By 
“When UX doesn’t consider ALL users, shouldn’t it be known as “SOME User Experience” or… SUX?” – Billy Gregory, Senior Accessibility Engineer
One of the core elements of a successful website is the site’s Usability or User Experience (UX). Simply stated, an easy-to-use site is one that visitors find easy to navigate around and to follow the predetermined navigation signals to answer the site’s Call-To-Action (CTA).
All business websites need to have a CTA. It can be something as simple as the collection of an email address or mobile number for marketing purposes, or it is the successful purchase of one or more products via an eCommerce site.
At the outset of this article, it is vital to consider the quotation mentioned above by Billy Gregory (and echoed by LinkHelpers Website Design Company). It is absolutely critical that the website’s UX is relevant to the brand’s total target audience and not only a select few. The reason why the fulfilment of this statement is crucial during the website design phase is that it indirectly poses the following three questions:
- What are the consequences of a site with a poor-quality UX?
- To what extent does it impact the brand?
- And can brand marketers overcome the substandard site design to drive traffic to the site and convert visitors to the site into returning customers?
Let’s look at the answers to these questions one by one in order to consider the impact of a poorly designed website on the company’s products and services sales figures.
The consequences of an inferior User Experience
If we take the primary aim of and focus of a website as being a critical part of the company’s digital marketing campaign. And, if we accept that modern Internet users are impatient, and they do not show as much brand-loyalty as we would like, then it is reasonable to assume that if visitors to a website are confused and bombarded with conflicting signals, they will abandon the site and look for the same products belonging to a competing brand.
The impact of a poor UX on the brand’s sales figures
Therefore, the consequences of a poorly designed UX are the inability to convert visitors to the site into returning customers. And, this will ultimately result in the loss of product and services sales.
Sometimes, the primary aim of a site is not to directly drive sales via an eCommerce site. The salient point here is that the site offers visitors to the site the opportunity to answer the website’s CTA.
For example, a company might want to collect email addresses to send an informative newsletter to its target audience. If the site presents conflicting navigational signals, then visitors will not answer the intended CTA. Thus, they will not receive the brand’s newsletter, and they will not buy the company’s services and products. Therefore, this will still result in a loss of customers and reduced sales figures.
Final thoughts
The third and final question mentioned above asks us to ponder whether the brand marketers of a website with a negative UX can overcome it and still drive sales to the brand.
In short, the only reasonable answer to the question and conclusion that we can draw is that a site’s UX is of critical importance to the site’s aims and goals that it is virtually impossible to increase customer conversion rates and drive sales figures in a positive direction.
