All you need to know about principles of UX design
The demand for UX design services has increased rapidly in recent years. It has become a highly creative sector ready to welcome new ideas from UX designers and UX researchers. However, when a business owner or startupper is trying to get into this field, it must be aware of certain basic UX design principles. Therefore, read this article to know more about these UX principles that’ll guide you to professional UX design.
Catering to Users Requirements
The primary objective of every UX design is to meet the user’s needs. Designers should give the majority of the focus to what the clients and the users require.
Developers should learn about the features a user is looking for. Designers can do this with methods such as UX research and user testing. Often, design of a business website may look aesthetic to the business owners but is non-preferable by the users.
Having a Complete Overview of the Designing Process
After starting the designing process, it is essential to know the position of every member of the team. Every intern or senior UX designer must be aware of their roles. Since designing is not a small process and may take a lot of time and labor, participants understanding their job are very significant.
Learning about the design phase also makes business owners ask the right questions for better website design.
Maintaining a Proper Hierarchy
Having clear UX principles is the backbone for a UX designing process. This is where designers should give hierarchy as it will help developers with smooth navigation within a design. There are two significant kinds of orders that designers should note.
The first one deals with the way content or data integrates and organizes in the design. This is called the primary hierarchy. The other one is visual hierarchy. Its work is to make users navigate seamlessly on a web page. Therefore UX designers should be logical when placing components inside a page. This will contribute to a smooth user experience. Examples are popular sites that highlight the main statement with enlarged fonts for providing weight. Even important buttons are highlighted with different colors to attract users.
Consistent Design
In most cases, users expect a product to be the same up to some degree as other regularly used items. Therefore this is a factor that the developers should address while UX design. Finding similarities with other products helps a user get familiar with the new product. Moreover, it eliminates learning costs and will enable users to get accustomed faster.
In terms of the designer’s aspect, a consistent design makes the whole process a lot more seamless. Now they don’t have to reinvent the wheel for new projects. An example is the floating action button that has become popular in Twitter and Google Docs.
Proper Accessibility Knowledge
Having a ‘designing with accessibility’ based approach is becoming essential criteria for UX design services. Accessibility is a crucial factor that determines the fate of any new product. Therefore the designer’s job is to make a design usable for the masses. Even people with disabilities should also enjoy proper accessibility to the product.
An ideal example is removing issues from the design layout for facilitating lag-free navigation. A developer can achieve this by integrating contrasting colors concerning the text on the background. This will help visually challenged users to read text with greater ease.
Sticking to the Context
User context is another critical factor of UX design principles. It includes aspects like the location of the user, the time that they may be investing in this product, their emotional state, the device of a user, etc.
A UX designer should comprehend all these aspects to realize users’ behavior. With proper knowledge and information, a designer can aim for a design that can maximize the site’s overall efficiency. Moreover, users find relevant products very satisfying and will return to them more often.
Prioritizing usability
The main objective of UX design is to solve the issues of a user. As a result, usability becomes an essential aspect of design principles and a product’s success. The outlook and aesthetical value of a new development don’t matter in this case unless users find it secure and easy to use.
In terms of website designing, users often lose interest in portals that are cluttered. Therefore, a designer should fit every button, information, or icon keeping in mind their importance. Focus on this case should be given clarity by bringing out the crucial features.
Another importance of usability is that the click-through rate (CTR) is high for websites with a simple design and minimal elements.
You can read more about usability and UX design.
However, web designers can increase the usability quotient by performing usability testing. This is a feedback method where users interact with a design to point out its flaws. If a majority of the people point out similarity issues, the designer needs to alter the layout. This becomes easy since designing is iterative and requires constant improvements.
Leaning towards Simplicity
A minimal and straightforward approach for website designing has gained momentum in recent years. The main motives behind this are reducing the cognitive and operational expenses of the users. This also helps in enhancing the consistency of the product and encourages usability.
An over-decorated or cluttered design has become a thing of the past. This is evident from the methods used by popular products such as iPhones. Apple has made the less-is-more approach a primary aspect of their UX design principle, as seen from their latest products and website. Also we can see the same approach from Google and Microsoft.
On the other hand it would be better to maintain a balance between simplicity, esthetic and content of the website.
Using Easy-to-read Language
The simplistic approach is not only bounded by visual designs in terms of UX principles. It is also used successfully for website copywriting. The key here is to integrate fewer technical terms and go for straightforward language. Nowadays, users always remain occupied and engage themselves in multitasking. In such a scenario, using complex words will deviate attention from the product. Using easy-to-read language will thus increase the user-friendliness of a design.
Moreover, some aspects should be kept in mind while selecting words for UX design services. These are:
- Structure- Designers should select the word format that will be familiar to the users. They should also be aware of the sequence of these words for enhancing user readability.
- The focus of the design and audience – It is vital for designers to identify the audience, their requirements, and the goal they want to reach through a product.
- Expression- It consists of sentence length, tone, jargon, choice of words, and verbs.
- The design layout – Designers, should be meticulous about the structure and information graphics alongside the typography.
- Evaluation – Once a designer finishes writing, it is essential to let it go through a usability test and proper review.
Resorting to Apt Typography
Typography is another crucial element in any design. The choices for this aspect determine the way a user interprets language. As a result, the suppression or enhancement of any statement depends on typography. There are also several other ways through which typography enhances the user experience. It can help to improve the user-friendliness of any design, thus contributing to greater accessibility.
Importance of Feedback
Interaction is crucial to hold users’ attention in case of any website design. Therefore, whenever a design responds to a user’s command, it adds to ‘user satisfaction. Hence, the ideal way of implementing human-machine communication is feedback. There are various ways of response designing. Examples are changing of shape, color, vibration, or emission of light upon clicking.
Integrating Confirmation Option
Applications or websites asking for confirmation before implementing any command is common nowadays. A design that accepts comments that’ll result in drastic changes amounts to a bad user experience. Therefore confirmation is an essential aspect of UX design principles. Ideal examples for this system are present in products of famous brands like Apple.
Controls in the hands of the user
The needed flexibility and control that a user demands over any product or website design is user control. It is crucial for improving user experience since it allows users to get back from the errors.
An ideal example of this is the ‘upward’ icon present in any webpage. It allows users to go back to the top of the page faster. Other similar examples are the ‘cancel’ and the ‘undo’ buttons.
Personality-based Design
A lifeless and dull design will not be the crowd puller that designers expect. Therefore, to counter this, the design created should highlight characters that may suit the users. Moreover, going for a personality-based design will add a human touch increasing the usability quotient.
Implementing Visual Grammar
Visual grammar is the visual elements present in a design- patterns, icons, illustrations, etc. Nowadays, it is a crucial factor for increasing user experience.
Resorting to a Narrative Design
Integrating a good narrative design has become an essential part of UX design principles nowadays. There are two significant parts of this- time and rhythm.
Time is the speed a design follows. On the other hand, the pattern is the way a design’s narration opens up. However, a fast pace will confuse the users, and a slow pace will result in boredom. Therefore the designer must balance between the two and find the ideal narrative design.
These are the UX design principles that will help you to hire a professional UX designer.
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