As a self storage owner, how often do you consider your website’s User Interface (UI)? If you’re not heavily invested in the design process, you may want to reconsider your distance from it. You may be missing a key way to collect qualified leads, influence sales, or create goodwill with customers. Let’s take a look why UI matters, what good UI looks like, and three reasons it should be a cornerstone of your marketing and sales efforts.
What is UI?
When it comes to web design and development, UI refers to all the tools users can utilize to navigate to where they want – or have been encouraged to travel – on your site. It involves choosing design and interface elements such as input fields, forms, color selection, navigational elements, and text.
Interacting with these elements through clicking and scrolling is often referred to as User Experience (UX). UX and UI dovetail with one another because a good user interface is an important component of ensuring a good user experience.
What is Good UI?
Good UI is intuitive, clean, and designed with purpose and intent. More importantly, good UI follows conventions of good design (in most cases). It is accessible to the widest possible portion of the general public by being inclusive in both form and language.
User Interface Best Practices
For more detailed information on effective UI design, visit usability.gov.
Why Does Good UI Matter?
Now that we have an idea what good UI looks like, let’s talk about why it’s a great investment. When thinking about how UI can impact your business, avoid the temptation to look at it as an expensive proposition. Instead, look at it from every angle.
Brand Building
UI is an extension of your brand. Ensuring that your customer base can easily discern the appropriate elements necessary for behaviors they want to perform will pay dividends and potentially lead them further into the sales funnel.
Lead Generation
Good UI on the right landing page can make a world of difference. By having easy-to-use contact forms, you will invite potential customers to turn into highly qualified leads by submitting their information. Those customers will either continue down the funnel on their own or give you ample opportunity to engage in targeted advertising efforts.
Sales
The final part of the process might delve into the UX component, but having a convenient, easy-to-navigate UI in your sales tool directly on the website can help expedite the sales process and reduce overhead.
A good SEO agency will tell you the importance of keeping traffic on your site and eliminating as many bounces as possible; an attractive user interface (and great user experience) is a cornerstone of those efforts.
Who Should I Talk To About UI?
Don’t be roped into the idea that building your own website is a simple process; self storage management in particular has a lot of moving parts, especially in regards to reservations, billing, and website management. Usability design and accessibility are also complicated issues that benefit from a professional approach. A good interface serves your business and create an experience that your users will love and return to again and again.