UX Design for Integrated Mediums: Seamless User Experiences for Web and Mobile Platforms5 min read

User experience (UX) design is critical for creating websites and mobile applications that users will enjoy using. A good UX design makes it easy for users to find the information or content they need, while also providing a pleasurable experience. A bad UX design, on the other hand, can frustrate and even alienate users, leading them to abandon your website or app altogether.

Integrated mediums are those that allow users to access content across multiple platforms, including computers, tablets, and smartphones. Creating a seamless UX design for integrated mediums can be a challenge, but it’s important to get it right in order to keep users engaged.

While marketing is important for success, having a solid user experience, or UX, should be central to your process. Imagine if you went to a great café because of their fantastic signage, only to discover, once inside, that they have no furniture. Sure, the coffee may be great, but it’s not comfortable or easy for the customer to use. It would be unrealistic to expect a guest to remain in such an inhospitable environment, much less to actively explore it. Creating an environment that’s easily navigable and comfortable is important both for your website and for the success of your marketing techniques.

Integrated UX in Practice

One of the primary keys to a successful website or app design is creating a seamless user experience (UX) that is consistent across all devices and platforms. This can be a challenge, as different users have different preferences when it comes to how they access digital content. Some prefer the traditional desktop/laptop experience, while others prefer the convenience of mobile devices. It is important for designers to consider both types of users when creating a UX design. The goal should be to create a design that is easy to use and navigate regardless of the device being used.

Aesthetics

Keep the overall look and feel consistent across all devices. This includes using similar colors, fonts, and layout elements. The goal is to create a cohesive design that users will easily recognize, no matter what device they are using.

Functionality

Make sure the navigation is easy to use and intuitive. Users should be able to find what they are looking for without difficulty. This means considering how users will interact with the content on different devices and designing the UX accordingly.

Consider how users will interact with your content on each type of device. For example, users may be more likely to watch a video on their desktop than on their mobile phone. Mobile devices require a slightly different approach when it comes to navigation. The smaller screen size means that designers need to be more selective about what content is included and how it is organized.

Good web-to-mobile integration involves adapting the information presented on the website so that it can be accessed via a mobile device just as quickly and easily as it could be on a tablet or full-size computer. The best such designs allow for a visitor to switch back and forth between web and mobile with almost zero difference in how the site functions and interacts.

User Engagement

A good design strategy must always appeal to the widest possible audience without ignoring the specific preferences and needs of different types of visitors. But an effective design should also ideally appeal to the preferred target demographic. Visitors of different types from different backgrounds will by nature respond differently to different experiential touchpoints.

Generational differences are also worth consideration: older web users might respond best to information organized in a more linear, text-heavy manner familiar to them from print media, whereas younger users may respond better to leaner, more intuitively-formatted short excerpts and bullet point style “fast takes” that summarize a subject. Who is your primary audience? One must take care to best serve the needs of your desired audience.

In order to achieve a lower incidence of website “bounces,” where a site visitor abruptly clicks away from the current site in favor of another destination, another effective strategy can be to strive for “invisible” design – a design so perfectly and smoothly integrated and navigable that it allows the details of the overall framework of the website to completely fade into the background of the user’s consciousness, allowing that user to directly interact with the information being presented with no notice of how or why it’s formatted or presented in the manner it is.

This approach seeks to avoid any distraction or experiential roadblock that might knock the visitor “out” of their direct engagement with the information on the site by confronting them with distracting design elements or delayed processes.

Simple Content

Ensure that content is easy to read and digest, whether users are viewing it on a small mobile screen or a large desktop monitor. Making sure that your content explains what it needs to without being longwinded can be a challenge, but it is vitally important. Consumers are far more likely to read something brief and to the point than something that is overly long and complicated. This is the same in social media. Keep it short, exciting, and engaging.

Sharp Innovations is a modern, forward-thinking digital marketing firm that has embraced the newest and most efficient Artificial Intelligence applications in our marketing endeavors. Our adaptability to this new technology allows us to supercharge our marketing processes to deliberately focus our efforts in the most efficient way on behalf of all our clients.   

If you want to upgrade your marketing game and create a website that your customers will love, Sharp Innovations can help. We specialize in creating seamless websites, supporting e-commerce, and providing digital marketing services that take your business to the next level. If you’re ready to improve your online presence, contact us today.