Frank Schulte-Ladbeck

When you consider innovative websites, you may realize that they take the forms of existing media or functions, which make them easier to use.

User Experience (UX) is a big deal if you want to keep visitors on the site and if you want them to come back. Think about the typical web browsing habits of our visitors. They have a goal. They stop on your site to see if you can fulfill that goal. If something triggers in them to decide that you can supply what they seek, they begin to interact with the site. This is the next crucial point: do they sense how to interact with their site?

    UX is best when you have a clear view of how interactions with your content should occur. You may think “I have a blog”, so the user should interact with it like any blog. Maybe that user has not been on a blog before arriving at your site. Would they know what to do? You have to set a site up in a way that feels natural to the user. Amazon works because it has elements of a catalog with customer reviews. Ebay is set up like an auction. We immediately understand these models, so do users understand how to interact with your site?

    When you have a clear idea of what your blog is, then your visitors will too. The blog was developed to be an online journal, a dairy. The casual tone used by most blog writers continues this perception of recording the events of our business lives. The casual tone is great for customer interactions; however, it may not assist the user in navigating your site. How would you access your site’s material if it was not a website? Like a catalog, novel, manual? Or maybe a store, but what type of store? I am planning a new site that is more personal to me. During the development phase, I came to see that writing essays would be the best format for the material. If you read collections of essays, you may know that they are not always divided into categories, because the essay much touch upon several topics. However, there will be an overriding theme. With the essay concept in mind, it effects my decisions about the site on a number of levels. My url will not follow asitename/category/post-title format, since categories will not be the focus. I will need categories and tags to help users find a specific essay. With this in mind, I will make decisions about where features of the site are placed. For another site, I think in terms of a how-to book, so I think in terms of chapters with subheadings then sections.

    By having this clear vision of what a site is, user experience will improve.Consistency will ensue, and that is the key to improving UX.