How UI and UX will shape your E-commerce online business
In the days of COVID 19, we have already established how important the online part of the business is for companies across the selling spectrum. B2B, B2C and almost every other sort of business now all rely on either a website or a mobile phone application and in most cases both, to bring their goods and services closer to their customers. The days of being able to visit a storefront or a shop seem to be dwindling with the convenience, security and efficiency of online shopping and this is why having a digital shop or storefront for your business is so extremely relevant and crucial in today’s day and age.
In our last blog titled “GIVE YOUR E-COMMERCE ONLINE BUSINESS THE DIGITAL BUSINESS CONSULTANCY ADVANTAGE” we spoke to you about why a digital business consultancy is more beneficial in the larger scheme for your E-commerce online business. In this blog we try to reiterate that claim by taking you closer and within the process of how a digital business consultancy organizes its design and development processes to ensure that you have a website that is ticking off all the boxes for your end consumers. A good website is usually an amalgamation of a well thought out user experience along with a responsive and easy to understand user interface. Both of these become extremely crucial in the process of building and regularly updating a website for any new or sustainable business.
A good user experience and user interface are the foundations of a strong digital business because they are the two aspects that matter the most to the end consumer who will also be the eventual buyer. Just having a flashy design on your website may not be enough if the consumer struggles to go through the process of making a quick sale. While it may intrigue the buyer to your website, it may not be enough to complete the transaction. In fact, some of the biggest online retailers across the world choose to have a simplified and rapidly responsive user experience over anything too flashy only so that the consumer can quickly and easily conduct his or her business. They ideally want people to come to the digital online store, browse it for what they are looking for, select their requirements and be able to complete the purchase seamlessly. To understand why these two aspects are so important to a website, let’s learn a little more about them.
UI [User Interface] and UX [User Experience]
UI or User Interface
According to Adobe, one of the foremost design software manufacturers in the world, UI [User Interface] is a fundamental element for human-computer interactions. It’s a space where interactions between humans and machines occurs. The goal of the interaction is to allow effective operation and control of the machine from the human end. While they see and experience several kinds of UIs regularly, the three more common ones are command line interface, the graphic user interface and a voice enabled user interface. Adobe goes on to explain that good UI consists of the below few characteristics and these form the difference between a good UI and a not so responsive one.
Clarity
Clarity is probably the foremost aspect of a good UI. All the possible elements that form the UI including visual gimmicks need to be crystal clear for users. For a user, it is imperative that he or she does not have to waste time in decoding the meaning or the utility of any one or more particular elements.
Familiarity
A good UI should ideally always allow users to call upon and use their previous experience when they interact with your product. This helps the user stay clear about making the purchase and not worrying about how to decipher the process of buying whatever he or she wants.
Consistency
Being consistent at anything you do is a great habit anyway. The world of UI is no different and consistency in look and operation is one of the key characteristics that should ideally be followed at all times. Keeping the UI consistent across all product and service platforms allows users to recognize usage patterns.
Forgiveness
Now this characteristic may sound a little preachy, but it is important to understand as well. No online store can be certain that its end consumer is well versed with technology which means that you will always attract users who are potential consumers but without the basic technical knowledge needed to maneuver through your online store. Having a UI that does not punish these users for making a mistake but in fact simplify their journey is the hallmark of a good and appreciative user interface.
Efficiency
Good UI allows users to make minimal inputs to achieve what is their desired output. It will also provide several shortcuts and other experience delights for regular users to make their interaction quicker, easier and more productive across repeat transactions.
UX or User Experience
We turn back to Adobe to explain what User Experience (UX) is and why it is as important as getting your User Interface (UI) correct. UX according to Adobe is the experience that a person has as they interact with a product. User Experience is a term coined by an ex-Apple employee, Don Norman back in the 90s who said that user experience encompasses all aspects of the end-user’s interaction with the company, its services, and its products. It is important to note that since UX designers focus on crafting products that are easy to use and understand, the concept of user-centered design takes a central stage in UX design processes.
The reason why a good digital business consultancy will almost always have a defining role in creating good UX is because of their ability and inclination to graft during the research stage of the design process. A good UX is dependent on conducting user research. This research helps UX designers to understand their target audiences and identify exactly what their need from the product they are buying is. This research helps UX develop user personas which help users see goals, desires, and other vagrancies of the product or service. Some of the more salient and necessary features of a good UX include:
Pleasurable
Like anything in life, a good user experience needs to be pleasurable. It not only needs to be for the first interaction of the consumer with your online store but also for possible repeat transactions, which will only multiply if the online shopping experience has delighted the consumer.
Usable
While a lot of designers try to make the UX very pleasurable, sometimes they tend to lose track and make the process a little too complicated for the user’s preference. It is important for the UX to be easy and usable consistently so that the end user is happy to keep devoting time, money and energy towards it.
Reliable
Reliability is one of the more important aspects of generating a good UX for your online store. End users want to feel secure when they are transacting on your online store and a glitch and bug free, reliable UX is what will help them get over their insecurities and fears as they transact regularly on the E-commerce platform.
Functional
The online shopping process is all about making the transaction as easy and functional as possible for the end user. A functional UX helps the user make a purchase without any glitches and in a streamlined manner. If users are made to navigate too much of a labyrinth of functionality from the time a product is selected to checking out and paying for it, it will not leave a very happy taste in their mouth which will hamper repeat visits from them.
Benefits of a sound UI and UX
Enviance is a leader in cloud-based Environmental, Health and Safety (EH&S) software—delivering real-time mission-critical information across enterprises. They believe that the E-commerce business will only benefit either from a website or application when the end user is excited to use them over and over again. According to research conducted by Forrester, the returns that good UI and UX generate, are a 1 to 100 ratio, with about a $100 return on every $1 invested. Enviance also have listed down five key parameters to ensure that sound UI and UX are beneficial to the online store and shopping experience across the board.
Customer Acquisition
The most important part of any business process is to be able to make a sale to as many and as often as possible. Customer acquisition therefore becomes the first step and also the most crucial step for this reason. Successful user experience and design provide a competitive advantage to the extent that within reason they will also very likely overtake price as a key brand differentiator to attract new customers to your online store. Ensuring that your E-commerce platform has sound UI and UX is more than just about effective design and communication, it is in fact about good business.
Customer Retention
The second most important part of the business process after generating new customers is to be able to retain them consistently. Customer retention is almost as crucial as customer acquisition if the business is going to be able to sustain and progress in the long run. By building an E-commerce online store either on a website or an application that is pleasing, functional and intuitive, more and more people will want to use it, and more importantly, keep using it. In this digital world, customer retention is increasingly important as competition grows with every technological advancement.
Lower Support Costs
The third most crucial part of the business process is to ensure maximum productivity while enduring the most minimum costs. Lower support costs can only be maintained when you have a glitch free and intuitive UI and UX for your online store. If the website crashes often or is poorly designed, there will be an increased need for training, documentation, and support, which automatically translates into higher costs. Not to mention the adverse effect that it will have on business and repeat transactions. When the digital store is functional and easy, it puts less stress and duress on both the employees and the bottom line.
Increased Productivity
Increasing productivity while keeping operating costs to a minimum is one of the first mantras of being able to run a successful business, whether you are doing so physically or as a part of the digital domain. A better user experience that stems from a sound user interface leads to productivity improvements. When you consider the increased productivity over the number of users and hours of each employee, the financial implication is quite apparent and substantial.
Reduces Development Time
Almost half the productivity and time of the development team is spent in trying to undo a poorly designed UI and UX. The quantum of time and effort not to mention money that can be avoided if you have good UI and UX is quantifiable and significant. It also does not muddle strategy for the thinkers and resists them from making incorrect assumptions about users in terms of how they will behave, confusing navigation that causes users to get stuck or lost, a new feature that nobody wants to use, or a design choice that isn’t accessible.
The important feature of a sound web design and functional development is that all the needs of the consumer are met in one place and at the same time. Your E-commerce website is the customer’s first impression, and this first impression needs to be spot on in terms of experience, functionality and ease of navigation for the end user to be impressed enough into making a sale as well as considering repeat transactions.
AmareSol Global is a digital business consultancy creating innovative change through a team of talented designers, developers, and strategists creating digital experiences for brands and companies around the world. We are continuously fueling growth across constantly changing and advancing digital landscapes, by seeking and formulating newer and better ways to service clientele on a global scale across industries. Look up more about us at www.amaresolglobal.com