Last updated on October 18th, 2022 at 05:41 am
User experience plays a vital role in software design and development as it engages the user to your website. Users interact with the software if it has a quick response time, easy-to-use interface, and simple navigation. The main goal of any software development firm should be to solve the problem of their customers by providing a compelling user experience. Creating a user persona assists the software developers in finding out the target audience and then designing the software accordingly. Improving the UX design of the software by market research, analysis of user personas, and customer behavior can enhance the user experience.
The conversion rate of your business will boost up to 400% if the UX of your software is well-designed. UX design that meets new trends and market requirements is more likely to grab the attention of users. An outdated and old-fashioned software application is neither informative nor convenient for users. Applying strategic UX practices through proper research and analysis can give a competitive advantage to your business.
The five tips below will assist your software development company USA in establishing a baseline for truly effective UX design.
- RESOLVING TECHNICAL ISSUES
Rigorous testing is the first step to find out and eliminate technical issues and flaws in the software before it goes live. The load time or run time of your software are the technical issues that your user faces. To eliminate technical issues, it’s important to understand user experience through all phases of the product life cycle. Involve users during each of these phases—before, during, and after they use your software to ensure optimal user experience.
Kissmetrics report says that 25% of visitors leave the website if it takes more than four seconds to load. Let’s take the example of an app that requires a user to send a text message to access the website link from the system for the registration and activation process. It’s so time-consuming and cumbersome process. The user will leave the website because of the heavy load time. So, its important technical bugs are worked out to ensure the smooth working of your software app.
- CLEAR AND SIMPLE NAVIGATION
Simplifying the interaction of the user with your software is the most essential part as it provides a great user experience. Make clear and simple navigation by adding relevant information, tabs, graphics, and links. If a visitor has to solve a labyrinth to find what they want, they will be more likely to leave. Adding categories and subcategories can help the user to find the information quickly. Follow these steps to facilitate your user with simple navigation:
- ONE SUBJECT PER PAGE
Each page should have only one subject. If the page is overburdened with content, the visitor is likely to misunderstand its purpose and benefits. Improve the user interface of a software application by using internal linking to connect all of the pages while allowing each to be dedicated to a specific subject.
- Clear and understandable intent
The page’s intention is clear. Visitors can quickly comprehend the page’s aim thanks to navigational elements, blocks, and headings. As a result, people can stay or move to another without wasting time or being unsure of what is going on.
- Dropdown menu
Making an identifiable drop-down list with categories and subcategories of the application to show different services to users is a good practice.
- Consistent icons, alignment, and font
Including icons is very effective to improve the visual interest and grabbing the user’s attention. A recognizable icon helps the user understand the functionality of your software in a better way. You can fix the usability issue in your software by including relevant icons. An example of Microsoft outlook is the icon-only toolbar that had poor usability. Changing the icons and their placement didn’t make much of a difference. The addition of text labels next to the icons quickly improved the usability of the toolbar, and people began to use it after the issue got resolved.
The font, color, and theme of your software depend on the type of service or product you’re selling to your customers. In this step, identifying your target audience is essential as it plays a vital role in improving the user experience. If your service is related to fashion and boutique, then using a colorful theme with the latest market trend is beneficial. A dull color theme can ultimately lowdown the interest rate of your customer.
- Enhanced and improved features
Software that is constantly bringing innovation by implementing new features and trends according to the market can be a game-changer. Testing and analyzing the behavior of your audience on the current feature can help you in assisting with the changing needs and requirements of your customer. We take the example of Facebook that enhanced its user experience by integrating new features in the application. Live location sharing, status updates, and emoji reactions, gaming, etc. have been included to make a better social media platform.
Whether it be a software app, mobile app, gaming app, or website, the feature and design must be made according to the current market trends. Data gathering, constant feedback, and research are the basic building block to enhance the user experience. Sticking with the same UX design over years without changes can lessen the interest of your customers.
- Informative error messages and explainable paths
The practice of integrating informative error messages with explainable paths gives the user a clear perspective regarding the error. If the user wants to visit the next page in the app then instead of displaying “click here,” the app should explain where it is sending the user (e.g., “visit our information page”). An app that shows a pop-up message with meaningful information upon any error can help the user to deal with that problem.
CONCLUSION
As now we’re well-aware of how to improve the UX design of software application, implementing these tips will be easy. A good user experience comes with an intuitive and user-friendly UX design. To figure out how to improve your UX/UI design, you must first determine what your user wants to accomplish with your app and what you want to display them along the way. Carry out the research thoroughly to get familiar with the changing needs of your target audience to give them an exceptional user experience.
Linda Hartley is a digital marketing manager at software development company USA, who loves to write content on the latest topics, including Blockchain, B2B business models, application development and much more.