Have you ever visited a website or downloaded an application (app) only to be completely confused by how difficult it was to navigate?
Haven’t we all?
I mean, who wants a website or an application that’s badly designed right?
Nobody.
This is why I decided to help you out by showing you the basics of designing your website or application for your business.
If you aren’t creating a great website or application for your users, then you’re doing yourself an extreme disservice.
I get it, you’re always strapped for time and there’s also the concern of affordability because you do not want to put unnecessary strain on your budget.
You want it done fast so that everything goes smoothly, your customers are happy, and you’re free to start taking the trips that you have been dreaming about for so long!
But, too often, businesses have websites or apps that are completely confusing and difficult to navigate.
Good design is about moving people, feeling pleasure, giving them a good experience. And, to do that, you must improve your designs by focusing on the most important aspects of the design:
YOUR USERS!
They’re the people who have to experience good and bad interactions with your website or app.
Do you remember your answer to: “Have you ever visited a website or downloaded an application only to be completely confused by how difficult it was to navigate?”
Exactly my point.
How can you improve your website or app to create an enjoyable experience and make it simple for your users to navigate?
Here are 9 Steps You Must Take for Your Website or Application to Achieve a Good Income for Your Business and start getting you closer to that trip you’ve been dreaming of:
Step 1: Your Business
Start off by writing down your business name and what you’re offering.
Step 2: Your existing and potential users
This is VERY important. Do NOT move forward if you still don’t know who will be using your website or app. I can’t stress this enough. Too often, I have heard businesses say:
“I will do something to my taste”
“I want my website to do what I want it to do”
“I’ll build my website to attract my users”.
The real question you need to ask yourself is:
Who is going to use this website or app?
Let’s say you are designing your business website for small businesses or startups. Picture a person, who is a small business or startup founder, and give this person a name, Erykah. It’s personable and forces you to think about your user rather than yourself.
If you’re unsure who your users are, take some time to understand what your business is trying to solve, then try Step 1 and 2 again.
Step 3: Your users’ existing problems that you will solve for them
If you’re at this stage, as a business, you have seen an opportunity that you want to fill in to help your users.
Erykah’s biggest challenge with her online business is that it’s a tough road and very competitive.
You get to build empathy for your users and put aside your assumptions by peaking through a window into your users’ deep thoughts.
Step 4: Your users’ motivation to buy from you
This is your users’ goal! It’s what they aim to achieve when they interact with your website or app.
Erykah wants to make a fortune with her online business so she can spend time with family and spend her money on her hobbies.
Knowing your users’ goal is your key to success for your business and how you bring them along the journey to that goal is the process that makes their experience special.
Step 5: Your users’ worries
You and I both know how challenging it is to achieve any goal. Even more so when there is a set of roadblocks that stops from getting there. List what would stop your user to hop on your website or download your app.
Erykah doesn’t know how things work when starting an online business and is worried she won’t make any money from it.
This is powerful information about your users because, by now, you can start validating if your assumptions about your users were right or wrong.
Step 6: Your solution to your users’ problems
As Mary Poppins sings, “just a spoonful of sugar makes the medicine go down”. It’s pretty clear, isn’t it? This is your shining moment to describe every step you’ll take for your users to reach their goal.
Erykah is going to receive professional help to know who she is building her online business for with UX Design by identifying her users, interviewing her users, designing how her website or app will look like based on the interviews, inviting her users to test out her website or app showing that she heard what her users wanted, receiving feedback and going back to the design board to add the recommended elements Erykah needs until she puts her money where her mouth is.
Your solution is much clearer and your scope is more focused with all the information you’ve discovered from your users.
Step 7: Your users’ alternatives if your business didn’t exist
Your users have probably been visiting other business websites or downloaded other business apps to reach their goal. Or, it’s also possible that nothing is available for your users. List who else is trying to solve your users’ problems.
Erykah has tried figuring out how to start her online business on her own by watching YouTube tutorials or has hired a web or digital marketing agency to do it for her.
If there is another website or app that serves to your users, it will not tell you if the users of this other website or app is enjoying using it and finds it easy to navigate. Trust the process and keep your users close to you at all times.
Step 8: Your users will remember you as being different to other businesses
It’s all your ingredients into your secret sauce.
Erykah needs to know why your business is so special compared to others.
Believe it or not, that secret sauce is most likely inspired by what your users have shared with you what they actually do.
Step 9: The value you bring to your users
This is your elevator pitch. Erykah has a solution that you came up with for her and wants to keep buying from you.
What a win for Erykah and your business!
These basics help design your website or application for your business. Avoid bad website and application designs that create confusion and make it difficult to navigate for your users.
By designing with empathy for your users, you create an enjoyable visit to your website or make it easy to experience your app. Rather than spending time trying to solve issues on your own or wasting money designing a website or app at your own taste, you MUST know who you are designing this website or app for.
Get to know your users like you would get to know someone on a date.
Launching a website or an app without knowing your users is like asking your users to marry you on your first date.
You don’t deserve that kind of rejection!
Download the User-centred Design Canvas for FREE and work on the 9 Steps You Must Take for Your Website or Application to Achieve a Good Income for Your Business so you can start getting closer to that trip you’ve been dreaming of.
