What Every UX Designer Needs To Know !

User experience (UX) designers need to have a thorough comprehension of human psychology, technology, and design. What makes a good product? Why will people keep returning? UX designers consider all these while designing the best layout.

But you'll be able to strike the right balance and keep users coming back for more with a well-thought-out UX design process. User research is a big part of this multidisciplinary process. It can range from simple analytics and heatmaps to more complex enterprise research efforts.

These include contextual observation, diary studies, surveys, interviews, etc. Such efforts allow the UX designer to make digital products easier to use and more intuitive over time.

Principles of UX for an optimised experience

Focus on the user’s needs and usability

UX design aims to create products and services that address the customers’ needs. Hence, a UX designer's work needs to work around the user-centricity principle. It focuses on the user’s needs and makes decisions based on their problems.

It starts with user research to figure out the problem you need to solve and who your target users are. Further, the design should be easy to use. Eventually, user testing takes place to see how well the product meets the user’s needs.

Additionally, a UX designer must keep the business's vision in check. At Growth Jockey, we perfect customised solutions to help businesses find opportunities that accelerate realising their vision.

Simplicity

Designers need to know that simple design makes it easy for users to interact with it and saves them time and effort. Usability immediately improves with a reduction in visual clutter, fewer elements and emphasis on the most critical aspects.

In contrast, providing too much input dilutes the user experience and scatters attention. Users are more likely to leave a website and go somewhere else if it takes a lot of mental processing to figure out how to use it.

Hence, an ideal minimalist design with a lot of information needs a progressive and contextual way. The user should only have to do as few actions as possible to navigate easily.

Hierarchy

Hierarchy is a crucial UX design principle because it influences how a user navigates a product. The success of a UX design depends on how easy or hard the navigation is. Hierarchy involves two main categories –

Information Architecture

The sitemap is the information architecture, the overall organisation and structure of your app or website. This commands how the user moves from one screen or page to another. For instance, when you arrive at the home page of a website, you can see various menu items appear at the page's top.

If you click on any item, you'll either land on a different page or get more choices. Some items are higher up the hierarchy (i.e., more readily accessible), and others require more searching.

Visual hierarchy of individual pages and screens

The arrangement of individual elements on a page or screen is considered in the visual hierarchy. It includes aspects like –

• Placing more significant elements at the top of the page or screen

• Using larger fonts for things that you want to stand out

• Using distinct colors to reflect the prominence

Since hierarchy emphasises the most crucial pages and elements, customers find it easier to navigate products/services.

Consistency

The principle of consistency is equally important when it comes to UX design while developing products that address specific user issues. Consistency in user experience design is achieved in layers.

The designs should be the same on all pages, screens, and products belonging to the same brand in appearance and functionality.

It also includes meeting the user's expectations for the product you're designing. For instance, when designing a flight booking app, users will have certain expectations of how it should work based on their previous experience with similar apps.

There is no need for imitating or re-inventing the wheel. Developing a user-friendly design with a very low learning curve is crucial for a positive user experience. The colour or design of the brand gets etched in the user’s memory because of consistency.

Accessibility

Another essential component of a good UX design is accessibility. It ensures the product or service is usable and accessible to as many people as possible. For a well-rounded design, people with disabilities and digitally unequipped people should find it easy to use.

A typical example is using high color contrast to ensure that text is legible for people with visual impairments. Growth Jockey can aid you in creating a holistic design for a simple yet effective user experience and improve your business operations.

Context

As a designer, you have to examine the surrounding of the consumer visiting the site. For instance, it is vital to consider the device they use, their location, and even their physical and emotional state.

Such contexts allow you to take into account any potential limitations. These may be the inability to use hands while driving, using a small screen or dealing with background noise, etc. Considering the context of the end user allows a UX designer to provide the right amount of control to the customer.

One of the most basic usability heuristics for web design is user control and freedom, according to Jakob Nielsen, co-founder of the Nielsen Norman Group.

Users often choose system functions by mistake and need a marked "emergency exit" to leave the unwanted state without an extended dialogue. These can be "Undo" and "Redo" functionality, providing "Cancel" buttons, etc.

Usability testing

Launching a website or application after conducting usability testing is a vital factor of UX to increase the chances of success. An excellent way to determine how well your design adheres to user-centered design and UX design principles is through usability tests.

The test shows where users encounter difficulties and how they interact with the design. UX designers can access clear information regarding specific usability issues. From the initial design and prototype to the final version, such tests must be conducted throughout the entire UX design process.

Some ways to test your design are – A/B tests, Session recording, eye movement tracking, interviews, moderated and unmoderated usability tests, etc. Conducting various tests is a good idea because they will highlight various user behavior aspects.

Essential UX skills for a designer

Technical skills a UX designer needs to know

Product development

Mockups, wireframes, prototypes, and user flows are all important aspects of the product development process. You can accomplish this by creating user flows, wireframes, low- or high-fidelity prototypes, mockups, or wireframes, depending on the stage of development.

• Wireframe – It is a web page layout with no visual design that prioritises page elements based on user needs.

• Prototype - A sample layout for a web page tested and evaluated for feedback.

• Mockup - A realistic visual representation of the user flow in a final application or webpage. As a beginner, sketching out wireframes and user flows for an app or website is ideal.

• User flow - A diagram that maps out all the user's steps while using any product or service.

Software for visual design

Both UX and UI designers use graphic design software to create the visual elements of any product or service. Designers need knowledge about typography, color theory, layout, icons, and general design theory in addition to being proficient in the tools.

User research skills

You can make a product even better by doing the proper user research for the feature or product you're designing. Learning how to iterate user research and develop prototypes is essential to become an influential designer.

In-depth research will provide information like these - website visitors stay 88% longer on web pages with videos. Since data is essential for creating the design, some businesses have UX researcher as a subset of their UX team.

Agile

It is a set of project management practices in the software development industry. The overlap between UX and Agile has reached the point where there is a term for it—Agile UX design. Since many software development teams use Agile, UX designers could also benefit from knowing about this strategy.

Application Development

UX designers are not typically coders. However, having a fundamental understanding of application development, including programming languages like JavaScript, CSS, and HTML, can be beneficial -

• Your expectations of what is possible with your design will be more accurate.

• You can communicate and work with the development team more effectively.

• A visionary business needs designer who has a broader range of skills. In fact, Software development companies allocate 20% of their total budget to UX design.

Soft Skills a UX Designer Needs

Collaboration

Collaborating with teams is a necessary UX designer skill to promote leadership and define business goals. You may deal with developers to turn your designs into code, depending on the project and the stage of development.

Knowing how to give and receive feedback and incorporate new ideas for making the best product possible is necessary for working in a team. Growth Jockey revolves around the ethos of team effort and collaborative action. Our brilliant minds and modern technology can produce your ideal design vision quickly.

Presentation and Communication Skills

Collaboration and communication go hand in hand. When conducting user research, strong communication skills enable you to obtain more valuable customer data and inspire stakeholders when presenting your designs.

Curiosity

Curious professionals can interact with customers, products, and challenges meaningfully. Asking insightful questions, actively listening, and delving deeper into problems allow a UX designer to evolve.

Wrapping Up

74% of visitors are likely to come back to your site if it has good mobile UX. Hence, as a user experience designer, you should put usability ahead of aesthetics. Utilise usability testing as part of the design process to identify and address usability issues, resulting in a user-friendly and practical experience.

One skill to improve in this modern and technologically advanced world as a UX designer is to keep learning and improving. Growth Jockey is all about improving and implementing relevant strategies.

At Growth Jockey, we are committed to delivering tailored solutions that effectively address the critical challenges faced by our clients across various industries, ultimately enhancing the user experience. Regardless of your company's size, whether it's a small-scale enterprise or a large corporation, you can now leverage advanced technologies to optimize your user experience. Take a proactive step towards unlocking the next level of growth for your brand by reaching out to us today!