Almost everyone has interacted with UX, alternatively referred to as User Experience, though plenty of people cannot provide an example of it when asked. Have you used or seen your entertainment screen on your car? Have you downloaded a recent app? Well, UX more or less surrounds us, and thinking about it as either technology or design when it pops up should no longer hold.
So what do such widespread interfaces entail in terms of functionality and layout? What makes them? Have you gotten swayed with such interfaces when deciding on a product? It often happens that user experience plays a significant role when trying to pick a service or product. Because of this, we develop expectations regarding the design, efficiency, and functionality of the products we want to purchase, as no one would prefer a complex navigation system for simple things like entertainment.
Further, most people tend to remember horrible experiences with poor UX systems but will hardly remember excellent experiences with brilliant UX systems.
Simple Steps of Ensuring an Excellent UX
It becomes difficult to predict user behavior at times. However, you can consider the following simple steps by this site in ensuring you have an effective starting point.
- Firstly, consider the existence of the user and why they exist. It becomes essential to comprehend why the user decides to use an app, site, or product to pick the best UX. So start by mapping the potential experience users expect through a map out of the action flow. Here, you can use flowcharts and sticky notes to develop actions that potential users will likely implement. After that, go through the mapped-out flow and ensure that all the interfaces or links lead to where you anticipate.
- Assume your user’s position. While it may prove tricky, it becomes essential to assume your user’s position to understand what you want your user to experience while using your product or on your site. For instance, you might want your users to feel welcome while at the same time experience curiosity. So you will have to consider the presentation, layout, sound effects, and color layout you would want your user to experience.
- Start afresh. Here, you have to design your UX by basing everything on the first and second step of understanding why the user uses the product and what type of emotion you want to evoke when using the product.
- Test the UX with users. The most treasured insights often come from whoever you intend to use the product in as you can test the product yourself. For this reason, you find beta launches providing plenty of invaluable information geared towards product development. Try and allow the intended user to test the product whenever your budget and time allow you to adjust the product constantly.
Conclusion
It often proves difficult to specify user experience, though the general definition always becomes clear. UX entails the user journey from when they enter the system/site/product to the moment they finish and get out. To develop an excellent UX, consider the steps elaborated in the article.