If people are leaving your website without taking action, poor user experience could be the reason. Slow load times, confusing layouts and hard-to-read fonts can frustrate and drive users away.
In this guide, you’ll learn how to improve user experience with simple, proven methods. We’ll cover usability, UX design, user feedback and more so you can boost engagement, increase conversions and keep visitors coming back.
What is user experience, and why is it so important?
User experience (UX) is a person's overall feeling when interacting with your website, app or product.
It covers everything from ease of navigation to how intuitive the layout is and from how fast pages load to whether users can achieve their goals with minimal effort.
The goal of good UX is simple: reduce friction and make every customer interaction feel smooth, satisfying and purposeful.
Research from Google found that users form design opinions in as little as 50 milliseconds and that visually complex websites were consistently rated as less appealing.
In contrast, clean, familiar layouts led to better first impressions and higher satisfaction.
When users enjoy the experience, they stay longer, return more often and are more likely to convert.
10 proven strategies to improve user experience
A better user experience doesn’t happen by accident. It results from thoughtful design, real user feedback and smart testing.
Let’s dive into some top strategies for improving user experience.
1. Apply the laws of UX to enhance design
Effective design starts with understanding how people think and behave.
Over time, designers and psychologists have identified a set of core principles that consistently lead to better digital experiences.
These guidelines help you create interfaces that feel intuitive, reduce friction and guide users naturally toward action.
Here are a few examples of these principles and how they can enhance user experience design:
Hick’s Law – The more choices you present, the longer it takes for users to decide
Aesthetic-Usability Effect – Users perceive aesthetically pleasing design as more usable
Law of Similarity – The human eye perceives similar elements as a complete group
Applying these laws helps reduce friction and creates a smoother customer journey. See the full list and learn more about the laws at the UX Design Institute website.
How to implement UX principles into your workflow: Review your current interface against key UX laws. Use these principles when sketching new layouts, building wireframes or reviewing prototypes.
They work best when paired with user testing and real user feedback, helping you design for instinctive interaction.
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2. Use customer feedback loops to guide improvements
Collecting and responding to user feedback helps you stay aligned with real needs.
Without direct input from real users, usability issues go unnoticed, which leads to customer complaints.
Research from Talkdesk shows 65% of customers are willing to switch brands if unsatisfied. Feedback loops help you improve user experience by continuously gathering, analyzing and acting on user feedback. Feedback loops keep the user at the center of your product or website design.
Closing the loop means you’re not just collecting input. You’re making visible improvements that lead to higher satisfaction, better customer retention and more meaningful user engagement.
How to set up customer feedback loops: Start by choosing the right moments to ask for feedback (e.g., after a purchase, during onboarding or following support interactions).
Use a mix of customer surveys, in-app questions and open-ended web forms. Analyze patterns in the data and prioritize fixes that align with your users’ most common pain points. Most importantly, follow up with users to let them know their voice made a difference.
How Pipedrive can help you gather customer feedback
If you use Pipedrive, you can easily organize, track and act on customer feedback right alongside your sales or project workflow automations.
For example, you can collect insights from contact interactions, sort them by category and assign follow-up actions to your team – all within your CRM.
Here’s how to do it:
Use your contact database. Add custom fields to store feedback directly on contact or organization records.
Create a new pipeline in Deals or Projects. Set up stages like “Feedback received”, “Under review” and “Resolved”.
Tag feedback by type. Use labels such as “UX issue”, “Feature request” or “Bug” to filter and prioritize.
Assign owners. Connect each piece of feedback to the right team member for follow-up or implementation.
Close the loop. Use Activities to schedule check-ins and update customers once you make changes.
3. Run usability tests to uncover hidden friction
Watching real users interact with your product reveals what’s working and what’s getting in the way. Even the most polished website or digital product can have usability issues hiding in plain sight.
Usability testing helps you spot friction points and improve user experience by watching how people interact with your site or app in real-world scenarios. It’s one of the fastest ways to enhance user experience because it reveals what users actually do, not just what they say.
For B2B startups, SaaS platforms and digital teams, this kind of testing can mean the difference between a smooth onboarding and a confusing first impression.
Some examples of what usability testing might uncover include:
A sales consultant struggles to create a custom report because the “Export” button blends into the background
A small business owner tries to sign up for a trial but gives up when the sign-up form doesn’t autofill on mobile
A project manager clicks the “Submit” button multiple times because there’s no loading indicator after the first click
These are all simple fixes, but only if you catch them.
How to turn user research into better UX design: Start small. Run usability testing with some real users who represent your buyer personas.
Record screen sessions or watch in real time as they complete key tasks like navigating the homepage, signing up or editing a profile. Look for moments of hesitation, confusion or error. Then, prioritize changes that reduce friction and improve clarity.
Over time, these small wins compound into a more user-friendly, conversion-ready experience.
4. Experiment with A/B testing to optimize conversions
A/B testing is a method where you simultaneously show two versions of the same webpage or feature to different groups of users.
One group sees version A (the original), and the other sees version B (the variation). You track which version gets better results and then use that data to decide what to keep.
Why A/B testing is worth your time:
Helps maximize ROI from existing traffic by turning more visitors into customers
Reveals and solves hidden customer pain points through real data, not assumptions
Lowers bounce rates and improves engagement by fine-tuning touchpoints
How to use A/B testing to meet user needs: Identify a high-impact area like your homepage, checkout page or trial signup. Create two versions: the current one (A) and a variation with a specific change (B).
The key is to focus on just one change at a time, like headline text, button color or form length.
Use A/B testing tools to track performance and measure conversion rates, then decide which version works best. Run tests long enough to gather statistically reliable results before implementing changes across your site.
How Pipedrive can help manage A/B tests
While Pipedrive doesn’t run A/B tests natively, you can still manage and monitor A/B experiments using its project and contact tracking tools.
Here’s how:
Create a new Project or Pipeline for your A/B tests. Label stages like “Test ideas”, “Live test A”, “Live test B” and “Results”.
Tag contacts based on test exposure. If using a separate list or URL for variation B, tag contacts with labels like “Saw Test B” or “Homepage Variant”. Clear labels help track engagement or follow-up differences by segment.
Track results inside Deals or custom fields. Add fields like “A/B Test Result” or “Converted from Test” to track what version users saw before converting.
Analyze and report. Use filters or the Insights dashboard to compare conversion rates between test segments. Export data to identify which version led to better outcomes.
This process helps you keep your A/B testing organized while aligning it with your CRM strategy.
Real-world example: Restroworks (formerly POSist) used A/B testing to increase conversions by 16%
Restroworks is a SaaS restaurant management platform with over 5,000 customers who used VWO to run several tests over 12 weeks.
In one experiment, the company tested a change to their homepage call-to-action. The original version was cluttered and vague. Restroworks simplified the design and focused on clarity in the variation. The new version drove 16% higher conversion rates.
This small tweak led to a measurable boost in engagement and lead quality without needing more traffic.
5. Boost performance and speed to reduce drop-offs
Fast websites win users. If your page takes too long to load, visitors are likely to leave before they even see your product.
In today’s world of smartphones and short attention spans, performance is a key part of delivering a good user experience.
Google’s Core Web Vitals measure how fast and stable your website feels to users. These metrics directly impact your search engine ranking and your customer engagement.
Core Web Vitals benchmarks to aim for:
Largest Contentful Paint (LCP). Measures loading performance by tracking how long it takes for the main content (like a banner image or heading) to appear. Aim for under 2.5 seconds.
Interaction to Next Paint (INP). Measures responsiveness by tracking how quickly a page responds to all user interactions (like a click or tap). It should be under 200 milliseconds to feel responsive.
Cumulative Layout Shift (CLS). Measures how much content shifts unexpectedly while loading. Keep this below 0.1 to avoid jarring layout jumps that frustrate users.
How to improve performance and speed for better UX design:
Compress images. Use tools like TinyPNG or WebP format to reduce file sizes without losing quality.
Use a content delivery network (CDN). Deliver content from servers closer to your users to reduce latency.
Minimize JavaScript and CSS. Remove unused code and defer non-essential scripts until after page load.
Preload key assets. Fonts, images and scripts above the fold should load early to improve perceived speed.
Limit third-party tools. Too many scripts from chat, analytics or social media widgets can drag down performance.
Real-world example: Vodafone boosted conversions with faster mobile performance
Vodafone, one of the world’s largest telecom providers, focused on improving Core Web Vitals across its mobile site.
By optimizing for speed and visual stability, the team achieved a smoother browsing experience that led to measurable business gains.
After implementing lazy loading, reducing JavaScript and improving server response times, Vodafone saw a 31% increase in sales and an 8% improvement in cart-to-checkout conversion rate.
These results show how investing in performance can directly improve user experience and drive real revenue impact.
6. Improve search functionality to help users find what they need
Strong search functionality helps users locate information quickly without digging through menus.
A fast, relevant search experience reduces frustration and keeps potential customers moving toward conversion.
Even with a strong layout and good content, a weak search experience can break the entire user journey. This is especially true for e-commerce, B2B SaaS platforms and content-rich sites. Users expect fast, accurate results with minimal effort.
Here are some search functionality best practices to keep in mind:
Autocomplete suggestions reduce user effort and speed up query input
Spelling corrections help users still find what they meant, even with typos
Filters and sorting lets users narrow results by category, price, content type or relevance
Highlighting matched terms shows exactly why results appear, improving clarity and trust
Fast load times mean search results appear instantly, especially on mobile devices
How to create a positive customer experience with search: Design your search bar as a central tool on your site or app. Use heatmaps and user behavior data to understand how people interact with it.
Prioritize speed and relevance in results and monitor queries that return no results to improve content coverage.
The easier it is for users to find what they’re looking for, the more likely they are to stick around and take action.
7. Refine your UI design for a more intuitive interface
UI (user interface) design is how your product looks and feels. Buttons, layouts, colors, fonts and spacing all fall under this category.
While UX focuses on the overall journey, UI is about the visuals and interactions that guide users through that journey. Done well, it builds trust, reduces confusion and makes your product feel polished.
One of the UX principles we mentioned earlier, the Aesthetic-Usability Effect, says that users tend to perceive visually appealing interfaces as more usable, even when they aren’t perfect.
In other words, a strong interface design can make your product easier to use, leading to better engagement and satisfaction.
Below are some important visual design principles to boost usability.
UI principle | How to implement |
Use consistent color and layout patterns | Stick to a predictable design system so users learn where to click and what to expect |
Keep fonts readable | Use clear, legible typography across desktop and mobile apps |
Add white space | Avoid clutter and guide user attention to key actions |
Stick to visual hierarchy | Use size and contrast to prioritize content |
Make interactions visible | Buttons and links should look clickable, not hidden |
When your visual design feels clean and intuitive, users move more confidently through your site or product.
How to create a UI experience that increases user satisfaction: Strong UI design builds user confidence. Stick to a clean layout, limit distractions and choose design elements that match your audience’s expectations.
A polished, professional visual experience doesn’t just look good – it signals quality and aligns with your commercial goals.
8. Prioritize clarity to make interactions effortless
No matter how good your product or design is, if users can’t understand it, they won’t use it.
Confusing labels, vague messages and unclear navigation can quickly frustrate visitors and cause them to bounce.
Clarity removes friction. In usability testing, lack of clarity is one of the most common issues uncovered. Simple changes in language or layout can make a big difference in how users interact with your site.
Here’s how to use clarity to create a better user experience:
Keep button text specific. Replace generic labels like “Submit” or “Click here” with clear, action-based phrases like “Start free trial” or “Save changes”.
Simplify your navigation. Use intuitive menu labels and limit the number of choices. Group related pages together so users always know where they are.
Avoid jargon and technical terms. Speak your users’ language. Use plain, straightforward wording that’s accessible to all experience levels.
Write with purpose. Make headings, instructions and calls-to-action clear about what’s coming next. Every word should move the user forward.
Use formatting and white space to guide the eye. Break up dense content with white space, bullet points and short paragraphs to make scanning easier.
When things are easy to understand, they feel easier to do, which increases engagement and conversions.
9. Design mobile-first to meet users where they are
A mobile-first approach ensures your experience is fast, focused and user-friendly, no matter what device your audience is on.
In the last quarter of 2024, mobile devices (excluding tablets) generated 62.54 percent of global website traffic.
Recognizing this shift, Google officially began mobile-first indexing in 2020. It primarily uses the mobile version of your content for indexing and ranking in search results.
So, if your mobile experience is clunky, you’re not just losing users. You’re losing visibility in search.
Mobile-first design means planning and building your website or product, starting with the mobile experience.
Focus on performance, readability and navigation first on small screens, then scale up for desktops – not the other way around.
Real-world example: Pipedrive’s mobile CRM
Pipedrive’s Mobile CRM gives sales teams instant access to deals, contacts and activities on the go.
The app is built with a mobile-first design in mind. Simple layouts, swipe-based actions and offline access make it easy to stay productive without needing a desktop.
It’s a great example of how thoughtful mobile UX supports real-world workflows.
How to go mobile-first: Designing mobile-first forces you to focus on what matters most: speed, clarity and simplicity.
Test your site on real smartphones, not just in browser emulators. Put your most important actions front and center. If the experience works beautifully on mobile, it will scale effortlessly to other devices.
10. Streamline onboarding to drive early success
Onboarding is the process of guiding new users through the first steps of using your product. It’s the bridge between sign-up and success, and it’s where many users decide whether to stay or churn.
Great onboarding builds confidence. It gives users quick wins, shows them how to get started and removes friction from the setup process.
Below are some top ways to make onboarding successful.
Onboarding tactic | How to implement |
Keep setup short and goal-oriented | Limit initial steps to only essential fields and guide users toward completing one key action. |
Use interactive walkthroughs | Set up tooltips or product tours that appear contextually as users explore new features. |
Show progress | Add a visible checklist or progress bar to help users track where they are and what’s next. |
Offer help without getting in the way | Link to support content in a help menu or chatbot instead of using intrusive pop-ups. |
Celebrate first wins | Trigger in-app messages or confirmations when users complete important milestones, like creating their first project or contact. |
A strong onboarding experience sets the tone for long-term engagement and customer satisfaction.
Turn onboarding into a growth driver: Start by identifying the core actions that lead to long-term engagement (e.g., creating a deal or inviting users to speak to a team member).
Guide users to complete those actions within their first session. Use behavior-based prompts to encourage progress and segment users based on what they have or haven’t done. Your goal is to help them see the product’s value fast.
Final thoughts
Efforts to improve user experience lead to happier customers, higher retention and more conversions.
Try Pipedrive free for 14 days to see how features like visual pipelines, mobile access and AI-powered insights can help you build smoother, more intuitive experiences for your users, no matter where they are in their journey.
