Reduce “User Friction” on Your HomePage

User friction is defined as a psychological resistance to an aspect of a website which results in confusion, aggravation and/or weariness on the part of the user. It can throw a seriously large wrench in gears of the conversion process online.

Of course it’s impossible to create a web page free of friction, but you can take steps to reduce user friction. Let’s examine a few ways you can ease the mind’s of your users.

Make Your Search Box Easy to Find

The search box is one of the first things that users look for on a new web page. That’s because the search box is familiar to most users as a way to quickly find what they’re looking for. Creating a good navigation scheme is actually harder than most people think, but putting your search box where its easily seen isn’t.

Don’t frustrate your visitors when you don’t have to. Put the search box higher up on the page, with a fair amount of white space around it so its very visible on the page.

Another search related friction issue is site searches that don’t take common misspellings and synonyms into account when configuring results. Make it easy for users to find the information they’re looking for with a fully operable site search incapable of a returning a ’0 results found’ page.

Minimize Page Load Time

This one is a no-brainer too web developers that understand users like an instant reaction when they click through a page. Long gone are the early days when users would put up with page that takes a minute or two to load.

Just like broken links and 404 pages, a long page load time frustrates users, decreases their confidence in your website and allows them the time to bounce to another site.