Things to Consider for Your Website User Experience

The image you see above this text is from this website, www.lvcostarica.com.  This is the site for a Costa Rican resort.  As far as I can tell they're marketing Las Ventanas Del Mar as a potential vacation destination or a real estate opportunity, should you find yourself in the market for Costa Rican property.

There are some good and bad things this site does to give it's site visitors a good user experience.  Let's take a look at those…

First off, when you arrive on the site there is music that automatically begins playing -- this is a bad tactic.  More often than not it's annoying to the site visitor.  Just don't do it when building your website.

The site owners know that it's audience is viewing their website, at least in part, to get a feel for what it's like to be at this resort and in Costa Rica, so plenty of big, beautiful images are completely appropriate to show off the resort and Costa Rican natural landscape.  

In fact with this kind of site, the more images the better for sharing via social media.  The site owners are hoping you'll share their stuff on social with their social links right at the bottom of the site on the home page.

Also, this site is responsive to mobile, meaning it's laid out to be visually stunning on either a computer screen or a mobile device screen -- the browser recognizes what screen width you're using and adjusts the site's frame to fit your device so you can optimize the site's usability whether you're at your laptop on your desk or on the subway on your smartphone.  It functions correctly and looks good on any device.

A site like this where they're offering something that will likely generate a lot of questions, it typically makes sense to identify the most common questions and provide a proactive Frequently Asked Questions (FAQ) section of the site.  This provides the site user immediate answers to their initial questions and saves you (the site/business owner) from constantly spending your time answering the same questions over and over. 

(To see another example of how a different site from a different industry uses FAQ's, check out, www.mybpd.ca, and their 'Ask the Doc' section.)

If you're planning a new website or giving your current site a facelift, be sure to understand who your site's audience is and what they will expect to do on your site so you can build it in a way that gives your site users the best experience possible.  The end goal is to get them to engage with your site and convert into a lead.

Posted by:  Nick Venturella

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