Prashanth Narasimhan

Prashanth Narasimhan

DesignDigital Marketing Services

Tips And Tricks To Beat Common UI UX Problems

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Gone are the days when the sheer quality of your product or service would determine the success of your business. Today, as we find ourselves amidst a digital revolution, an online presence is imperative to connect with customers and convert prospects.

With most businesses turning to the online world to widen their consumer base and drive revenue, competition in this space is at its peak. Add the dwindling attention span of consumers to this equation, and the challenge of sustained engagement becomes fully apparent. To help overcome these barriers, you need to develop an impactful User Interface (UI) design and User Experience (UX) design that:

 

  • Improves organic search results
  • Boosts website traffic
  • Engages visitors better
  • Drives home your message faster
  • Increases conversion rates
  • Creates a strong impression

While the solution may seem straightforward, the secret behind effective interactions depends on your ability to efficiently resolve technical glitches in the design.

Overcome UI and UX Design Challenges, the Easy Way

When every touch point becomes an experience, it is likely that the consumer will return without further incentive. However, even the best UI UX designs have inefficiencies, and you need to be on your toes to resolve them swiftly.

Getting too heady too soon

The Problem

Large, fixed headers are selling like hot cakes today. And the reasons are clear — they offer an obvious aesthetic appeal and enable faster navigation. However, companies often focus all their efforts on appearance and ignore functional pitfalls such as poor readability and suboptimal mobile experience.

The Solution

Luckily, there is a way to have the cake and eat it too. Firstly, you can program the bar to collapse as you scroll down. By doing this, you create a sound first impression without compromising on your central message. Else, you can also design the bar to be translucent — allowing visitors to read on while being blown away by your artistic capabilities.

UX Design Challenges

 

Hijacking the Experience

The Problem

Scroll hijacking seems to be the next big trend among UX designers. But what exactly is it? Simply put, scroll hijacking is a JavaScript-controlled tool that allows developers to manipulate how the scroll bar on a website functions. Here’s an example — http://www.milwaukeepolicenews.com/#menu=stats-page

While this works for certain websites with graphic-heavy content, it is essential that you don’t adopt this function purely on the basis of its growing popularity. High bounce rates is a potential risk that websites face when they adopt scroll hijacking. This is primarily because users are typically not used to varying scroll behavior, and could easily find the experience alien and disruptive.

The Solution

If you’re convinced about using the scroll hijacking function in your website, testing the prototype on a handful of users is a must. This could help uncover several glitches and complications, and give you a clear direction on how to further develop the website. One company that has nailed the use of scroll hijacking is Tumblr.com. By breaking content into clearly divided sections, Tumblr flaunts one of the best UI UX designs, enhancing the overall user experience with this Java-controlled tool.

Falling Short in a Sea of Space

The Problem

Carousels are one of the most commonly used themes across the web. Although they demand considerable real estate, carousels play a key role in determining the ultimate success of a website. However, if not designed carefully, these can prove to be a great deterrent to both visitors and your business. Users can be left confused and you can be left frustrated —taking you further away from your business objectives.

The Solution

To improve user experience and drive favourable consumer behaviour, carousels need to engage users. Which is why, we bring you a three pronged approach to maximize impact.

Powerful content to drive home your central message

Banners provide a great opportunity for you to display your key message and encourage visitors to move one step closer to a desired action.

Optimal number of banners for better engagement

It is important to ensure you don’t have too many or too few banners in your carousel. Experts generally advise 3-5 banners to optimize user experience without losing their attention.

Bold arrows to show the way forward

Another aspect that is often overlooked is the navigation arrow. Add big, visible arrows that allow for easy clickability to keep users happy — and equally importantly — on your website!

Web Design Challenges

To ensure a seamless customer engagement journey, you need to overcome several web design challenges. Having a website that fully leverages the UI UX design goes a long way in helping iron out these issues without compromising on short-term results. While almost every UI design company focuses its efforts on visual impact, we now know better.

 

With these key tips in mind, gear up to revamp your website and boost business results, sustainably and economically.

Digital Marketing Services

The Rise And Rise Of SEO

SEO-Banner

Search Engine Optimization or SEO is a process many businesses religiously follow to increase their online visibility. By studying and understanding popular search queries, brands construct their content around certain relevant ‘key words’. So when prospective customers like you and I do a quick Google search, the business’ website link is more likely to pop up as a result, improving the probability of a conversion.

Fair enough, but why do businesses spend so much time and money on it? Where does it all take us? And is there an end in sight?

These are questions that market researchers constantly grapple with. Today, the SEO industry is thriving and is expected to continue on its upward trajectory. But turn the clock back a few years, and you’d find that researchers didn’t quite grasp the extent to which it would take over the business world. In 2008, for instance, the SEO spend estimated for the year 2016 was around $20 billion. The reality is that it’s closer to the $65 billion mark ‒ more than three times the anticipated figure!

This is expected to further rise to $72 billion in 2018 and to an astounding $79 billion in 2020. Is the growth likely to even out at some point or is the end nowhere in sight?

The graph below shows the expected growth of the SEO industry for the next five years:

Source: https://searchengineland.com/forecast-says-seo-related-spending-will-worth-80-billion-2020-247712

Here’s why the SEO industry could grow endlessly:

Improved Access to the Internet
With conglomerates such as Facebook and Google trying to make the web accessible for all ‒ irrespective of geographical or economic status ‒ the number of users is expected to rise to $4.17 billion by 2020. With more than half the world surfing the net, businesses will have considerably more at stake and are likely to be more inclined to invest in SEO.

This graph depicts the continuous growth of internet users, worldwide, for the next five years:

SEO Evolution

Source: https://dazeinfo.com/2016/06/13/number-internet-users-worldwide-2016-2020/

More Searches
With younger generations becoming increasingly tech-savvy, searches across platforms and search engines are going to continue rising. And with internet connections growing in number and speed, it is likely that both per capita and overall searches will increase exponentially.

Rise of Alternative Search Avenues
Most searches today are on conventional engines such as Google and Bing. Assuming tech experts are right about the rise of alternative search engines (Baidu, AOL, Ask etc.) it would force businesses to expand their SEO budgets to help optimize their content on these new avenues.

Falling Impact of Traditional Ads
It is no great secret that the impact of traditional forms of advertising is dwindling. And businesses are responding to this reality by allocating less of their budgets to traditional media. Soon, the minority of marketers that still vouches for TVCs and other offline ads will have little choice but to adopt online forms of advertising to improve their visibility.

Growing Power of Data and Analytics
Business decisions today are largely fueled by data and analytics. Decisions regarding SEO are no different. The development of powerful technologies in this space is helping businesses adopt SEO, knowing they have the tools to track ROI, traffic, and other key metrics effectively.

While most expect SEO spend to continue rising for the foreseeable future, there are some skeptics who have valid concerns that cannot be ignored.

Here is why the SEO industry could eventually hit a deadend:

Stringent Competition and Prohibitive Cost
There could come a time when the increasing competition for online space will make SEO too expensive for businesses. This ‘tipping point’ could then result in lower SEO spend, channeling investments into alternative means of advertising.

Emergence of Knowledge Graph
Google’s Knowledge Graph ‒ a knowledge base used by Google to enhance search results ‒ helps users find the information they are looking for on the search page. This disincentivizes users to actually visit the advertiser’s site, thereby minimizing the impact of SEO.

Complex Ranking Systems
SEO relies heavily on scores, which is determined by the ‘rank’ given to each link. Although it is common knowledge now that mobile compatibility and readability go a long way in improving rank, there is still considerable ambiguity in the actual processes used to determine these ranks. The uncertainty caused by this new reality could dissuade businesses from investing heavily in SEO.

What Next for the SEO Industry
If history is anything to go by, we should acknowledge the fact that it is hard to look further than a few years down the road. Access to technologies will continue to grow (mobile phones, internet, wearables), and businesses will formulate new strategies to adapt to these changes. Although there are a few question marks over the sustainability and effectiveness of SEO, there is enough evidence to suggest that the industry’s best years are still ahead of it.