How to fine tune your website’s UX to encourage visitors to use your 3D planning solution

53% of consumers feel that brands fail to meet their experience standards - a well-developed user experience for your website can have a huge impact.

Integrating a 3D planning solution into your kitchen or home website can have a transformative impact on sales, but to truly use it to its full potential, you need to ensure that your website’s user experience guides and supports users to start their 3D planning journey. 53% of consumers feel that brands fail to meet their experience standards, so a well-developed user experience (UX) for your website can have a significant impact on the user experience and your website’s goal fulfilment performance.

A 3D planning solution requires significant change on the part of users’ behaviors: while consumers have probably seen or experienced 3D planning solutions before, it is likely that they have not used them to design their new spaces. How can you design your website to encourage trial and conversion? These three principles can help.

Signpost – point customers in the right direction

The easier and more intuitive the website is to navigate, the more likely you are to attract visitors to interact with your 3D planning solution. Regardless of the quality of your 3D planning solution, unless you point users in the right direction when they land on your homepage, they might not even consider trialing it.

The users landing on your home page for the first time will not be familiar with the functionalities of the site or the 3D planning solution. While repeat visitors accustomed with your brand and of the features and benefits of the 3D planning solution may head straight to the design solution, consumers landing on your site for the first time will need to be taken on a journey.

Consumers – especially those new to a site – tend to use the top navigation as anchor to then maneuver around the site. 37% of users state that a poor experience with site navigation is enough to make them want to leave the site completely.

For this reason, your website navigation structure at the top of your homepage is key. Within the first 15 seconds of landing on your page, visitors need to have found the answers to these key questions:

• What does this site offer?
• What is its differentiator?
• What is the next step?

By providing the answer to these questions directly on your landing page, you are more likely to weed out poorly qualified leads and encourage genuine users to continue exploring your site and move onto the next logical design step.

Offer information such as product collections, locations served, a catalog of high-quality images and associated pricing upfront. This will support users in making informed choices on the next step they take on your site and help channel qualified leads straight to the design solution – while offering other prospects options that will suit them.

Breadcrumb navigation is proven to help users keep track of where they are on the website, and relocate pages and information categories as needed, so they have all the necessary information before they enter the 3D planning solution to create their own designs. This means potential customers are more likely to find your 3D planning solution at the right time, and therefore more likely to continue into the sales funnel and convert.

Inspire – showcase the possibilities

Once your users are bought into your collections, it’s time to inspire them to experiment with how they will look in their own homes. A bank of beautiful life-like user generated designs and high-quality renders is a great way to show what can be achieved with the solution, and encourages users to play around with different trends, brands, colors and overall design concepts. This also helps users address any doubts they might have about what they will get at the end of the design process. Concept kitchen imagery and videos are also very useful in this regard.

Promote the solution though your social media engagement strategies and build brand advocacy. Think of driving engagement activity with tactics such as design competitions. This way, you can build up a bank of user generated content to use as inspiration and endorsement of the solution across channels – something else that users will be looking out for as they navigate through the website.

Once your visitors enter your 3D planning solution they will invest time and effort crafting their designs, likely sharing them with friends and family via social channels for opinions and validity and as a result, be more likely to continue to the purchase stage.

Inform – provide the content users need

Designing a room – especially a kitchen, which involves a lot of ‘technical’ elements such as water and gas – can appear daunting for first-time users. Home and kitchen retailers must provide plenty of simple, accessible content that provides users with all the information needed to be confident about designing their own spaces. Many users – even though they may be tech-savvy – will be cautious about trying a new design software if they do not understand what to expect from it.

• Consider a demo video or landing page that informs users what to expect and what they will need to get the most from the solution? This could include room dimensions, knowledge of electrical points, etc.
• Does your design solution provide instructions throughout the design experience? Make it easy for your users to navigate the tool with helpful hints and tips
• Are there touchpoints throughout the journey to offer additional assistance or consultation? Have expert advice or support readily available at every stage of the design process

Offering the right support in the right place at the right time will help home and kitchen retailers avoid drop offs during the design experience and offer a more insightful 3D planning solution experience that users are likely to use again. Providing clear explainer content showing users what to expect can significantly improve trials – think explainer videos, examples of renders and FAQs.

Conclusion

Offering an excellent user experience is synonymous with increased conversions. Delivering a clear, intuitive and informative website user experience with the right content, in the right place and at the right time equips users with everything they need to feel confident and inspired to utilize a 3D planning solution, such as HomeByMe for Home and Kitchen Retailers. When signposted effectively, the site will not only drive more visitors to the solution, but more qualified visitors, who are invested in your brand, excited by the planning experience, and more like to convert into a sale.