Designing an Experience
Designing an online experience for your consumer base is a critical step for any business that is ready to provide global accessibility. Whether this accessibility is being provided through a website, app, or even a game interface, the experience you provide your end users will be the determining factor of your interface’s continued success. A well-strategized marketing campaign can drive traffic to your digital interface, but it is the user experience (UX) that will capture your users’ loyalty and continue driving repeat traffic to your user interface (UI).
Let’s start at the top by defining UI & UX.
User Interface (UI) - This refers to the digital asset your end user interacts with; website, app, game, or other software.
User Experience (UX) - This refers to the design of the interface - visual aesthetics, user flows, functionality, etc. - that create the user’s experience.
When we combine these two facets, we get user interface experience design. There are a number of SAAS products out there that take the majority of the back-end development out of the picture by providing pre-templated designs to get you started, managing servers, and providing easy to integrate APIs. With an initial template, and the ability to customize and integrate a wide range of design elements, this allows designers to focus more on the UX, than the assembly and management of the engineering side of UI.
Depending on the complexity of your UI, you may require a variety of different types of UX designs. Alternatively, you may require a combination of numerous types of designs. Some of the most common types of UX designs include:
User Interface Design - focusing on the functionality of the UI, including accuracy and ease of use
Usability Design - focusing on the UI ease of use through layout and menu design
Navigation Design - focusing on the design, placement, and accessibility of all clickable elements; navigation menu, buttons, etc.
Visual Design - focusing on the aesthetic appearance of the UI, such as the color palette, graphics, and typography (some of this may be pre-determined by the entity’s brand kit, but the designer will still be responsible for the application of the elements)
Interaction Design - focusing on how the user interacts with the UI, by ensuring accurate flows and efficient speeds
To reiterate, depending on the complexity of your UI, you may require more complex design options. A few more design types include:
Motion Design - focusing on animations, visual effects, and page transitions
VR/AR Design - focusing on virtual information, extended reality, and 3D animations
Conversation Design - focusing on AI, virtual assistants, and conversational behaviors
Data Architect Design - focusing on usability validation, analytics, and accessibility
In addition to all of these design types, your UI may also require additional support roles, such as:
UX Researcher
UX Writer
UX Program Manager
UX Engineer
While each one of these types of design have a critical focus, it is important to ensure that all types of relevant design are being considered and addressed while building your UX. If one element is missed, or falls short, the entire architecture could crumble.
In order to determine the scope of needs for your UI UX, you should be able to answer all of the following high-level questions:
What is the need/problem the UI will solve?
What does the UI need to be able to do?
What is the success criteria for this project?
Who is our target audience? Why?
What do our users want?
What are their frustrations (what’s out there and how can we do it better)?
Does this project have any constraints or concerns?
Are there any brand guidelines and/or assets for this project?
Who are the project stakeholders and associating roles?
What message do we want to convey to our users?
Once your initial project criteria is established, it should be off to the races for your designer / team. From there, the UX design build should be managed like any other high-level project; recurring status sessions, a project manager leading the charge, and continuous milestone evaluation.
During the development, as well as at the completion of the project, your UX will need to be tested, analyzed, and focus-grouped. Each aspect of your design should be rigorously tested and vetted by sample users in a real world environment. Upon the project’s completion, the UI should be analyzed and tested as a whole entity. All user and testing feedback must be logged throughout the project, and addressed accordingly with stakeholders. This stage of user feedback is perhaps the most crucial in the process, lest we forget, it is those users that we are building this experience for. Their feedback should be valued and strongly considered throughout the project, as they are providing you with the roadmap to a successful experience for your users.
The initial design of your interface is only half the battle. UI UX analysis should be a continuous practice for your business from there. This ongoing analysis is crucial to maintain, especially surrounding new product and/or feature launches. Continuous analysis and improvement will ensure a seamless user experience, while building a worry-free expectation for your users each time they interact with your interface.
Whether you are just starting out with your UI build, or you are executing an analysis - regardless of which design type you favor, what your existing assets dictate, or what type of interface you are building - the key takeaway is the same for it all: focus on the user. Let their feedback and usage data guide you on your path of development. As the Field of Dreams quote goes, “If you build it, they will come”. But, more importantly, “If you build it [for your users], they will come [back]”.
When you’re ready to take the next step, we’re here for you.
