User Experience
Everyone wants to experience and have the best technology while at the same time not wasting any precious time. The same is absolutely true when it comes to checking out websites or mobile applications. In the old era, too much emphasis was put on keywords and creating links. But Google now favors sites that prioritize User Experience over optimization for SERP rankings. Nevertheless, keyword-optimized content is still an important factor in getting better positions on SERPs. Thus, in improving brand exposure & growth, businesses should balance User Experience, keyword & search engine optimizations.
What is User Experience?
The User Experience (UX or UE) is the means by which a user interacts with and experiences a product, system, or service. It encompasses a person’s ideas of usefulness, usability, and efficiency. When creating & refining digital assets, most businesses, designers, and creators prioritize improving user experience since negative user experience can reduce product use. Thus, any desired positive impacts; conversely, designing for profitability frequently conflicts with ethical user experience objectives & even causes damage. The vital characteristics of a good User Experience are:
Users swiftly find what they are looking for or know where to find it within few seconds;Users understand what your site is about within few seconds of landing on your site;Users should instinctively know how to navigate your site;Users should be prompted “on what is happening” whenever they click on something;Users should have absolute control over what to do next, what they will get, & just about everything they will experience while they are on the site.
The new Google search algorithm weighs the usability of a site. It calls for a better User Experience in terms of the site’s content, architecture, design, templates, layout, etc. So you need to design your site and create content with the users in mind. Some good user experience measures include the number of page visitors and the time they spent on the page during their visit. These measures indicate the usability of a page based on the average number of visitors and the average time they spent on it. Using these measures, you can also determine the sources of traffic that directed the highest quality of visitors.
What is UX design?
UXD and UED are other terms for user experience design. It refers to all facets of a user’s experience on a website. A user interface, images used on the site, interactivity, and engagement with the user are some of the characteristics that go under user experience design. Once upon a time, websites were only text-based pages that focused on giving users information.
The internet was mainly used for information related to knowledge, government bodies, etc. However, today thanks to the improvements that have taken place with respect to the speed of the internet, technologies, & telecommunications, the internet has become the go-to place for any kind of information that people may need. People today use the internet for getting information, socializing, and online shopping as well.
Influences On User Experience
User Experience design not only concentrates on the aesthetic aspects of a site but also on other aspects that go into improving a user’s experience on the site.
Information Architecture
Web design begins with the information architecture on the website. It is important to design the information architecture of a website based on how potential users will like to navigate through it & use its content. This is what User Experience design helps to accomplish. It will incorporate stakeholders’ personal ideas and preferences while designing the site using a data-driven method.
Graphic Design
The next aspect of user experience design is the visual elements involved in designing the site. It is also referred to as visual design or user interface design. The visual elements include site aesthetics, arrangement of different elements on a page, colors used on the site, typography, etc. When designing a site with user experience design, the creators will pay more attention to the preferences of the target user instead of the site owner’s personal choice of elements.
Interaction Design
Interaction design is another important element of user experience design. It includes creating opportunities for visitors to interact with the site. This does not necessarily mean a transaction or submission of an inquiry form. It could be a submission of a newsletter, downloading a file, getting a membership, creating a profile, liking the sites social media page, sharing content that is there on the site, etc.
One should be able to strike a balance between the different interactive elements that are being used on the site. It may not be wise to use all the types of interactive elements on the site. This can end up confusing the visitor. The different elements that may be used to help a user interact with the site should also be presented in such a way that they complement each other, try and anticipate what a user may do on a particular page, and maximize the user’s engagement.
Usability Design
Though usability design may be similar to interaction design in some aspects, one should not confuse the two of them. Usability is not just interaction; it is more than interaction. Use of content on the page, navigation from one page to another, deciding the format of presenting the content on the page, and determining how this content will co-exist with each other all come under usability.
The main function of usability design is a little different from interaction design. Interaction design’s main aim is to maximize users’ interaction with the site. On the other hand, usability design recognizes the fact that all users may not want to interact with the site. Usability design attempts to maximize the use of the site for such visitors by encouraging them to use more of the content on the page in a creative manner.
Why Is UX Design Important?
User experience is significant because it attempts to meet the demands of the user. It seeks to offer great experiences that keep users loyal to a product or brand. Furthermore, defining customer journeys on your platform that are most conducive to business success are made possible by a meaningful user experience.
What UX Designers Do Goes Beyond UI Design?
The term “User Experience Design” is frequently used alternately with terms like “User Interface Design” and “Usability.” While usability & user interface (UI) design are significant parts of UX design, they are components of it; UX design comprises a wide range of other disciplines as well. A user experience – UX designer, is concerned with the complete process of acquiring & integrating a product, including branding, design, usability, & function.
What Situations Would Benefit From UX Design?
A website is simply a website if it does not have the potential to draw traffic or ignite interest among online users. ‘Seeing is believing,’ and it holds true for websites too. The importance of the user interface design of your website is the first step in achieving high volume visitors. In an era of heightened eCommerce activities and increased internet dependence, websites are the gateway to knowledge, information, entertainment, and social activities.
The objective of a website is best achieved through the application of simple and efficient user interface design or commonly referred to as user-centric designs. Therefore, a good user interface design usually facilitates smooth completion of the task at hand and adaptable to all the user’s needs.
With the increasing web traffic because of eCommerce and social networking popularity, mere creating a website for your business aspects is not sufficient to sustain online traffic attraction and retention. Internet accessibility is rapidly increasing, and most of its users are people with less technical know-how from all walks of life.
In fact, even if your website has great graphics, it will fail to hold high traffic volume because usability is what matters in the end. If you do not believe it, then try it out yourself. Visit the best, popular and high-volume websites like Google, Facebook, Bing, etc., & experience the ease of surfing through these sites. So, is your website user-friendly and easy to navigate? Here are a few situations that would benefit from UX Design:
- Improves customer acquisition;
- Helps with customer retention;
- Optimizes development time & cost;
- Increased productivity;
- More user engagement.
Areas Related To Building The User Experience
User Experience UX is a developing field that is continuously being defined. Creating a good user-centered design incorporates human-computer interaction (HCI) concepts as well as the following disciplines:
User Research:
Through observation techniques, task analysis, & other feedback procedures, user research focuses on understanding user behaviors, needs, and motivations.
Project Management:
Project management is concerned with the planning and organization of a project & its resources. This comprises determining and managing the lifecycle to be utilized, applying it to the user-centered design process, forming the project team, and effectively guiding the team through all phases until the project is completed.
Usability Evaluation:
The evaluation of usability focuses on how well users can understand and use a product to achieve their goals. It also relates to the level of satisfaction that users have with the procedure.
Information Architecture (IA):
The field of information architecture (IA) is concerned with how information is organized, structured, & presented to users.
User Interface Design:
User Interface Design is concerned with anticipating what users may need to do & ensuring that the interface has features that are simple to access, understand, and utilize in order to assist those tasks.
Interaction Design (IXD):
Interaction Design (IXD) is concerned with developing interesting interactive systems that have well-thought-out actions.
Visual Design:
Visual design is concerned with creating an aesthetically pleasing interface that is consistent with the brand’s objectives.
Content Strategy:
Content strategy concentrates on creating and managing useful content while also planning its development, delivery, and governance.
Accessibility:
Accessibility is concerned with how a disabled person gains access to or benefits from a website, system, or application. The controlling principle for accessibility is Section 508.
Web Analytics:
Web analytics is concerned with the collecting, reporting, & analysis of data from websites.
User Experience design is more than just creating a good-looking website for the user. The entire purpose of creating a website may be lost if your user does not have a good experience on the site. Also, with the kind of competition that is there today, you cannot ignore user experience. This can have a destructive impact on the performance and popularity of your site. That is why it is vital to hire a professional web design company that has created User Experience designs before and gives it as much importance as any other aspect of custom website design.
