The next star small business website user experience is Plants the Jewellers in Staffordshire. This is another great example of a UK small business website which has thought about its customers.
The good user experience of the site comes together from a combination of different elements of the user experience working well.
The best element of the user experience in this site is how they have arranged the content of their site around their main target customer groups: getting married, men, looking for designer, looking for bespoke, looking for a valuation, or looking for a specific type of jewellery. You can see this from their main navigation. It means users will find the information they are looking for much quicker, and will the site feels intuitive and relevant to them.
Other elements of good user experience in this site include:
- A clear homepage which means users will immediately know what this business is about and what they offer.
- A visual design which continues the look and feel of their shop and packaging, establishing a strong brand identity.
- Clear, persistent navigation, so users won’t get lost using this site.
- Simple to use drop-down menus with obvious functionality.
- Good utility – the right information and functionality is presented at the right time.
- Shallow site structure, everything is within a few clicks of the homepage.
- Clear contact details at the top of the page, plus an online contact form with map.
- Balanced and useful imagery, including product galleries, to communicate different product ranges and items.
- Clickable objects and areas are very clear, making it feel easy to use.
In total they have a site which is easy to use, efficient, useful, simple, and has functionality with good utility. And it feels unique to their brand. In other words it has good usability and a good user experience.
Users will quickly and easily be able to evaluate who they are, what they do, what they offer, where to find them and how to contact them. They have clearly thought about the user when they have built this site, and how the user’s main goal would be to evaluate what they offer, so their website forms a very effective product and service showcase, and helps people to recognise their shop for when they visit.
