Properly researched design solutions can cost nothing but your time. You will spend a little on digital marketing, to give your website an extra push towards success. Though generally, lots of mileage can be gained by researching your audience.
Survey Your Existing Customers
The first step is to research your existing customers, get to know their pain points and preferences. The easiest way to do this is by setting up a survey. People will happily share their opinion, both negative and positive, it’s all useful data.
It’s a great opportunity to engage with people and make practical use of a mailing list. You could run a Facebook poll or just ask questions the old fashioned way on social media, to get a sense of how effective your products are.
Create a web survey or harness the power of your social media presence.
What questions should you ask?
The best starting point is your competitors. Spend time browsing their websites. Make notes about what impresses you and what annoys you. After all, you are human too, with the same emotions and impulses as your audience.
Then include questions specifically about your competitors. What are people’s favourite websites, why do they return to them time after time? It might be that they enjoy reading the articles or the checkout process is quick and easy.
Often you will agree with your audience, but sometimes there are elements not obvious to you. This means your audience has very specific needs that you must allow for in your design choices, however hard, it pays to be objective.
Sketch Out Your Ideas
Once you’ve gathered feedback from a survey, you have a clearer picture of your customer’s desires and pain points. These valuable insights then inform design choices. Sketch layouts and sitemaps with an old fashioned notebook and pen. Or use slideshow apps like Microsoft PowerPoint or Apple Keynote to build a basic prototype.
It doesn’t have to be a work of art!
For prototypes, sketch ideas in a notebook or presentation software.
You will learn a great deal from a targeted web survey. You can approach your design sketching as a consumer. Precise design layouts are not important at this stage. The aim is to establish a logical user journey that steers people towards your goals. Expand your audience research by testing prototypes with real people via video calls or in-person.
This initial sketching phase is enjoyable too. You are unlikely to afford a team of professional researchers, so it makes sense to work within the scale of your business. People will value being part of the design process.
You’ll feel empowered when hiring developers
Once you’ve completed research, have a clear design concept, it’s time to put those ideas into production. You’ll feel relieved that much of the creative groundwork is done and you’ll feel better informed when writing the technical brief for developers, you’ll feel more empowered to steer production in the right direction.