How to Improve Website User Experience Today

If you want to create a website that not only looks good but actually drives business growth, you need to nail the user experience. This isn't just about flashy designs or cool animations; it's about building a seamless, frustration-free journey for your visitors. When people find your site fast, intuitive, and trustworthy, they're far more likely to stick around, convert, and come back for more.

Why a Better Website User Experience Drives Growth

Think about your own experiences online. You land on a site, and it takes forever to load. You click away. You try to find something, get lost in a confusing menu, and give up. These are lost opportunities, and they happen every single second.

Today’s users have sky-high expectations. They want digital interactions that just work. Anything less is a direct path to a high bounce rate and a hit to your brand's credibility. Investing in a solid UX isn't a "nice-to-have"—it's a massive competitive advantage.

The Four Pillars of Effective UX

To really improve your website's user experience, I've found it helps to break it down into four core pillars. Get these right, and you're building a foundation for a site that performs exceptionally well.

• Speed: Your site’s loading time is the first—and sometimes last—impression you’ll make. A slow website is a conversion killer before anyone even sees your homepage.
• Navigation: Can visitors find what they need, fast? If not, they're gone. A logical, clear information architecture isn't optional.
• Design: A professional design and clear visual hierarchy do more than just look good; they build trust and guide users toward key actions, like signing up or buying something.
• Accessibility: An inclusive experience that works for everyone isn't just the right thing to do. It expands your audience and shows your brand is for all users.

This flow shows how these four pillars—Speed, Navigation, Design, and Accessibility—come together to form a complete UX improvement process.

Each step builds on the last, giving you a structured way to tackle your site’s performance and meet your users' needs head-on.

A well-optimised user experience turns casual visitors into loyal customers. It reduces friction at every touchpoint, making it easier for people to say "yes" to what you're offering. This is the core principle behind learning https://www.derrick.dk/post/how-to-increase-website-conversions.

Ultimately, a fantastic UX delivers a tangible return. To take things a step further, think about how you can captivate your audience. Experts agree that unlocking engagement with interactivity on websites can be a powerful way to hold attention and guide users through your funnel, turning a good experience into a truly memorable one.

Boost Site Speed for a Strong First Impression

Think of your website's loading time as the first handshake. It's the very first interaction a potential customer has with your brand. In a world where attention spans are measured in seconds, a slow, clunky site isn’t just a minor hiccup—it’s a dead end. It’s a surefire way to lose trust before you even get a chance to build it.

The numbers don't lie, especially when you look at user behaviour in the UK. Website speed is everything. Studies consistently show that 54% of UK visitors will simply leave a site if it takes more than three seconds to load.

The impact on your bottom line is even more dramatic. Just cutting your load time from a sluggish eight seconds down to two can boost conversions by a massive 74%. Even a tiny one-second delay can cause a 7% drop in conversions. Every millisecond really does count.

Getting to Grips with Google's Core Web Vitals

To really make a dent in your site's performance, you need to know what you're aiming for. Google uses a set of metrics called Core Web Vitals to quantify the actual, real-world experience someone has on your page. Getting these right is your roadmap to a faster site.

• Largest Contentful Paint (LCP): This is all about perceived load speed. It measures how long it takes for the biggest thing on the screen—usually a hero image or a large block of text—to appear. You're aiming for an LCP under 2.5 seconds. Anything faster signals to users that the page is loading properly and is ready to use.
• First Input Delay (FID): This one’s about responsiveness. It measures the time from when a user first interacts with your site (like clicking a button) to when the browser can actually start processing that action. A good FID is anything less than 100 milliseconds.
• Cumulative Layout Shift (CLS): Ever tried to click a button, only for an ad to load and push it down the page at the last second? That’s layout shift. CLS measures how much your page elements jump around as they load. A low score here means the experience is stable and predictable, not jarring and frustrating.

These aren't just abstract numbers; they are direct measures of user delight or frustration. Improving them is one of the most tangible ways to improve your UX.

Practical Steps for a Faster Website

Alright, let's get our hands dirty. You don’t need to be a seasoned developer to make a real difference to your site's speed. Often, the biggest improvements come from simple, consistent habits.

One of the most common speed killers? Unoptimised images. Huge, high-resolution photos can bloat your page weight and send your LCP score through the roof.

Pro Tip: Before you upload a single image, run it through a compression tool like TinyPNG or Squoosh. These can slash file sizes by over 70% with almost no visible loss in quality. If you're using Webflow, make sure you're using responsive image settings so smaller devices get smaller files.

Here are a few other critical fixes:

1. Minify Your Code: Minification strips out all the unnecessary characters from your HTML, CSS, and JavaScript files—things like spaces, comments, and line breaks. This makes the files smaller and faster for browsers to download. Most modern platforms like Webflow do this for you, but it’s always worth double-checking your site settings.
2. Use Browser Caching: Caching is like giving a returning visitor's browser a memory. It stores parts of your website locally, so on their next visit, it doesn't have to re-download everything. This makes repeat visits feel almost instant.
3. Implement Lazy Loading: This clever technique stops images and videos "below the fold" from loading until the user actually scrolls down to them. It prioritises what the user sees first, which is a huge win for that all-important LCP score.

While these on-site tweaks are essential, don't forget the foundation: your hosting. If your server is slow, none of this will matter. This is especially true for dynamic sites; choosing from the best managed WordPress hosting providers can make an night-and-day difference in server response time and overall reliability. A solid host ensures your beautifully optimised site gets delivered without a bottleneck.

If you want to go deeper on this, our full guide breaks down exactly how to make your website fast and why you should.

Design Intuitive Navigation and Site Structure

If visitors can't find what they need on your website, you've already lost them. A slick design and lightning-fast load times count for very little if the journey is a confusing mess. This is where solid Information Architecture (IA) becomes your most valuable asset, transforming a frustrating maze into a clear, logical path.

Think of your site’s structure as the floor plan of a physical shop. If items are scattered randomly without aisles or signs, customers will simply walk out empty-handed. Your site is no different. People arrive with a goal, and your navigation has to guide them there with zero guesswork.

Keep Your Main Navigation Simple and Focused

Overwhelming users with too many choices is a classic mistake. The “less is more” principle is crucial for a clean user experience. As a rule of thumb, aim to limit your main navigation menu to no more than five to seven essential items. This forces you to get crystal clear on what truly matters to your users.

Ditch the vague, jargon-filled labels like "Solutions" or "Resources." Instead, use descriptive terms that your audience actually understands and searches for. For a SaaS company, this usually means clear, direct links like “Pricing,” “Features,” and “Integrations.”

A user who can predict where a link will take them is a user who feels confident and in control. This confidence is fundamental to building trust and encouraging exploration, which directly impacts conversion rates.

To get this right, you first need to map out the typical journey your users take. What information are they looking for first? What questions do they have? Structuring your navigation around these user-centric paths—rather than your internal company structure—is the key to a truly intuitive experience. For a deeper dive, exploring the principles of effective web page layout design can give you a solid foundation for organising your content logically.

Choosing the Right Navigation Style

The type of navigation you choose depends entirely on the complexity of your site. There’s no one-size-fits-all solution, so you have to pick the style that best serves your content and your users.

• Simple Sticky Header: This is ideal for smaller sites with a limited number of pages. A sticky header stays visible as the user scrolls, providing constant access to the main menu. It's perfect for startups and brochure sites where the primary goal is guiding users to a few key pages like "Contact" or "Services."
• Mega Menu: This is your best bet for large, content-heavy websites like e-commerce stores or sprawling SaaS platforms. A mega menu can display multiple levels of hierarchy all at once, saving users from having to dig through endless dropdowns. Think of how Asos uses a mega menu to showcase hundreds of product categories without overwhelming you.
• Breadcrumbs: These are navigational aids that show users their current location within the site's hierarchy. For any site with more than two levels of depth, breadcrumbs are essential. They act as a trail of digital signposts, allowing users to easily navigate back to higher-level pages without mashing the "back" button.

Here's a quick audit checklist to help you evaluate your current navigation. Go through each item and see how your site stacks up.

Navigation Structure Audit Checklist

Taking the time to run through this checklist can reveal some quick wins and highlight bigger structural issues you might need to tackle.

Eliminating Navigational Friction Points

Once you have a structure in place, the work isn't done. You need to actively hunt for points of friction—those annoying spots where users get stuck, confused, or just give up. A common culprit is a disorganised sitemap that leads people down dead ends or makes them backtrack constantly.

Map out a few key user flows. For instance, how does a new visitor find your pricing page and sign up for a trial? Actually follow that path yourself. Every unnecessary click, every moment of confusion, is a friction point that needs to be smoothed out. Your goal is to create a seamless path from the moment a user lands on your site to the moment they convert.

Use Visual Hierarchy to Build Trust and Guide Users

When someone lands on your website, you’ve got just a few seconds to make a good impression. Seriously, that’s it. Before they’ve even had a chance to read a single word of that killer copy you wrote, they're making an instant visual judgment. This is more than just pretty colours and fonts; it's about subconsciously building trust and guiding them where you want them to go.

This is where a solid visual hierarchy comes in. It’s the art of arranging everything on the page to signal importance—telling the user's eye what to look at first, second, and third. Without it, your page is just a wall of noise, leaving visitors confused and primed to hit the back button.

The stakes here are incredibly high. In the UK market, visual polish is directly tied to credibility. Think about it: a whopping 94% of UK users admit to judging a website primarily on its design. This perception of quality flows straight into brand trust, with 81% of consumers saying a professional-looking website influences their trust in a business. Get this wrong, and the consequences are brutal—a staggering 88% of users are unlikely to return after a bad experience. You can dig into more of the data on the UX-trust connection by reviewing these key statistics.

Master the Principles of Visual Weight

So, how do you create that clear path for the user? It all comes down to visual weight, which is really just the perceived "heaviness" of an element on the page. By playing with visual weight, you can effortlessly guide someone from your main headline right down to your call-to-action (CTA).

Give the most important parts of your page more weight. Here are the main tools you have to work with:

• Size: This one’s obvious. Bigger things grab more attention. Your main H1 heading should be the largest text on the page, followed by H2s, and so on. It creates an instant sense of order.
• Colour and Contrast: Bright, bold colours pop against a muted background. There’s a reason CTAs are often in a high-contrast colour—it makes them impossible to ignore. Use your brand’s accent colour strategically for buttons and key links to draw the eye.
• Typography: The font you pick makes a huge difference. A bold, chunky font carries more weight than a light, thin one. Use font weight to create a clear distinction between headings, subheadings, and your regular body copy.

A classic example is any good SaaS homepage. The main value proposition is almost always in the largest, boldest text. That "Get Started for Free" button? It's usually in a vibrant, contrasting colour that jumps off the page. This isn't an accident; it's a deliberate design choice that pulls the user towards the most important action.

Embrace the Power of White Space

One of the most powerful—and most frequently ignored—tools in your design kit is white space. Also known as negative space, it's simply the empty area around your content, and it’s crucial for improving readability and focus.

Clutter is the absolute enemy of good UX. When elements are crammed together, the brain has to work harder to make sense of it all, leading to cognitive overload. White space gives your design room to breathe.

By increasing the space between paragraphs and around key elements like images and CTAs, you create a more calming, organised, and professional-looking layout. This simple change can dramatically improve comprehension and reduce user frustration.

Here’s a practical tip if you’re building in Webflow: get into the habit of using rem or em units for your margins and padding instead of pixels. This ensures your spacing scales proportionally across different screen sizes, keeping your layout balanced and clean on every device.

Use Imagery and Icons to Communicate Instantly

We are visual creatures. Our brains process images far faster than text. Using high-quality, relevant imagery can communicate complex ideas in a flash, build an emotional connection, and strengthen your brand’s identity.

Just please, avoid generic stock photos. They feel completely inauthentic and can actually damage the trust you’re trying to build. If you can, invest in professional photography of your team or product in action. If not, find high-quality, stylised illustrations that match your brand’s personality.

Icons are another fantastic tool for visual communication. They break up long walls of text and serve as quick visual shortcuts for different features or benefits. For example, pairing a short feature description with a simple, universally understood icon makes the information much easier to scan and digest. When you improve your website user experience, every single visual element—from the hero image down to the smallest icon—needs to have a purpose.

Make Your Site Accessible for an Inclusive Experience

A great user experience is one that feels completely natural for everyone, regardless of their abilities. When we talk about improving a site’s UX, accessibility isn't just a box-ticking exercise or a niche concern—it’s a fundamental part of good design that genuinely broadens your audience and says a lot about your brand’s integrity.

Truth is, an accessible website is simply a more usable website for every single person who visits.

Globally, over one billion people live with some form of disability. If you neglect accessibility, you're not just putting up barriers for a huge portion of the population; you're actively turning away a massive potential market. The business case is compelling, but the human impact is what really matters.

Make Sure Your Content Is Actually Understandable

The bedrock of web accessibility is making sure your content can be perceived and understood by all. Many users depend on assistive tech like screen readers to browse the web, and these tools rely on a logically structured site to make any sense of what's on the page.

A clean heading structure is non-negotiable. Your page should have one, and only one, <h1> for the main title. From there, your sections should follow a clear hierarchy (<h2>, <h3>, and so on) without skipping any levels. This creates a virtual outline that screen readers announce, letting users jump straight to the section they need.

Another huge piece of the puzzle is providing text alternatives for anything that isn't text.

• Descriptive Alt Text: Every meaningful image needs alternative (alt) text that explains its content and purpose. If an image is purely for decoration, leave the alt attribute empty (alt="") so screen readers know to skip it.
• Transcripts and Captions: All your videos should have accurate, synchronised captions. Even better, provide a full transcript. This is essential for users who are deaf or hard of hearing, but it also helps people who just prefer to watch without sound.

Ensure Your Website Is Fully Navigable by Keyboard

For many people with motor impairments, using a mouse just isn't an option. They navigate entirely with a keyboard or other input devices. A simple but powerful accessibility test is to try and get around your entire website using only the Tab key.

Can you get to every interactive element—links, buttons, forms—in a logical sequence? And is it always obvious which element you’ve landed on? This visual cue is known as the focus state. If your designer has disabled it for purely aesthetic reasons, you’ve just created a massive roadblock for keyboard-only users.

A website that isn't keyboard-navigable is effectively a closed door for a significant number of users. Ensuring a clear focus state and logical tab order is one of the most impactful accessibility improvements you can make.

Design for Readability and Visual Clarity

Your design choices have a direct impact on accessibility, especially for users with low vision or colour blindness. Text absolutely must have enough contrast against its background to be easily read. The official recommendation from the Web Content Accessibility Guidelines (WCAG) is a minimum contrast ratio of 4.5:1 for normal text.

You can use a free online tool to check the contrast ratios of your brand colours. If they fail, a simple tweak to the text colour or background shade can make a world of difference.

And a big one: never use colour alone to convey information. For example, if a form error is only shown with a red border, a user with colour blindness might miss it entirely. You need to pair that colour change with an icon and some clear, descriptive text.

Test and Measure Your UX Improvements

Making changes to your website based on gut feelings or best practices is a great starting point, but how do you actually know if your hard work is paying off? Improving your site's user experience isn’t a one-and-done project. It's a continuous cycle of testing, measuring, and refining.

This is where you move from guesswork to data-driven decisions. Without solid measurement, you're essentially flying blind, unsure if that slick new navigation menu or faster page speed truly made a dent in your bottom line.

Use Analytics to Track Key UX Metrics

Your first port of call should always be your analytics platform, like Google Analytics. It's an absolute goldmine of quantitative data that tells you what users are doing on your site. Don't get lost in the sea of reports; just focus on a few crucial metrics that signal whether users are happy or frustrated.

• Bounce Rate: If a huge percentage of people land on a page and leave immediately, it’s a big red flag. It could mean your content isn't what they expected, or maybe the page is just too slow to load.
• Session Duration: Longer sessions usually mean users are engaged and finding your content valuable. Just be careful with context here—a long session on a checkout page might signal confusion, not delight.
• Goal Completions: This is the big one. Are more people signing up, buying products, or filling out forms after your changes? This directly measures whether your UX tweaks are driving real business results.

Go Beyond Numbers with Qualitative Feedback

Analytics tell you what’s happening, but qualitative tools are where you find out why. They add the human context behind the numbers, helping you build real empathy for your users and uncover friction points you'd never spot otherwise.

Data tells you where the problem is, but user feedback tells you what the problem is. Combining both quantitative and qualitative insights is the key to creating a truly exceptional user experience.

Tools like Hotjar or Microsoft Clarity are fantastic for this, letting you see your website through your visitors' eyes.

• Heatmaps: These visual guides show you exactly where users are clicking, how they move their mouse, and how far they bother to scroll. A heatmap might reveal that a critical call-to-action button you thought was obvious is being completely ignored.
• Session Recordings: This is like looking over your user's shoulder. Watch anonymised recordings of real sessions to see exactly where people get stuck, hesitate, or try to click on things that aren't even links. It’s an incredibly powerful way to diagnose usability issues.

When you combine the hard data from analytics with the rich, visual feedback from these tools, you create a powerful feedback loop. This cycle—implement, measure, learn, and repeat—is how you consistently level up your website's UX and turn more visitors into loyal customers.

Frequently Asked Questions About Website UX

Diving into the world of user experience can throw up a lot of questions. Based on our experience helping businesses get their sites right, here are some clear, straightforward answers to the queries we hear most often.

What Is the First Thing I Should Fix for Better UX?

Always start with site speed. It's the absolute foundation of good UX.

Before a user even lays eyes on your design or reads a word of your copy, they’re experiencing your site's loading time. A slow site creates a poor first impression that’s almost impossible to shake off.

Quick wins like optimising your images, enabling browser caching, and using fast hosting can have a massive impact. Keep in mind that over half of UK visitors will abandon a site if it takes more than three seconds to load. That makes speed your most critical starting point.

How Do I Know if My Website UX Is Bad?

Your analytics tell a pretty clear story. High bounce rates, low average session durations, and high exit rates on crucial pages (like your checkout or contact form) are all massive red flags pointing to user frustration.

But don't just rely on numbers. Look for qualitative signs, too. Session recording tools can be eye-opening, showing you exactly where users get stuck or "rage click" in confusion. If you're getting consistent feedback that your site is a pain to navigate, it's time to listen.

A poor UX isn't just a minor inconvenience; 88% of users are unlikely to return after a single bad experience.

The simplest way to get a raw, unfiltered look at your UX is to watch someone use your site. Ask them to complete a simple task—like finding a specific product or signing up for your newsletter—and just observe. Don't help them. Their struggles will instantly reveal your biggest friction points.

Improving your website's user experience is a continuous loop of listening to both data and people. Start with the biggest pain points your analytics and user feedback bring to light.

Ready to turn your website into a high-performing conversion engine? Derrick.dk specialises in building fast, SEO-optimised Webflow sites that deliver a flawless user experience and measurable business results. Book a discovery call today.