With a roaring pandemic wreaking havoc, we have seen businesses desperately taking their operations online. Taking a business online can be a substantial expense, and while some have the financial power to make the migration, others may have succumb to pressures to overcome this process, by using tools and people which are available to them in a quick and cost friendly manner. While sometimes you can achieve good results with these tools, more often you find yourself with a sub-standard outcome. With more businesses online the competition increases and all of a sudden everyone is competing for users. In this environment you need your new system to encourage users and not deter them.

Luckily there are a few tips one can follow to improve their online system.

1. Remove information and steps the user doesn’t need.

The goal in any online business is to get the user from landing to purchase as quick and easy as possible. 3 Steps are better than 5.  Keep your content as short as possible without sacrificing important information and don’t ask for unnecessary data before showing value. Provide the user with shortcuts where possible, Navigation should be a breeze.

2. Make the design as intuitive as possible.

Use design to your advantage, provide important step-and-process information so that the user knows where he is and what he has to do next. Make use of icons as way finders where necessary. Keep a coherent palette throughout and insist on being consistent, don’t let the user re-adapt to a change in interface with every page. Buttons need to look like buttons and make sure that they are large enough to provide a comfortable touch target. Make important buttons bigger to assign priority, remember, phone browsing accounts for 50% of online usage.

3. Give clear feedback to the user upon interaction

Letting the user know that they completed a task will re-assure the user that they are on the right track. Any interactable asset in your system, should contain a clear action on hover and on click. If the user is required to fill a form make sure to mark inconsistencies in red and correctly filled spaces in green, before they click submit.

4. Make sure your interface is digestible.

A busy interface will deter users from completing a purchase. Make sure you have enough clear space in your interface to let it breathe. White space is not your enemy, use it to your advantage. Make sure you are using clear fonts with a maximum of 2 different typefaces. In an ideal scenario you would use only 1. Lastly use dark grey instead of rich black for your text, as it is softer on the eye.