Design Focused Interface to Improve Website User's Engagement

Neal Taparia
Neal Taparia

Last updated on

April 4, 2024

If you're not using a design-focused interface on your website, then you're losing users to your competitors.

The best interface is the kind that doesn't even need an explanation or instructions. It's intuitive and easy to use. It makes sense at first glance, unlike most of today's interfaces that are filled with confusing elements and features.

By following these simple tips for designing a better website interface, your site will be easier to navigate and more engaging than ever before. You'll see an increase in conversion rates as well as time spent on your site without having to resort to flashy animations or annoying pop-ups.

How Site Design and Functionality Can Increase Customer Engagement

In a world where we are constantly connected, especially considering current remote working trends, it's important to be able to quickly and easily find the information that you need. How your site looks can make all the difference when it comes to user engagement.

Your website is perhaps the most important tool for connecting with potential customers, but it can also be one of the hardest things to get right.

The design of your site has an impact on how well people interact with your content, which in turn affects customer engagement rates. But designing a better user experience doesn't have to mean spending tons more time or money than you already do.

There are plenty of ways that you can improve upon what's currently available without breaking the bank.

Site Aesthetics and Design

Site aesthetics directly impacts whether or not visitors are willing to stay on your site and interact with what you have to offer. For example, realtor website design is especially important for realtor site's visitors.

This is because people often associate aesthetics with quality; in other words, if they see something visually appealing, they're going to assume there's good content behind it (or vice versa).

Mobile Responsiveness and Optimization

It is no secret that the majority of internet usage now happens on mobile devices. Some studies have shown that more than 60% of users are browsing on a mobile device and this is only increasing.

With this in mind, you may be wondering what your options are for making your website responsive to these changes.

The truth is, there are many different ways to make your website more mobile-friendly. For example, you can have a separate mobile site with its domain (m.website.com) or use responsive design and CSS media queries that will detect the type of device being used to display content appropriately.

Souce: https://compulse.com/

You could also potentially modify certain visual aspects such as font size for better readability on phone screens.

Regardless of which route you go down, it's essential to be aware of user experience when designing your interface and how users' needs change based on what device they're using.

Site Speed

A website that is slow to load will frustrate and confuse your visitors. People tend to abandon a site if it takes more than 3 seconds to load.

To help reduce the loading time of your site, there are several things you can do such as reducing the number of external scripts loaded on each page, optimizing images for size and speed, and using browser caching. 

Source: https://leftdigitalmedia.com/

The following are some of the best tips for speeding up your website's interface design so that you can improve user engagement with your content: 

  • Limit the number of fonts on individual pages
  • Limit icons and images wherever possible
  • Limit animations whenever possible
  • Increase font size for easy reading 
  • Consider adding a scrolling navigation bar to your website

Another thing to consider when it comes to your site speed is the fact that Google is a major player in shaping the web and how people use it. To make sure your site ranks well on search engine results pages, it needs to be fast for the purpose of ranking on search engines. 

But what does "fast" really mean? 

Website speed can be broken down into two components: load time and page speed.

Load time is simply how long it takes for the browser to download all of the assets associated with the page (HTML markup, CSS stylesheets, images).

Page speed is defined as how quickly browsers can parse HTML markup to display content on screen. Having both metrics below one second will result in a good user experience because you're giving them an intuitive interface with which they are familiar and effectively using their time by providing them with information quickly.

Powerful Ways Of Improving On-Site User Engagement Through Your Site Design

It's important to know how to keep users engaged with your site and what design changes you can make that will help achieve this goal.

These are the factors to consider and improve when it comes to your website design.

1. Target the Right Sources for Website Visitors

The best way to start is by targeting people who are more likely to become engaged with your site. This will lead them down a path of discovery and understanding that leads back around again in a circle until they're hooked.  

For example, if you have an eCommerce site, focus on providing customer reviews from other customers.

Showing these reviews at the top or bottom of product pages will incentivize visitors to share their thoughts while also increasing conversion rates - since this will be the right content that is relevant to the right website visitors. 

Give some time and thought into how you can increase user engagement by improving your website design - it does make a difference in conversions.

2. Let Data Show You the Way

Utilizing data analytics tools like Google Analytics can also give you insight into how your visitors are interacting with your content, which can help guide future changes.

If you're not using Google Analytics, start now. It's an incredible tool that will provide a wealth of knowledge about your site traffic and user behavior.

You should also set up alerts in GA so you know when there are spikes or dips in visitor activity - this is the first step to identifying what may be causing them.

It's important to keep in mind that there is no one-size-fits-all solution for improving website design and increasing user engagement. What works for one website may not work as well for another.

For example, say someone visits your blog on their phone but they don't read anything other than the title before leaving- this could indicate data overload due to too many scrolls from mobile users with small screens.

This means it might make sense to remove images from posts until readers tap into content for better engagement rates across devices and screen sizes.

Some basic insights into how people interact with your website can go a long way to improving your website's user engagement.

You can also have a website funnel in place that shows you the data at various points of the customer journey on your website. Many people use software such as Clickfunnels to be able to see this data, however there are also a good number of Clickfunnels alternatives that you might want to consider.

When it comes to using data in your business, the first step is always awareness; making sure you know what direction things are going so that you are prepared for anything that might happen.

Using the data gained, you can also improve other areas of your business - for example, creating visual emails that are based on what your customers have told you works.

This brings us back around full circle again - there is no such thing as "too much" information. You'll never regret being able to look at all sides of a problem before tackling it, and the best way to do that is with the right data.

3. Create Immersive Experiences for Visitors

Every website owner wants to keep their visitors engaged and coming back.

It's important to remember that you need a design-focused interface that will help your users navigate through your site smoothly and easily.

When you create an immersive experience, visitors are more likely to come back and spend more time on the site.

Pinpoint the most important information on each page and highlight it - you can do this by making it bigger than other elements like images, logos, etc. You also want to make sure no distracting ads are cluttering up the interface either.

Here are some further ideas for creating immersive experiences:

  • Provide links to blog posts in the sidebar of your site so visitors can easily access the content they're interested in with a few clicks, rather than scrolling through pages looking for something that might grab their attention. This will make it easier and faster for them to find what they need.
  • Make sure when someone comes on your website, there are easy and visible routes (or at least one) back up top again. If not, visitors may get lost and eventually give up altogether because they feel like no matter where they go all roads lead nowhere.
  • Pay close attention to your site's hierarchy. When you're on a page, does it feel like there are multiple logical places to click? If not, chances are people will be lost or just won't want to bother clicking around and they'll leave the site altogether.
Source: https://www.accrisoft.com/


  • Keep links at the top of your navigation bar visible but with an arrow pointing down so that visitors can see them without having to scroll all over the place.
  • Create different forms of advertising on your website, such as graphics advertising or video advertising. Not everyone consumes content in the same way so variety can help improve your website’s user engagement.

If every visitor has a great experience at your site, then they'll want to come back.

4. Carry the Experience Beyond Your Website

The goal of your website is to provide valuable information and help users achieve their goals. But what happens when they leave the site?

You may think that as long as a user clicks on at least one page, you're doing something right. But are these clicks just a sign of boredom or frustration with your design experience?

It's not enough to only focus on how well your website performs in isolation; we need to consider how the user's experience extends beyond our digital walls. 

After all, there are other channels where people can search for content related to topics you cover, including related forums or social networks -  so why limit yourself by focusing only on people landing on your website?

Extend your professional and personal brand online by connecting with your community on other channels.

5. Optimize the most important pages

The more visitors you can bring to your site, the better chance you have of making a sale or finding potential customers for your business. 

If you want to rank higher and have more users engage with your content, then it is time to start optimizing some of the most important pages on your website.

The home page: The first impression that a visitor gets about your company should be positive - so set the mood for visitors by creating an attractive layout that highlights what makes you stand out from competitors.

Do not include features or information unless they're relevant in terms of providing value to those visiting (i.e., don't list all 25 services offered).

Make sure these elements are easily scannable with plenty of whitespace around them; this will help people quickly find what they're looking for.

Text content: When it comes to optimizing your website's text, you want to make sure that any blog posts or articles are relevant in terms of what they offer the reader.

This means providing value through education and engaging them with how-to guides, thought leader interviews, and more. Avoid lengthy introductions and conclusions - get straight to the point by answering visitors' questions right off the bat.

Source: https://www.heliossolutions.co/


And don't forget about keywords; this will help ensure people can find your site on search engines like Google. If, for example, your website targets financial freedom, be sure to include the relevant keywords in the page meta information (SEO Title and meta description) and on the page itself.

6. Show users what actions they can take

Designers are masters of creating usable and aesthetically pleasing interfaces.

Yet, too often, they neglect to teach users how to interact with the product. This is a missed opportunity to engage users and show them the value of your product.

For example, when designing a food delivery app that has an FAQ section, it's important not only to include all possible questions in the text but also to add buttons for different actions such as "See our Menu" or "Contact Us".

This allows visitors to quickly find what they're looking for without having to read through everything on your page.

7. Avoid dead ends

Dead ends are one of the most frustrating parts of any website. They cause people to wander off your site because they're stuck on something that doesn't work or understand what they need to do next.

To avoid this, make sure that your pages have a logical flow to each other and don't leave users guessing where to go next.

For example, if your website deals with remote work software, ensure that once you answer their main questions,then raise the next logical question and provide answers for that one as well. 

In other words, every element either directs visitors towards an actionable item or provides them with valuable content they're looking for. If it's neither of these, then consider getting rid of it.

User Engagement Metrics You Need to Track To Get Your Site Design To The Next Level

The following are important terms to consider and track to take your site design to the next level.

Page Views

It's a key metric in measuring how successful your website is - the more clicks you get, the better. If you're looking to improve your site's user engagement and increase its traffic, there are many powerful ways to do so.

In fact, page views are one of the most important metrics that is often overlooked.

Source: https://www.monsterinsights.com/

The more pages people view on your site, the longer they stay on it and interact with it. 

By creating a design focused interface, you will increase the number of page views on your site and make browsing easier.

Bounce Rate

Bounce rate is a metric that measures the percentage of visitors who view only one page on your website, then leave without viewing another.

It's important to have low bounce rates because this is a metric that reflects those people who left dissatisfied with their experience on your site.

A high bounce rate can be due to unclear navigation, poorly written content, or out-of-date design elements.

Average Time on Site

The average time on site metric helps determine how long someone spends engaging with your content before they leave or click through to another page. A high average time on site can be attributed to: 

- Relevant content 

- Appropriate length of posts 

- Easy navigation    

- User Engagement

High user engagement is the result of a positive experience with your site. This means that visitors will spend more time on your site and ultimately come back for more.

Return Visits

Whether you are a small business owner, freelancer, or blogger, the importance of return visits is something that cannot be ignored.

Growing a website blog is crucial to having visitors come back to your site time after time. After all, if your blog posts don't interest readers enough to make them want to come back for more, then what's the point?

Souce: https://www.singlegrain.com/

Many people love listening to podcasts nowadays so you might also consider hosting a podcast - that is a great way to get visitors that keep coming back to your website.

Conclusion

Design is all about attention.

If you want to keep your visitors on your site or make them buy more of what they came for in the first place, then it's time to start thinking like a designer and build an interface that keeps people engaged with the content.

By focusing on the tips given in this article, you’ll get visitors that love the content that your site has to offer and as a result of this, spend hours browsing through the different content of your site whilst taking the actions that you desire.

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