When you’re designing a website for a business — probably for your business — you might not know exactly where to start. It’s important to realize that the design process is going to take a while, and that you have to create one website that is readable and accessible to two different groups of customers:

Potential customers: This group of consumers is important — albeit sometimes confusing — simply because you don’t always know exactly who they are or what they’re looking for. Most businesses cater to new customers by creating a distinct company brand with a brand development firm, and also by using a simple UX web design that allows new customers to navigate the website easily. It’s best to avoid using too much complicated jargon on your website if you’re catering to anyone who’s unfamiliar with your industry, and it’s a good idea to have accessible product information pages for anyone looking for more info.

Returning customers: For this group, you have to find a way to keep them coming back to your business (and not to your competitor!). You might already do this by offering coupons and customer rewards discounts, but in the digital age where so much shopping is done online, it’s all too easy for consumers to visit your competitors’ websites and buy something from their online stores instead of yours. With a great customer experience design for your website, you’ll keep those valued customers coming back.

So how exactly can you use the UX design process to create an awesome website that caters to both groups?

• Keep it simple — keep everything as simple as possible. Make important navigation buttons easy to find by scanning the page quickly, and give customers the option to click into another page for more info.
• Avoid too many distractions on pages, including too many photos, videos, or even too much text. Multimedia approaches to website design and marketing tactics are some of the best fundamentals of UX design, but it’s important not to go overboard.
• Make sure everything can be scanned quickly, but that there are pages with more information and no blank or missing pages. An incomplete website suggests that you don’t put your customers first, so make sure that this gets done ASAP!

Ultimately, you only have to ask yourself one question to figure out if you’ve mastered UX design: If I were a customers visiting this website, would I want to buy something from the business? More.