User Expectations: 6 Things Your Audience Need In Your Website

What is User’s Expectations?

User expectations refer to the consistency your audience expects about a product, service, or digital asset.

In the world of web design, user expectation happens in a millisecond after your web page loads in the search results. User expectations should be answered or managed to meet customer satisfaction.

Whose Expectations Do You Need to Manage?

Simple, your target audience.

Since expectations aren’t created in isolation, a vast variety of expectations exists. This is why your web design must focus only on your target audience.

To manage their expectations, you should:

1. Know their needs and desires.
2. Answer their concerns and issues.
3. Explore their social media and shopping habit.
4. Spy on your competitor’s websites to learn the web standards they adhere to.

6 Things Your Audience Expects

Loading Time

It’s your website’s primary impression for users making it the most important audience expectation you should manage.

Here’s why:

According to Google and Soasta study:

• If a website loads longer than 3 seconds, 53% of mobile users abandon such sites.
• Double revenue is observed on mobile sites that load within 5 seconds compared to sites that took 19 seconds to load.
• Faster sites (5 seconds below) had 70% longer average session and 35% lower bounce rate than slow loading sites (19 seconds).

According to Google report:

• Conversions fall by 20% for every second of delay in loading time.

According to a KISSmetrics report:

• 47% of consumers expect a web page to load in two seconds or less.
• 40% of visitors abandon a website that takes more than three seconds to load.

According to Hubspot:

• 16% decrease in customer satisfaction for every second of loading time delay.

Web Standards

77% of users expect that simple web design elements behave across the internet. They expect that standard elements in your website work the same as other sites because that’s how things always work.

That’s the beauty of web standards, your audience is already accustomed to certain qualities, making it easy for you to make your website user-friendly and attractive.

These are some web design standards according to the Nielsen Norman Group:

• A logo in the upper left corner of the page
• A search box on the homepage
• An absence of splash pages
• Breadcrumbs a.k.a secondary navigation scheme listed horizontally (when they were used)

Not following these standards causes distrust from your audience because they feel cheated and lost.

An example of a web standard audience expectation is the contact information on your website. If there’s none, 44% of website visitors will leave your website pronto.

Clear Navigation

Navigation is the cornerstone of website usability. Users won’t use your website if they can’t navigate it well.

50% of visitors use the navigation menu to orient themselves.

44% of internet users who complained difficult navigation are most likely to bounce away from the complained sites.

User Experience

User experience covers the general feel of your website which includes industry standard design, graphics, interface, physical interaction, and the manual to your user.

A well-designed user interface could increase conversion rate by 200%. But if you have expert web developers, these conversions could spike up to 400% by using better UX design.

If your web design falls short of user experience expectations, 88% of online customers are less likely to return.

Accessibility

Nothing angers your audience than having your website not responding to their device.

Content that displays according to a user’s device was held at the top 2 (73%) most important facet of content.  77% of mobile searches occur at home or at work even when desktop or laptops are within reach. 48% of users say that inaccessible sites on mobile indicate the business simply doesn’t care.

Desirable Design

Once your site loads, users form their opinion after .05 seconds then judgment will be served on your web design.

Three stats your web design you should be wary of:

• 94% of people cited that web design as the reason for mistrust or rejection
• 66% of users will choose something beautifully designed over simple and plain if they only have 15 minutes to spare.
• 38% of people will stop engaging with a website if the content/layout is unattractive.

Yep, design matters a lot. But, your web design should still anchor to your target audience. Aesthetic perception is subjective. Make your design specifically attractive for those who matter.

Benefits in Answering These Expectations

A clear understanding of user’s expectations greatly affects your business and audience. It provides insights on optimizing your website for better user experience, which leads to increased traffic, engagement, and conversion.

All businesses have great opportunities. It’s a shame that 7 in 10 of them fail because they fail to connect with their target audience. One of the reasons is undermining target audience expectations.

Design Your Website As Your User Expects

Nothing is more critical than offering seamless, friction-less, digital experience to your audience.

Learn what your audience expects, and deliver it. This gives you the opportunity to impact your audience more effectively.

We can help you with that.

VirtuoLegance is a digital agency that provides web design and internet marketing services. Our expert web developers can help you create your virtual representation that gives your audience expectations while representing the unique you.