A web path for better user experience
There are two ways to begin planning a website that provides better user experience. The first is to figure out what the owner of the website wants. The second and more effective way is to understand what the target visitor wants.
When Insight Marketing Design’s team begins any web project, the first thing we do is create user profiles. We define who will visit and, more importantly, what they’re looking for. From this information we create user paths that lead each user type to the information they seek and “funnels” them to a desired action.
Each user path funnel begins broad and allows the visitor to continually focus down their journey to exactly what they seek. It’s much like the retail industry’s way-finding approach to store layout, user path funnels prevent visitors from becoming frustrated and abandoning their quest.
One of the most effective ways to see if your website’s user path funnels are optimized is carefully review of your website analytics. Among other information, your site analytics will show you is how people move about your site and how long they remain on a page.
With proper user path funnels, your analytics will reveal consistent numbers of similar navigation. If you don’t see this, it may be because there is no intuitive path for people to take which leads to higher bounce rates.
Creating effective user path funnels will not only give your visitors a better user experience but will also provide the website owner exactly what they want…higher conversion rates.