UX and its relevance at an Australian web development agency

Updated 4 January 2021

As web designers, we balance client demands with usability, function and purpose. It's not easy - anyone in the creative field will know that a client is the hardest element to tackle in a design brief. However, in 2019 we really need to push through and ensure UX is the #1 goal in web design. As a Sydney based design agency, we get client briefs ranging from trees with menus, birds with drop downs, stars in the sky with clickable galaxy areas - all completely unpalatable to a potential website visitor.

Remember, it's likely to be your client demands, not your talent, that leads to bad UX.

In this page, our team outlines the Bad, the Good and the Best Practice for pushing through to make your client's UX the best it can be.

BONUS - we also include a "sample script" to use if your client insists on a design in the spirit of clickable galaxies!
Our guidance is used by our fantastically talented Sydney web development team every day, and is available exclusively to you.

Bad UX - Some Physical Examples

It's hard to explain bad UX in a sentence, but it's best seen below:

A wheelchair ramp with stairs? Yep, we've been asked to develop the website version!
A logically illogical elevator menu? What makes sense to 1% doesn't translate to the masses.
A PUSH door with a PULL handle? It happens.

UX Trends in 2019 - 5 "Fun" Facts to Re-engineer Your UX Approach!

It's probably obvious that great “User Experience” isn’t subjective - users of any website expect a seamless, simple experience that is mobile-friendly and a design that anticipates needs. As the complexities of business evolve, so do the demands for functionality, and UX becomes an increasingly critical component for the success of any business, new or existing. Bad UX means unhappy web design clients, lost long-term revenue and added support time. These facts below show the importance of UX for web development, and why it's now more critical than ever.

Fact #1: 48% users say that if they arrive on a business site that isn't working well on mobile devices is an indication of the business simply not caring.

Until Google's aggressive update to favour mobile-friendly websites, clients and developers focused on the aesthetics of a desktop version.
Now, a website MUST be mobile friendly, and any client who demands desktop perfection over mobile responsiveness is, in no uncertain terms, wrong.
In the U.S., 25% of mobile Web users are mobile-only - this is a HUGE search volume and over 1.2 billion people use mobile devices to access the web and no one screen size has more than 20% of the market share.

Mobile device sales are increasing across the board with over 85% of new devices built to access the internet

Fact #2: 88% of online consumers are UNLIKELY to return to a website if there is bad UX.

It's hard enough getting browsers to a website without poisoning their experience and opinion of the business.
The secret is to anticipate the needs of a user, and customize the website to meet and exceed them. And while this may seem single-user focused, looking at the personality of the user en mass means a true web development with purpose.
User-centered design (UCD) is a web design developed to focus on the needs, wants and limitations of the front-end users. It's critical for the website to ultimately represent everything the customer needs, without overwhelming them, but all while making finding it one click away.

Fact #3: 48% people consider a website’s design as the number one factor in deciding the credibility of a business.

Quite simply, it's all about branding.
A client may push for one way of doing the web design, but as a professional it comes down to using your judgement to evaluate the best approach
The design of the website plays a MASSIVE role in drawing traffic to your site. The "Bounce rate" is everything - keeping viewers on the page is critical.
Now, professional peers are using flat designs that are simple, clean, colourful and functional and perfect for mobile or desktop use. They can also process higher amounts of complexity to deliver a much better UX.

Fact #4: 95% of a user’s first impressions are design-related.

First impressions are everything - with 95% of first judgments being design-related, it's critical to have it 100% right.
Our scripts below outline potential de-fusing client vs best practice issues!

Fact #5: 79% of people scan read

Story telling is the new content creation.
Using visual aids to express your client's business is now important in the absence of browsers with long attention spans and other alerts going off on their mobile.

Summary

UX has never been more important as a concept - to publish without UX awareness is to die on the internet.
Consumers are getting more distracted and more manipulated by advertising and marketing efforts. It's critical to get the message of a business/website over the line in seconds.
On all fronts, an excellent design and usability is a start, but by no means a success.
Our scripts below outline suggested ways to deal with a client who puts their own ideas before UX.

Avoiding Tragic UX - 4 Golden Rules You Can Adopt Today

The customers of your client want the most seamless and intuitive digital experience, clear layout options and logical paths to task completion. Nothing more, and nothing less.
Designing a website UX that ‘speaks’ to as many users as possible - irrespective of the device, platform or time of day - demands only ONE ingredient: simplicity.
Simple is often a lot more difficult that it may seem, but we've outlined some QUICK WINS to ensure good UX is reached from the start:

Overly Complex Password Protections - these are BEST AVOIDED internally, and externally. Don't ask users to come up with complicated passwords that meet several fields (lower case, upper case, number, no sequence, not a letter used in the word "Password" etc!). This may seem obvious, but usability is more important than security when the risk is low anyway.
LENGTHY Data Collection Forms - don't complicate what doesn't need to be, and don't make the user WORK for a result. If your client has asked for a form, challenge what is being collected and streamline it, or as recommended in Web Design for the Human Eye, chunk out your information into multiple steps. This avoids the prospect of abandoned sales/engagement with the prospect of LONG forms.
Image Use - ONLY use images that relate the business. Users are more sensitive to images than they are to words, and seeing tropical beach scenes on a website about IT consulting evaporates trust instantly. Best avoided.
User Interface Simplicity - tragically in an article by Jonathan Shariat, a young woman died of post-treatment complications when the nurses on duty were unable to navigate the complex UI in the medical care program that was designed to keep track of the patient’s treatments. This example is extreme, but highlights the points about how important it is to keep everything SIMPLE. Make popular pages available to click on with ease. Make it mobile-friendly and make it fast to load.

Internal Checklists to ensuring the BEST UX Web Development

Producing a quality website that ensures best practice is followed for all web design and web development projects is easy with a dedicated procedure. We recommend:

Peer Review - have a fellow designer at your agency look over the website, compare it to the brief and raise development points for inclusion.
Publish the draft on Dribbble and ask for reviews/testing. The designer community is very friendly.
Join a closed-group in Facebook for agencies, and post your draft - ask experts in there to comment.
Ask 5 NON Designer associates to test the website, i.e. the agency receptionist, business manager, accountant etc. While this seems like a drain on resources, it's their experience that models the overall destined user base!
Adopt a "UX web design essentials" document that covers all the UX basics. This can include everything we've talked about above, plus some personalisation for your industry niche.

Sample Script - Protecting Your Agency from a Bad UX Blowout

Client has specific design requests that do not confirm, on a plain inspection, to good UX:

If a client has provided unique or prescriptive suggestions about what they want for their website, and there is a risk that it may not look good or have a sub-par UX, (i.e. the client will not like their own suggestions), we suggest the following reply:

Hi <Client Name>
Thanks for your email about the specific design requirements. Our team has discussed them, and are happy to proceed, and as you have provided specific design preferences in your guidance, we will follow your requirements closely - our refund policy does not apply to a change of mind of your own ideas. In all other circumstances, our revision process allows for generous modifications as per our edits guidance.

Any questions, please don't hesitate to let me know. We look forward to creating your draft site!

Kind regards
(Name of Project Manager)

Helpful Commentary to Encourage Clients to Move Forward

Many leads are uncertain about the whole web design process beyond just design UX, and whether they can trust someone to go with their vision AKA standard project delivery. They also find it daunting, so you want to ensure they know you have an easy process and hassle-free.

Here are reassurances you can give them when you sense their hesitation:

Your agency has a detailed question list that gathers all of the client's input and design preferences, ensuring every element is carefully assessed.
The project manager can make some suggestions along the way where the client is unsure, and that the client will receive a draft website version based on their input
The client will have the chance to provide their revisions in the process to make sure they can submit feedback and edits.
If the client has any suggestions of websites they like, they can make the agency aware to see if something similar can be provided.

Bad UX - The Blogs

Want to know more about the trends and movements in UX? We've assembled some great resources below.

The complete authority - UX MAG - which covers everything UX!
The Next Web has a wonderful bad UX article
Pinterest's UX Fails covers every aspect of a bad user experience
The 2014 guide bad to bad websites has extensive detail on who and why the offending is so serious.
Bad UX via Tumblr