As a business owner, what can be worse than having a visitor leave your site due to an issue you could have eliminated or controlled? Multiple factors hamper user experience, but what about the ones that you can control? Wouldn't it be great to have a simple, intuitive website where users will not find it complex to perform a certain activity or give a thought before proceeding?
For example, many people have this notion that reducing clicks leads to a better user experience, or in simple words, more number of clicks = Bad User Experience (UX).
Well, in this modern revolutionized world where people are tech-savvy, clicking has increased exponentially, and thinking has reduced drastically. Gone are those days where users use to be conscious before clicking with a fear of whether a particular click will direct them to the desired page or not. Therefore, now user experience can no longer be judged on a number of clicks; instead, what matters is; whether the user experience is simple, desirable, and credible?
And, this can be done by reducing UX loads.
Wondering what is UX load and how minimizing UX load result in better user experiences?
Check out the below video by Swati Verma that explains clearly about UX load and its types, effects, and what can be done.
Types of UX Loads
1. Visual Load
A user faces Visual Load when there are multiple things in the user's view frame with equal or same visual weightage. Due to excessive information, we take a longer time to process it and can miss important details. Users are not able to figure out or identify things that will help them to move forward.
2. Motor Load
Motor load is associated with actions like hovering the mouse, typing on the keyboard, making a click. Motor load demands a user to take manual action to move ahead in the funnel to complete a task or find information. It can weary the user by requiring excessive clicking or extremely precise hover position for activation or small CTAs.
3. Cognitive Load
The cognitive load is associated with memory and thinking. It is the mental effort required to learn and store new information. This load demands users to invest time and learn the process and information. Cognitive overload occurs when your working memory receives more information than it can handle comfortably, leading to frustration and compromised decision-making.
Conclusion:
Hence, it is not necessary to always minimize these loads to have a great UX, which is also not practical. Balancing the load can get the most favorable UX condition. The cognitive load being the biggest culprit should be minimized the most. If an increasing number of clicks or steps minimizes thinking, go for it. It is always advisable to observe, analyze, and understand the users that interact with your digital platforms; only then you can provide the best solutions and design better experiences for them.