The Importance Of User Centered Design

hat do you consider most when designing your products or services online? Do you aim at creating the best for your target customers? If your answer is no, then you must embrace the concept of user centered design. It is simply a way of creating a product or service while keeping in mind what the target user wants. One should create a user friendly interface that provides all that the viewer and potential subscribers may be looking for on the internet. This aspect has become a necessity in developing most business oriented websites. For a long time, online designs of products and services have been created without considering what the user really wants. That has changed over the last decade. If you are to survive and market yourself well online, then this should be the foundation of it all. Let’s look at what makes this quite important. Make Site Navigation Easy Online shoppers want to access information about your product or service in an easier way. By creating a user centered design that takes good care of visitors makes it easier to get such details. For instance, including instructions such as “click here for details” helps the helps in identification of details about a certain option. The truth is, no one wants to peruse through everything on your site. Customers will mostly click on that particular product that grabs their interest to find out more about it. Improve User Experience Good designs have proved to be the only way to enhance unique and quality user experiences (UX). It makes it faster for your potential customers to access important places that interest them. Organizing your site in a good manner will enhance this. A site that classifies what it offers according to their prize, type and quality is more likely to wow visitors and invite them back as compared to that which doesn’t. Increase Usability Sites that are easy to access and provide good user experiences attract more people to it. Information on the effectiveness of a particular website widely spreads by word of mounts. Most sites are visited due to recommendations from friends. When a person visits your site and finds it efficient, he/she will invite a friend and that how usability increases. Increases Visibility When your site’s usability increases, its search engine ranking also improves. How active your site is will determine your search engine ranking. The importance of ranking top on these engines is not doubtable. The criteria used are simple. Active sites with large number of visitors ranks top of the list. When an online shopper keys in a word searching for information about products in categories related to yours, the first site to pop out with information will be yours. By being visible to nearly every potential customer, one increases sales conversion rate. Makes Management Easy Finally, a well designed user interface is essential in making management easier. It will be easier to manage user interaction on your site if the design is well organized. For instance, you can moderate or even delete bad comments or posts by your customers from your site easily if you have a set customer base. You can easily sample suggestions from users if you have an interface for that course. It is thus very important to have a user centered design created to meet the numerous needs of your customers.

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Megan Wilson is user experience specialist & editor of UX Motel. She is also the Quality Assurance and UX Specialist at WalkMe Megan.w(at)walkme.com