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Creating a compelling User Experience Design

Iniyan Anbu
May 24, 2019 |
compelling user experience

It’s always nice to give users a product with good user experience and user interface primarily. But later, I believe UX make users feel satisfied and good when they play around with our product. So, if you wish to know about UI, you’re welcome to skip to my next blog, which will soon be posted. Because here, it’s all about UX for your product.

“Make designs, as it lasts forever.”

Let’s start with how UX design makes our users feel good and bad. Also, there are some things to concentrate on for the UX design journey.

UX sounds like something straight out of interstellar space or a sci-fi movie, but the truth is, you are experiencing it in the real world, in real time (and we will see how in this article). Let’s make it simple, UX stands for user experience and refers to the feeling a person has or goes through when interacting with a product (here, the product can refer to the web sites, desktop, mobile or web applications).

Most of the time, UX is done through the user interface. Some common elements of user interfaces you may have seen are hamburger menus in websites and installation screens in desktop applications (split into steps to reduce content, but not taking longer steps).

Initially, let’s see how can we tell whether something is going to be good or bad UX.

The first thing for a good UX design is “Understand People”

Sounds simple, right? Well… it’s not that simple, every person is unique and thinks differently. Therefore, a good UX designer has to be good at managing users’ expectations and use empathy to their advantage, to understand the users’ needs and come up with a solution to a problem.

Here is another important thing for a good UX outcome. As a designer in DCKAP Integrator myself, I used to follow this strictly for our new version, which has yet to launch. “Being able to ask for, listen to and use feedback effectively” is also a must-have for any good UX designer. Always ask for feedback   on designs, when they work with people in other roles. I remember a few situations where I even disturbed a few of my office directors, taking them away from their busy schedule for my design feedback and suggestions.

Standard UX designers are genuinely interested in how they can improve and become better. And don’t just collect the information and lock it away. Use it.

Take the time to think about the feedback you just received and act on it. Good UX designers will use the knowledge from that feedback in the future.
It’s a role where you are constantly learning and growing as a professional.

A process that I follow when designing something

  • Understand the Product
  • User Research
  • Sketch & Design
  • Evaluate
  • Implementation

Designing a satisfying user experience involves thorough planning, a Customer Journey for the users, and helping them find what they are looking for through an intuitive process. There is a good design quote that I love from a crazy talented guy:

“Design is not just what it looks like and feels like. Design is how it works”

-Steve Jobs

Now let’s talk about bad UX and design fails.

The first thing that strikes me when I think about bad UX is Microsoft’s Windows 10 auto update feature, as you can see in the above image. That’s a good example of how not to do UX. It’s common and a mandatory thing for a designer to prompt, or at least warn users, before proceeding to some important actions. Here, it’s about the update it downloads and installing the update. Windows users must be thankful, at least, they are prompted before restarting for installation.

Is it reasonable to assume that users are constantly stuck to their screens in anticipation of such a prompt? What happens if they are away, with unsaved work left open?

Here, the UX designers have made a big (and bad) assumption about their user’s habits  and their daily life. They never let their users prioritize their work in anticipation of the unknown update installation, which also happens to prioritize their convenience over any potential downtime that may affect the daily operations of users.

So, yes, giving prompts to a user is important for good UX. There are few cases where it is really needed in applications, though it takes two steps. When users delete some details, for instance. It’s a kind of double checking for the users, to bring the process about to happen to their attention. This will make the user feel safe using the product and refrain from losing their data.

Above, I have mentioned the UX design process and what to do and what not to do for good and bad UX. This will help your UX design to really work. Also, there are few other things listed below to satisfy a user. That’s when you know the UX has actually worked.

  • Give users what they actually use and what they need
  • Don’t make it so users have to think
  • Make users feel safe by giving prompts for data modifications like saving, deleting, etc.
  • Don’t let them feel frustrated at the middle
  • Place things so the user does not have to search for it, where the user’s eyes automatically go

Here, we come to the end. I hope you enjoyed reading the blog.

Thanks for reading.

Iniyan Anbu

Iniyan collaborates with people, teams, and businesses to develop design systems, strategies, and processes to do better and more interesting creative work. Believer of the Art and a Creative Designer by Designation. Driven by Thoughts and a Collaboration Advocate.

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