Why Does User Experience Matter?

Web site user experience can determine the eventual fate of your online business. Most web site usability studies suggest that an improved experience has direct impact on conversion and business growth. Amplimark has made significant investment in acquiring skills and technologies to help improve overall user experience the web.

While some companies argue that user experience is mostly a holistic concept, in realty, it is lot more than that. There are measurement metrics that can be applied to quantify your results and expectations. However, before you hire someone to do user experience and website usability studies, here are some questions you should ask yourself:

• Why am I thinking about this to start with? Do I already know my problems?
• How do I know that this will improve my my current website?
• Have my business model or needs changed significantly since the website original design?
• Do I need quantitative data to substantiate design decisions?
• Which segment of my customers will benefit most from this effort? Is Cost Benefit Analysis (CBA) needed?
• Have I done competition analysis to see how my website compares to my leading competitors?

Obviously this list is not exhaustive but it should provide enough information to get you started.

How Can Amplimark Help?

Amplimark has access to industry data that is gathered from hundreds of websites with millions of site visitors. It is absolutely critical to the success of your business that you focus on the website user experience, determine where it is good and where it needs improvement, and take action to make those improvements. We can help your business by improving following component of your user experience:

• User Focused Design Some web design companies don't really understand this piece of user experience puzzle and some actually don't care. Sometime a web design company or developer is driven by their own aspirations in web design rather than actual customer needs. This causes focus to shift on using advanced technological tools and techniques but ignoring the day-to-day operation of the website. One of the most common examples is a web site designed with excessive use of flash. End product may look good but it is not going to address critical needs that a customer may have had. An effective web site doesn't have to have all the Web 2.0 bells and whistles. For example, Craigslist.org doesn't have any attractive or jaw-dropping design elements but it does what it is designed to do and it does it exceptionally well. In summary, every web design project should keep the focus on the user experience and website usability. More and more web designers are embracing user-centered design because of its success in delivering a practical and usable product. Amplimark understands user-centered design and we have a laser sharp focus on the end goal of delivering a product that serves its intended end users and not its designers.


• Online Usability Research This component of web usability is refined and mastered with time. Good web designers do not considered a project complete when it is implemented. They go a step further and review web site traffic data to understand how well a user interface is performing. It is a learning process and small tweaks here and there can have big impact on the overall user experience. For example, a checkout process with multiple steps and asking for irrelevant information such as Date of Birth (DOB) of a customer during checkout can have very negative user experience. Checkout process should be focused on the customer and not on the business owner who may very well use information such as DOB in a positive way. If you have to collect this information, you must find other ways rather than too invasive and disruptive in the checkout process. At Amplimark, we understand conversion.


• Competition Analysis and Research Every web site has good and and bad design elements. A good web designer must spend some time to review at least a few competitors' websites to truly understand the scope and needs. Most clients are not tech savvy so they rely on the web designers to take care of these aspects or make suggestions. At Amplimark, it is our job to document the competition and then review this information with our clients to develop a implementation strategy. While this step adds to the overall budget of the project, it pays off big time when you start to compete and grow your business.


• Develop and Build a Brand Brand development should be one of the top priorities for any business owner. You should review your business model to figure out the intrinsic value of your business and its branding. A web site without a brand recognition can easily be replaced by another one with more money and resources. For example, look at Google. From its early days, Google's business model was focused on developing a brand for internet search alone. Today the word "Google" is synonym to Search and it is almost impossible to challenge Google's brand recognition in internet search market space. Once a brand is established, it is far more easier to branch out in other areas and compete with ease.

If you have additional questions about our usability process and how we can help you, please complete the online request form or call us toll free at (800) 379-6214. We will be more than happy to discuss your needs and develop a comprehensive plan to meet your goals and expectations.