The other day I was debating the recent trends of Flat design with my colleagues. The discussion was very informative, because I was trying to point out the reasons for this sudden shift in the design approach while they were providing useful insights regarding Flat vs. Skeuomorphism. The thing which we missed was the customer’s orientation towards websites and how it shaped the website designs.
The customers mostly look for useful information on a website, that would lead them to a buying decision. With the advent of Cyber Monday as one of our most celebrated shopping weeks, websites need to focus on customer orientation a bit more. With this we can imagine how e-commerce designs will change. Customers will ask for a clean, seamless and fast processing website design, which should also look great on their small screens.
How to design customer oriented design?
Customer oriented designs are not a new concept in the industry. Moreover, it is not a static concept. It is growing and evolving as the technology progresses. To build a customer oriented website, there are few important things to keep in mind.
Professional Design
The first and foremost decision customers make, while visiting a website, is whether to like or dislike the website design. If the design is professional, clean and clearly conveys the message, the customers will consider the products and services more seriously.
Engaging Content
Content was king and I have not heard otherwise as yet. With all these parallax long scrolling pages, large font types, and social media marketing around, engaging content is more important than ever. Create useful and informative content for your website that can engage customers better. Imagine what you can achieve with million of users reaching for your products through a viral post on Twitter or Facebook.
User Friendly Navigation
Imagine a UX/UI, which confuses customers rather than helping them. That would be a big question on your website design team’s performance. User friendly navigation through carefully arranged (products/services) categories along with an integrated search option is a must for every customer oriented website design.
One Page Check Out
Customers can spend hours while moving around hundreds of product categories. However, when it comes to checkout, they want it to be as quick and as simple as possible. Adding simple, fast and seamless shopping carts to your website design is another important aspect for customer oriented designs.
Security
Normally people look out for secure payment logos on the e-commerce website and they move forwards with the payment process. It is valuable to add security measures and declare them through privacy policy to let customers know that their information is in safe hands.
Wrap Up
Creating a customer oriented design is a necessity for all e-commerce websites. You may not win AWWWARDS’s website of the month award with such designs, but you may be able to win hundreds of happy and satisfied customers.
