your web design will be more focused on the user experience, which can result in more sales, and more conversions. A big part of this user focused design is about removing friction. So what is friction in web design? And how can you avoid it? Well, here at Pumpkin Web Design Manchester, we are Manchester’s leading web design experts. And we work with companies and businesses across Manchester and the surrounding region, to deliver top quality, effective, web design solutions. As a result, we have produced this guide to removing friction in web design.
Why is friction bad?
Points of friction in web design are points where users are prevented from achieving their goal. Or points where users might think they are not achieving their goal. This can include:
- Pop-ups that disrupt the browsing experience- while one pop-up can be effective for sign ups and offers, too any pop-ups lead to too much friction. And this can stop the browsing process in its tracks, as your users simply leave your website.
- Long delays- if your user has clicked the add to cart button, and gets no visual feedback, how will they know the order is in the basket? It’s this kind of lack of acknowledgement that can make users feel as though they aren’t getting to their end point, even though they might be.
This kind of friction has a lot of negative impacts, including:
- reducing trust in your website
- higher bounce rate
- low opinion of your company or website
- fewer sign ups
As a result, you should be aiming to remove friction, and make your website as smooth and seamless as possible.
Removing friction in web design
So, how do you go about removing friction in web design? Well, there are several methods, including:
- a simple design- clutter on your landing page or website makes it almost impossible to discern specific information. Which means that by simplifying your design, and using a clear, simple layout, you can easily remove friction in your web design.
- clear headings- following on from the simple design point, you should also make your content easy to read and easy to understand. Use appropriate headings for different sections of information and content, and keep it simple. That way, users can quickly scan your content and find the information they are looking for. Without any friction.
- visual feedback- don’t leave your users guessing whether their request is being processed or not. Make it clear that it is. So if your potential customer clicks a link, or opts to add an item to the cart, let them know that this has been received with a simple loading message or animation. This reduces confusion, and friction.
For more information or advice about professional web design, and removing friction in web design, get in touch with the professionals today, here at Pumpkin Web Design Manchester.