Since reading the first blogs in our UX to CX series, you know how much of an impact the customer experience has on a homebuyer’s journey—but now it’s time to learn about the importance of UX. 

UX, or the user experience, encompasses the overall experience the end-user has when interacting with a website or application—especially in terms of how easy or intuitive it is to use.  While this term may seem high-level, it’s something that the general consumer deals with daily. We’ve all visited a website or used an app where images won’t load, links are broken or you can’t find what you’re looking for. Websites like this are not designed (or maintained) with the user experience in mind, and it typically leads to a swift exit and a bad impression of the brand.

For homebuilders, a less-than-ideal user experience on your website can be the difference between earning a new customer and losing them. Builder Designs is the leading expert in the homebuilder website space, thanks to our focus on forward-thinking solutions that result in user-friendly websites. See what features we focus on to ensure a positive user experience for our clients’ potential buyers.

Optimized browsing
To create a faster, seamless onsite experience for users, our websites load all of their data when visitors first arrive on site. Other websites load each page’s data as you click between them, which can cause a delay.

Additionally, our website architecture ensures the available products from every builder are easy to find and shown in the best light for various devices. Builders can choose from a variety of filter options—town, community, school district, etc.—and our team will ensure that products are sorted and displayed correctly for users.

Focus on photos
With 15 years of experience building websites for homebuilders, we know what draws in or deters customers. Incorporating the right amount of high-quality photos throughout your site increases user engagement and can push more traffic to your pages. While having informative copy on your website is vital, imagery is a lot easier for users to digest versus long pages of text.

Mobile compatibility
In today’s mobile-forward frame of mind, it’s a given that websites must be mobile-friendly for brands to reach their target audience and potential customers. Builder Designs ensures that every site we build is compatible on desktop, mobile and tablet devices—but we also take it a step further by offering a more intuitive experience on smaller screens. Instead of having to click through a menu button to find the preferred area or community, we’ll include large area buttons on the homepage. The less time your users spend fumbling through a website, the better experience they’ll have.  

Intuitive navigation
Speaking of making it easy for users to find what they’re looking for, an intuitive navigation flow across your website is key to a positive experience. Websites should be designed in a way that traffic flows from page to page simply—users should be able to find anything they are looking for. Avoid cluttered menus or buried pages, and provide clear and concise buttons, sections, contact information and more.

Users should also have easy access to a search tool for when they can’t find what they’re looking for through browsing, or when a returning visitor has an exact floor plan or community in mind that they want to be taken straight to. By ensuring the search function on the site is accurate, builders can help knowledgeable, potential buyers get even closer to the purchase of one of your homes.

Straightforward lead capture
There’s nothing worse than getting a potential customer all the way to your lead capture process, like a contact form or OSC pop-up, only for them to exit because it’s too complicated or lengthy. We know the perfect formula of questions and fields that will get builders qualified leads without forcing users to spend excessive time on the form.

Making the experience better for builders and their customers  
While our websites aim to provide the best possible user experience to your customers, Builder Designs also cares about making the process easier for our builder partners. Our back-end system allows for data connections and integrations that will make the automation and upkeep of inventory and information on your website simpler than ever.

The foundation of Builder Designs as a company has always been building user-friendly websites for homebuilders across the country—no matter how simple or complex of a site they’re looking for. If you’re a homebuilder needing to upgrade your website and enhance the user experience, call Amber at (913) 393-3367 or email her at amber@builderdesigns.com.