You know your website is overdue for a redesign. The design looks tired, the fonts are old fashioned, and the images are unsuitable. So you think a new design is going to get punters flocking to your site? Wrong.
When companies decide to have a website redesign, they often view it as a simple equation:
1. Get an eye catching design
2. Pay someone to get more traffic to my website
Result = lots of sales
If you think it’s this simple, you’re in for a big disappointment.
A website is no different to a store. Imagine you’re in a shopping mall looking for a suit. You’re far more likely to buy from a store where it’s easy to find the suit you’re looking for. And likelihood of you shopping in that store is even greater if there’s a highly visible special offer.
Eye-catching graphics and high quality photos are great, but they’re not enough. You need to give the visitor a compelling reason to engage with you. You may be a very good web designer, but how much do understand about user behaviour? This is where a UI (User Interface) consultant comes in.
User behaviour is a science. Choosing where on the page to display your best selling product, your “add to shopping cart button” and your contact details are crucial to the success on your site. A UI consultant will know exactly where these should go. They will either have a degree in “human computer interaction” or several years experience of monitoring user-behaviour so he or she will have a pretty good understanding of what makes users switch on or off.
A UI consultant will advise you on what will attract visitors into your site and what will make them buy. And before you even start designing your site, they will provide you with line drawings (also known as wire frames) that will guide you and your client on where to place particular elements and features.
And the cost? Not as much as you think. It may be simply a case of getting your UI consultant to review your design and give you feedback. It can be as little as a few hundred pounds. And by raising the conversion rate of your site, you will ultimately be saving far more than what the UI consultant cost you.
