Why User-Friendly Web Design is Important
Building a successful financial website requires more than just good visual design and great content. It also needs to be user-friendly so that your visitors, leads and clients can easily find what they’re looking for and accomplish what they set out to quickly without getting frustrated.
What Makes a Website More User Friendly
There are lots of elements involved in making your website more user friendly. The main ones to consider are:
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- UI (User Interface)
- Readability
- Mobile-friendliness
- Page load times
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Providing a friendly UI should be the top priority for your web design. Your website’s visual design elements shouldn’t get in the way of its user friendliness. If anything, your graphic designs should make your UI clearer and more logical.
Creates a Great First Impression
Your website needs to be easy to navigate so that people can easily get to the information they want. People have very little patience these days, and they’re not going to spend more than a couple of seconds looking through your pages and content. If your UI is well thought out, they’ll leave with a good impression of your site and your business.
Helps You Deliver Your Message
Readability makes your content easier to consume and understand. This means carefully considering your fonts, font sizes, color schemes and layout.
People won’t be stuck to their seats reading through your web pages like it’s a riveting novel. Your visitors are more likely to just scan through your pages and pick out keywords and phrases that stand out to them. So you want to make sure you accommodate this type of reading so that your content can at least provide some value to your audience and drive home the message that you’re trying to convey.
Minimizes Frustrations
You also have to take into account the fact that at least half of your visitors are going to be browsing your site on their smartphones. This is where responsive design comes in and ensures that the user experience is the same for both mobile and desktop versions.
You need to make sure that your website is just as easy to use on mobile as it is on desktop. Otherwise, you’re going to alienate a large chunk of your target market and force them to find other options.
Increases Engagement and Conversions
Fast page load times also make for a smoother overall user experience. If your pages load instantly, there’s a higher chance that they’ll stay on your site and consume more of your content.
It Helps Your SEO
If they’re greeted with nothing but an empty page, they’re more likely to hit the back button and move on to the next search result. This will increase your bounce rates which will have a negative effect on your SEO efforts.
Final Thoughts
To come up with the most user-friendly design possible, you also need to have a good understanding of your audience. Find out how they use the web and what they want to see. This will allow you to deliver a great user experience that best fits their needs.
If you need help in making your web design more user friendly, contact us at AltaStreet through the contact form below. We’ve helped hundreds of financial advisors create great looking websites that provide outstanding user experiences.