User interface (UI) and user experience (UX) are finally getting the attention they deserve. Gone are the days of low competition markets when a site could simply launch and find success once enough people knew about it. Today, a website has to offer a great experience and be easy to use or people will move along to something else.
The average internet user tends to exhibit a short attention span and limited patience. These strategies for UI and UX should help sites to maximize the value of their traffic and improve their chances for long-term success.
Top Marketing Blogs
There is a big difference between a blog and a site selling products and services, but the top marketers who keep their own blogs have a lot to teach. Even if their content is of little interest to web designers, how they lay out their blogs can offer strong clues on how to layout a site for maximum visitor retention. Most will follow a similar pattern of white backgrounds, black text, solid internal linking, and enough multimedia in the form of pictures and videos to keep visitors engaged and motivated to view more than one page.
Accept that people don’t read long pages. Nearly everyone reads headlines, but fewer people read the first paragraph, and even fewer will continue reading through an entire article. Messages must be clear and easily explain the benefit of continuing on. This applies to product descriptions just as much as it applies to any article throughout the site. If the purpose of a product is not immediately made clear, many people will click away and look for something else.
Speed Saves
The often overlooked component in UI and UX has to do with speed. Internet speeds on computers, tablets, and smartphones have gotten to be incredibly fast in recent years. Websites should reflect this newer and faster internet. Compressing images, using clean and minimal amounts of code, and hosting sites on quality servers capable of handling high traffic loads all improve the speed of a website. Anything more than a couple of seconds is too much for many people.
UI and UX may seem like daunting processes, but they can often be distilled to a few fundamental principles. Focusing on speed, simplicity and the tendencies of the average visitor go a long way towards creating a great site that is easy and enjoyable to use.
Mobile-First is No Longer Optional
When this article was first written, responsive design was a best practice. Today, mobile-first design is a requirement. The majority of web traffic comes from mobile devices, and search engines prioritize mobile usability in their rankings. That means every UI/UX decision must begin with how it will perform and appear on smaller screens — from tap targets and thumb zones to collapsible navigation and vertical content flow.
A mobile-first approach forces clarity. It prioritizes what matters, cuts the fluff, and focuses on essential interactions. This constraint is often a blessing — because once your interface works on mobile, it becomes easier to scale it up to tablet and desktop views.
Accessibility is Part of Experience
A great UI is one everyone can use. Accessibility is not a nice-to-have — it’s part of usability. Sites that fail to account for visual impairments, keyboard navigation, screen readers, and contrast issues create exclusionary experiences.
Designing with accessibility in mind also benefits broader audiences. High-contrast text is easier to read in sunlight. Larger tap areas reduce frustration on mobile. Alt text helps with slow connections or image loading errors. In the end, accessible design is just better design — and it’s foundational to strong UX.
Clarity Always Beats Cleverness
Clever microcopy, abstract navigation labels, or unexpected behaviors may seem creative — but they often introduce friction. The best interfaces don’t make users think unnecessarily. A “Contact” button shouldn’t be called “Let’s Jam,” and a hamburger icon shouldn’t be replaced with a random symbol. UI design should reduce ambiguity.
A successful UI gives users instant context and reinforces their sense of control. When visitors understand where they are, where they can go, and what happens next, they’re more likely to trust and engage with the experience.
Test. Iterate. Repeat.
Even strong UI/UX strategies fail if they aren’t tested with real users. Behavior is more revealing than opinion — and testing uncovers what analytics can’t always explain. Where are users getting stuck? What do they expect to happen that doesn’t? What do they ignore?
Whether it’s through moderated usability testing, heatmaps, or simple click-tracking, feedback should be gathered early and often. That feedback should then guide iterative refinements. Great UI/UX is rarely created in a single launch — it’s shaped over time through observation and adaptation.