What is UX design and why is it so important?
Skriven av Matilda JohanssonUX design is about how people interact with products, whether they are hair dryers or apps. Good UX design can be the difference between whether a customer converts or not.
Mikael Jansson, Creative Director at Rebel and Bird will tell you what you need to know.
Both visual design and UX design are about understanding people.
The visual design focuses on colors and shapes that signal who the product is made for and gives the user the right feeling. UX design ensures that the interactions that occur with a product are as good as possible for the product’s target group.
Among other things, UX design is about how a menu on a website works, so it’s easy for the users to find what they are looking for, that a form is in the right order and that the buy button is placed and communicates in a way that maximizes the conversion.
In tests, we have seen that it sometimes increases the conversion to add an intermediate step before purchase because it gives the buyers precisely the information they need to make a decision. In other cases, it may be about removing steps in the buying process — everything based on who the target group is and what you sell.
The sum of the interactions a person makes with a product is the user experience itself. In this context, a product can be both a digital product, such as an app or a website, and a physical product, like a hairdryer or a car.
The success of a product largely depends on how users perceive it.
People usually evaluate their experience as follows:
Does this product create value for me?
Is it easy to use?
Is it nice to use?
How well a product performs depends on how well the product answers these questions.
However, it is not enough to have a product that users love if it doesn’t meet the business goals. Thus, UX designers need to balance their work so that they meet both the user’s needs and the company’s goals to create long-term sustainable solutions.
The benefit of a product first arises when it is used.
For you to know what is best for the user, it is crucial to perform both qualitative user testing and to obtain quantitative data.
The user testing focuses on examining whether the users use the developed product in an intended manner and whether the expected benefits arise. Does the end-user understand how to interact with the product in terms of flows and functionality, and do the expected benefits occur?
If the product is used in another way than you expected, does it still create a benefit that you did not expect? In this case, user testing serves as a basis for changing your marketing.
For you to create a realistic test result, tests are done with real end-users. But what is being tested can consist of everything from paper sketches to fully developed apps. There are different types of test methods. The end-user interaction is documented so that it can be reviewed when the designer improves the UX design of the product.
The UX designer and everyone else involved in the project must have access to the data. No decisions should be made solely on a gut feeling.
A PROCESS FOR GOOD UX
Understand the needs of the users you design for as well as the business goals.
Explore a variety of possible solutions and go beyond the obvious.
Prototype the ideas. Experience and interact with them.
Deep understanding of user needs.
Test the prototypes against real users, observe and analyze and use the data to refine the prototypes.
RESULT OF GOOD UX
Increased conversion.
Supports business objectives.
Leads the visitor to where the business wants without hurting the user’s experience.
Make the customer/user/visitor happy.
Originally posted in Swedish at Byråvärlden.