9 WordPress-related UX issues that are common and how you can fix them
-sidebar-toc> -language-notice>
User experience (UX) in WordPress is the most important thing. It's not just a fashion or something to be thought of as an afterthought. It's the most important element to the success of your site. If you've got a well-designed UX on your WordPress site can boost the conversion rate, decrease bounce rates, and increase general customer satisfaction.
Making improvements to UX has a substantial potential return on investment, with every dollar you spend earning up to $100.
How do you accomplish this? We'll approach it in the manner of a diagnostician.
We'll begin this journey to redesign your WordPress site by examining the most common UX issues and providing practical strategies for fixing these issues.
What follows are 9 UX difficulties WordPress site owners face, presented with tips and solutions for resolving them.
1. Load times that are slow
There's nothing that tests the patience of a user more than a website that is slow to load. The fact is that more than 50% of smartphone users abandon a website if it takes longer than three seconds in loading. Therefore, the speed of your website will determine whether or not it improves your user experience.
There are a variety of ways to address this:
Start with a speed diagnosis
Rather, it offers a breakdown of what's slowing your site down and gives tailored advice on how to fix it. Consider it an assessment of your site's health. This should be one of your primary sources when you are trying to diagnose a UX problem.
Shrink image sizes
Massive, bulky images are among the most common reasons behind slow site speeds. The plugins such as WP-Optimize will reduce file sizes without sacrificing the quality of your images. This helps your pages load quicker and keeps your users content.
Additionally, you can use tools such as TinyPNG to cut down dimensions prior to uploading them onto WordPress.
Use caching
Opt to host your website with top-quality
This setting speeds up your site for users from across the globe, and makes sure that your site is able to handle spikes in traffic.
2. A complex design
It's not a secret that the design is crucial in making an impression on people who first see it. The staggering 94% of initial impressions are related to your website's style. So, if your WordPress site feels cluttered or difficult to navigate visitors could leave before they've even had a chance to explore whatever the product you're offering.
Here's how to ensure this doesn't happen:
Simplify your navigation
Use a responsive design
To be clear A design can be described as responsive by adapting to the screen's size and the orientation of the device being used. That means that no matter where your users come from or what devices they're using. You will get the same high-quality experience.
Using a responsive design improves accessibility and usability. Fortunately, most WordPress themes are responsive by default. It's nevertheless important to check that any theme you choose to use shows that it's responsive. It's also important to check it for yourself. After installing, you can open your test site from the desktop PC (in different browsers) then do exactly the same thing with mobile devices.
3. Poor content presentation
The content is crucial, however how it's presented can either draw or disengage your readers. Ineffectively designed or visually appealing material can instantly deter viewers regardless of how useful the information may be. After all, the best information won't be a hit when no one is there to read it.
There are several methods to improve the way your content is displayed:
Creating high-quality, engaging content
Begin by making sure your text is interesting, entertaining visually pleasing. Make use of an active voice and a conversational tone to make your writing easier to digest. Include relevant images, videos, and infographics to break up text and create visual appeal.
You can, for instance, transform a blog post into something which looks and feels like an article from a magazine with only a few extra clicks.
Your content should be structured to ensure readability
Your content should be broken down into chunks that are manageable. Use headlines that capture the essence of the following section, making it simpler for the user to scan to find the info they're looking for.
You can also make use of bullet points to summarize important details concisely and keep paragraphs short to maintain readers' attention. These formatting choices improve readability and enhance the overall user experience by making information accessible at a glance.
4. Too many plugins
Plugins add features to WordPress, but excessive amounts of them can slow down the speed of your website. It could slow down your website's performance. quickly. This is not even mentioning the magnitude of security threats that could be a possibility. Every plugin adds new security vulnerabilities, and could increase loading times.
While site visitors likely won't be aware of the plugins you're using A slowing of your site could have a direct effect on the users.
You can fix this with:
Using only essential plugins
Examine the plugins you are installing. Consider whether each has a crucial function. If you decide that you need a plugin ensure that it is up-to the latest version. Regular updates help fix security concerns and boost the performance of your application, since developers frequently improve their software with every upgrade.
Removal of plugins not used
It's common to test several plugins before deciding to leave them behind. But, every plugin that is inactive installed on your site is a potential security risk and can slow down your website. Clean the mess of the mess in your WordPress installation by uninstalling and deleting any plugins you're not actively using.
In order to prevent the buildup of plugins schedule a site tuneup where you will review potential problems such as this each three months.
5. Complicated and unintuitive forms
Thankfully, you can remedy this issue in WordPress fairly easy.
Simple forms to design
Make sure your forms are simple and to the point. Make sure to only ask for data that is necessary for the purpose in hand. If it's a signup page, a purchase order, or even a newsletter subscription make sure to limit the amount of fields you can fill in to only necessary ones.
It reduces the effort of users and improves the rate of completion. An application like Gravity Forms is extremely helpful in providing the capability to tailor form templates to meet your particular requirements to your WordPress dashboard.
Define calls to action
Make sure that every call-to-action (CTA) in your website has a clear and convincing message. Site visitors should immediately know in a single glance the process that will occur when they click a button or complete a submission.
Make use of action-oriented words that inspire people to take the next step. And ensure these buttons are well-lit and are easy to use. Make them stand out with a contrast colour.
6. Not paying attention to aesthetics and readability
It's true that a large part of a website's credibility comes from its aesthetics. People are quick to make judgments, and a site that is outdated or difficult to navigate can leave users skeptical about its quality and credibility. To avoid this, you'll need to take care to keep your site sharp and current.
How to accomplish this using WordPress:
Select a theme that mirrors your brand
BEDPXBMDQtBmpfEvBfir Astra theme
The theme you choose is based on the niche you are in But themes such as Astra as well as Kadence can be generally popular.
Make sure your theme is up-to-date
Whatever theme you choose, it's imperative that you ensure that it is up-to-date. Failing to do so can expose your website to security risks. It could also mean design updates aren't applied to your site when they are released, putting your website behind in terms of appearance and functions.
Make sure you are careful with color and fonts.
The accessibility of your site adequate contrast between the text and background hues.
An intelligent color scheme can enhance the appeal and aesthetics, however, it can also improve the overall usability of your site. Ensure that your color choices aren't overwhelming your content but rather help to enhance the content.
7. Inefficient media usage
Although putting videos or images on your website can boost engagement, they also come with a downside that they could be a burden on resources. Massive video or image files could significantly reduce the speed of your website. No one would want that.
However, including multimedia components is super important, and the data doesn't lie. According to a study of GoodFirms, 73% of consumers tend to be more likely to complete purchases after watching a product video. You need to have it however, you must manage the process properly.
In WordPress Here's how you can accomplish it:
Embed videos embedded from other platforms
Instead of hosting the videos directly on your website, that can use up a significant amount of storage and bandwidth, embed them from platforms like YouTube. This method allows you to benefit from the advanced streaming capabilities of YouTube without weighing down the resources of your website.
Implement lazy loading
Using lazy loading speeds up the initial page load time and also reduces bandwidth consumption for the server and the user. Loading media-on-demand rather than in a single step increases website speed, and also lets you include all those fun photos and videos with no impact on site performance.
You can use a plugin like WP Rocket or a3 Lazy Load to enable this feature.
8. Accessibility limited
To remedy this, you should increase the reach of your website in accordance with the most current accessibility guidelines.
Be sure to adhere to Web Content Accessibility Guidelines (WCAG)
Reviewing and implementing the guidelines for WCAG must be the initial step toward making your website usable for all visitors.
WCAG offers a list of recommendations for making web content more accessible. These include things such as keyboard-navigated menus, colors for people visually impaired and compatibility with screen readers, and so forth.
The implementation of these guidelines guarantees that your website is used by people of all abilities and disabilities. These guidelines cover a variety of factors such as fonts, colors, and interactivity to make sure that all users can use your site effectively.
Some WordPress themes, like Miniva, are accessible upon installation or "accessibility-ready," which means they can be customized easily to meet WCAG.
Conduct regular accessibility testing
Software such as tools like WAVE and Axe are invaluable for regularly testing your website's accessibility. These tools can help identify aspects of your site that aren't accessible for people with disabilities, such as inadequate contrast, or insufficient keyboard navigability.
Testing regularly lets you address the issues quickly and keep an excellent the user service.
9. Security vulnerabilities
People need to trust that their personal information is protected while browsing, commenting and subscribing to or purchase on your site. Any breach or even the perception of vulnerability can damage that trust, potentially driving away customers and impacting your reputation as a brand.
There are many ways to address UX problems due to security vulnerabilities but:
Make sure you take strong security precautions
Utilizing sophisticated security protocols, such as SSL certificates is vital for ensuring the highest degree of security. SSL certificates encrypt the data transmitted between your server and users' computers. If your website handles sensitive information (like customers' payment information as well as email addresses) You need SSL certificates.
Make sure to keep WordPress updated
It's also essential to maintain your WordPress website's themes, core and plugins up to date with latest update.
The updates typically include enhancements to the features you're already making use of, along with fixes for security weaknesses that have been identified. The longer your site is old, the greater chance for cybercriminals to break into your site.
Summary
Transforming the look and feel of your WordPress site's UX isn't just about improving its appearance and experience but also about optimizing speed, security, as well as the user experience. If you address the nine UX concerns listed in this article as well as using the advice we've given to improve the way visitors perceive and interact with your site.
Leverage these insights and tips to make your WordPress website functional and user-centric. The journey to a truly amazing user experience begins here! For a better boost to your website's UX, consider working with a host like , which prioritizes both the speed of your site and its security.
Jeremy Holcombe
Senior Editor at WordPress Web Developer, and Content Writer. Outside of everything related to WordPress I like the beach, golf, as well as movies. Also, I have height issues.