That said, have you ever walked up to a door and pushed (or pulled) — and the door didn’t budge? I’m guessing yes. This poor user experience is the result of a poorly designed door.

The reason I bring this up is the other day I was entering a building after an appointment and I encountered some really good doors!

Before we go any further, let’s quickly define user experience so we’re all on the same page …

User experience is the positive, negative or neutral experience you have online or in the real world (what I like to call the analog world). It’s as simple as that!

From the instant I looked at them, I could tell these doors were well designed because I didn’t have to think about how to use them.

To enter the building, the vertical bars made it clear that the door needed to be pulled to be opened …

To leave the building, the horizontal bars clearly communicated they were to be pushed …

Now, this may not seem like a big deal, but if both sides of the door had ONLY horizontal bars or ONLY vertical bars, then the clarity of how to use the door is lost.

What this has to do with web design …

Well, a lot, actually.

When someone arrives on your website, you want things to be as clear and easy to understand as possible. Is it easy to find your products or services? How about ways to get in touch? Do you have one or two calls-to-action on your homepage, or do you have dozens like this one?

If you’re interested in geeky stuff like this, check out The Design of Everyday Things, by Don Norman. It’s chock-full of examples of products that have positive and negative user experiences.

Want more tips and insights from Cuppa SEO?

The post Analog User Experience: The (Sometimes) Simple Act of Opening a Door appeared first on Cuppa SEO.

Lucky’s was actually the reason we were in Cleveland to begin with, as we were on a Guy Fieiri (Diners, Drive-Ins & Dives) road trip as we made our way to New York.

As you may have guessed, I’ll be talking about the analog user experience (AUX) that my boys and I had while visiting the cafe (my wife had flown to NY a few days earlier, so it was just us boys).

Lucky’s had a lot going for it.

Here’s a partial list, put together by myself and my sons, Max and Joss, that details our analog user experience:

• Before we even walked in, the aesthetic of the building & the outside dining area were impressive & inviting.
• Inside, the beautiful aesthetic continued, with a clean, fresh & rustic design that was warm & homey — from color palette to furniture & overall decor — well designed.
• A treats counter with delicious-looking goodies.
• The wait staff was friendly, informative, authentic & compassionate (I have some dietary restrictions that they were extremely willing to cater to without any hassle).
• The food was made from scratch, literally — no shipping in bread or jam, or the goodies in the treats counter … they make it all themselves (and it was really good)!
• Lucky’s has great relationships in the Cleveland community, partnering with farmers, butchers, etc, who provide them with local ingredients.
• The menu was minimalist, yet mouth watering — making it clear and easy to determine what my options were.
• The food was awesome — fresh, delicious & beautifully plated.

*Note: that’s the waitress in the middle photo, not my wife.

My son Joss gave Lucky’s Cafe a 5 out of 5 for analog user experience. Although I think next time, he’d rather fly than drive to get there.

How this Relates to Your Website

In each installment of our analog user experience series we’ll look at ways our real-world experiences relate to the online user experience, in an effort to help you assess where your website is at.

Aesthetic
The exterior of Lucky’s is like the homepage on your website. Before anybody sees what’s inside, there’s a good chance they’ll land on your homepage first, and it needs to impress. The same can be said about your subpages, which is like the inside of Lucky’s. If your subpages are confusing, bland or hard to navigate your user experience score will plummet.

Content
The food at Lucky’s was made by them from scratch. The same needs to be true of your website content. It needs to be original, created from scratch by you (or a professional writer like me) so it’s unique and relevant. Of course it should also be optimized with SEO in every nook-and-cranny.

The freshness factor heavily comes into play with your blog, which is the easiest way to continually integrate fresh content into your website. In a way, it’s like the treat counter at Lucky’s because fresh content is as appealing to Google’s algorithm as fresh pastries are to human tastebuds.

Conversion
To achieve high conversion on your website, your call to action needs to be clear. Notice that I said “call to action,” not “calls to action.” Too often, websites offer way too many calls to action to customers, when they should only be providing one or two. Lucky’s menu is the perfect metaphorical example of a successful call to action. It’s clear, easy to understand and it wasn’t eight pages long like the menus we’ve all had to fumble through at a diner. When we offer only one or two calls to action, we wind up providing a better user experience, and in turn have a greater chance of having the customer take that action.

In other words, avoid this …

And if you’re ever in Cleveland, OH, be sure to visit Lucky’s Cafe!

The post My Family Road Trip & the Analog User Experience, Part 2: Lucky’s Cafe appeared first on Cuppa SEO.

You might be wondering why a company that specializes in web design, blogging and search engine optimization would be talking about analog user experience. The reason is simple: the core principal of both analog and digital user experience is the same …

… to give each person who visits the very best experience possible.

In this series, we’ll be exploring mini-case studies in AUX that can be applied to your business and your website.

Let’s begin with the first hotel we stayed at on our way to NYC — the Hilton Gardens in Cleveland, Ohio.

On the trip to NY, it was just me and the boys (my wife flew out ahead of us) and we were exhausted from a long day of driving.

When we arrived at the hotel, I was informed that I’d be billed $16 for on-stie parking. Not a big deal, but a surprise all the same.

Our room contained many unique attributes that I had not experienced in a hotel before, including:
– A huge hairball on the bathroom floor
– A rickety toilet that teetered side to side
– A rusty toilet paper holder that was half detached from the wall
– An ancient looking shower that was built with absolutely NO design sense

In addition, none of the vending machines had water in them and the jacuzzi (which my kids love for some reason) was not clean.

Overall, my 9-year old son Joss gave this hotel 1.5 out of 5 stars.

The hotel’s branding clearly states, “welcome to the Hilton Garden Inn, home of the EXCELLENT stay. Excellence drives us!”

There was nothing excellent about our stay, other than the relief we felt after we left the hotel. The user experience was horrible.

How this Relates to Your Website

Is your website suffering from the same kinds of issues this hotel presented? Do you have broken links or missing images? Maybe the information on your site is outdated, or your website is suffering from an old design that’s no longer appealing to the eye. Or, maybe your navigation is confusing. Issues like these could cause a poor user experience, and in turn cost your company revenue.

Even if your site is functioning properly, it doesn’t mean your users like it. At the end of the day, the hotel room still performed it’s function, but it did so in a way that made us never want to go there again.

Make sure your website isn’t being perceived as a yucky hair ball. Instead, make it something appealing that people WANT to visit again.

The post My Family Road Trip & the Analog User Experience (AUX), Part 1 appeared first on Cuppa SEO.