We’ve all visited websites where it was obvious that creating a visual work of art was more important than focusing on a great user interface.
While it’s important that a website looks good, poor user interface design degrades a website’s performance. After all, the interface is what visitors actually interact with.
Part of UX design actually involves helping to layout an interface that makes visiting the website a pleasurable experience. Without a good user interface, we don’t have a website worth visiting.
Interface Is The First Impression
In an eye-tracking study, it takes just under three seconds for visitors to form a first impression based on the elements that matter most to them, such as navigation and content layout. If the interface seems cluttered or confusing, it’s a bad first impression. When we’ve only got seconds, a poor user interface isn’t going to cut it.
If we think about our own experiences, we know that we would likely turn away from a site that left us underwhelmed almost immediately.
Poor User Interface Equals Negative Experiences
If a site makes a bad first impression with poor user interface design, the rest of the experience is likely to be a negative one. In one study, researchers found that people who read positive reviews about a product were more likely to accept any flaws down the line. This means a good user interface has the power to make up for potential flaws in the rest of the design.
Plus, it’s always up to us as UX designers to strive for the best possible experience. If the user interface is immediately resulting in a negative experience, we’ve failed to give users what they need most – a positive, useful experience.
Users Can’t Find What They Need
No one wants to stay on a website that makes it impossible to find what they need. For instance, would we really want to shop at Amazon if the search function was hidden down in the footer or there were no categories to filter results? It would be absolute chaos!
Poor user interface design makes it difficult for users to get from Point A to Point anywhere else with ease. Whether it’s a hard to find search function, poor menu design or content blocks that make it hard to distinguish one piece of content from another, the interface shouldn’t be a hindrance. Instead, it should guide users and invite them to continue using and exploring the site.
Bad User Interfaces Mean A Higher Bounce Rate
A high bounce rate is never a good thing and if it’s too high, it could actually hurt a site’s search rank. In fact, poor design, including interface design, is one of the common reasons for a high bounce rate. While a higher bounce rate isn’t always a bad thing (such as users immediately finding what they need), it could indicate there’s a problem with the website.
This is especially true if a site’s experiencing declining views along with an increasing bounce rate. It’s important to remember that poor user interface design always leads to higher bounce rates, the negative kind that is.
Users Share Bad Experiences
One of the best ways to get more traffic back to a website is through visitor recommendations. However, we have to remember one thing – visitors are just as likely to share those bad experiences as their good ones. When a site gets too many bad reviews, no one wants to visit.
Of course, the other problem is if visitors aren’t impressed with the interface, they don’t mention the site at all. Instead, they’ll just visit the competition and recommend them. In those first few seconds, visitors not only form an opinion about the site based on factors such as the interface, they also make the choice as to whether to give a site a chance or just move on to another search result.
The last thing we ever want to do is create bad user experiences. This is why it’s important to make good user interface design choices. It’s not just about a site looking good. It’s also about boosting a site’s performance and making visitors happier.
Images: Lee Campbell, Ben White, Ugur Akdemir