It will be fair to say that 'user experience design' impacts the effectiveness of a website in a big way. In an increasingly competitive online world, where millions of websites compete for attracting a user’s attention, 'user experience' provided by a website, in large part, determines its success or failure.

What is User Experience Design?

You must have come across plenty of definitions of user experience design that explain this term with a lot of technicalities thrown in. But let’s take the technical jargon out of the equation and focus on simplifying its meaning.

In a nutshell, the various aspects of user experience design ensure improved usability of the website, web application or software product. When it comes to this concept being used in  website development , the focus of attention is on improving the visitor’s interaction with the websites and enhancing the usability quotient of the sites.  This concept involves the use of various designing and development factors that improve the overall user experience with respect to a particular website.

Let’s take an example of a site that sells designer T-Shirts. It caters to a younger audience. Let’s call it 'our website'. For purposes of better explanation, let’s not get into the complexities of out-of-the-box and largely unique ecommerce websites. Let’s explore the user experience design angle, from the perspective of a basic ecommerce website that follows a simple design and usability approach.

Consistency

Be it a website that is simply designed, with traditional features or a website that is visually striking and uses unconventional features; consistency is the driving force for improving user experience. Consistency includes each and every aspect of the website including, web design, content, functionality, features, navigations and all other elements that go into the making of a website.

Navigability

Navigation is an important functional attribute of all websites. But, it assumes immense significance in ecommerce sites. Now, when a visitor comes to the site selling T-shirts, they aren’t very interested in knowing more about what T-shirts are all about. What they are interested in is that they are taken to the T-shirt listing and details page as soon as possible. They want to get started on the selection and shopping process quickly. So, ideal user friendly navigation will take visitors to the product listing page in just a single click. Easy-to-use, consistent navigation, that doesn’t confuse and prompts visitors to take the next step in the shopping-cycle, is an integral part of improving user-experience.

Structural Flow

Maintaining a proper website structure for the front end and back end, plays an important role in getting a positive reaction from visitors. In the context of our website, a proper flow can be used to offer information about the company and its products (T-Shirts) and also putting a 'call to action’'button on the home page itself. The homepage must offer clear information as to the buying process, special offers, if any, and take visitors to the shopping page in a single click. The design and content of our website must have a single purpose – Take the visitors to the shopping page and get them to buy the T-Shirts quickly and conveniently.

Use Experience Design is a concept whose use encourages the visitor to react positively to a given website. In the case of our website, the use of this designing principle will ensure better conversions.  So we can say without any doubt whatsoever that user experience design helps achieve the objectives of the website by aligning the design of the website with the expectations of the target audience.