Difference between usability and user experience
This subject about the specific nature of digital design that many our web agency’s clients often overlook or confuse.
Usability and user experience often create confusions in people’s mind because they are quite complex concepts used in the website design and mobile app design as well.
“Usability” refers to the ease of access and use of the web app, mobile app or website. It’s a sub-discipline or part of UI/UX design services. Now it has become a quite common term in Europe and the US insted of “user-friendly”.
Even some designers who’ve been designing websites for quite a long time now, have a hard time telling the two from each other.
That’s why this article tries to delineate usability from the term ‘user experience’.
User Experience
User Experience describes how end-users interact with a system such as an app or website. When one talks about user experience, it is referring to its subjective feelings and attitudes when using or interacting with a website or mobile app. It can be affected by the user interface (UI) elements, experience of interactions, brand, and emotional condition, etc.
That’s why, a user experience designer should analyze and anticipates the needs and expectations of the user, and then design apps and websites that best satisfy these expectations. Also, there are some UX design principles
A combination of the our experience, common practices and Value Proposition Canvas allowed F5 Studio web agency to create the effective process of UI/UX design
Elements of User Experience
- System usability – can users meet their expectations when using the system?
- System adaptability – do users switch to using the system to meet certain needs?
- System desirability – do users find the system fun, engaging and better than other systems in the niche?
- Value of the system – is the system valuable to its users?
Usability
Usability in Web Design and mostly in the Web development is principally concerned with the functional part of a website or app. It’s the quality indicator for an interactive design. It defines how the design is efficient, easy to learn and learn with few or no errors so as to satisfy the user.
Usability is thus both objective and measurable. It measures how well products and systems satisfy their user. Usability designers can thus assess the usability of a website in various ways including surveys and feedback analysis.
UI designers should analyze a web design when determining usability, taking into account everything from accessibility and usefulness of content to credibility and designing content users will enjoy.
Elements of Usability
- System functionality – does the system work as it was programmed to?
- System flexibility – can the system perform extra tasks besides its principal function?
- System learnability – can users use the system without the need for extra training?
- System design – is the system aesthetically pleasing to its users?
Goals of User Experience Vs Usability Goals
What is the user experience goal?
An improved user experience aims at enhancing the overall feel that users get when they use a web system. User Experience goals focus on helping the users get a positive perception of how a website or web application interacts with them.
Pro-tip
UX is a very important part of modern SEO. For example, a website speed related to UX. Focus on UX of a website will help you to improve SEO.
What is the usability goal?
Improving a website’s usability help increase the site’s ease of use. It considerably reduces the amount of work that a user has to do to complete tasks on the website.
Pro-tip
Google doesn’t use the usability for ranking purposes. But you should think about your real visitors, not SEO. So, the usability is important for success of website too.
Do you want to know more how to increae traffic on your website with the strategy-driven approach and advanced SEO services of F5 Studio agency? Contact our project managers.
Aspects of UX and usability
While designing the user-centered design of digital design, designers often analyze many aspects.
UX aspects
- Design and evaluate what the users do in the process of starting and ending interactions with the product.
- Maximize the realization of the stimulus, recognition and arouse emotional resonance.
Usability aspects
- Users should find it easy and become proficient when using a design interface.
- They should be able to achieve their goal easily through using that design.
- They should be able to learn the interface easily, so that return visits are just as, if not more, easy.
Conclusion
User experience and usability are two closely related elements of web design and depend on each other. Usability plays a vital role in creating good UX design. Usability leads to greater user satisfaction which in turns produces a better user experience. So, we can talk about relationship between usability and User Experience, not a difference.
It’s, therefore, the role of every web designer to ensure that every website developed has the best in terms of usability and user experience.
