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Websites are a company’s image in the online world. Having your own website is an effective strategy to increase your business’s visibility online. Aside from making sure your company is well represented by your website, It’s also important to make sure that it is customer-centered.
Customer-centered websites are those that are focused on giving your visitors and customers an easy and seamless experience.
However, securing a website while providing your users with a smooth website experience is difficult. Some companies incorporate a verification process but this takes time from the users so not a lot of them are a fan of it.
But then again, companies need to protect themselves from illegitimate users trying to access their websites. Not inconveniencing users with verification processes but needing to make sure they’re safe can be hard to achieve.
Hence, securing websites while providing users with easy access might be difficult, but it is not impossible.
Surveys show that it takes only around 15 seconds for a website user to interact with your product or website. This is why your website must have easy-to-understand procedures. In most cases, what’s easy tends to be unsecured.
Cyberattacks like password breaching and phishing are some concerns that both users and companies have. Hence, countless security measures are being laid on the table to avoid cyberattacks.
Some companies use lots of security applications wherein it forces the customers to deal with them one by one. With this setup, it’s impossible for users to take action within 15 seconds.
So, how would you balance the simplicity of interacting with your website while not putting your security measures at risk?
Before knowing this, you need to determine first why you need both.
If one thought of the word security, he or she might associate this with various lengthy security questions and procedures. This includes yes and nos, password policies, login pages, verification steps, etc., which takes a lot of time on the user’s end.
On the other hand, user experience is concerned with the entire process of a customer’s experience with the product or the website. Interestingly, 53% of website visitors will no longer continue exploring the website once it takes more than three seconds to load. Hence, the usability of your website must also be a priority.
Aside from that, some website users measure the authenticity of the website based on how it appeals to them. This includes branding, features, and usability. That is why a first look and impression is necessary for your website.
So is it possible for websites to determine legitimate from illegitimate logins while keeping the process seamless?
Here is a checklist for balancing user experience and security in the overall performance of your website.
You should be able to detect the legitimate from the illegitimate transactions to balance the UX and security of your website. Filter these transactions accordingly and reasonably for you to limit the friction. After that, you should apply security measures to those coming from suspicious transactions.
With this method, you won't inconvenience the process of legitimate users. This makes them your contented website users and eventually become loyal ones.
This is why you must develop ways to detect legitimate and illegitimate logins to improve your UX while not disregarding security.
Avoid using unclear pop-up messages in the flow since this will affect the user's interaction with the product or the website. It can be frustrating for your users when they type in their login details incorrectly but do not know where the mistake happened. Make sure that you are clear about what has happened and where they can find the error.
A study shows that error messages can increase one’s cortisol levels or the stress hormone. So, do not send or use vague error messages as these will confuse your users and later result in a poor website user experience. This could ultimately deter site visits.
Be explicit on what has gone wrong with the users' experience on your site. Did they enter an incorrect email address? How could they fix it?
At least 78% of the companies said that they target to provide the best online user experience to their respective customers. However, only 55% of these companies perform user experience testing. This information is from an E-consultancy report cited in usabilitygeek.com.
User experience testing allows you to explore real concepts from users. Every user has different opinions on this matter. So, designers must predict what’s best and worst for their users. With user experience testing, you could verify the veracity and effectiveness of the user’s workflow.
For instance, in some cases, registrations become barriers for users to continue visiting the site. Even though it is for your website’s security purposes, it still costs your users their time.
So how would you ensure customer retention in this case? Maybe you could start with not asking for too many details. Do not overwhelm your user with many questions that will take much of their time instead of letting them enjoy your site. You should filter what questions you will ask.
Perhaps explaining how their registration would help better the website experience would be a good solution if you really need to ask questions.
Indeed, balancing UX and security is possible. So, what’s next?
Next, you should understand why these two concepts matter in getting and retaining customers and website visitors successfully. So, how would you define a great user experience?
Setting a standard on what a great user experience is subjective to your potential user. You cannot assume what your users want unless you know your customer’s journeys in visiting your website and buying your product.
Most users need websites that are interactive and easy to use. They will not spend much time waiting for a website that keeps reloading and has complicated navigational tools.
Aside from the fact that slow-loading websites take your customers away from you, these could also affect you financially. Slow-loading websites cost online businesses $2.6 billion in 2020. Aside from that, a slow website can also reduce your ranking in the Google search. Hence, a good user experience is vital in marketing small businesses online.
User experience aims to fulfill what your users need. You must assure them of the best experience while they visit your website. With positive experiences come loyalty to your business. Aside from that, they could also provide you positive feedback, which then stimulates other users to explore your website too.
Security is a vital aspect in providing a secured website experience among the users. When your website is unsecured, hackers will gain access and steal the sensitive information that you have.
As mentioned earlier, security and usability are usually framed as tradeoffs. This means that the easier it is to access, the less secure the website would be.
However, security and usability are not a compromise. Instead, balance is the key in designing simple and secured websites.
Through a viable residential proxy, you can now achieve both of these goals. These proxies can reinforce security while browsing websites. Proxies can help companies detect known malware sites from entering websites. For users, proxies ensure a high level of privacy.
Over this, designers must anticipate the risks that users might get while navigating the website. Hence, the following security components must be considered.
Encryption is a method that converts sensitive information into code, ensuring security in the conversation. This ensures that the privacy of the user’s data is kept and prevents outsiders from accessing it.
This end-to-end encryption secures the access of data to users involved in the conversation. As they say, data is today’s currency. That is why these must be kept secured at all times.
Another way to secure users’ experience in your website is through authentication. Authentication is a method wherein users need additional log-in credentials to prove their legitimacy. This is the website’s way to verify the user trying to log in to the account.
Most websites include two-factor authentication for their additional security aside from the username and password. It can be in the form of a log-in code that is also sent either through a text message or email address.
Digital products are for users. As an exchange, users have to provide information to access them. Data privacy is an ethical consideration for businesses. The users provide their data, presuming that the company will handle it with an extent of confidentiality and integrity.
Designers must remember that overdoing security measures can lead users to leave the website. They instead transfer to where they can easily avail themselves of what they need. Overly complicated digital security methods can frustrate users. Hence, your sign-in instructions must be easy to understand and straight to the point.
Contextual Multi-Factor authentication analyzes users’ activities from the device they are logging in. Apart from the password or pin that they have, this method asks digital users to provide additional proof to confirm the authenticity of their identity.
These proofs come from different categories:
CAPTCHA is a type of challenge-response system designed to recognize humans from robots. This checks if the one accessing the website content is a real person and not spammers and bots. This system became a standard security technology used in various commercial websites.
If your seamless website performance is an effective way to gain your market in the online world, why would you care for security? Simply because there are rampant malware and cyber attacks in the online world. You can be the next victim.
What does this mean? What is the purpose of having a booming business if its foundation is weak? In worst cases, your website could be hacked by some outsiders if you have insufficient security efforts. In that case, someone will take over your website, and you will no longer control it.
Website security is an ongoing process. This means that as time passes by, security gets more complicated and firmer. On the other hand, hackers are becoming more resourceful. They always find ways to identify vulnerabilities in these security measures and hack them.
Once a website is hacked, it also loses its website traffic.
If you cannot protect your website, how could your customers trust you in protecting the data you get from them? Hackers have various goals. Among their goals is to steal information, exploit site visitors, and destroy your reputation.
There are many ways that you can secure your information. You can activate your proxies and VPNs, which gives you a second layer of protection for your website. As everything becomes more hi-tech these days, hackers are also exploiting new ways to destroy you. That is why you need to take security a step further to stay ahead of them.
Too many hassles are among the concerns that website users worry about. Security measures like asking for a password and email address will take time. These days, people take whatever comes first, especially since people are always on the go.
Does a complicated security strategy guarantee firmer protection or just another impractical venture you take? Logging in credentials with long and intricate passwords does not assure you of heightened security measures.
Sometimes, this leads to ineffectiveness as this burdens users by taking much of their time answering your questions. Securing both your websites and your products can be simple. However, you must know that simplicity is different from easy.
The rate of securing a website varies from one company to another. Some need high-end security measures like mobile banking websites, while some do not require as much. Regardless, these two concerns are similar and equally important. Its goal is to ensure a well-suited and secured user experience.
Starting from scratch is never easy. This is why you need to make sure that every step you take will not ruin what you have already established. In managing websites, you have to plan both their design and security measures.
Continuous monitoring of the behavior of your users while visiting your page will help you improve your services. Balancing seamless user experience and security is difficult as both require different approaches. There are times when you need to sacrifice the user experience to ensure security. On the other hand, you trade-off security for a smooth user experience.
Security doesn’t always mean difficulty and usability is not always equal to vulnerability. These are just some things that companies need to balance to deliver a good user experience. If you understand the user workflow, you can identify the risk that you need to fill for your alternatives to work. Usability is connected to security by default.
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