You have a simple decision to make when designing or redesigning a website: make it simple or make it complicated. Surprisingly many organizations choose to make their websites complicated, albeit probably not consciously. So how do you avoid a conscious (or subconscious) decision to complicate website user experience? Simple, make it an objective.
It's almost a certainty that complicated, un-intuitive websites didn't start out with that as an objective. However, they probably didn't start out with simple, intuitive user experience as objective either. So that's the problem. User experience is overlooked in many websites. Why? Well, it's either not even considered or it's too complicated to tackle. But truth be known, it's not all that complicated. Well, it is and isn't.
User experience is an exercise in organization and communication. It's about connecting people with information in the most efficient and productive way possible. User experience is not unlike organizing a manufacturing process or even designing the floorplan of a retail location -- it's all about intuitive, efficient organization and ultimately the end result. Take a manufacturing facility for instance. The idea is to take raw materials and transform them into a finished product in as few steps as possible, using as few resources as possible without sacrificing quality objectives. The same can be said for your website. Why create a path to information with 3 clicks when 2 clicks will do? Why bury critical information with ambiguous titles? Why make a user read pages of text when a video would simplify the information? Think efficiency, first and that will get you a long way.
The key to user experience is to understand your site visitors goals and objectives. You need to know why they are visiting your site and what they hope to achieve. Then it's a matter of planning. We start with a homepage strategy. The homepage is the most valuable web real estate, so that's where we focus. From their we wire frame sub pages to determine page-by-page structure and organization. Then we apply design. We make things look as good as they function. We rely on web-standard to create intuitive use.
Bottom line. User experience is an objective of any web project. It is equal to design, content and technical requirements. When you focus on user experience as a primary objective, you create better connections between your brand and the audiences you want to reach.
What are your thoughts?
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