What is UX Design? And why is it important for business?
You want your customer touchpoints to be intuitive, efficient, and satisfying for users. And that’s where User Experience (UX) Design comes in.
When we think of design we often jump to thinking about visuals, but UX design prioritises usability over aesthetics. UX design is the process of creating a service that solves your user’s problem while making their interactions as easy as possible, with the additional aim of strengthening their overall perceptions of your brand.
It takes a lot to get the user experience just right, so we’ve put together these 5 key UX design principles to get you creating enjoyable interactions that are a hit with your users.
Download Now: UX Design 5 Key Principles
1. User-focus
UX design would be nothing without the end-user. So, before you start scribbling down design ideas… ask yourself, “What problem am I looking to solve for them?”
Want an example?
Wembley Arena noticed that visitors to their venue were having trouble finding the right entrance. Once at the right entrance, they were then holding up queues by not having their ticket ready on the OVO Arena Wembley app *cue the judgy eye rolls*.
We produced large-scale external signage with a venue map, and a QR code taking them to the app for easy ticket access. As a general rule of thumb, you’ll want the more important elements at the ‘top’ of the info hierarchy as it’s easier for users to find. We decided to mock up an in-situ graphic of the to-scale signage, so that our friends at Wembley Arena could wrap their heads around how it would work in practice.
Et voila! Smooth entrance into the venue, and time for a beverage before the gig!
2. Usability
Woop! You’ve decided on the problem you’re trying to solve. Another key thing to consider when it comes to UX design is how the user will interact with your design, in a way that is both easy and quick to do.
Usability in practice
A multinational medical equipment manufacturing company were sending out surveys to their customers, and despite an open rate of 30%, they only saw a submission rate of 1%. We helped them redesign the survey, to include:
- Fewer questions – less time required of the user
- Clickable buttons – more engaging (and fun!) than traditional form filling
- Progress bar – users feel a sense of accomplishment as they approach the end
We incorporated clickable arrows into survey responses, since they have been shown to increase call to action clicks by 26%.
More usable survey = more responses = more opportunities to refine the customer experience. Happy days.
3. Consistency
You want your brand to be consistent in the way it looks and feels, just as you want each individual design to meet the user’s expectation for the kind of project you’re creating.
Let’s put that into context
Historic Royal Palaces (HRP) asked us to produce a call handling Data Report to present to their staff. We knew they would have certain expectations of how the presentation might be formatted, based on past experience and familiarity with the HRP brand.
Reinventing the wheel in terms of the hosting platform would have been more of a hindrance than a help when it came to users’ understanding. So, we got our UX designer caps on and produced the presentation in trusty old PowerPoint, but produced on-brand infographics to bring the data to life and help staff better engage with the data.
4. Engagement
Now comes the fun part… Is your design satisfying (or even enjoyable!) for users to engage with? Highly engaged users are more likely to become loyal customers, and advocate for your brand, whilst existing users are more likely to stick around.
So how might you go about this?
Having had trouble encouraging their employees to complete important daily, weekly, and monthly tasks, a toy production company got in touch with us. We quickly set to creating an engaging model for their service portal…
Our account managers tweaked the previously dense knowledge article into bitesize, digestible checklists, which our production team then transformed into a competitive game for the company’s staff, rewarding them points for each task completed.
If you can somehow gamify your training resources, you’ll leave employees feeling appreciated for their efforts and motivated to keep learning, as well as increase both their participation and commitment.
5. Accessibility
Embracing accessibility is about ensuring your service or product is usable for as many people as possible. On top of understanding and adapting to the hosting environment, it means catering to the needs of people with disabilities, and thinking about your non-English-speaking users.
Par exemple…
If you’re producing a video screen walkthrough for a knowledge base, you’ll want to:
- ensure it’s high enough resolution to be played full screen on a desktop computer
- use contrasting colours for optimum legibility (we recommend WebAIM’s contrast checker), and add captions to the voiceover to assist those who are hard of hearing
- consider creating a localised version
Still daunted by UX Design? Try this out…
You want to optimise your design for the best possible user experience. Move that cursor away from launching InDesign, and instead start by putting yourself in the user’s shoes. Ask yourself two questions:
- What problem am I trying to solve for them?
- How will I make it easy to find the solution?
Grab a pen and paper, sketch out the blank canvas, and put the answers your user is looking for at the top of the design – or the area you know will be seen first.
When it comes to captivating the attention of visitors to your online platform, you don’t have much time (our attention span has reduced to around 12 seconds!), so focusing on these two key components first is really key. Users will find their answer more quickly, increasing customer satisfaction, and improving the chances of them self-serving again in the future.
Remember. Usability first, aesthetics second.
Want to learn more about how you can improve user experience through design? Let’s talk!
