It’s not enough that businesses in this day and age put up a website to raise awareness for their brands and sell their products. Every competent entrepreneur already has one. To have a competitive edge, a company needs to understand the concept of user experience, and apply it using the right tools such as Magento.

User experience or UX is taking the fundamentals of design with the important consideration that the website is ultimately created with people in mind. That means merging the aesthetic ambition of conventional website design with the goal of making it efficient, intuitive, and valuable for the user with the help of user feedback.

It is not merely thinking of “usability”. It is going deeper into the psyche of the user to imprint a memory that he/she finds the entire process completely natural and wholly enjoyable.

What Makes for Good UX

When surveying a website to see how well UX is accounted for, there are certain core characteristics to watch out for – ease of navigation, intuitiveness, responsiveness, and effectiveness.

· Ease of Navigation

Knowing if a website’s structure allows for easy navigation is rather simple. When I visit a website, whether it’s through the home page or another page, I need to be able to find what I’m looking for without much trouble. There must be easily identifiable links directing me to the main pages, and they should be organized in such a way that they do not clutter the screen. Having a search bar helps immensely in giving users a way to get to specific pieces of content.

· Intuitiveness

Intuitiveness is making it so the user moves throughout the website naturally. When landing on any page, I want to be given a clear direction as to where I should be going next to get what I want from the website. If I read a blog post about useful tools to use for designing, it would greatly help me if the post ended with a link to such tools or other relevant pages.

· Responsiveness

Like many Internet users, I also want to be able to go from one page to another in a short amount of time. This is why responsiveness is crucial. Building a website shouldn’t be focused on fitting in too much rich media in single pages, which includes numerous high-resolution images, long videos, and complicated Flash animations.

· Effectiveness

Finally, creating a website should always have a purpose in mind, whether it’s for growing an online presence or selling products. UX focused design helps make accomplishing that purpose much more effective.

For eCommerce websites, it is expected that the catalogue is organized well, and that online shoppers are provided with all the information they need to make an informed purchase (images, specifications, reviews, shipping details, etc). Filling out forms must not be a hassle, and guaranteeing the products get into their hands intact and on time is of the utmost importance.

UX Optimization Increases Conversions

Implementing a UX-concentrated design into a website makes business owners start thinking about how they will want to set the overall structure as well as the important details.

For eCommerce sites in particular, giving the online shoppers a streamlined layout to browse through categories and subcategories of products lets them get through the process quicker, as opposed to a stylish and complex but confusing interface that frustrates them to the point of going to another website selling the same goods.

When offering discounts, sales, or brand new products, good UX would have it so that these promos are front and center in the visitors’ line of vision when entering the website, not hidden in between walls of text or at the bottom of the page where they have to scroll down and possibly miss it.

By factoring both major and minor parts into the creation of a website, the company is showing to its customers and prospects that they are the ones that truly matter, and that their patronage is genuinely respected.

Magento: The Best Platform in Developing eCommerce Websites

Integrating UX specifically with an eCommerce website requires an eye for design, plenty of research, and a powerful program. Magento is such a program, offering a great number of features with free rein to its users as an open-source script to create the best possible eCommerce website. Options for marketing, analytics, product handling, site management, SEO, and more gives businesses the flexibility to suit the needs of their industries.

· Complete Customer Experience

I can set up a product page in such a way that shoppers can compare similar products, read reviews, click on pictures, and zoom in to see the details. When they’ve made their decision, filling out order forms is easy, and I can give them the option to ship a certain amount of orders to different addresses.

· Simple Management

Big companies that operate a number of businesses can take advantage of the platform’s ability to run several stores through one administrative panel. Managing multiple sites is then made much more convenient.

· Tracking Made Easy

Like any business, evaluating the performance of the eCommerce website is necessary going forward. I can simply go to the admin dashboard to see the general state of the website, and I can also read comprehensive reports pointing out which products are selling, how many have stopped their shopping midway, etc.

· High Customization

If I want my eCommerce website to have an extensive range of features for the absolute buying experience, I can do that. If I want to strip it to its essence for an elegant design, I do that too. I can even choose to change the website’s overall template or modify particular elements. There is very little restriction to how I want the website should look like.

· Scalable Code

Growth is critical for any company to continue, and having to apply that to an eCommerce website can be difficult if the platform used can’t handle additions without having to start from scratch. Fortunately, Magento can manage introducing more products, reusing code, and debugging issues, thanks to its stable architecture.

· Supportive Community

If the platform’s features somehow don’t satisfy the needs of my business, I can look to the thousands of plug-ins and extensions Magento’s community has developed for better functionality. Any problems I might have, I could just bring it up with experienced users and find a solution there.

Examples of UX+Magento eCommerce Websites

To get an idea of how good UX is applied with Magento, here is a list of websites that takes full advantage of the open-source script’s capabilities to create striking designs with intuitive interfaces for a unique experience.

Harvey Nichols

Zumiez

Treadz

Omgjeans

Outlet Lenovo

Conclusion

Building an eCommerce website in itself is not easy. Having to increase its conversion rate is doubly so. It takes a comprehensive knowledge of the customers’ needs and expectations, and the know-how to transform that information into an enjoyable experience. With the help of Magento, I believe that any business, whether big or small, can achieve that goal.