Building Brand Trust with
UX-Focused Web Design
If your website design is old and clunky, or if navigation is a bit of a challenge, then you probably won’t be building customer trust. If you want to keep Google happy as well, then your site needs to be responsive and fast-loading, which is another key factor when it comes to your UX. If you want to make sure that your site reflects how trustworthy your brand is, here are some of the steps you can take:
Map out your Customer Journey
Customer journey mapping essentially involves tracking a customer’s progression through their buying journey. You need to understand the customer experience, from their first interaction with you, through various touchpoints. If you have a UI that is cluttered or confusing, or if you have a bad layout, then this is something you need to work on. A prime example of how a brand can evoke trust through good UX design is Paddy Power’s roulette page. Each game is listed clearly, with quality graphics and “play here” buttons that appear when the game is hovered over. The cover images also indicate the style of the game before it’s even clicked, helping customers to navigate to what they want without endless back and forth. Another example would be Netflix’s UI design. They have thousands of films and shows on their platform, yet the navigational aspect is never overwhelming to users regardless of whether they are using an app or desktop.
If you’re not quite sure if you have any points of friction with your site or if you can’t say for sure whether or not your site is as good as it should be, Google Analytics and Google Search Console are great tools to give you statistics which may answer these site-related queries.
The Effectiveness of Mental Models
Mental models are essential patterns that shape how people make sense of the world. When users encounter a model, they use pre-existing models to determine how they are going to interact with the product. UX designers need to understand how to create intuitive interfaces, and they also need to base the choices they make on conversions. Links need to be underlined, or put in a different color. Buttons also need to appear in a colored box, and search boxes need to be in the top-right-hand corner.
Site-wide navigation needs to be easy. If people can’t find what they need because you are trying to be innovative or creative with your website design then this will impact your UX going forward. If you’re not sure what steps to take when it comes to your site then usability testing can be the way to go. As far as your design goes, testing the usability of your product is a good way for you to fix any design problems before launch. The test also gives you the chance to gain valuable user feedback to improve the overall experience.
It’s very easy for you to improve the amount of trust that your brand evokes by simply making some changes to your site’s UX. Although simple changes will likely garner positive results, the key to standing out amongst your competition is to understand your target market and delve into their preferences so you can cater their experience accordingly.
