User Experience (UX)
Good websites are beautiful and functional, and a web designer helps make them that way
User experience (UX) design is the science and art of creating products (or websites) that give users the best experience.
Many of the elements of visual design that we discussed above affect how a site is perceived by visitors, but UX design also includes how products evoke certain feelings in visitors.
UX designers think less about the technology behind the site and more about user experience and the fit of the created experience to user needs. Sometimes this requires extensive user research and an understanding of the principles of perceptual psychology and interaction design. If you’re looking for more UX practice, check out our latest roundup of 7 courses on UX and interface design.
It is important for web designers to learn the basics of UX design and the fundamentals of user interface (UX/UI) design:
- Persons and Works (JTBD). Creating generalized images of the target audience and their needs helps to ensure that each design solution will appeal to customers (will be useful and cause emotional delight).
- User research (UX/CX-research). Hotjar helps a lot with this, with it you can study heat maps, conduct user surveys – everything you need to quickly understand the reasons for the behavior and motivation of site visitors.
- User experience testing. Testing a site with real users can help identify points where visitors get stuck or confused, as well as pinpoint points where the value of a design can increase.
- Information architecture and navigation (IA). It is not difficult if approached comprehensively. Information architecture is a story about the location of information on the site: what pages should be on the site, what items should be on the menu and in what order, which blocks must be on the page so that users find the answer. It can be done well only by applying SEO analysis and an interview with a specialist from the subject area (the customer or an involved expert who knows well what the site is about). Without analyzing search queries (the actual interests of users) and comparing them with practical expertise, the site will turn out to be a toy, and not close to reality.
- Wireframing. Just like you wouldn’t build a house without a plan, you shouldn’t build a website without blueprints and a plan.Wireframe helps to determine the key elements and composition on the pages of the site close-up, without drawing the smallest details, at a level sufficient to assess “what will be where and how it will work.” Tools like Balsamiq help you quickly throw in website layouts, give it a try.
