One of the fundamental aspects of contemporary marketing is the attention to what in English is called user experience (UX). Experience is a lived and observed fact, while by the user, we mean a person or a group of people who use an object or a service. UX optimization is the cornerstone of any marketing strategy. UX Design applied to contemporary marketing how to bring a user experience designed around them to live. About web design, the application of this concept, which tends to emphasize the human side of promotional action, is defined as User Experience Design. As the name suggests, UX Design is the design of the user experience: in fact, a method of designing a site that is centered on the user and which takes into account the behavior of these in front of a digital interface (web, mobile, or SaaS software). Its goal is to optimize the user’s virtual journey within the site or online shop to make it as pleasant, accessible, and intuitive as possible.
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What Is UX Design: The Human Side Of Design
To understand UX design, we first need to start with the term UX, an acronym for User Experience. UX design can be defined as the set of techniques used during the design of a platform (website, eCommerce, or mobile application) to design and create an interface that anticipates and satisfies the needs, desires, and expectations. of the user. UX design is not just about innovation in the strict sense (colors, layout, shapes, visuals, etc.). The priority is the user experience. In other words, it is a question of anticipating visitors’ expectations and making the interface as ergonomic and intuitive as possible based on the sensations of the users. The designer, therefore, mixes strategic objectives, technological parameters, and interface design techniques to create a website, e-commerce, or an application that is easy to use and perfectly compliant with the visitors’ needs.
Difference Between UX And UI Design
As we have seen, UX design refers to the expression of User Experience, while UI Design stands for User Interface Design. Both elements are essential to a good product, and the technicians who deal with them work closely with each other while referring to different aspects of the website or application design process. While UX Design is a more analytical and technical area, UI Design is closer to what we call graphic design. However, the responsibilities of the professional are a little more complex. The UX designer tries to answer this series of questions:
- What activities should users perform?
- How do they currently behave on the interface?
- Who are the users?
- How to make the experience simple and enjoyable?
- What is the ideal user path?
- How can the user journey be improved?
While the UX Designer implements the first wireframes and structures, the UI Designer, starting from his work, literally dresses the interface in question, focusing on all the visual and interaction details to make the interface intuitive and attractive, pleasant, etc. The UI designer then asks questions like:
- How to improve the readability of the interface?
- How to highlight the brand image by optimizing the user experience
- How to optimize the loading speed
- What colors to use to meet the disabilities of some
- Which characters to choose to be consistent with the structure and content
- How to make CTAs clear and engaging
Also Read: Web Design Trends: What Are The 10 Commandments
How UX And UI Design Work Together
As we have seen, UX and UI designers go hand in hand. These two professionals must help each other in the product development process. A friendly interface that looks optimized, but is challenging to use, is an example of a product with a good UI and a bad UX; conversely, an interface that looks ugly but has good usability is a product with good UX but bad UX. Both the examples cited refer, as is evident, to non-optimized products, which could certainly make more by harmonizing the two forms of design. We find many cases of this type in the world of start-ups. Often some brands launch a new product as a UX-centric app – they do user research, set up surveys, collect data, etc.
Eventually, they create an app that answers the question perfectly, with a promise and a successful concept, but without working on the UI. Result: users are very interested. They download the application quickly but run away just as soon because they are disappointed with the interface (the buttons are too small, the readability is not good, the brand image is not advanced, etc.). The user experience (UX) and the user interface (UI) complement each other, and it isn’t easy to achieve good results without working on these two aspects simultaneously. A design team must understand these two aspects and highlight them somewhat.
What Are The Skills Of UX And UI Designers?
These two professions are different, even if complementary. UX designers will not take care of the same things as UI designers, even if they will work closely together. The UX designer is responsible for aspects related to data, structure, testing, and user research, therefore:
- Competition analysis
- Content writing/strategy
- Product positioning strategy
- Wireframe
- Data analysis
- Surveys
The UX Designer is highly versatile: it can tackle topics related to the product manager, the SEO consultant, or the user interface designer. It must take care to optimize the product experience, which implies working on many aspects of the development process. The UI designer’s optimization goals will focus more on the visual interface. Its tasks will therefore revolve around the interaction of the interface and its aesthetic rendering. Here are the elements that UI Designer will process:
- Project research
- Customer analysis
- Brand analysis
- Graphic development and design
- Animation and interaction
- Reactive adaptation
- Front-end development
UI work is essential to give product credibility and a strong brand image. The interface designer must also be very versatile: for example, he must be comfortable with front-end development to offer design solutions consistent with the possibilities of e-commerce development (HTML, CSS, JS, etc.). Furthermore, he must also understand the choices of the UX Designer in order best to meet his expectations in terms of user journeys and collected data.
Why Is User Experience Design Essential?
UX design is about conceiving and designing a website or e-commerce to get the most out of it. Even before the development phase, it is necessary to take an interest in the functionalities that the user can use, in a type of path, and the expected actions. To comprehend this, we can consider the terrible experience spent on an ineffectively planned site. Since the menu is not straightforward, we waste time looking for categories or pages.
- Images don’t load fast enough.
- A button with little or no visibility does not allow action.
The visitor gets tired quickly and leaves the page. A good user experience strategy enables you to avoid traffic loss and favors achieving objectives. The user’s needs must be transformed into specific functions, clearly visible and intuitive: this is the essence of UX design.
The Benefits Of Good UX Design
Here are the main advantages of a quality UX design:
Increase In Conversions
Many websites and e-commerce sites sell the same product or service. However, customers choose to visit and purchase from sites that offer a simple and efficient user experience. The increase in the number of visitors automatically leads to a rise in the conversion rate. Since investing in UX design increases the company’s revenue, partnering with a web agency specializing in UX design is always a good strategy. According to a study published by Forrester Research, while excellent user interface design can increase a site’s conversion rate by 200%, superior user experience design can increase that rate by nearly 400%.
Reduced Maintenance Costs
A good user experience makes it easier for visitors to get all the information about the product or service that you are selling to them. If users get all their questions answered on the site, they won’t have to email or phone. This will therefore reduce customer support costs.
A Significant SEO Boost
Effective UX design helps significantly improve your SEO ranking. The ultimate goal of a search engine is to provide information to users quickly and conveniently. There are several factors a search engine uses to track user engagement, UX being one of them. The design of the UX to improve SEO should focus on many factors, among them the main ones are:
- Loading time or page speed;
- Cellular reactivity;
- Implementation of an easy-to-use URL structure.
Increased Brand Loyalty
Brand loyalty is a consumer’s tendency always to buy the same products. Loyalty is a strategy that must be at the heart of any business. A flawless user experience not only impresses users at first sight but keeps them for a lasting relationship. User-centric design and continuous bug fixing are the keys to retaining users and maintaining brand loyalty.
UX Designer: Description Of A Fascinating Profession
Let’s try to understand better who he is, what he does, how much he earns, and what career a user experience designer can make by briefly answering the most frequently asked questions.
What Is The Role Of A UX Designer?
The role of a UX designer is to meet user expectations in terms of experience to improve navigation.
What Are The Duties Of A UX Designer?
The main task of the UX designer is to analyze the user experience. The UX designer is also responsible for creating the storytelling and meeting the users’ expectations and needs, playing a more strategic role, unlike the UI designer, which has a more technical aspect. The UI designer will ensure the user interface’s design by designing the interface, verifying its clarity, and optimizing the paths and contents.
What Is The Salary Of A UX Designer?
The number of years of experience, seniority, or company structure determines the remuneration level. The REAL salary of a UX designer is between € 35,000 and € 55,000.
What Are The Skills And Qualities Required For A UX / UI Designer?
- Mastery of programming tools
- Have a good understanding of marketing
- Excellent knowledge of graphic design software (Photoshop, Illustrator, InDesign)
- Excellent performance of the web
- Excellent knowledge of HTML and CSS
- Knowledge of agile project management
- Understanding of consumer sociology and psychology
What Are The Career Prospects For A UX Designer?
The UX / UI designer can become a web architect or a project manager.
Also Read: eCommerce Website: Tips To Improve Your Website Design UX
