User experience design best practices are forever evolving along with people’s online behavior. And this tendency toward change and evolution isn’t much of a surprise.
The last few years have imposed many behavioral shifts on most of the world’s population. In fact, it could be said that how people interact with businesses has tremendously evolved, redirecting their preference toward omnichannel experiences and requiring most brands (especially small ones) to quickly adapt to keep up with consumer demand (and survive).
And while keeping up with all of these changes may seem daunting, the simple fact is that investing in UX is immeasurable — especially going forward into 2025.
After all, a user-friendly website has a higher chance of engaging visitors and converting them into customers. More importantly, the quality of UX design directly impacts brand reputation. That’s particularly important for businesses trying to stand out in competitive industries.
Are you looking to gain a competitive edge in 2025? Here are the best ways to use the power of UX to reach your goals, along with a few great examples to inspire you.
Start with the Basics
Sure, this particular UX strategy may not be exciting or fresh. But the reason it’s so important is that it works.
If a website doesn’t perform well, it has almost zero chance of compelling prospects to interact with your brand.
Research shows that 30% of people will stop viewing a webpage if it doesn’t display well on their device. 41% will do the same if the content takes too long to load. 88% of web users will be less likely to return to a website after one poor experience. And 32% of people would even be willing to abandon brands they love after a single bad experience.
If you also consider that it’s mainly UX design mistakes that cause high bounce and cart abandonment rates, it quickly becomes evident that paying attention to the basics (no matter how boring they may be) pays off in the long run.
So, what basic elements of UX do you need to pay attention to?
First and foremost, prioritize fast loading times. A site that loads fast will offer a better experience to web visitors and ease the process of solving their pain points. After all, this is why they decided to seek out your brand/solutions in the first place.
Secondly, prioritize mobile responsiveness. More than half of the world’s population is browsing from mobile devices, demonstrating the importance of making your website usable on smaller screens.
Finally, don’t forget about accessibility. Even though 75% of consumers think it’s important that brands create accessible digital experiences, 95.9% of homepages still had detectable accessibility issues in 2024.
Sure, neither of these tips will set your business apart as a UX trailblazer. But they will put you ahead of competitors who aren’t paying attention to these UX-influencing factors. Plus, they’ll make it far easier to leave a positive impression on web visitors, earn their trust, and capture them as leads you can nurture into loyal customers.
For inspiration on how these UX-boosting design decisions look in real life, check out Partake Foods. The website is fast and responsive, but what stands out is that it has a floating accessibility button in the bottom left corner. This enables web visitors to change display settings in a way that works best for them.
Source: partakefoods.com
Simplify the Process of Solving Audience Pain Points
One of the best ways to use the power of UX to outperform your competitors in 2025 is, of course, to do a better job than them when it comes to helping your audience solve their pain points.
Ultimately, maximizing your website’s usability will create a better browsing experience and help establish your brand’s credibility and competence. It can also allow you to shorten the buyer’s journey, especially in niche industries or when selling big-ticket items.
And the best part about this UX hack is that it can be as simple or complex as you wish.
For example, something as elementary as adding collapsible highlight sections or a Table of Contents/Summary section with jump links to your content pages can make these resources far more user-friendly than counterparts that force them to scroll through never-ending blocks of text.
This is what Eachnight does in its Best Mattresses guide, knowing that evaluation-stage consumers need a quick and convenient way to assess potential options before taking a deep dive into more specific products that match their unique needs.
Source: eachnight.com
Alternatively, if you have the resources, you could play around with more engaging or interactive web elements to achieve the same effect.
For example, making a demo version of your solution instantly available to web visitors is an excellent method to solve your prospects’ pain points and effectively communicate the insurmountable value your brand and products offer. Check out how AI Humanize uses its homepage widget to do this:
Source: aihimanize.io
Finally, don’t forget that meeting your audience’s demands could be as easy as creating web elements that place the spotlight back on your prospects.
In 2025, personalized experiences are expected to gain even more significance in terms of determining people’s willingness to do business with a brand. Just consider that 81% of consumers already prefer companies that offer personalized experiences. So, if you want your brand to stand out, explore ways to incorporate this trend into your site’s UX design.
For inspiration on how to do this, check out Transitions Elite. This brand created a lead-generation pop-up that asks web visitors to answer three questions about their practice. By designing this type of element, the business gains a great way to learn more about its potential customers.Â
More importantly, depending on the answers to the questions, Transitions Elite can personalize what its web visitors’ browsing journey looks like. It will use the answers to send them to the right content or landing pages. Plus, it can use the answers to create tailored and relevant marketing campaigns. These kinds of campaigns will be guaranteed to secure a higher conversion (and customer satisfaction) rate than a generic approach.
Source: transitionselite.com
Give Web Visitors Power over How They Interact with Your Brand/Website
Today’s consumers require convenience and flexibility. This pertains not only to how they spend their hard-earned money but also to how they interact with brands.
According to a recent consumer trend report from Jungle Scout, the likelihood of consumers buying products directly via social media channels has increased by 30% in Q2 of this year. While this data demonstrates the importance of investing in omnichannel experiences, it goes much further to show that buyers want brands to adapt to their needs, not the other way around.
Fortunately, designing helpful and convenient web browsing experiences to gain a competitive edge in 2025 doesn’t have to be extremely difficult (or resource-intensive).
Yes, you can consider integrating AR and VR technologies into your ecommerce store. Brands like NARS do this to allow shoppers to virtually try on products or find their perfect match.
Source: narscosmetics.com
Nonetheless, you can also use more traditional tech and formats to elevate your target audience’s user experience.
For instance, knowing that its prospects usually take handwritten notes in class, StudyX allows web visitors to directly upload pictures of these notes to receive the homework help the brand’s Math Solver product offers.
Source: studyx.ai
Or, you can go in an even more uncomplicated direction and still deliver an unmatched user experience. Somewhere, for instance, uses video (which is an exceptionally engaging content format) to communicate its value propositions and instantly back them up with social proof. The result is an easy way for the brand’s prospects to understand what it offers. The use of video also contributes to Somewhere’s ability to earn its audience’s trust. Remember that that’s particularly important in competitive and high-risk industries such as outsourcing.
Source: somewhere.com
Make the Most of AI Tools
Finally, if you want your business to stand out in 2025, embrace the fact that AI is here to stay. And while you may not have a full grasp of what it could do for your business, it’s safe to say that it could offer a great way to elevate UX.
For example, AI personalization tools — like those that automatically detect a web visitor’s location — can be a super-effective way to elevate micro-interactions.
This is what brands like Real Estate Skills do with their lead-generation elements, where potential prospects receive personalized live webinar date and time suggestions based on where they’re browsing from.
Source: realestateskills.com
Or, when focusing on building brand loyalty or improving customer lifetime value, you could do something along the lines of Misfits Market. This business recently introduced an autocart feature to its website. It employs user behavior data to make predictions about what people want to buy and pre-fills customers’ carts every week.
Finally, don’t forget that the easiest way to use AI on your website to boost user experience is to employ it in a way that enhances customer satisfaction.
Chatbots, which have become widely accepted and reliable, aren’t just excellent tools for engaging first-time website visitors. They’re also great for presenting existing customers with post-purchase support. Plus, they could even help shorten the buyer’s journey, especially if they can present web visitors with relevant page suggestions, like Intercom’s Fin AI did.
Source: intercom.com
Final Thoughts
Employing user experience to gain a competitive edge is always a tremendous idea. So, if you’re looking to take your business success potential to the next level in 2025, consider adopting the UX hacks discussed in this article.
Of course, to deliver the highest ROI, these strategies have to align with your target audience’s specific requirements. Nonetheless, the fear of a less-than-ideal match shouldn’t scare you. Instead, experiment with these tactics and see where they take you. You might just discover that designing a standout UX for your prospects takes much less effort than you previously thought.
- 4 Ways to Use the Power of UX to Gain a Competitive Edge in 2025 - January 21, 2025
- 8 UX Mistakes That Will Hurt Your Conversions and What to Do Instead - November 5, 2024
- 9 Ways to Use Storytelling to Improve Your UI/UX Design - August 20, 2024
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