UX designing is not a gamble. Devices change. Target audiences change. But then, no matter what, the method to UX designing stays the same. How come? Simply because a UX designer needs to focus on user needs only. Nothing else. In other words, the designer needs to see things through the customer lens and design his app or website accordingly. That’s about it. But how? Let's find out in Brightscout's article.
A compass of respectable UX directs the customer to their desired destination and not yours. It helps them achieve what they intend to accomplish while interacting with your business and not what you want.
In short, creating a respectable UX means keeping the user front and center, no matter the type of device they are using - it could be the website, mobile site, apps, or any other online properties or services.
Sure, there will be times when you may be tempted to focus only on things that you want to communicate and want the user to click CTA buttons and all. But then, don’t forget, the actual goal of a good UX is to help the users achieve what they intend to accomplish while interacting with your business and not what you want them to do.
That’s why it’s essential to figure out how your online and app experiences make people feel. That’s, it is not confusing the users or rushing them into things.
By keeping your audience needs in mind, you can build a strong UX that puts in place all the required information in such a way that it strikes a right chord with users. And when the UX of your site or app makes people feel good, they are more likely to hang around and become your customers.
The concept of UX design has grown from nice-to-have to a necessity these days. It has emerged as one of the critical factors to win the market. But when it comes to actually explaining the concept, people still are not able to give a clear idea about it.
The 7 Chief Attributes of a Respectable UX
#1. Know the user Inside-and-out
As mentioned above, you need to look at UX designing through the customer lens and accordingly take actions for your website or app. Ask yourself: why would customers buy from you rather than your competitor? What sort of information are customers looking for - are they merely researching products or services, or will they make actual purchases? Figure out all kinds of actions the users might want to undertake and list them down on different sticky notes.
Then, you can arrange all these actions as per the user flow. In other words, arrange them in a way potential customers would use them. Make sure every effort ends in five steps or even less. For instance, to ‘make purchases’ people will first:
- Browse the homepage
- Tap into the product category
- Click product page
- Check out
Not every step needs to end with a single click. For instance, when you are checking out the product page, one-click may not suffice. You may have to resort to multiple clicks such as size, color, and more before adding the product to the basket.
#2. Focus on creating emotions
Once the user flow is ready, the next step would be to create emotions you want your users to experience when they enter your website. Do you want them to feel excited or serious? Curious or welcomed? And, once they are done with their purchasing, how should they feel? Satisfied? Relaxed? Believe it or not, UX can be used to create intended emotions by playing with imagery, colors, graphics, messaging, and more. But then, no matter what, make sure your feelings are in sync with your brand identity and values.
#3. Sketch out your vision
Once you have nailed down the customer actions and mood, you can now move on toward the designing part - as to how each page of your website or app should look like. It could be the placement of the buttons, content layout, color scheme, among many other things. Sketch out your design, which could further be used to create an outline for your website or app. Even if you plan to outsource your UX process, sketching your UX requirements will help you to communicate your ideas more clearly.
#4. Avoid feature overloading
While sketching out, make sure the customers reach the product or service easily. The UX should be such that it takes the customers from one point to the other point in straight, easy steps. For this, you will have to make sure to remove unnecessary steps and features that might distract the customer from your offering. It’s sheer stupidity, if you have managed to attract the customer but lost him due to distractions along the way.
Facebook Messenger is loaded with all types of features making it clunky and overwhelming for chat users. There are stories, games, food, so on and so forth. These features may appear too much for chat users to digest. This is where Messenger Lite comes to their rescue. The app exclusively focuses on the chat feature only, which makes it an ideal UX strategy.
#5. Usability should be frictionless and intuitive
It’s essential to make customer journey through your app frictionless. For this, you need to make sure the layout is good enough to be used with one hand. For customers using larger smartphones it’s common to go all the way to the top of the screen to tap a particular button. This is bad UX.
If the critical functions of your app are not easy to reach, it might frustrate the users. The design should be frictionless and intuitive to drive sales and engagement.
#6. Easy to understand typography
If you think that all fonts are good enough and that you need not waste time thinking about fonts, then you have the wrong impression. If users are having difficulty deciphering the information on your app or site, it will leave a negative impact on the customers and might as well affect their overall experience. Employing consistent and accessible visual language will ensure that your customers understand the content in a manner you want them to.
#7. Conduct early testing
The best way to know whether you have created a respectable user experience is to test it early. You don’t have to wait until your website or app is completed, to begin with, the testing process. There are enough and more free tools that allow you to create mock-ups quickly and cheaply. If this sounds too much of a task for you, then you could share the rough sketches of the user flow with friends and to-be customers to know about their experience. Probe in-depth to understand their challenges or skills that require for each action. This will help you come up with new ideas for improved UX design.
Wrapping Up
Designing a respectable UX is not a simple exercise; however, it’s easily achievable with the above-prescribed steps. The only thing that you need to focus upon is understanding customer requirements and mood inside-out. This is a fail-safe way to visualize how your app or website will look. More importantly, test it asap. You can also plan to hire Brightscout UX experts who will guide through the process of designing a respectable user experience. Contact Brightscout now to explore endless possibilities together.
