Whether it is a web application or a product in hand, it is the user experience which sells.
Web products must be capable to solve the user problems and it will triumph in the market. Web application user experience is at the core. The users will access the application if and only if it helps in solving their problems and not twist and turn it into more complicated.
A lot of eBooks, eLearning Courses and even video tutorials can be accessed easily. All of them revolve around the basic set of principles. And these principles can be hopefully applied to any mobile or web application designing or a physical product as well.
By the end of this read, you’ll sum-up:”How to shape the best user experience?” & what to expect when you hire UI/UX Developer?
Web User Experience Design Principles
- Don’t make the users think
Quote this » “A User Experience is like a Joke. If you have to explain it, It’s not that Good.”
In a general sense, if a user is coming to you, they are looking for the solution to their problems. They arrive at your website, read the product description & sign-up for the trial.
What if they don’t find the product as pleasing as you’ve shown in the attractive banner? You’ve made it wrong! Usually, the main reason for the failure of the products is the steep learning curve. The immediate alternatives are available in the market and users will not waste time if they have to dig deep into learning the product. Product design should be captivating at the very first glance. Users should get the gut feeling that – “Yes, this is what I want exactly”.
The rule of thumb for web user experience best practices are the more you work on the design, the less you will have to promote it. This especially needs to be taken care of by UI/UX design services providing people.
Users will come attracted by the word of mouth. So check your design for the simplicity and add functionalities which are easier to use. Most of the times when the feedback concludes to the difficulty of design, companies expand the customer support, improves the knowledge base or adds more tutorials. Often the product design is overlooked and here you step in the puddle.
- Go beyond Visual Presentation
Quote this » “Good Design means never having to say – CLICK HERE” – Shawn Leslie (Product Designer at Digital Telepathy)
What do you like about the sites you explore the most? You can look up to it as one of the best examples of user experience.
For instance, while designing a website, UI designers focus on the layout, color palette, the typography and so on. It may happen that they create the designs from their perspectives, not from the perspective of users.
Undeniably, a design is the very first thing that attracts users at a glance but the user experience is beyond the visual presentation. Hence, web design and user experience should be considered in parallel.
Diving-in with an example!
The goal is to create a design which works as great as it looks and feels. Let’s say for example Instagram, which is one of the most popular apps used by both, common people and marketers. Despite its amazing features like adding filters to images, sharing images and videos, tagging and more, it still drives some marketers away. This is just because it does not allow clickable links in the caption. (Do we need to report this as UI/UX Design Services issue?)
The second issue addressed and experienced due to missing clickable link feature is that it makes users perform more steps. While scrolling through the feeds, if you like any video & want to see more about it, you will have to jump to the user profile and then click on the site link they have there. Isn’t it boring at times? Many users will leave disappointed if the profile does not have a link specified. This often seems like a drawback.
Key Takeaway: Instagram is a pretty good example of an impressive UI but lack of UX.
- Involve users in the Product Design Process
Quote this » “It’s more difficult to design a product that a 6 real people love than 1 imaginary average person loves.”
When you hire UI/UX Developers, having an extended team of world-best UI and UX Designers is a plus point for sure. But, only users of the product can say if it is created well or not. They are more likely to catch the bug than the developers. Involving them during the designing process saves a lot of work later.
Like it is already stated, designing the product from user’s perspectives will only make it better. Let them point out the design issues. Understand what they exactly want in the design and let them suggest design improvements.
There are a lot of ways to get them involved. Conduct surveys & collect feedbacks. It will collect quantitative insights like the ‘how’ and ‘why’ about liking the UI. But, make sure that you’re keeping the survey as short as possible else people will be least interested to participate.
Another option could be having both: survey groups and focus groups. Keep surveys as the mainline of getting prompt feedback and focus groups for providing qualitative insights. During the latter session, users can be asked in-depth questions which take you through the design issues.
- Consistency is the Key
Quote this » “Be Consistent with User’s Expectations.”
Consistency is a critical web user experience design principle.
Users don’t like to get surprised in a bad way! For instance, the navigation panel and controls should be almost similar to what they already use with other sites. This does not mean you cannot experiment with your web design. Of course, you can! But, keep in mind that users are habituated to find the navigation panel, sharing buttons & similar features at its place. Hence, consistency is a must.
The best example of consistency is already with you – Microsoft Office. Once you learn how to use MS Word, you don’t need to learn using MS PowerPoint or MS Excel. You just go with the flow. The typography, line-height and the similar features are kept same with all of its products. Also, the controls are just separated by colors. This never makes users feel like they are on a different planet.
What’s your take? The basic features should be enough for the consistency being felt. Design consistency makes users more comfortable and confident in choosing you over and over again.
- Keep Quote this » “One Design Accommodates All” Perspective
Experimenting is what user interface designers love to attempt. We see some sites having a black background, glowing fonts and unpleasant elements which only spoil the readability.
Personally speaking, I would just shut the website if it looks like a brain hammer with an over-obsessed design.
Users should never have a hard time interacting with the background color of websites and applications. Another thing here which affects website performance is that the UI/UX Design Services Providers often oversight the target audience. For instance, if the elderly audience is to be targeted, the color combinations and the product accessibility is to be designed such that they already see enlarged text. This makes them read it more easily and comfortably.
Conclusion
Anyone can design a stylish-looking website but designing a product which brings joy and great user experience is not every UI/UX Development Company’s cup of tea. So take your own sweet time, effort and empathy and make sure that your users appreciate everything.
Build products which are enjoyable, understandable, usable and, brings fun and joy and solves the purpose it is designed for.
Author Bio:
Nishant Desai – Digital Marketing Strategist at Pixlogix Infotech Pvt. Ltd. I love to write about the latest trending updates, WordPress, Web Design, SEO and other interesting information. I believe in Learning, Sharing and keep growing together.
