Web Design Concepts That Prioritize Customer Centricity

In today’s online concept, customer-centric web design concepts are integral to successful online businesses.

The very premise of a customer-centric web design concept is putting your customers first. Applying this in web design and development is essentially giving customers a unique and convenient experience with your website.

This requires website features that don’t just function well, but also connect with your audiences on a personal level. Such that they feel that their convenience, wants, and needs are being prioritized.

Customers have different preferences, so it’s important to veer away from cookie-cutter approaches to web development. Instead, study your customers and audiences well; use the information to build an experience that meets every nuance in their personality.

By doing this, your core user metrics, will rise and you'll see better customer retention.

What is a customer-centric web design?

Customer-centric web design is the process of designing and developing a website around the needs, wants, and behavior of your customers. The goal is to provide the functionality and convenience that visitors have come to expect from online businesses.

Applying a customer-centric web design has a plethora of benefits for business growth. Among these are strengthened relationships with your customers and, incidentally, attracting new ones.

We discuss more of these benefits in the next section.

Five benefits of a customer-centric web design

The common goal of a customer-centric web design is to deliver an optimal experience for visitors. This is achieved by providing the functionality, digestible information, and helpful features that help them navigate towards accomplishing their needs.

When this is done, online businesses can enjoy the following pay-offs of customer-centric web design:

1. Easy website navigation. A customer-centric design presents your website with a clean and structured look. A well-designed navigation system allows your customers to find the information they need quickly and independently.
2. Increased visit duration. A customer-centric website encourages the users to stay on your website longer, explore further, and learn more about your business or the products or information that you offer thereby increasing visit duration on your website.
3. Increased website traffic. A customer-centric website increases the chances that customers will visit your website again because of a great initial experience. This, in turn, will increase your website traffic. Website traffic is essential for a variety of reasons. The amount of people who visit your website reflects the number of opportunities for your firm to create an impact, spread your brand, and build relationships.
4. Generate sales. A customer-centric web designer acts as a kind of silent salesperson for your products or services. Customers will recognize the value of doing business with you when you clearly state the features and benefits of what you're selling.
5. Lower bounce rates. Basically, the bounce rate represents the percentage of users who visit the website and then leave, rather than viewing another page on the same site. A customer-centric website reduces your bounce rates as it allows more user engagement resulting in customers staying longer and engaging with your website.

Having a customer-centric web design organizes your products in such a way that your customers can get to know the product without having to see it in person by using clear and concise product descriptions, images, videos, and virtual tours that demonstrate the product in action.

How to implement customer-centric design in your business

In implementing a customer-centric web design, your main focus should first and foremost be the needs and wants of your customers. Making your customers feel that they are prioritized helps you in creating long-lasting relationships with your customers.

That said, below are some aspects you must consider for your development projects to make them as customer-centric as possible.

1. Meet the needs of your customers.

Choices that benefit your customers the most should always be prioritized. To have the greatest influence on your core metrics and business goals, you must recognize that what you like best or believe your consumers will prefer may not be the best option in the end.

2. Understand your customer.

Understanding your customers through customer data, feedback, and behavior should be the basis for implementing your customer-centric web design.

These data may come from a variety of sources, such as website analytics, customer relationship management (CRM) or sales systems, customer feedback, social media, and/or other forms of communication.

In other words, the decisions you make should benefit your customers first and foremost.

3. Make it easy for customers to find what they are looking for.

Keeping things simple will help your users navigate your website and locate information on your products and/or services.

In this aspect, attention to information and visual hierarchy is critical to emphasize messages that you want your customers to remember.

In the same light, calls to action (CTAs) should also be easy to spot. Play around with color contrasts, font size and type, as well as direct-response copywriting for clarity.

4. Keep your design clean and clutter-free.

A cluttered web-design will make your customers feel overwhelmed when visiting your website. As a result, customers tend to navigate away from your website and even avoid it altogether.

Thus, having a clutter-free web design can help improve conversion rates as customers tend to navigate and stay longer ion your website.

5. Use clear and concise language.

Using clear and concise language or your customer's language rather than your own will make them understand and connect with the website more.

Take note of how clients describe what you do and adjust your website material accordingly.

You will often get caught up in our own notions of how the website should be presented. Hence, you lose sight of the fact that the customer’s convenience should take priority.

6. Use visuals wisely.

While a visually appealing website is important in attracting customers, you should nonetheless avoid going overboard in your efforts in making your website beautiful. Functionality should always take precedence over aesthetics.

During the planning and design phases, keep simplicity and usefulness in mind since you don't want to overwhelm your customers with extraneous pieces or graphics that don't serve a specific purpose. These factors may make things more complicated and reduce your website's conversion rate.

7. Customize content.

Custom content will help your company establish authority online, generate interest in the brand, and provide genuinely useful information to its audience.

It also improves your search engine optimization through the use of specific keywords for products that your customers are looking for.

These, in turn, increase the chances that a user will click on your page links and get the information that they are looking for.

8. Feedback mechanism.

Implementing a meaningful feedback mechanism is a valuable tool that you may utilize to enhance your processes, products, and services.

Companies are better positioned to make sensible decisions to boost overall profitability if feedback loops are in place. This is because feedback mechanisms provide you direct information about customers want and needs

Data that you can then use to inform your web design improvements.

9. Intuitive site navigation.

Website navigation is an important aspect of web design since it affects the user experience. Understanding website navigation may assist you in providing users with the information they require as quickly as possible by offering an enjoyable, intuitive structure while boosting simplicity of use.

10. Continually make small improvements as new data is presented.

Large, sweeping redesigns are generally daunting tasks that take a long time to accomplish. Parts of a significant redesign project may become obsolete during this time and no longer meet the most recent client expectations and feedback.

Thus, instead of attempting to implement large-scale projects, focus on making continued improvements or small iterations to your website that improve your consumer experience as new data or feedback comes in.

Customer-centric design must-haves

In a customer-centric design, the main focus of your website’s functionality should revolve around your customers and how it makes the life of your customer as easy as possible. So, here are some must-haves in your customer-centric web design.

1. Target customer persona.

A customer persona refers to a synopsis of a significant type of website user's traits, needs, motivations, and environment. Having a customer persona will help you narrow down the purpose of your website to answer the question “Who are you designing for?”

By understanding the needs, wants, expectations, and concerns of your customers, you can better design a website that will cater to and satisfy users’ needs and hence be successful.

2. Customers needs and ease of use.

A customer-centric website facilitates your customers needs, more particularly, the ease of use. The site should be well-organized, simple to use, and free of unnecessary information that confuses or distracts your customer.

Organize the site such that each category is properly identified and offer easy-to-find links or buttons for each category on each page. A chaotic website causes frustration and may cause a customer to visit your competitors' websites.

3. Optimized accessibility.

Making your website accessible can also help make it more effective in reaching a wider audience, as it is now easier for people to navigate your website.

An accessible website gives access to information and interaction in an easy manner by, among others, using "alt-tags" or through keyboard navigation.

All of these can be achieved through a customer-centric web design.

4. Simplistic designs.

Simplicity in web design means removing all unnecessary elements from a particular website.

Simplicity improves the legibility of web design through consistency and uniformity.

Moreover, a website's tidy appearance boosts the user's first impressions.

5. Responsive designs.

Your website is a component of your communication strategy; thus, its appearance, feel, and tone should be consistent, no matter where it is accessed.

The goal of a responsive web design is for the content to render correctly and quickly on different devices and screens. This is so that visitors can have the best experience possible regardless of where they access your website.

The primary advantage of responsive web design is that pages load quickly and without distortions, eliminating the need for users to manually resize anything to read the content.

6. Quick page loading time

Waiting for a web page to load is rather frustrating and may provoke your customers into leaving or not visiting your website altogether. Thus, quick loading and response times can affect your conversion and bounce rates.

Web page speed is related to how fast a browser can load fully functional websites from a certain site.

READ ALSO: How to Optimize Page Speed From 18 to 2 Secs

Poor performing sites that load and render slower may drive users away, therefore, increasing your bounce rate. Conversely, sites that load quickly receive more traffic and have higher conversion rates since customers are more likely to stay and explore your website longer.

Factors that affect your loading response are your page weight, network conditions, and hosting locations. Keep these in mind when making or improving your webpage in order to make your user experience convenient and customer-centric.

7. Customer feedback.

A customer-centric website gathers and incorporates customer problems and formulates a complaint resolution and incorporates the same to the website which improves the company's reputation.

Installing features such as a thorough frequently asked questions (FAQs) page allows users to obtain answers to a wide range of frequently asked questions in one place.

A feedback form or dedicated customer service email address allows customers to communicate their problems in a method that allows you to respond quickly. Customers can use live chat to get instant help with a problem.

8. Company information.

A customer-centric website allows you to alleviate consumer concerns by giving extensive information about the organization.

Your home page and About Us should provide a background and history of your company. Here, you have the option to present images and bios of significant decision-makers and contributors in your organization.

Customers can learn that you are a legitimate firm run by real individuals, which alleviates any fears.

Key takeaways

Having a wonderful web design that caters to the needs and wants of your customers is important. Customer-centric web design generates a user experience that your customers will value. This results in a long-lasting relationship with you and your customers.

Here are a few things that you might want to consider in creating a customer-centric website:

• Focus on how your web design or service will improve your customer’s experience. Any decision you make should always be in light of what benefits your customers and what makes for a wonderful customer experience. Understanding their needs and wants will allow you to make a web design that revolves around your customers.
• Always prioritize Functionality over aesthetics. Your web design should always prioritize functionality. You need not overwhelm your customers by having an over-the-top design and visuals that serve no purpose. A simple yet functional design is sufficient.
• Make your website easy to navigate. An easy-to-navigate website allows users to find the information they need much faster. This includes having a clear menu layout and the ability to navigate between pages rapidly and efficiently thereby

Get in touch with us today to know more about web design concepts. We are more than happy to help you. If you need more help or more information, connect with us through Facebook, X, or LinkedIn.

For more tips on how to create user-centric websites and applications, make sure to subscribe to the Propelrr newsletter to get instant access.