UX/UI Developer for Corematic

Tiphanie Costeur

UX/UI Developer

What is UX DESIGN?

UX Design, or User Experience Design, refers to a product or service conception method where the user is at the centre of the process and outcome. It reflects the process of imagining, conceiving, or evaluating a product or service in order to make it useful, agreeable to use, and aesthetically appealing. The main goal of UX Design is to make the overall experience of your product enjoyable and effective.

UX Design focuses on having a deep understanding of users in general. What they need, what they value, what their abilities and limitations are. It also takes into account the business goals and objectives of a company.

We can find different perspectives on UX Design. This concept can sometimes be associated or mistaken with other subjects: UI Design, Design Thinking, Interaction Design (IDX)… However, UX Design has its own specificities:

  • UX Design’s primary goal is to conceive a product or service by optimising the user experience. The idea is to offer the best user experience possible.
  • The User Experience includes all the user perceptions and feelings during their interaction with a product, service, or device.
  • We often associate UX Design with digital environments like websites, apps or user interfaces but this concept is actually usable in any product or service in any environment.

What is the difference between UI & UX Design?

The UI (User Interface) is literally what the user sees the product: the buttons, the layout, the navigation, the form fields, etc. The UI defines the look and feel of a product.

UX refers to a wider range of elements, although it does include UI. The User Experience includes everything a user does related to a product, including the steps before and after the product is actually in use.

Combination of User Experience Design

Why is UX important?

Integrating User Experience in 2021 is essential because it fulfils the user’s needs. UX aims to provide positive experiences that keep users loyal to the product or brand as a high-quality UX Design is more likely to gain the trust of the user. Additionally, a meaningful user experience allows defining customer journeys on brands’ platforms that are most conducive to business success.

When interacting with a platform, whether it is an app, a website, or an interface, the user has to find the information they need easily and quickly. If he doesn’t, it means that the UX Design might not be good enough.

The biggest brands continue to invest in UX Design and it has shown that a good user experience reduces costs for development/bug fixing/marketing as well as improving return on investment (ROI) among other benefits.  Airbnb affirms that a good UX has taken them “from being a near-failure to being valued at $10 million”. Netflix is considered a precursor of UX success, and Elon Musk is famously quoted with “any product that needs a manual is broken”.

Sometimes the product doesn’t need to be innovative. It simply takes the usual idea and represents it differently. The user-focused design makes the product stand out.

The importance of UX for websites in 2021

A quality website design is now essential to gain the trust of the user and stand out from competitors. If the user is feeling safe and understood when navigating on a website, he will stay and is more likely to come back and be loyal to the company.

A simple way to evaluate if a website is user-focused is the 3 clicks rule. This means that a user has to find the information they need within 3 clicks. If they don’t it is likely that they will leave the website. A user makes up their mind within a few seconds on whether they enjoy the look, feel, and navigation of a website or not. Those initial seconds are crucial. If the user experience is not there, the user will probably leave to find a better experience somewhere else.

Another point to remember is that a better UX Design will have a positive impact on your Google ranking. In 2021, UX Design and SEO aren’t enemies, they actually are complementary. Over the past few years, Google has decided to use the user experience in its algorithm. In May 2021, the latest Google algorithm integrated new Core Web Vitals metrics to measure and improve on-page experiences.

How to create a UX design process?

The UX Design process is approachable in different ways, but let’s take a look at the general UX design process that most designers use in their work.

This UX Design process includes 4 main steps: Analyse, Conception and Testing and Implementation.

Analyse

This includes observation, interviews, and analysis of user behaviours of a product. This step is all about user research. It’s about getting to know the project, the people, and the context that surrounds them both. Smart user experience design begins by identifying the problem and guiding all ideas to solve that problem.

Conception

At this point of the process we know who we’re designing for, what the problem is, and what the solution needs to do. Now that the context is clear, we can start to imagine what it will look like and do. This is the time where UX design tools play a huge part. With those tools, wireframes and prototypes are created as the first answer to users needs. These prototypes are not a final design but only hypothesis that needs to undergo tests with users.

Testing

Once a concrete wireframe and/or prototype has been created, the testing process with real users can start. Evaluation and testing is the purpose of the third step. User testing allows the user validation of a final design with final users.

Implementation

Once the product is in front of real users and the test results are in, it’s time to interpret those results and translate them into concrete actions that can be taken to improve the user experience. When everyone is happy with the design, it’s time to implement the final concept.

UX design is a subtle science with many factors contributing to it. Getting it right is critical to the success of an interface. UX design is all about designing things that users will truly enjoy and rely on. It’s about understanding who you’re designing for and listening to what users tell you. Talk to the COREMATIC Team today to guide you in the implementation of UX Design within your products or service.