How to conduct user testing for better UX design

Alright, UX enthusiasts and design detectives, strap in! We’re about to embark on a thrilling journey through the world of user testing. We’re talking about making your UX design smoother than a fresh jar of skippy, more intuitive than your mom’s ability to find things you’ve lost, and more user-friendly than a labrador retriever at a children’s party.

But first, let me spin you a yarn from the user testing trenches. Picture this: It’s 2016, and I’m working on a redesign for a client’s e-commerce site. We thought we’d created the perfect checkout process – streamlined, efficient, and sleek. We were patting ourselves on the back so hard I thought I’d dislocate a shoulder.

Then we did some user testing.

Turns out, our “streamlined” process was about as intuitive as a rubik’s cube to a goldfish. Users were getting lost, frustrated, and abandoning their carts faster than you can say “where’s the checkout button?”

The lesson? Never assume. Always test. And that, my friends, is why we’re here today.

So, how do you conduct user testing that’ll make your UX design shine brighter than a diamond in a coal mine? Well, grab your favorite caffeinated beverage (or a glass of wine, I don’t judge), and let’s dive into the art and science of user testing!

  1. Define Your Goals: Know What You’re Looking For

Before you start rounding up test subjects like a mad scientist, you need to know what you’re testing for. It’s like going on a treasure hunt – if you don’t know what the treasure is, how will you know when you’ve found it?

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What Is Webflow And Should I Use It?

As a web designer, you probably know that there is a wide range of tools and software programs out there that can help you maximise your efficiency. Some of these require quite technical skills, but many of them are actually beginner friendly, designed to make your life as a designer easier.

Once such software program is Webflow, which has grown in popularity over the last few years to become a favourite among the web design community. For me, Webflow is a great tool, and you should at least be aware of it and what it does so that you can take advantage of its powers where possible.

What is Webflow?

To put it simply, Webflow is a web design program that comes complete with a range of tools to streamline the design process. In many ways, it actually works in a similar way to website builders like Wix and Weebly.

However, Webflow is so much more than just a website builder. It uses a “code-first” design interface that will allow you to build your own website from scratch.

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Professional Website Design. Is it worth the money?

There are many business sectors and company types where an instant purchase would not be usual, such as those where some dialogue or a quotation has to take place first. However, unless a website is built by professional web designers which will enhance visitors’ perception of your business and move prospects closer to being paid customers, it is almost certainly failing.

Worse than that is if your website’s design is so poor that it actually acts as a discouragement to those who land on it, then your business is going to stand little chance of competing with other local businesses in your niche who have has the foresight and good sense to have a professionally designed website built, that will represent and promote them.

The professional web designers and programmers at Oxygen Marketing have served many clients who had poorly designed websites and were in exactly that position before we helped them. However, with a well-planned, designed, and constructed website, which functions as it should and is appealing to all who visit it, their business results have been transformed, and that is exactly what Oxygen Marketing can do for you and your business.

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Should I Use a Professional Web Designer for My WordPress Website?

Designing a website with WordPress can be a confusing and time consuming process, even if you have skills and experience in the field. Although it’s more than possible to create your own site, you might decide to save yourself some time and stress by simply employing a professional designer and copywriter to take care of things for you.

For me, there are numerous reasons why you should consider using a professional designer for your WordPress website. I’ve outlined some of the below, but make sure that you do a bit of research and uncover the benefits of using a designer for yourself.

  1. They Might Even Save You Money

Although web designers are expensive – there’s no question about that – using one could actually save you quite a lot of money in the long run, for numerous reasons.

Experienced web designers will work fast and efficiently, which means that they will take a lot less time to put your site together than you would. They will also be able to make sure that everything’s working as it should before you take control of your site, which means that you shouldn’t run into too many problems in the future.

Finally, using a web designer should also free up a lot of your own time. This means that you will be able to focus on the things that you’re good at, which could also boost your income.

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Will My Web Design Help Me To Challenge And Beat My Competition?

We’ll be completely open and say that having an excellent website design is no guarantee that you will beat your competition, simply because there are too many other variables. They could have an unlimited marketing budget with which to drive tons of traffic to their site or their store. Another could be that your product pricing is noncompetitive due to high production costs.

There could be many others, but we also must say that good website design will certainly enable you to compete with your competitors, and unless they have advantages you simply cannot overcome, you could beat them too. Now, we have to clarify what we mean by ‘beat’ because that can happen in several areas.

Good website design can help you rank higher than your competitors on the search engines, and if you are using PPC advertising it can make your campaigns more cost-effective, and more successful. It should mean that visitors stay longer on your website, and many are likely to return more readily to your well-designed website as opposed to your competitors’ poorly designed websites.

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