The phrase “User Experience” was first suggested by Don Norman, a cognitive psychologist and designer, in his book “The Design of Everyday Things” in 1988. But what exactly is User Experience (UX)?
UX is the quality of the user’s interaction with a product or service that an eCommerce business website is offering. To put it simply, UX is the feeling of customers about the way they are being treated in an online shop.
Whenever you face a product or service, you are involved with UX. Whether you want to submit an employment application, check into a hotel or buy a new pair of socks, you experience it.
Completing this part of the business as satisfactory as possible is a guarantee to have some loyal customers recommend the received service or product to others. And what does a thriving business try to accomplish? Needless to say, having more loyal paying customers!
Also there are some tips to improve online shopping experience that you need to consider.
Who Is the UX Designer?
UX is the overall experience of a customer using a product, so UX design is a user-centered task.
Though it might sound obvious, working in a field where humans are its main focus requires involving psychology, aesthetics, history and social studies along with the other technical fields of science such as programming, visual design, interaction design and so on.
Keeping that in mind, a UX designer is the person in charge of making the service or the product, and their accessibility, easier and more memorable; as easy to make the customers feel relieved, and as memorable to encourage them to recommend it to the others.
If you want to personalize online shopping experiences, read the related article.
What Does a Designer (Design Team) Do?
Designing a UX does not stop at just making the product or service easy to use, but it also works on the other related experiences concerning the product, such as the packaging, marketing campaign, customer support, delivery options and so on.
Two Essential Steps for Every UX Designer:
● Understanding the Users and the Brand
How is it possible to offer something when the nature of the needs is not well-studied first? UX designers should have a clear idea of the problem they’re going to solve. Normally, it’s the first step of every operation, and UX designing is no exception.
● Conducting Research, and Analyzing the Gathered Information
What are the user’s needs? What is it they are looking for? How do they behave? Are they willing to spend a little time on your website having fun, or are they super busy? Answers to these kinds of questions will lead the designers to the best of results.
7 Reasons for Every Brand to Improve Its UX?
● To Make the Experience an Easy One:
If you want to stand out among your competitors, your service or product should be easy to get and use, or the customers will leave you for a more suitable place.
● To Reach a Higher Revenue
With an effective UX, you can convert more visitors to paying customers, which naturally leads to higher revenue.
● The Faster, the Better
We’re not claiming that this motto works all the time, but the faster you present your brand in the market, the higher the chance of returning the spent money is. And the quicker you lead the customers to their desired product, the chance of selling it will be higher.
● To Shorten the Process
You can decide about the points you want to keep the visitor involved in, but unless it’s an on-time and related issue, you’re going to be boring with each unnecessary step you implement on the way.
● To Reduce the Costs
Studies have shown that every dollar invested in UX brings 100 in return. The more you facilitate the shopping, the costs of the service and customer support drop by far, and you don’t need to waste resources to rework UX.
● To Make More Friends
Losing paying customers and not being able to replace them with new ones is the last straw for every business. Having more loyal customers and reducing churn number is among the central ideals of every online clothing store.
As the agent of the “love in first sight” theory, UX is responsible for conveying the business’s mission, and persuading the visitors to hang around and search more.
● User Engagement
Our lives are becoming more digitized every passing day. Therefore, human interactions decrease. Less human interaction leads to fewer opportunities for companies to form human relationships. This is how customer loyalty percentage drops.
UX is one of the tools every online business has in hand in creating more interactions and involving the customers.
9 Ways to Improve User Experience?
● First Things First
Put your leading advertised service or product right in front of your customer’s eyes: this is why they’ve ended up on your page in the first place. It’s not a hide-and-seek game. If you are running a virtual fitting room website, providing the most straightforward way to reach it is your sacred duty.
● Know Them Better
Your website is your most powerful marketing asset as an online clothing store. Try to know your customer better. As mentioned above, conducting research and analyzing the gathered information are at the center of every attempt to improve UX.
What would users like? Are they getting what they need? What would your competitor offer them?
You can create a competitive advantage by presenting them with a more usable, convincing, and pleasing UX. For example, If you’re creating an online clothing store UX, you can start asking questions about the target audience:
- What demographics are you targeting? Women 18–30, everyone over 50, parents, students, professionals, etc.?
- Who are you targeting? Fashionistas, students, musicians, athletes, gamers, travelers?
- What are their current preferred products?
- What reviews do they leave on such products?
- How do the developers of their preferred products respond? Can you do it better?
● Simplicity Is the Ultimate Sophistication
Keep this da Vinci’s advice in mind, and apply it in your design.
- Each page on your clothing store’s website should have a clear, definite purpose. It’s not wise to overload a page with all the irrelevant ads, buttons, promotions and…
- The purpose of each page should be as clear as possible, so the users won’t need to decipher the page’s content.
- Any other related content should be produced or linked at the very bottom of the page, where it doesn’t interfere with the assumed task of the page.
- Lighten the experience with whiteness. Using white color is the easiest and quickest way to add simplicity to your UX design. Don’t confuse the users with all the details, all kinds of shapes and colors on your webpage. Let them breathe a little.
● See to Make Every Vital Point of the Web Page Visually Distinct
It would help if you stand by the users wherever they go on your website; feeling lost is not healthy for your business. You can provide them with buttons to help them find their way back and forth in different parts of your online clothing store.
The search box, CTA buttons, links to your social media platforms, big sales, special offers and every engaging mechanism on your website should always be close by.
Font styles, contrast, colors and all the formatting tools are there to emphasize different parts of the page. Use it and every other means available to help with your essential content.
● Let Your Visitors Know that They Have a Say
Open some feedback channels to hear from your clients. They are the ones who pay and assist you in keeping your business running. So, it’s more than wise to listen to them. Implement a rating system to get them more involved, and promote your products through their reviews and ratings.
Ask some straightforward questions like these -maybe as a survey- to get more clear ideas about your products:
- Is there anything you wish to change in our operation?
- Were you happy with your experience?
● Loading Time
It’s the first impression every visitor faces on your website. Make it real quick.
Loading time efficiency strongly depends on the purpose of the website. If you’re running an artistic website, maybe it’s good to have a multimedia intro before entering the homepage, but imagine visiting a website to buy some groceries to be delivered as soon as possible. How does it feel to have a high-quality painting to be loaded bit by bit, taking forever?
Don’t forget that 53 percent of users will leave your website if it takes more than three seconds to load.
● Make Your Website Mobile-friendly
According to studies, 59.5% of website traffic comes from mobile phones. So, making your online clothing store more responsive is more than an urgent call; it’s at the core of your business. If you don’t optimize your website for the best mobile experience, losing a huge number of potential customers is inevitable.
● Error Pages Are Business Killers
Error pages are stains on your brand’s face; they’re hard to clean. It’s not promising for a customer to land on an error page; it’s like punching a new friend in the face the first time you meet them; not a good gesture, ha? You’re not going to get a second chance, because there are competitors who have sprayed away these business killers long ago. They don’t want this notorious spell to be cast on them.
● Virtual Try-on in Clothing Stores
UX is directly related to your website’s purpose. What else can make the customers in an online clothing store more happy than finding the best fit for their body? As an online clothing store everything you do sums up in the connection you make via your clothes. And here’s exactly where Robosize can act as the most useful tool. Being able to try different sizes, colors, and cuts is the ultimate comfort when you are in the hunt for a suitable cloth.
Conclusion
The primary concern of a functional UX is leading the users to what they need. Nowadays, users are impatiently in the hunt for simple and quick solutions to their problems. Every element in your webpage should point directly to the next stage. You just have minimal time to convince the visitors to enter your shop, just some clicks or a few touches of their fingertips.