Improving The User Experience Of Your Website Visitors

Improving The User Experience Of Your Website Visitors

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User experience when it comes to websites revolves around how a visitor to a website behaves and interacts with the functionality of the website, according to a natural flow and their natural instincts. If a website visitor has to take more than a few seconds to figure out how to complete an action, or how to navigate to where they wish within the site, there’s a high chance that they may give up altogether and leave the site. This results in a bounce rate (or short visit) that can become alarming to search engines and this is believed to be one of the many factors taken into consideration when a website is ranked in the organic search results.

So how can you improve the entire user experience of your website? If you are building a new website or redeveloping your old one to be more modern and functional, user experience research and testing should be a prime focus in the planning stages, throughout the website build and before the big launch. Below are some of the most important points concerning the critical aspects of creating and improving a good website user experience.

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24 hours For Big Businesses to Remove Inappropriate Facebook Comments

24 hours For Big Businesses to Remove Inappropriate Facebook Comments

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Recently the Advertising Standards Board (ASB) ruled that business Facebook pages were an advertisement, and that brands needed to take responsibility for the comments posted by members of the public such as misleading or inappropriate content. Social media pages are now considered to fall under the category of advertising, and the rules and regulations that apply to advertising content extends to user-generated content.

This is causing some concern amongst businesses who are already actively using Facebook as part of their social media marketing strategies. There are wide reaching implications to businesses that aren’t actively monitoring Facebook comments, or don’t allocate resources to active moderation of content.

The Australian Competition and Consumer Commission (ACCC) has now clarified that large companies using Facebook will need to remove misleading or inappropriate comments within 24 hours. This guideline applies to large businesses, while there will apparently be more time allowed for smaller businesses.

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Australian Retailers Yet To Catch Up With Consumers In Mobile Commerce

Australian Retailers Yet To Catch Up With Consumers In Mobile Commerce

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Australia has one of the world’s highest levels of mobile penetration and smart phone usage – recent research by Google found that 25% of Australian consumers have used their smart phone to research or purchase a product.

eMarketingConnected’s research found that 15% of all retailers have a mobile website – this compares to 46% in the U.S. where mobile retail websites have grown from 14% in the last year (source – RIS News 2011 Cross Channel Retail Study). This puts Australia a year behind the U.S., assuming a large number of major retailers will take the plunge and build a mobile website in the next year. Dick Smith is one major Australian retailer that has recently launched a mobile website to meet the growing demand (read the full Dick Smith mobile website review here).

Less than half of retailers in all sectors have a mobile website, there’s also a large variation between sectors with multi-retailers leading the way, closely followed by the electrical retailers. The remaining sectors have a low percentage of retailers providing a mobile website.

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Seven Unusual Creative Motifs For Your Next Web Design

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Rather than the run-of-the-mill designs we normally see, what if your next web design came from someplace… unexpected? A brilliantly contrary creative motif that makes sense in retrospect? Here are our picks for some themes you might not have thought of, but should:

Hand drawn – Example It always looks brilliantly original, because it’s your own hand! Stick-figures and elementary-school drawings are getting really, really big this year. Try to look as untalented as possible!

Factory – Example Industrial designs are great for developers, producers, and artists. It makes the customer anticipate that you’ll have a strong work ethic.

Retro ’50s – Example Maybe it’s nostalgia, or maybe the classics work best, but we haven’t seen a single web page done in retro that goes wrong. If you readers can, please show us in the comments.

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