Our Shopify Web Designers Explain the Importance of UX & UI
The Seek Social team’s expert Shopify web designers are people who are definitely interested in IT and its history. There is simply so much to learn about the past in I.T. – the stories of how technology got to where it is today, and how the tools that people like our Shopify web designers and other digital marketing professionals use on a daily basis came to be, and the future. One part of computing technology that has been an ever-present element since the first computers were developed (and even the abacus, depending on how strict your definition of a ‘computer’ is) is UX and UI – and today we’re going to explore the importance of UX in modern web stores, sites and applications. Since we’re an expert SEO vendor too, we’ll also touch on how search engine optimisation can help as well.
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What is UX and UI?
UX stands for ‘user experience’ – essentially how easy it is for people to navigate around and use your site, app or store, and how doing so makes them feel. ‘UI’ stands for ‘user interface’. A user interface is the principal means through which users interact with your site, app, or store – and as such it also has a huge role to play in the quality of that site, app, or store’s UX. Any specialist Shopify web designer should tell you that UI and UX design is something that falls under web development, not necessarily software development.
Why it’s Important to Understand UX and UI
Applications and web projects are continuously being re-designed all the time, and because of this, so is the UX they provide. This is part of the reason why app and website user experience research is worthwhile. Since UX is affected by so many different and seemingly unrelated parts of your website, your app – whatever it may be that you have our specialist Shopify web designers working on – even when you’re not actively working on the UX, you may well still be changing it.
Developing an understanding of the interactions between the various different elements of a modern application or website, and how they work together serves as a good starting point for your app or website user experience research.
On top of this however, you also need to understand how the amount of impact each individual element has on your UX can change depending on the design choices that are made – either by your Shopify web designer on the grounds of their expert knowledge of the platform, or at your request. By understanding these relationships and the interactions the various elements of a site or app have with each other, you can really start to understand both the impact that each little change you make can impact store, app, or website user experience, and how much.
Finally, we’re going to put our SEO vendor hat on again and remind you that bad UX can lead users to ‘bounce’ – leave your site having made a snap decision that ‘this isn’t what they want’. Sites and pages with high bounce rates are penalised in search engine rankings and so – even if a bounce is UX related, and caused more by the work of a Shopify web designer than your SEO vendor, your content writer or your marketing team – it will still hurt your SEO efforts.
The Importance of Functionality
Our expert Shopify web designers know that the people who will use your site or your store see functionality as a key part of their experience. They aren’t wrong to do so either, as if you were given a product and told to use it by a professional company of some sort – you’d quite reasonably expect that thing to work. As a result, every section and process on your webstore needs to run smoothly – from browsing your store, to making a purchase, billing, even things like customer service, returns and refunds – everything needs to be as quick and hassle free as possible.
The Pitfalls of Poor UX
Good Shopify Web designers understand that when poor UI is combined with human users, the result is often chaos and confusion – leading to poor UX. In turn, this chaos, confusion and poor UX lead to frustration on the part of the user, itself leading towards a lack of goodwill towards the company whose site or store they’re using, and the decision not to convert. You don’t need to be a Shopify web designer to understand this dynamic either, as it all boils down to what we’ve talked about above – and we’re quite sure that everyone reading this can recall a situation where they’ve had a frustrating customer experience and said ‘you know what, leave it, I’ll go somewhere else’.
Poor UX can certainly put your online visitors and customers in that frustrated, negative frame of mind. However, good UI that facilitates a smooth, hassle free buying experience (and good store, app, or website user experience) as described earlier can also do the opposite, and get visitors thinking ‘you know what, that was easy to take care of, i’ll come back here next time too.’
Desktop vs. Mobile - UX Concerns
Just as working from home is becoming a common practice these days, especially since the pandemic, more and more businesses are choosing to go mobile. This is great for customers and businesses, as it gives them one extra channel each that they can sell or buy through. It is a definite concern for people like our Shopify web designers however, the screens on our mobile devices are arranged so differently from the ones we use with desktop or laptop computers. The device being used by the user therefore has big implications for UX, UI, and the associated web design and web development work that go into establishing them.
For instance, a font size that’s legible on a 17-inch desktop monitor might not be legible on an iPhone, and similarly when designing for an iPhone screen our Shopify web designers have to bear in mind that users might not have the same precision control with their thumb that they do with the high-dpi laser mouse on their desk at home – so a system of drop-down menus for navigation (as you’d traditionally see on a desktop site) might not work so well on mobile.
How Seek Social’s Support Goes Beyond UX and UI
So just like our specialist Shopify web designers, hopefully now you also understand just why UX and UI are so important to the success or failure of your business website or online store. However, Seek Social are very proud to say that as one of the only full-service digital marketing agencies in the UK, our support (and the skillset of our team) doesn’t stop there.
In addition to top-notch Shopify web designers, Seek Social is also home to expert content writers and Social Media Marketing professionals, who can boost your business’ presence on platforms such as Facebook, LinkedIn and others, as well as creating great content for your website, which will be written with your brand, your audience and your goals in mind.
In addition, as an elite SEO vendor our content team also includes specialist SEO writers, whose skill in text composition and knowledge of how search engines work mean they’re ideally placed to create content that will rank highly on search engines like Google, and which will be more visible to potential human visitors as a result. Speaking of drawing eyes to your product, that’s something you can rely on our graphic design team for too, and if you’re interested in PPC, email marketing, or data science – likewise we’re the people to turn to for support that gets results!
