Website design for estate agents: What is great user experience?

| Web design

Website design for estate agents: What is great user experience?

One thing all successful websites have in common is a great user experience. When it comes to websites for estate agents, web design with great user experience can be the difference between gaining a client and losing a client.

How to go about creating great user experience:

1. It needs to be easy to use

This sounds obvious but many estate agents have still failed to grasp how their users use their website. Your design needs to work the way your user expects it to, if you don’t fulfil the users’ needs then they are going to be disappointed.

2. Don’t frustrate the user

Users getting frustrated on the internet is a very common thing. This may be caused by a website loading slowly, unnecessary clutter, confusing navigation or simply not being able to find what they are looking for. Don’t let anything get in the way of your customers accomplishing their mission.  

3. Don’t be loud

Just because it is loud and in your face doesn’t mean it will be successful. You don’t want to force your users to notice you, instead you want your website to entice them, drawing them in subtly. You should avoid flashing images, auto play videos and anything else that will make the user feel like they are being shouted at.

4. Don’t be boring

Every website needs to be exciting. Great user experience gives the users the feeling they are accomplishing something.

5. Don’t be self-righteous

We know that your website works for you, you use it all the time and have become familiar with it but it may not be the same for a brand new user. To guarantee great user experience you should take on all feedback and criticism and create a better experience from it. Don’t ignore feedback!

6. Avoid pointlessness

Don’t give or ask for information that your audience doesn’t need and don’t repeat yourself throughout your website. Web design isn’t about filling up your website, if it doesn’t need to be on your website then don’t put it on there.  

7. Bring out the human side

Trusting a business online is very important to the user and getting a glimpse of the human elements helps to achieve this. You can bring out your personality through your content, staff profile pages or even with videos.

8.  Keep your website up-to-date

Keeping things fresh is one of the most important elements to enticing your users. However making unnecessary and pointless changes won't benefit you at all. Changing things to improve your website, posting blog articles, updating testimonials and modernising your content in general are all great ways to keep your website fresh for your users.

 

Don’t neglect the user experience, it will not only have an impact on how your audience sees you but also how Google sees you and can result in improved SEO rankings! 

Luke Stanley