R. Kiran Khan

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Structure of Websites and User Experience

User Experience, also known as UX is a concept that designates the feelings a person has in using a particular product, service, or system. User Experience is a fairly comprehensive area within the design universe. In the end, products are designed to be used by someone — the user — who will have an experience when interacting with the product, interface, or system.

Hardly in a project will there be a single person responsible for the user experience? In addition to the subjective factors that influence the experience (the user’s demographic profile, cultural background, emotional state), several aspects of how the products are created will affect how people interact and their perception of it.

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Image Source: Unsplash

User Experience, also known as UX is a concept that designates the feelings a person has in using a particular product, service or system. User Experience is a fairly comprehensive area within the design universe. In the end, products are designed to be used by someone — the user — who will have an experience when interacting with the product, interface or system.

Hardly in a project will there be a single person responsible for the user experience. In addition to the subjective factors that influence the experience (the user’s demographic profile, cultural background, emotional state), there are several aspects of how the products are created that will affect how people interact and their perception of it.

amelie-mourichon-wusOJ-2uY6w-unsplash

Image Source: Unsplash

After all, what works on the desktop may not work very well in the mobile context and mobile users are embedded in a landscape that undergoes constant change, going from the public to the private in seconds. This is when it comes to User Experience (UX); Technology companies are thinking more about the user experience than about interfaces, making the focus of producing websites, products or services on how people use the systems and what to do to make it all more positive.

In other words, the user experience is nothing more than prioritising the user experience when using a mobile website. As such, the company uses A / B testing as a basis to establish the best ways to run a website and exploits the wealth of available audience behaviour data in the virtual world and can see if they are actually more engaged using focused websites in UX.

In a way, the user experience seeks to solve problems in a way directed to behaviour, capacity, desires and the human context. It covers all aspects of interaction and relationship between the website and user experience during the various points of contact between them, making the consumer have a general perception about the experience the visitor had with a particular company.

For a company to have incredible and satisfying points of contact, the user needs to know what happens at each point and work on constant improvements. However, working on just one point is not enough to get full experience because the experience is made up of all the points of contact, from what people talk about, how they discover, and especially how they interact. The focus on user experience is the present, not the future.

The user experience is not an option. Today, it is present at any point of contact between a brand and its consumer, whether in the digital or the real world.

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Image Source: Unsplash

A well-implemented UX will make people more likely to interact or do business with website because they have had a better experience, and consequently, the website will be able to achieve a number of goals, such as increased sales, stronger brand and engagement with the target audience.

In the case of this paper, a comprehensive discussion on the User Experience on the web, that is, when browsing certain websites (virtual stores, blogs and pages in general) has been conducted.

In order for the user to have a good browsing experience, one must be able to accomplish everything one needs without encountering obstacles that hinder the process. And that’s important because the trend is for users to return to websites where they have had a good browsing experience, while those who presented barriers/ problems are unlikely to get a second chance.

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Image Source: R. Kiran Khan Topverse App

A well-implemented UX will make people more likely to interact or do business with website because they have had a better experience, and consequently, the website will be able to achieve a number of goals, such as increased sales, stronger brand and engagement with the target audience.

In the case of this paper, a comprehensive discussion on the User Experience on the web, that is, when browsing certain websites (virtual stores, blogs and pages in general) has been conducted. In order for the user to have a good browsing experience, one must be able to accomplish everything one needs without encountering obstacles that hinder the process. And that’s important because the trend is for users to return to websites where they have had a good browsing experience, while those who presented barriers/ problems are unlikely to get a second chance.

Certain elements motivate the user to continue browsing or to leave the site, that is, they provide a good or bad navigation experience, respectively. Here are some examples:

Design: The site should be visually pleasing; after all, the first impression is always the one that stays. Therefore, the layout should convey credibility and be composed of high-quality images.

Advertising: Too many banners and advertising inside the page may end up covering the content of the site, irritating the user. When this happens, one leaves the site because the focus has been diverted and one was unable to access what one intended.

Slowdown: It is already proven that users do not have the patience for slow websites. On average, they give up accessing a website page if it takes more than 2 seconds to load.

Adaptability: The number of users accessing the internet through mobile devices is increasing, so it is vital that the site is responsive. Otherwise, the user will have access to a misconfigured site through his cell phone, damaging his browsing experience.

Providing a good experience for the users is important to keep them loyal. In e-commerce, for example, when a user leaves the page the store loses the opportunity to sell, reducing its conversion rate. Also, when a user becomes dissatisfied, one shares his negative experience with others, damaging the reputation of that site.

Author: R. Kiran Khan ©

References

Earl, D. A. and VonHoldt, B. M. (2012) STRUCTURE HARVESTER: a website and program for visualizing STRUCTURE output and implementing the Evanno method. Conservation Genetics Resources, 4 (2). pp. 359–361.

Holzinger, A., Treitler, P. and Slany, W. (2012). Making Apps Useable on Multiple Different Mobile Platforms: On Interoperability for Business Application Development on Smartphones. In: International Conference on Availability, Reliability, and Security. Springer, Berlin, Heidelberg, pp.176–189.

Xanthopoulos, S. and Xinogalos, S. (2013). A comparative analysis of cross-platform development approaches for mobile applications. In: Proceedings of the 6th Balkan Conference in Informatics. ACM, pp.213–220.

Godwin-Jones, R. (2011). Emerging technologies: Mobile apps for language learning. Language Learning & Technology, 15(2), pp.2–11.

Buettner, K. and Simmons, A.M. (2011). ‘Mobile web and native apps: How one team found a happy medium’. In: Marcus A. (eds) Design, User Experience, and Usability. Theory, Methods, Tools and Practice. DUXU 2011 [Online] Springer, Berlin, Heidelberg, pp.549–554. Available at: http://link.springer.com.ezproxy.herts.ac.uk/chapter/10.1007%2F978-3-642-21675-6_63 [Accessed 23 Apr. 2017].

Galitz, W. (2007). The Essential Guide to User Interface Design: An introduction to GUI design principles and techniques. 1st ed. Hoboken: John Wiley & Sons.

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