2017 – The Year Of UX

UX Design has totally revolutionized the arena of businesses worldwide. It has enabled business owners to shift the focus away from selling goods or services, and rather focus on selling experiences to the customer. With its growing influence, the field of UX design too is expanding rapidly.

For those who want to know what is in store for 2017 and 2018, here is a quick compilation of the UX design trends that will continue to be popular in 2017 and 2018:

1 – Platform independent UX

As we increasingly move to cross-platform solutions, we are looking to deliver a richer cross-platform experience to users. Be it responsive design to cater to different screen sizes, or fading online-offline channels for generating e-commerce sales, the entire world is now looking to have a contextual yet platform-agnostic user experience to be delivered to customers.

2 – Better personalization

Gone are the days of batch mailing and hoping for great conversions. Today it is all about personalization of the marketing messages after considering the views and opinions of users. For this, marketers will need to reach far and wide and sift through multiple sources of unstructured and structured data like diverse social media feeds.

3 – Move away from general UX

The scope of specialization within the UX domain is fast gaining momentum. As a result, we will see domain-specific UX design expertise emerging for sectors like Artificial Intelligence, Virtual Reality, and within industry verticals like healthcare.

4 – Performance tracking beyond the interface

Traditional metrics like bounce rate, page visit, etc. will hold lesser prominence as performance indicators. Instead, there will be more emphasis on how well an experience was delivered to a customer.  Take the case of Snapchat Spectacles. The accessory is great for Snapchat users to interact with the platform without the use of a phone. This merging of an intuitive experience around the way a customer uses a product denotes the overall experience delivered to the Snapchat user.

5 – Merging UX into the employee workflow

A visionary management will seek to integrate UX as a management practice rather than an alienated concept in 2017 and 2018. In this, the management will employ UX and put themselves into the shoes of the employee. This will allow them to know what triggers, incentives, or limitations an employee faces at each stage of a user journey – right from suggesting an idea, to implementing it, and then seeing what happens when they fail. This UX integration will be a great motivation boost for employees to bring out their innovative steak into routine work. This trend of enabling UX design for employees is expected to gain traction in 2017 and 2018.

As evident, the forward- looking trends will play a greater role in helping businesses stay ahead competitively in a crowded digital landscape. Make sure to employ these trends into your next UX design project and enable the much needed competitive edge to your clients.

UX Introspection

What exactly is expected out of UX is a question that will have many answers. Before understanding UX requirements, defining and understanding the concept of UX is mandatory as well.

User Experience (UX) is somewhat of an elusive notion with many different definitions, even among the UX community themselves. There is user experience involved in all product and service design the focus here is purely on digital user experience.

The Role Of UX

While the design team definitely has a crucial role when it comes to user experience, it’s not something only designers have to worry about. Everybody involved in the creation through sales of a product should be thinking about UX.

Collaborating with the UX department can yield benefits for everyone involved. For example, learning about UX can help marketers better understand their customers. Having an understanding of UX in different channels can also help marketers optimize their materials for each of the channels they use.

This, in turn, will make the lives of designers easier, because they won’t have to redesign products that weren’t made with consumers in mind. It will also lead to better, more popular products because the products will be geared towards the customers.

When marketers collect data on their campaigns, they can also share that information with UX designers, especially if they determine UX may have been a factor in the effectiveness of a campaign. This can help both marketers and UX designers improve their work.

Thinking about user experience is something that needs to be integrated into company culture and the whole process of how a company does business.

ISO 9241-210 defines user experience as “a person’s perceptions and responses that result from the use or anticipated use of a product, system or service”.

The problem with this definition is that it still leaves so much to interpretation. Designing the user experience is a combination of an art and science with many “rules” actually being guidelines based on user behaviors during testing.

So, instead of defining UX, we list out 10 questions that will help you understand UX better. The individual answers to these questions will lead to a better definition of UX in your mind.

So, before starting a UX project, ask yourself these questions because the definition of UX is ever evolving and changes from project to project.

The Questions To Be Asked

1. Who is the website intended for? If the website already exists, what kinds of users does it already have, if any?

2. What information exactly needs to be communicated to these users for the website’s function to be considered successful?

3. Are the intended users or the message likely to change in the future, and if so at what rate and degree?

4. What are your motivations for working on the UI?

5. In particular, how do your motivations differ from the those of the intended users? How do they differ from those of anyone else working on other aspects of the site?

6. What is your budget for the work at hand, in terms of both money and time?

7. Do you have the freedom to try unconventional solutions, or are standard ones more appropriate to the context?

8. Who owns the UI once you have “finished” working on it? Will others need to change it independently?

9. How closely coupled is working on the UI taking into account technical limitations the development process?

10. Are you in the right frame of mind to create world class UX?

Keep these questions in your mind every single mind and the final product will be more user engaging thanks to your honest answers and better understanding of the user requirements.

The UX Glossary

If you are into UX designing, you will surely know its significance for a site or application. In case you aren’t aware, here are some stats for reference. According to market reports, a whopping 88% of online consumers will abandon a site if their navigation experiences aren’t impressive. That speaks a thousand words about the significance of the value provided by a UX designer and why budding design enthusiasts are choosing it as their career choice. In case, you have planned to take the same route, here’s a list of the most popular terms related to the UX design arena.

Get knowledgeable of the terms for UX Designer

1. Affinity diagrams: Plan your site layout with the concept of affinity diagramming. Data organization is imperative in creating layout designs, and that’s where this concept helps.
2. A/B Testing: Testing is an integral part of the UX design process and what other than A/B Testing can help you do that.
3. Beta Launch: Let the UX designer develop an idea of the viability of his creation. Beta launch is the best way to do so, as you will have the chance to interact and see the site live!
4. Analysis: Data collection and analysis helps the designer to work on his ideas thus adopting the best design approach.
5. Color Theory: Colors have a significant impact on human mind. If you are building a website, try doing some research on color psychology.
6. Card Planning: Designers always segregate tasks into various pockets. With systematic and organized digital cards for content creation, site navigation, link addition, and others, you can develop innovative designs within a few hours!
7. Competitor analysis: Comparing your designs with competitors which give a profound idea of the merits and demerits of your creation.
8. Comparative analysis: Effective and specific comparison of granular site elements.
9. Content strategy: From development and creation to publication of site content, every task comes under content strategies.
10. Content audit: Performing assessment and review of site contents, where designers can create a catalogue of important content

Some more important terms for a UX Designer to know

1. Experience architecture: Prepare a roadmap for the users, where they can get the hang of how to navigate through the site.
2. Contextual questions: Know what your consumers feel while checking out your website. That’s crucial to reach the desired goals.
3. Diary study: Studying user behaviors for a long time helps a lot in the design process. You won’t get instant, real-time reactions, but it is useful.
4. Interaction design: Interaction design refers to the process of creating comprehensible, meaningful, and relatable site designs.
5. Iterative designing: Refers to the perfect camaraderie between planning, prototyping, review, and implementation.
6. Heuristic or Usability reviews: The designer can check the usability of the designs and what they add to the website.
7. Persona creation: Make sure site designs are meaningful, and they help you target different consumer groups. That is what persona creation does for you!
8. Mood board: A unique and eye-catching collage of images, text chunks, content, and colors.
9. Prototyping: The process of creating design outlines.
10. Entry field: Users might need to fill in information, and that’s where an entry field is required.

Related terms

When it comes to unleashing your creativity for UX designing, you should develop crystal clear understanding of the crucial terms and concepts. Here are some more terms that happen to be integral parts of this process.

1. Qualitative research
2. Progressive disclosure
3. Scenario
4. Storyboard
5. UI elements
6. Quantitative Research
7. User Journey
8. Usability
9. User centered designs
10. Error analysis

A knowledge of these concepts and terms will help you devise creative UX strategies and incorporate them in the right channels

UX Is The Key

The future might not be predictable, but we can at least guess what’s waiting for us. Tech innovations have revamped and revolutionized numerous sectors. It goes without saying that it will continue to do so for years to come. As of now, three crucial ideas and concepts seem to rule the design arena. User Experience, Augmented Reality, and Virtual Reality has emerged as the three pillars of innovative designing. Before delving deep into the nuances of this topic, it’s high time to understand the true connotation of User Experience!

What’s UX and how it affects site designs?

Whether you build an official website or a highly scalable app, the entire design process should be user-centric. It’s your users who determine the usability, experience, and functionality of your site or application. Smooth and hassle-free navigation is the key to ensuring that. Whenever a user operates on a particular site, he will surely wish to have unsurpassed experiences. If your website fails to offer the desired experience, users won’t take much time to abandon it.

Integrating UX into the future ‘reality

With tech advancements getting the better each day, the implementation of AR and VR strategies seem to be a common affair. Designers across the globe are taking up the challenge, thus thinking out-of-the-box and creating unique design experiences. Here’s how UX is dominating Virtual and Augmented Reality!

1 – Mobile app development

While creating mobile apps, designing will surely emerge as a crucial task. It’s here that most of the designers are leveraging AR and VR to create exceptional User Experience. These concepts and innovations seem to be interdependent where VR and AR technologies are helping designers create real-world experiences

2 – Immersive experience

Gone are the days when one-dimensional and uncomplicated designs used to work. The current scenario has a different story to narrate. Users are always looking for something different, and that’s where immersive experiences play the vital role. There’s been a paradigm shift, where UX determines the performance or appeal of an AR or VR device.

3 – Developing the design ecosystem

Virtual Reality devices such as the Oculus Rift is no less than innovation. By offering real-world, virtual experiences to users, this particular device creates an entirely new world of reality. It’s right here that UX emerges as a determining factor. If you are planning to create stunning designs for the next VR or AR application, it’s none other than UX helping you out.

4 – Action automation

Present-day AR and VR devices run on user-centric technologies. Personal interactions seem to be of paramount significance, and it’s a lot about how users interact with a particular app or game. UX can help designers automate actions on a VR or AR app. As a result, users will have the opportunity to share personal experiences.

5 – Intuitive and Interactive

Last, but certainly not the least, UX designing brings along the element of intuitiveness and interactive behavior. While developing an AR or VR application, these things seem to be highly imperative.

Signing off

At the end of this article, you will surely come to know how AR and VR draw influences from user experience designs.

The Path Of A UX Designer

UI/UX design, as the top spot in the top ten most influential IT skills, is very attractive for the layman and the novice designer both on job market prospects and salary. This is why so many people are eager to switch to be an interface designer or user experience designer.  Before you make the decision, we have some questions for you. How much knowledge do you know about user experience? Do you know how to become a user experience designer? Here is some experience summarized by predecessors in the user experience design industry for reference at first.

1. Do you know what a user experience designer does? 

The terms of UX, UI, IA, and IxD are always complicated for layman or people who new to the design industry, so they cannot figure out what’s the difference between the terms. If you want to be a user experience designer, you have to know what is user experience, and what makes a good UX design.

User experience (UX) refers to a person’s emotions and attitudes about using a particular product, system or service. It includes the practical, experiential, affective, meaningful and valuable aspects of human–computer interaction and product ownership. Additionally, it includes a person’s perceptions of system aspects such as utility, ease of use and efficiency.

2. Are you passionate about UX design?

Young people in the current era are flighty and impatient. So when you make a serious decision to become a user experience designer with no experience, it means that you have to learn a lot of knowledge in patience and immerse yourself in the design trends. So that to keep your enthusiasm of the design industry. The biggest secret to keep enthusiasm is keeping learning.

3. How much do you know about the principle of user experience? Have you read any design book?

It’s much better that you have some basic knowledge about the user experience design principle. But if you have no any basic knowledge, you may need to get an improvement on this. Because it’s very necessary to master the background information to be a good UX designer. Here is a few books you can start off with.

The Design of Everyday Things — Donald A. Norman

Don’t Make Me Think — Steve Krug

The Non-Designer’s Design Book — Robin Williams

The Elements of User Experience — Jesse James Garrett

To become a UX designer, there are three things you should do:

1. Learn fundamental knowledge: For example, UX research methodologies and user behaviors. These theories can help you have a basic idea of what is User Experience, how it is going on and why it is important. Also, it would be helpful if you know something about Art, History and Psychology.
2. Learn basic tools: You should learn how to use basic tools like Photoshop, Sketch, etc., because you will need these tools to show people your idea, for example, if you are designing a website, you will need to use Sketch to show engineers how you think this website should look like and how it should work, so that engineers can understand your idea and implement it.
3. Practice: Well, practice makes perfect. After you learn basic theories and tools, the first thing you need to do is to practice. For example, design your own personal website and implement it maybe. If you want to have a mentor, you can also apply for a job or intern.

UI/UX design is not a black and white process. There’s much more to it than meets the eye.

First of all, it’s not enough to simply have a knack for design. You need to have a strong hold on various designer tools including Sketch, Photoshop, Illustrator and later efficiently be able to use prototyping tools to create a mockup of your design.

Once you’re done mastering the basics, you can repeat the loop and take a few more steps such as: 

Find problems to solve.

Do this so that you can develop a portfolio. (1-3 projects is plenty for a portfolio to get an entry level job.)

Solve the problems and create your work samples.

Learn about the users. Talk to them. Identify their behaviors, needs, and goals. Learn about the competition. What do users currently user to meet their needs? Where is the opportunity for your service? Define your goals for the new experience. Pick a piece of it to work on – you don’t have to redesign a whole site. List the features you believe the piece needs to have to satisfy users and make the business money.  Figure out the main functional areas. Figure out the pages you’ll need. See if you can refactor them into a smaller number of templates. Block out the content areas on the templates. Design the interface. Show your sketches to users. See if they know what to do and like your solution. Don’t be leading. Listen more than you talk. Take their feedback and iterate.

Interview.

Show you have strong design basics and a great attitude. When you present your work, always always always tie your decision-making process back to user needs and business goals. At the end of the interview when they ask if you have any questions, ask one to show you are interested. Ask your interviewers what they are working on right now if you can’t think of anything else to ask.

Be persistent.

For entry level-jobs, enthusiasm and good attitude goes a really long way. Follow-up with your interviewers. Thank them. Tell them you’re pumped.

Learn, Solve, Create & Build!

Understanding UI & UX

Software development acronyms can be confusing and, quite frankly, a little over-the-top.

It’s rare these days to have a conversation where someone doesn’t mention the MVP and CPC — or PMF, ARPU, CTR, IAP and WAP.

Let’s focus on two of the most important design acronyms for entrepreneurs and digital product creators.

UX and UI

• UX stands for User Experience. It’s all about maximizing how people flow through an app or site, structuring information properly, and ensuring that users like to open and interact with your product. A positive UX eliminates friction and confusion, and it makes the app enjoyable to use.

• UI stands for User Interface. This is the look and feel of everything from images to buttons to graphics and text. The right interface makes your product look professional. It builds trust and confidence, ensures you attract the right customers, and immediately distinguishes your app in the market.

• The UX is the blueprint. It maps the technical structure, and outlines how you move from the kitchen to the bathroom.

• The UI is all the pretty, sensory stuff inside. It’s the furniture, the paint colours, the fluffy pillows and the soft rugs.

We’re all digital product users, so we know first-hand that both UX and UI are essential — even if you’ve never thought about WHY an app feels simple and compelling.

We can feel innately that the structure and the décor need to be solid.

If we put them in a Mad Max-style cage match, though, UI would always emerge victorious. For apps and digital products, almost nothing matters more than UI.

The power of trust

As of May 2017, there were 2.2 million iOS apps in the App Store.

People want to download something that feels trustworthy — and if it looks good, they’ll forgive you for almost everything else. Since the caveman days, humans have also been adept at making snap visual judgments. Should I eat that spiky plant? Chase that wooly mammoth?

We are built to take in huge amounts of information and decide in a fraction of a second. Today’s app users have incredibly sophisticated taste and visual sensitivity. Underestimate them at your peril, because if you don’t look pro, you’ve already lost the game — and it doesn’t matter what’s actually in the app. Even when we repeatedly beat the UI drum, most entrepreneurs still underestimate its power. They worry about features, and they get really stressed about price. Founders often think they need to be the cheapest app out there, but products with a premium price point or a fair subscription model typically do well.

Ultimately, it’s all about finding a balance between value and visuals. Don’t think UX doesn’t matter, because it sure does. As we’re iterating and testing a product and discovering the needs of early adopters, UX plays a starring role. For example, when you download and open an app for the first time, what happens next is essential. Your introduction, or onboarding, should build trust, quickly explain the app’s value proposition, show how to use it, and create a sense of ownership. That’s a lot to accomplish in just a couple screens or a few precious seconds.

The stakes get even higher if you’re asking new users to do something, like fill out a form, connect to their Facebook account, pay for a feature or create an account. Apps typically lose 80–90% of users at these pivotal moments, which we call drop-off gates.

In order to avoid seeing users fall off the cliff and close your app, we apply UX strategies to keep people engaged.

Keep the following in mind:

Keep the Gates Open

We never want to force users to sign up or create an account right from the landing page, for example.

Let them come in and look around. People eventually come back to the application if adequate stimuli and urge is created by external sources. Rely and tap these sources to generate user retention.

Experiment to find the right triggers

In the early days of Twitter, the team learned that a huge number of users dropped off after they created an account.

hrough testing and experimentation, Twitter discovered that by requiring new users to follow at least 10 other Twitter members during the onboarding process, the drop-off rate took a nosedive.

Why did this work? Users who connected with people they knew or admired or were simply curious about quickly felt a sense of ownership.

They made connections and wanted to see what other Twitter users were saying on the platform. They had conversations. Other people began to follow them. The loop soon got tighter and more engaging.

Create habitual dependence

Enticing Twitter users back in via conversation and connection establishes habitual dependence — a cycle that most of us understand intimately.

It’s that thing that compels you to pick up your phone and check Instagram, or to get those last 1,000 steps on your FitBit.

Even if you know the basics of UX and UI, I recommend digging a little deeper to understand how they can enhance your product.

It should also go without saying that anyone you partner with to create your app should have deep and nuanced knowledge of these constantly-changing factors.

UX Interview Tips

If you are planning to land your dream job as a proficient UX designer, you will have to crack the interviews perfectly. Irrespective of the company, job role, or brand you are about to associate with, interviews will be integral parts of the recruitment process. You have to get it right as that is the key to bagging your desired job role!

What makes UX so important?

The User Experience Design lays the foundation for the entire design process. Whether it’s a landing page, site, or high-end apps, UX designs will always play the pivotal role. At least, that’s what we see when we take a look at the crucial stats. Nearly 88% of digital customers refuse to return to a website if they have poor browsing experiences. That defines the significance of UX and why you need to get it right.

Questions to note

If we refer to comments, suggestions, and experiences shared by prolific UX designers, it would be clear that User Experience Design is crucial for website appearance. Here’s a small discussion on the five questions that’ll be faced by every aspiring designer out there!

1.     What is UX design?

Although it might sound a bit childish, this is the first question you will be asked. Try to delve deep into the nuances and answer this question categorically.

Recruiters wish to know: Recruiters want to know whether you are capable of crafting a compelling story and translating it into practical designs. They want to check your interpretation of UX design process.

2.     What process do you follow?

Try to devise effective strategies and keep a ‘go-to’ process handy. You can also demonstrate examples if that helps you.

Recruiters want to know: Some of the budding designers are coming up with innovative techniques while some of them still follow traditional ideas and strategies. Your recruiters want to know the process followed by you, as that will help them check whether it aligns with their objectives.

3.     Who are your associates?

While preparing to face an interview, you should develop ideas of the basic points. As a candidate or applicant, you should have the capability to comprehend the needs and ideas of your associates.

Recruiters want to know: Employers would want to know whether you have the desired experience to work with engineers, fellow designers, and project managers.

4.     Which sites and apps do you like?

Prepare a list of the applications, programs, and sites you love. It will reflect your ideas as well as expertise in UX designing.

Recruiters want to know: They simply wish to know what you are good at, which are the designs that interest you, and the kind of work done by you!

5.     Do you have samples?

Since you are applying for the job of a UX designer, it’s imperative to note the crucial aspects associated with it. Carry your work samples, if you have already worked on some projects.

Recruiters wish to know: They want to check and analyze your knowledge of information architecture, usability, and UI.

Final tips

Keep in mind that professional interviews are bi-directional processes. Just as the interviewer has the liberty to ask questions, you should also clear your doubts while answering them.

Debusting UX Myths

You have a stunning website out there to promote your services and products. You design it in a unique manner and wish to attract visitors thus converting them into leads. However, even with these efforts your site isn’t able to do so. One reason may be the UX design behind it. Unimpressive and ineffective UX designs can hit you hard! If your visitors don’t like he appearance of your site and don’t get the desired experience, they will simply move on. Here’s a stat to prove it!

A whopping 79% of visitors will abandon a site and move on to another if they don’t like its content or fail to find the desired information. UX design is of paramount significance, and there are no ways site owners can ignore it.

The ambiguity and misconceptions in UX Design

In spite of its widespread usage, the term ‘UX or User Experience Design’ often gives rise to confusion. Don Norman was the man behind the invention of this term, and he introduced ‘UX’ during the mid-90s. Although User Experience Design is at the core of numerous design processes today, some companies still haven’t opened up to it.

A lot of confusion and misconceptions have come up, which is challenging the true nature of the term. Here’s a small effort to demystify User Experience Design:

1.     Myth 1: UI and UX are identical

The complete process that determines the experience of a user is known as UX. While User Experience is the entire process, UI is just a part of it. User Interface design is a crucial element in UX which plays a major role in enhancing User Experience. Right from strategizing to design production, UX involves quite a few steps, and interface design happens to be one of them.

2.     Myth 2: UX is all about designing and not analysis

Although the term UX Design talks about ‘Designing,’ there’s a different side to it. UX designing involves critical analysis which is the reason why site owners need UX specialists. These specialists will perform market research and find out what makes user-centric designs.

3.     Myth 3: UX embraces fancy components

UX is not about how much you decorate and design your site. You might keep on adding fancy elements which will enhance the appearance of your website. However, if the operations aren’t smooth and functionalities aren’t streamlined, there’s simply no use of incorporating such fancy components and design elements.

4.     Myth 4: UX is always the second priority

No, it’s not! Whether you create UX designs for tangible items like an automobile vehicle or intangible ones like mobile apps, User Experience will be at the heart of the entire process. Knowing your consumers, their purchase behaviors, and preferences will help you nail down the right decision and make informed moves about UX design process.

5.     Myth 5: Testing is not an important part of UX

While creating UX designs, specialists have to test the design, iterate it, and make alterations as and when required. The process undergoes stringent testing, where user feedback and initial experiences are taken into account.

These are some of the common UX design myths that every design specialist should know and be aware of.

Designing with Lean UX methodologies:

Before you get down to designing any product – ask yourself who are you designing for and what experience do you want your users to leave with once they interact with your product or service?

Lean UX helps you add the “experience” to design. Every stage of design is broken down into smaller components to ensure that every aspect of user interaction and experience is taken into consideration while designing and developing any technologies.

Why follow a Lean UX methodology:

With organizations and startups soon adapting to agile development, it is necessary that even UX follows a similar quick process that captures all the iterations and implement user feedback on the go.

At GoodWorkLabs, we aim at providing UX design services that trigger customer retention and user engagement on your digital products. We follow a thorough and Lean UX design process as below: