Blog

Simplify Navigation (Don’t Make Them Think) #

We’ve all been there—stuck on a site, clicking around trying to figure out where the heck the Contact Us page is. If your site’s navigation is all over the place, you’re losing visitors fast.

The Quick Fix

Make your navigation menu clean and simple. Stick to the basics like Home, Services, About, and Contact Us. Overcrowding your menu with too many options is a one-way ticket to user confusion.

For bigger sites, consider breaking down complex menus with clear sub-navigation. Use visual cues like dropdown menus to help guide your visitors. And don’t forget to add a search bar—people love shortcuts!

The Pro Fix

Use heatmaps to see where users are getting lost. Tools like Hotjar can show you which parts of your menu users gravitate towards, and which are getting ignored. Test and tweak your labels based on real user research.

Make Mobile Work for You, Not Against You #

Mobile traffic has skyrocketed, but not every site is keeping up. If your site looks like it was made for desktop only, it’s time for a mobile makeover. No one has the patience to zoom in on tiny text or deal with buttons that are impossible to tap.

The Quick Fix

Responsive design is your friend. If you’re not using it yet, start there. It ensures your website's user interface automatically adapts to different screen sizes.

Adjust your page layouts so that important content is front and center on mobile screens. Buttons should be thumb-friendly and easy to tap without a magnifying glass.

The Pro Fix

If you want to take things up a notch or two, you can get fancy with progressive web apps (PWAs). PWAs offer a near-app experience on mobile browsers—they’re incredibly fast, have seamless offline capabilities, and are way more engaging than standard mobile sites.

Speed Matters (Stop Making Your Users Wait) #

People leave slow websites faster than you can say “page not found.” If your site is taking more than a few seconds to load, it’s time to do some serious speed optimization.

The Quick Fix

Compress your images, reduce the number of redirects, and use browser caching. All those big, beautiful images you love might be slowing you down—there’s a balance between beauty and bloat.

The Pro Fix

For the more technically inclined, look into lazy loading to delay loading images until users scroll to them. Use a Content Delivery Network (CDN) to serve your content faster, especially if you’ve got a global target audience.

Check your site’s speed with Google PageSpeed Insights and implement their suggestions. Also, monitor your site regularly with GTmetrix—because what’s fast today might be sluggish tomorrow if you keep adding new stuff.

Create Content That’s Easy on The Brain #

If your website is packed with long paragraphs, complex sentences, and endless scrolling, users are probably hitting the back button faster than you’d think. Readable content isn’t just easier on the eyes, it’s easier on the brain by helping users get the information they need quickly. 

The Quick Fix

Keep paragraphs short and to the point. Stick to 3-4 sentences max, and use headers to break up your content so users can easily scan it. Bullet points are perfect for highlighting key information without overwhelming your audience.

The Pro Fix

Try using readability tools like Hemingway or Grammarly to polish your content. They’ll help you make sure your copy is clear, concise, and easy to understand. Don’t be afraid to simplify—when in doubt, shorter is always better. 

Make Your CTAs Work Harder #

Your calls-to-action (CTAs) are where the magic happens—or at least, where it should happen. A well-placed CTA can significantly increase your conversions by guiding users to the next step. If your buttons are buried, boring, or confusing, no one’s going to click them.

The Quick Fix

Action verbs are your besties here. Think “Get Started”, “Download Now”, or “Claim Your Free Trial”. Make sure they stand out visually—no blending in with the rest of your content.

Position your CTAs in multiple spots across your site. Above the fold, halfway down, at the bottom—it’s okay to be a little pushy as long as you’re clear. And test them. A/B testing different CTA phrases or button colors can work wonders.

The Pro Fix

Use tools like Crazy Egg or Optimizely to run experiments on your CTAs. Test out different placements, colors, and text to see what drives the most clicks. Sometimes, small tweaks can lead to big results.

Accessibility Isn’t Optional (It’s the Law) #

You want as many people as possible to use your site, right? Accessibility ensures that people with disabilities can navigate your site easily, and it’s crucial for SEO too. Plus, there are legal risks if you’re not compliant.

The Quick Fix

Start by adding alt text to all your images so screen readers can describe them to visually impaired users. Also, make sure that your text has enough contrast to stand out against your background colors.

Check out WCAG 2.1 guidelines to get your site up to modern accessibility standards and aim for WCGAG 2 Level AA compliance. This includes making sure your site is navigable by keyboard and compatible with screen readers.

The Pro Fix

If you really want to nail accessibility, aim for WCAG 2.1 AAA compliance for the highest level of accessibility. You can also learn how to write accessible website content and use an accessibility checker like WAVE to identify problem areas. Regularly run audits and stay up-to-date on evolving guidelines.

Be Consistent to Build Trust #

If your website is a mash-up of different fonts, colors, and layouts, it’s not doing you any favors. Inconsistent design makes you look unprofessional and confusing.

The Quick Fix

Stick to a consistent color scheme and font set across all your pages. Your logo should also be prominent and uniform across the site.

Build a design system—a library of reusable components like buttons, icons, and color palettes. This keeps your site visually consistent, no matter who’s updating the content.

The Pro Fix

Take a look at some big brands for inspiration (think Airbnb or Apple). Their consistency isn’t accidental—it’s a deliberate, well-executed effort. Try adding a tool like Figma to your design process to maintain visual consistency across all teams working on your site.

Want more branding tips? Read our “Marketing Director’s Guide to Creating a Strong Brand Identity”. There’s some great stuff in there (and we’re not just saying that because we wrote it).

Test. Tweak. Repeat. #

None of the above UX tips will work without UX research techniques to back them up. Conducting user testing is how you find out if everything you’ve implemented is working as expected.

You might think your site is flawless, but users could tell a different story.

The Quick Fix

Run simple usability tests with real people. Watch how your users interact as they navigate your site and ask them for feedback via live user interviews. It doesn’t have to be fancy—even a couple of users can give you big insights.

Get serious with A/B testing to see which variations of your pages's UX design perform better. Tools like VWO make it easy to gauge your usability by testing different headlines, layouts, and designs.

The Pro Fix

Add session recordings to the mix using tools like Hotjar. These let you monitor user behavior by watching real users navigate your site so you can see where they hesitate, get lost, or bounce.

Want the UX Experts to Step In? #

At the end of the day, user experience is about keeping things simple, accessible, and fast. It’s not rocket science—but it does require some intentional tweaking and intensive UX research methods. The user experience techniques we’ve covered will help you fine-tune your site whether you’re a beginner or a pro.

Got questions? Need a hand making your site more user-friendly? Our UX designers are here to help. Book a zero-pressure intro call, and let’s see how we can support you.