Engage University Ep. 4: UX Design & Website Conversions

Lauren Devens: Hello and welcome to episode five of our Engage University video series! My name is Lauren Devens and I’m the Digital Marketing and Social Media Coordinator here at BNP Engage. My special guest today is Blake Pertl who is one of our super talented web designers. So, Blake, I’ll pass it over to you to introduce yourself.

Blake Pertl: Thanks for having me here, Lauren. Yeah, so, I’m Blake Pertl, one of the web designers here at Engage. I’ve been here at BNP Engage for almost four years now. So, quite a while. Excited to talk to you here today.

Lauren: Thanks, Blake. So, today we’re going to be talking about how user experience (UX) design has an impact on conversion rates for websites.

What is user experience and why is it important when designing websites?

User experience refers to how people interact with a product or service. So, in our world of website design, that’s more so referring to everything that affects a user’s interaction with the website. That includes the aspects of branding, design, usability, and function. So, the second question of “how is this important for website designing?”

If users have a poor website experience when on a website, that’ll reflect pretty poorly on the website itself and us as designers, so I want to make sure that the UX design is as good as possible.

How can UX design impact a website’s conversion rates?

First, a website conversion really measures the number of users who converted on a form or link. It’s a percentage of the total number of users on the website vs. those who converted. So, if a website has poor UX design, for example, that might mean that the users are running into confusion with the website’s navigation. Or they might be having trouble scanning and finding the important information on your website.

As a result, less people will find the different forms and links located around the website. This results in a lower conversion rate for the website itself.

What UX design changes can improve website conversions?

The first thing I would say is to take some time and review the available website data you have for yourself. If you have the data on the amount of leads and conversions that your forms currently have, comparing that to see what is working and what is not working is definitely the first place that I’d start. Then, create a strategy for improving the user experience and increasing the number of conversions.

One area on most websites that I personally would suggest reviewing is the website’s navigation. Because the navigation is located at the very top of the website, it’s going to be the first thing that most visitors see when they land on a page. Make sure to highlight the important pages that you want visitors to go to in the navigation. Also, including any pages that have forms – like the contact page, any careers pages, or anything like that – in the navigation I would definitely say is really important.

Another common UX issue with websites that I often see is that the buttons and the text links don’t necessarily stand out and give the impression of being clickable for users. You’ll want to make sure that your button colors contrast with the rest of your website design. Also, double check that the buttons and the links have a hover state to symbolize that they’re clickable.

You don’t want users going around trying to click on your website, seeing something that they think is a button, clicking on it, and nothing happening. You want to make sure your call-to-action (CTA) buttons and links are standing out because that’ll lead to higher conversion rates.

Boost website conversions with effective UX design

Thank you so much for speaking with me, Blake. I definitely learned a lot! As I mentioned, this is our Engage University series. So, please be sure to subscribe to our YouTube channel to see future videos in this series. You’ll hear from our experts on our team about hot topics in the world of web design, development, and marketing.

We also offer a free Conversion Rate Optimization analysis where our team will take a look at your site and offer an in-depth report with some suggestions for improvement. Thanks for joining us and we will see you in the next episode!