Understanding the user experience is a crucial consideration for any business, especially for making sales online. But what is a unified user experience? And why should you be aiming to create one? 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 the important factors of creating a unified user experience.
What is a unified user experience?
So what is a unified user experience? Well, you have probably heard the term responsive design, which is all about creating a website that will respond to changes in device size, and show the information, design and layout appropriate for the device being used to access the website. A unified user experience is about bringing the same design consistency, content consistency, and most importantly, user experience, to each iteration of your website.
But it goes much further than this too. Consider the growth of voice assistants, as well as search results on platforms such as Google Maps, and YouTube. While these might not show your website immediately, they do reveal part of your content, and key pieces of information. And for a unified user experience, this will be consistent with your company branding, as well as your steps to provide a positive user experience.
Ultimately, a unified user experience is all encompassing, and aims to provide the best possible solutions to any potential customer, on any platform or device.
What are the important considerations for designing for a unified user experience?
So, how can you create a website, and an online presence, that creates a unified user experience? Well, you could consider:
- The design choices- your website needs to look, but most importantly, feel the same on all devices and platforms. From the colour and style, to the imagery and typography, it’s essential to ensure that these design choices positively reflect your company branding, and are designed to provide the best possible user experience. This means that everything needs to be consistent, so that users have the same level of positive experience across the board.
- The interactivity- the best platform to reach your potential customers is the one they are using. So this means that any interactive features that are device specific, need to be re-considered. Can any interactive features be transferred to one device or another? And is this interactivity really what your users want to see?
- Continuity- the user experience is about more than design and practical functionality. It’s also about how data is managed. If a potential customers adds an item to your shopping cart, does this follow them when they access your website on another device? If so, you are creating a positive and unified user experience, which bridges gaps in device access, and provides the best possible outcome for your company.
For more information or advice, get in touch with the experts today, here at Pumpkin Web Design Manchester.