5 Principles of Modern UX Design
“If the user can’t use it, it doesn’t work.” -Susan Dray
Daily digital interactions are increasing with each passing day. Marketers are flourishing and focusing on gaining the attention of users worldwide. It has never been more important to offer customers a frictionless, seamless digital experience which aligns with their everyday lives.
Users have now come to expect that they receive optimum user experiences. It is a basic requirement of every modern day consumer. It is paramount to clearly understand why consumers interact with your digital platforms and what their expectations are.
UX Design: What is UI / UX?
UX (User Experience) Designis a process of creating experiences which are personally relevant and meaningful.
Platforms which provide a great user experience are designed with many things in mind including the process of owning, acquiring and making it work.
Here are some statistics related to the importance of user experience design which highlight the significance:
- Two-thirds of people prefer reading something beautifully designed rather than something plain, if given fifteen minutes of online consumption. Source
- 39% of users will close down a website if images are taking way too long to load. Source
- If the layout of a website is unattractive, 38% of people will stop interacting with it. Source
- If no contact information, like a phone number, is given, around 44% people will leave the website. Source
Principles of UX Design
Here are some core principles of UX design which are important to consider:
- Getting to know the user
“Design is not just what it looks like and feels like. Design is how it works.”– Steve Jobs
Understanding the target demographic of a particular design during itsinception is extremely significant for each product development venture; whether it’s a website or a mobile app. It is the main factor that decides how the product works as well as what the experience feels like.
Among the imperative user-related factors that may influence design process, the following characteristics must be unquestionably considered: age and gender of customers, circumstances in which they will utilize the product, objectives they need to accomplish utilizing the product (for example; for online shopping, or reading blog posts), and how frequently and during which time frame they will utilize it the most.
A decent UX Designer should start his work with a top to bottom examination of every one of these components and after that make an interpretation of them into the design venture.
- Keep it simple
Moderation has turned into the principle rule of planning and designing for the web and mobile devices. The term ‘moderation’ remains for an expansive idea including various perspectives which make the interface simple to design.
Such viewpoints incorporate, most importantly:
- Straightforwardness of the design- how pertinent the design is to your business
- Effortlessness or simplicity of the design process
- Visual order- how appealing the design is
- Justifying every element’s purpose; be it an image or a written post- everything should be relevant
- Avoiding clutter and other redundant elements
- Appropriate layout, graphics, text and color scheme
- Watchful decision of typography, and
- Suitable design of the blank area (or negative space)
- Clarity of the Product
If one is walking, it is difficult to stroll with the eyes shut. The absence of information all of a sudden influences one to stop despite the fact that the legs are working fairly fine. The same is the case with an ineffectively designed digital experience.
A good design is the one that is honest. You don’t want the user to just read the text on your website, do you? In fact, you desire to make the user cognize the real value. Therefore, being coquettish or vague about your product won’t get you any followers.
If you own an e-commerce website, then pricing is a region where clarity is mainly needed. Consumers are never going to click “Purchase now” if they fail to decipher what you are requesting them to pay. Although offering devious “free trials” that later change to auto-billing might be the normal practice among many vendors, they are definitely not appreciated by the customers.
As simple as it may sound, a good approach is to merely follow the Golden rule:
- Articulate and guide the experience so that it follows natural instinct
- Clarify as much as you can so that the user knows what to anticipate out of your products and avoid any disappointment later on.
- Trust is the key
A good design is the one that is easy to trust. If you want you user to perform an action, then make sure you help them comprehend why the undertaking is required. Be truthful and clear in descriptions. Consequently, you’ll build trust at every stage, resulting in progressively more conversions down the funnel.
For example, Uber has made getting a ride so convenient that now nearly a century-old business is in pandemonium. Its app saves users’ payment information, which they might not want to share with an outsider, and provides a reliable, effortless transaction.
Therefore, eliminating distrust will produce an increasingly seamless user experience.
- Flexibility
A good user experience design is confirmed when the design is something which is visually appealing and works for all interaction touch points. You should consider these points when designing a flexible user experience:
- Focus on design that functions admirably in various circumstances (such as straightforward responsive formats, less things stuffed in corners, concise text etc.)
- Utilize solid typography (dark on white, vast, meaningful, and so on.)
- Design for different device resolutions; be it a smartphone, a tablet or a laptop.
Final Word
These five design principles can be employed for best practices in user experience.One must remember that in order to ensure that the user experience of a particular product is sufficient, it must be validated with testing from the actual users of the product. This will ensure that the user experience design is as close to the wishes and needs of the users as possible.
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