What is UX Design?

Web Design

Have you ever been on a perfect holiday?

I’ve been lucky enough to have experienced a couple of “perfect” holidays, but my honeymoon ranks the highest for sure. 

I’m a huge ancient history fan, and John very kindly decided to book our first holiday together in Rome. It wasn’t just the rich history that made the holiday the best I’ve ever been on; the food, the art, the feel of the place – all of it wove together to create a sequence of memories I will never forget. 

UX Design is a bit like my honeymoon. 

UX Design stands for User Experience Design. At its core, it is about putting people first by crafting digital experiences that are not only functional – but delightful! UX Design is all about creating enjoyable, user-friendly experiences that keep people coming back for more. 

As you can imagine  (if you get it right), UX Design can lead to…

• improved customer satisfaction, 
• better engagement,
• excellent brand and reputation building, 
• increased number of users,
• increased user retention,
• brand advocacy. 

This sounds great, tell me more. 

Successful UX Design is all about having an eye for detail, as well as being skilled in data analysis that relates to consumer behaviour. Usability testing, market research, tailored propositions and customer journeys. 

However, in addition to this, you need a bit of creative flare. You could design an excellent customer journey on your website, technically seamless with a great product at the end of as few clicks as possible. But if it looks awful you won’t get as many conversions as you like. 

Therefore, UX also seeks to make a website aesthetically appealing; you need that cherry on top. 

It’s all about the love baby!

The famous Industrial Engineer Henry Dreyfuss said this in 1955:

“When the point of contact between the product and the people becomes a point of friction, then the designer has failed. On the other hand, if people are made safer, more comfortable, more eager to purchase, more efficient – or just plain happier – by contact with the product, then the designer has succeeded.”

As wise a statement now in the digital space, as it was back then, before such a thing was even imagined.

Fantastic! How do we do it? 

There are 4 main principles or disciplines of UX design: 

• Experience Strategy
• Interaction Design
• User Research
• Information Architecture

So how on earth do we break all this down? 

A common tool used by UX Designers is called The Design Thinking Process.

1. Empathise

Firstly, they seek to observe and understand. Understand both the holistic business strategy and the client’s needs and experiences. 

This is the analysis phase, and the UX designer compiles as much information in this space as possible, including competitor research, consumer data and interviews with users. 

They are looking for: 

• Objectives
• Pain points
• Is this product usable? Is the journey logical? 
• Is it accessible to all the company’s potential prospects? 
• What emotions do we want our customers to feel? Is there a problem that this product can solve? 
• What emotions are the benefits of our product or service going to ignite? Is the product desirable? 

2. Define

Next, UX designers use all of this information to define the problems that they are trying to solve. It helps to give a focus to the rest of the process. 

3. Ideate

Once they have defined their goal, UX designers begin the ideation phase. This is where you develop as many ideas as possible. 

4. Prototype

Once the designer has come up with a possible solution, a prototype is created. 

5. Test

The prototype is then tested by members of the target audience. These users are then interviewed so that their thoughts can be brought to bear on the prototype. Revisions are made and the prototype is re-tested. 

The Design Thinking Process should allow for continual reflection and refinement.

Happily ever after! 

UX design puts the user at the centre of the design process. This means that you end up with websites that are designed to be intuitive, easy to use and more likely to convert users into leads. After all, users are people – and people need websites that genuinely provide them with the information and experience that they need.