Search Engine Marketing

What is user-centred design and how can it make my site perform better?

User-centred design is an approach to web site development and visual design that begins with the user's goals and objectives, rather than the website owner's goals. For example, a user's objective might be to find prices, or to order a product swiftly, whereas a company focussed objective might be to reinforce brand, or gather data about site users.


User-centred design involved specialist techniques such as user profiling, in which a description of a typical user is written in enough detail to convey their needs from the site. For example, if a typical visitor is someone who does not have a lot of experience online, that will inform the amount of help and signposting that will be required in the site design.


User-centred design means that there is more work before initial designs are created, and thus can impact upon the cost of a site design using these techniques, but the final website that emerges as a result of this process will have better usability and consequently a higher conversion rate than sites designed without the user in mind.