In the words of Paul Rand, “Design can be art. Design can be simple. That’s why it is so complicated.” In this world of Internet where millions of websites are fighting to make it to the top, one this is most important to achieve that and that is providing great user experience. User experience is how users connect or engross with a product or service of a company. Why user experience is so important? Why brands are coming up with new products. And why mobile companies come up with new smartphones every now and then. All this is done to improve the user experience of the user. With respect to websites, especially an e-commerce website, having a great UX design i.e., User experience design is a basic necessity. So here is all you need to know about UX design.
What is UX design?
Though the concept of User experience design has been around for quite a while now. It was only after the advent of internet that this term has gotten a limited and specific meaning to it. User experience design or UX design in short is basically the interaction of a user and computer or any digital product.
Don Normon, user experience architect at Apple in 1990s played an important role in popularizing this concept and its usage as well. If we look at it today, User experience design control and guide a user’s interaction with digital products- Smartphones, computers, Virtual reality, Augmented reality, etc. It aims to improve the efficiency, accessibility, functionality and reliability of the application to the user.
Some tasks have to be performed in order to accomplish this goal.
- User research: It is primary to understand the user in order to design a user-centric experience. For that, various surveys and meetings are conducted with customers.
- UI design: User interface design is making the user interface- the front-end of the mobile application or web page. It is ensured while building the user interface that it gives user a good interaction with the service.
- Visual Design: UX design should be in alignment with the brand of the company that makes it. Visual designers take care of the fonts, colors, icons and overall look of the website.
- Information architecture design: This is related to the easiness and understandability of the information present in the app.
- Accessibility design: In this process, designers make sure that the information is easy to access and understand.
The exact role of the UX designer depends on the size and scale of the product. If the product is a single app then one UX designer can work on the UI, visual design and accessibility design, if a large app is involved with multiple features and sections then multiple designers will work on different sections and features.
Importance of UX design
User Experience design (UX design) can make a huge difference in the success or failure of a digital product. So let’s see some impacts that User experience design has on the digital products
✱ Acquirement of customers
User doesn’t take more than 3.42 seconds to make their judgment about a website. If your website doesn’t offer them a good user experience they will definitely exit your site. A great user experience design is a must have for any business. A good user experience design makes sure that your customer stays on your website and might as well end up buying your product.
✱ Retaining customers
After acquiring customers your goal should be to retain them for long period. If your customers have a satisfactory experience with your product then it will make them use your services again. UX design is not winning a competition first then loses it the next time thing. A good UX design will make your customers come back for more.
✱ Low maintenance
A well-designed UX design and structure of application will allow you to better estimate, reduce scope creep and hence the developmental and maintenance cost will be lower.
Work profile of a UX designer
UX designers are finding jobs beyond digital product companies. Now big brands are including a technology department in their industry. They are focusing on web and mobile applications too. So UX designers are working in many different industries. Good UX designers are in high-demand in many countries. UX designers work to make every day products and services user friendly and easy to access. They think about the designs that will merge user’s expectations with technical practicality and business sustainability. The process of design thinking includes four stages
- Inspiration
- Conceptualization
- Iteration
- Exposition
Process
Let’s take a look at the whole process, how does it start and how does it carry forward
- First the designers try to observe and understand things. In order to do that, they do a thorough research and competitor analysis to get some inspiration. They try to make out the problem and the challenge they are aiming to solve.
- Interview is taken of those users who will be directly engaged with the product. With this feedback user tries to identify user’s aim, desires, sentiments and behaviors.
- The next step will be to figure out what these users are trying to accomplish with a specific product and how will they do it.
- The designer uses all of this information to visualize a product in his or her mind and then try to create a prototype to see how the end product will look like.
- UX designer will conduct test to check the usability of the product and also to find out how would be the interaction between the user and the product.
To sum up
To conclude I would say that UX designing is an inevitable part of website development. UX design can make or break any site. From a business point of view, designing a great user experience is a basic necessity to ensure customer satisfaction and good brand image. A user will only return if his experience with a particular product or services has been great.
Related article : How to make user experience better on your website
