Usually, the customer journey is of interest to marketing people. So, it is a bit confusing to figure out what it has to do with web design.
Today, web designers should be familiar with the customer journey as that helps to design websites better.
You must already know that a customer takes some time to click the Contact Us or Buy Now button on a website. Usually, a visitor goes to different sections of the website before he clicks on the buttons.
He will get an impression about the brand during his traversal across the website, which works towards him becoming a customer.
It can also happen that a prospect may start browsing your website on a desktop and later revisit it using his smartphone.
When a prospect is on your website, he is likely to take an interest in certain things while ignoring others.
If you find understanding the customer journey is a bit difficult, then delegate the task of designing your website to a company that offers custom website design services.
It will help if you understand why customers behave and react in specific ways, which will help you structure your web design.
Customer Journey Maps
It is vital to be customer-centric when you are in web design. And the only way to become customer-centric is to remain well-acquainted with the customer journey.
There is no one-size-fits-all approach to understanding the customer journey. It is instead an uphill task.
Every customer has their unique personality, so that each website visitor will browse through your website according to his personality. Some journeys will be similar, but others will be different.
You can refer to a customer journey map to understand a customer journey. Such a map represents different journeys customers take to complete a task during website navigation.
There are many possible things a visitor can do when he is on your website. He can sign up for a newsletter, make a purchase, download a whitepaper or explore more about a company.
Journey maps are the best way to study customer journeys. With this knowledge, you can effectively lead visitors to their end goals through your web design.
When you implement such designs, user experiences will improve dramatically, and your website will generate more leads, which you can convert into customers.
You can study the customer journey during the initial stages of website design. The other times you should review the journey are during a website redesign or when you detected any problems with your existing website.
Regardless of whether you are developing, redesigning, or fixing problems of your website, the main elements you should include in your journey map are:
Personas
We already said that the personalities of different website visitors would be different. While some take their time to research before making a purchase, others click on the buy button right away. As such, you have to understand customer personas before you start designing your website. Keep in mind that the customer journey will be different from one website visitor to another.
Emotions
When it comes to a user’s experience with a website or brand, emotions play a significant role. If you have a journey map, you can know how visitors feel at various points of their journey. If you are familiar with what makes customers feel satisfied, what frustrates them, and what puts them at ease, you can create a great website design.
Channels
To develop a great design, you need to have a good understanding of the customer journey. You have to examine how website visitors interact with a brand across channels. Usually, most consumers interact with a website differently than an app. Similarly, their behaviour with social media is different from a blog.
So, examine visitor interactions across channels to ensure that you do not miss out on any information and touchpoints that could negatively impact your web design and user experience.
Touchpoints
Touchpoints are specific areas on a website, which is a channel. Say your website has a chat feature. You can regard it as a touchpoint because it is a particular feature of the broader platform, the website. For a web designer, it is crucial to identify the touchpoints in a customer journey map as visitors make decisions throughout their journeys.
Pain Points
It would be best to abide by a simple formula to improve user experience and generate more conversions–eliminate all the possible pain points from the customer journey.
Pain points are barriers that prevent visitors from attaining the objective with which they came to a website.
For example, you can regard a broken link as a pain point as it prevents people from gaining access to a product description. Similarly, a pop-up that asks people to type their email address before allowing people to view the website is another example of a pain point. Also, automatic videos and audios are other good examples of pain points.
When it comes to web design, you need to eliminate all pain points from the customer journey. If you fail to remove them, it will drive visitors away from your website. In that way, your competitors will get more traffic by providing a better customer journey and user experience.
Timeline
The time visitors take to complete their journeys on your website is an essential factor to consider before starting your web design project. Take into account the timeline that involves the duration between the customer journey to start and end.
Reviewing the timeline, you can elicit vital information to expedite the journey to improve the user experience.
Conclusion
By now, you have become familiar with what a customer journey is and what are its key components. What is more, you can now figure out how the customer journey impacts web design. The customer journey empowers web designers to create impactful web designs that provide excellent user experiences. And you get more traffic to generate leads and convert them into customers.
Known for his boundless energy and enthusiasm. Evan works as a Freelance Networking Analyst, an avid blog writer, particularly around technology, cybersecurity and forthcoming threats which can compromise sensitive data. With a vast experience of ethical hacking, Evan’s been able to express his views articulately.