Widgets have become a significant part of UX design both on mobile and on desktop. But what are they exactly and how can they shape your experience for the better? Well, they are informative and/or interactive tools that offer tons of usability and information without taking up a lot of space.
You can use widgets to do basic things such as view the weather, calendar appointments, or upcoming alarms. Otherwise, there are widgets that allow you to perform basic actions on your phone, such as turning on the flashlight, turning the dark mode on or off, viewing your step count, and synching your accounts with the push of a button. Now let’s take an in-depth look at the importance of widgets for everyday use.
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Reasons to Use Widgets on Your Smartphone or Website
A few years back, you’d hear arguments going against smartphone widgets simply because the phones back then had little RAM and weak processors. Nowadays, however, you have smartphones that can be compared to low-end modern-day laptops with ease. Resource management isn’t a hassle anymore, basically, so using widgets is a must if you want:
Information at First Glance
Want information? You’ve got it. News junkie? There’s a news widget already installed on your phone. Got a sportsbook? Install a sports score widget on your website. Seeing useful info at first glance helps keep the user engaged without them even taking a particular action.
Better Battery Life
Believe it or not, active widgets can save battery life instead of draining it. How come? Well, you don’t need to open apps anymore, as you can configure certain things right from the homescreen.
Using Screen Real Estate Properly
It’s not just about displaying useful information. It’s also about using all of that big screen you’ve got. Yes, you should be using all of it for useful purposes. Having everything handy simply makes life much easier.
How to Improve Customer Experience With Widgets
Review Widget
First and foremost, you need to highlight the fact that your services are much better than the competition’s offerings. And guess what? There are widgets that allow you to do just that right on your website’s homepage.
For example, Trustpilot has one of the most popular widgets that allow customers to leave reviews and that also shows what your overall score is with buyers you’ve had up until that point. It’s a great way to show off and an even better way to attract your visitor’s attention thanks to the way it is designed.
There are two main ways this widget helps you: first, it allows the user to see what others have to say about you. And secondly, it puts more trust in the user’s mind when it comes to your business because they’ll be attracted by the fact that you’re so transparent. You have nothing to hide, so you’re trustworthy. Trust is often times the most crucial aspect through which you can attract new customers.
Live Chat Widget
A live chat widget integrates a customer support AI that can handle most basic tasks. The visitor can interact with the widget and most of their basic problems or questions can be solved right away. If not, the widget takes them to a live support agent to handle harder-to-solve issues.
CTA Widgets
Having widgets with call-to-action can greatly improve your click-through rate and other important aspects that help your site sell and rank higher in Google and other search engines. You’ll want these widgets to be displayed strategically, however, as to not annoy the user and hinder their experience.
Final Thoughts
As you can probably already tell from the information above, widgets are useful, informative, and highly recommended both for smartphones and websites. You should really consider redesigning your website’s UI if you haven’t done so in a long time. And make sure to get a good web design team to perform this task for you.
