How to Get Website Design and UX Right in 2016

While employment in some industry sectors has suffered or stagnated during the past decade, Internet business has thrived. There have been significant increases in online purchases, and Internet advertising has become a $20B industry. As a result, eCommerce companies, website designers and developers, and supporting businesses account for nearly half of the 1.2 million Internet-related jobs created over the past 10 years.

Exciting new career paths are opening. At the same time, web design has become more challenging because of an increased focus on user experience (UX) and the need to keep customers happy and coming back for more. As daunting as these challenges can sometimes be, if you have the right tools at your disposal they can be easily overcome.

What is the nature of the UX challenge?

Most eCommerce websites are designed in accordance with the business objectives of the client, the eventual website owner. The business objectives of the average Internet user also need to be considered by the website’s creator, and by its owner as well. The typical Internet user can at times be a difficult and quirky customer.

He or she has:

• an attention span of around 8 seconds. The attention span of a goldfish is longer.
• a need to have rapid access to information, coupled with a diminished ability to analyze that information in depth once itbecomes available.
• a lack of patience. Page loads exceeding 2 seconds will tax a typical user’s patience.
• An ever-increasing ability to demand service from anywhere, 24/7.

Website designers need to take these idiosyncrasies into account, and the tools they use have to provide solutions to the problems these idiosyncrasies can create. Modern websites need to be designed with flow in mind.

Modern Look and Feelkeeps Users Engaged

Image source:Uncode WordPress Theme – Blog Metro layout

 Knowing what information users are seeking is key to a website’s success, but it’s only half the battle. How that information is presented is not only important, but can be critical in terms of the need to attract customers, keep them interested, and lead them to a call for action.

Breaking away from Classic Design – Helping the user find what he or she is looking for, and guiding them along the way,is what modern look and feel is all about. Themodular homepage is an excellent example. Users prefer to scan rather than scroll.

Modular design makes it easy for them to do so. Whether they are looking for a product or reading a blog, they don’t have to scroll to the bottom of a page to find information they can use.

When Nothing becomes important –Modern websites make viewing easier, more efficient, and more enjoyable through the judicious use of nothing – or in this case,whitespace. While whitespace does not convey information, it speaks volumes in terms of increasing a visitor’s comprehension and focus. Whitespace can also give a so-so webpage a definite professional look.

Image source: Uncode WordPress Theme – Creative Agency Layout

Crisp, Clean Images are more important than ever – Sharp images obviously make viewing more pleasing on a PC screen, but they are crucial for mobile online shoppers. Smartphones are great shopping companions, but only if the images they display are crisp, clean, and correct. The technology to make this happen is readily available, but it’s still up to the web designer to select the right tools.

As you look at the features a WordPress theme offers, ask yourself what those features can help you accomplish in terms of time on site, sales conversions, user referrals, repeat customers, and other marketing metrics. Having done that, you can make your choice.

A Premium Solution of UX Problems

The technology needed to use to address and overcome these challenges is embedded in Uncode, a premium ThemeForest multipurpose WordPress theme. While Uncode is still relatively new, its innovative design has resulted in the growth of a large, enthusiastic following.

 An Advanced, Adaptive Grid System – Uncode’s Adaptive Grid System makes it possible to create virtually any layout a designer can envision and to any level of detail. Element positioning, spacing, padding, and gap settings are quick to put into effect and easily managed.

Adaptive Imaging –The use of a responsive theme has become a necessity for designing websites catering to the eCommerce marketplace. Uncode has taken the concept of the responsive theme a step further. You can, as before, design displays that will fit the standard device screen sizes currently on the market, but you can also define custom breakpoints to create a custom display to suit any device you could think of.

Fewer Modules, Greater Flexibility – Instead of relying on a host of different modules to provide a host of different features, Uncode’s design revolves around fewer modules, each of which provides a multiplicity of options. The result is a WordPress theme that gives the web creator exceptional flexibility.

There is much more of course, including Masonry/Isotope and Carousel layouts for blog posts, product pages, and portfolios, and advance color and typography capabilities.

Uncode, Undsgn and a Focus on User Options

The Undsgn ThemeForest Elite Author team took several innovative steps when creating Uncode. Their focus was on the website user, as well as on the web designer. For the designer, the result was a theme featuring fewer modules but greater flexibility. For the end user, the focus was on creating clean, powerful, and sexy websites.

During its brief time on the market, Uncode has received its share of rewards, ranging from the ThemeForest Top New File of November 2015, to a CSS Design Awards Site of the Day nominee.

Clean, Modern, and Delightfully Easy to Use

Uncode offers a robust solution to the problems the modern-day web-designer faces. It eases the challenges encountered in producing websites having strong user appeal. At the same time, it is an easy tool to use. There is nothing about Uncode that a novice cannot quickly master.

Website owners want sites that will draw the attention of visitors, and encourage them to stay awhile and heed calls for action. These visitors are often impatient, in a hurry, and have attention spans about half as long as it takes to relate to the information you are giving them.Check out the details here to see how Uncode takes these characteristics into account.