User experience design isn’t a new trend in the IT sector, it’s an important aspect of custom software development. But its importance has increased more than ever before.
It doesn’t matter what your digital platform is may it be an application, or a website, for every company in every market, UX is the only key to offering a seamless user experience to the customers.
Previously pursued as a niche, UX is now going mainstream. Businesses that have an online presence have now started understanding the importance of user experience, they know that almost 30% of visitors will never return to their site if it’s hard to navigate or had an overall bad user experience.
And with more people and businesses going digital, the number is going to go up only.
Therefore, from an established large enterprise to a startup, UX is going to play a critical role in the design process of every company’s IT projects.
Many top companies like Mailchimp, AirBnB, and more are already leveraging the UX to increase their sales and business growth by doing it right.
To help you understand, here in this blog, we are going to discuss what is UX first, and then we will go through the importance of UX and what a basic UX design process would look like.
What is UX?
User experience design (UXD) is the process of researching and analyzing a product or service from the perspective of its users. It is an essential aspect of business strategy for organizations that want to be successful in today’s competitive market.
UX design is the “human-centered design” approach for your business. User experience design helps you develop products and services that customers love.
By following the principles of user experience design, you will create great products and services that are easy to use, buy, and buy from.
Importance of UX design
Reduce costs
UX design helps to reduce costs. It can help you save money on the following:
Cost of development/development time: UX design is usually done before development, so you’ll have a better idea of what your site will look like when it’s done.
This means that you can quickly and easily make changes between prototypes and the final product. This saves you from spending any money or effort on multiple versions of the same thing.
Cost of maintenance: When your site is launched, it’s easy to forget about it or let it fall into disrepair.
But if you’ve designed it well, you’ll find that your users come back to the site often, which means that they’ll be more likely to remember details about how it works and interact with it regularly. This will help you make your site more efficient and run smoothly for a long time.
Increase your conversions
Your website’s conversion rates can be improved significantly with the help of UX design. The chances of visitors taking the desired action on your site will increase if you have a good enough UX design in place.
If you have an appealing UX design, then people are more likely to click on the call-to-action button and buy your product. A good user experience design will help improve your website’s conversion rate and make it easier for users to convert.
This can be achieved by ensuring that every page on your site is easy to navigate and provides a seamless transition between pages. It should also have clear navigation paths so that users can find what they have come looking for on your website very easily.
Improve user satisfaction
UX designers are responsible for making sure that the experience a user has while using a product or service matches what was promised by its brand or service provider.
A good user experience design will ensure that users have an enjoyable experience when using your product or service and will get them to use it more often than they would otherwise.
The better the UX, the higher the likelihood of increased customer loyalty and loyalty programs with more customers being retained as loyal customers.
Help with SEO
One of the most important aspects of UX design is its ability to help your business with search engine optimization (SEO).
You can reach more people and increase the traffic to your site by ranking at the top of various search engines.
SEO is a crucial part of any marketing strategy, as it lets you get your site in front of prospective customers.
The importance of SEO cannot be overstated. If you want to increase your reach and rank high on the search engines so that your brand or company would be among the first ones that users see then you should optimize your website for SEO.
This includes making sure that your pages are clear and easy to read and understand, as well as creating a unique keyword combination that will help potential visitors find what they’re looking for on your site.
Increase your brand loyalty
The best way to increase your brand loyalty is by improving the user experience of your product or service.
User experience is all about making the entire process (from the point they engage with the website to the point where they leave) a pleasant experience.
The better they understand what you’re offering and how it works, the more likely they are to buy from you. And if they seem to enjoy that experience once, they are sure to come again and again.
A good example of this is Amazon.com. Amazon has made e-commerce very simple for its customers by creating an easy-to-use platform that allows them to shop online using just a few clicks of their mouse.
This helps them save time and get their shopping done quickly without having to deal with any complicated processes or technology issues as well as makes sure everything goes smoothly for them at all times.
This is why Amazon is so popular among consumers; because it offers an easy-to-use platform that allows users to find what they want quickly and easily without having to deal with any complications.
UX Design process
Conducting user research
The first step of the UX design process is conducting user research. It’s about gathering information from users about their needs, behaviors, and motivations.
This information will help you understand the problem that you are trying to solve and how your product can help people solve it.
User research can be conducted through Skype, phone calls, or even in person. You need to find someone who has some experience using your product or service and ask them questions about their experiences using it.
Be open with your questions so that they feel comfortable answering them, but also pay attention to non-verbal cues like body language and facial expressions as well.
Information Architecture
The information architecture is the section of a website that describes how users can find the different parts of the site. It’s important because it helps users understand what they need to do to get where they want to go on your site and how they can get there.
This means that the information architecture should be developed early in the design process. A good information architecture will also include a path map, which shows how users can navigate through your site and includes any necessary navigation links.
The information architecture will also include any pages or zones that you want to highlight to help users find what they want.
For example, if you’re creating a blog page and want people to know where they can sign up for your newsletter, then that part of your site needs to be included in the information architecture.
Wireframes
Wireframe is a visual representation of the content, layout, and structure of a website or web application. The wireframe helps in identifying the major components, how they will be organized, and how they are related to each other.
Wireframes are used to communicate what a website will look like before it’s built. Wireframes are not meant to be interactive but they should act as a guide for the developer who will build the site.
Wireframes are usually created with pen and paper but now they can be created with programs like Adobe Photoshop or Sketch.
Prototyping
Another step in the UX design process is prototyping, which allows you to test your ideas and see if they’re viable. Prototyping is also a great way to explore different ways of communicating your message.
Prototypes are the foundation for all design processes. They allow you to test out your idea before moving forward with it.
This can be done by showing clients a mock-up of their website or app, making them feel more comfortable with what they’re getting into.
If you’ve never done this before, don’t worry! A lot of designers use prototyping tools like Balsamiq or InVision to get their designs up as fast as possible. You could even use a free tool like Pencil sketch on a Mac or Windows computer for quick mockups!
Product testing
Product testing is a very important phase of the design process. At this phase, the product designer checks whether the product is used or not.
He or she gets feedback from users and makes necessary changes in the final prototype. This helps in enhancing the usability of the product as well as reducing its chances of failure.
The purpose of this phase is to gather feedback from the product team and get their input on how it should be changed before the next round of testing. The goal is to make sure that the product is right for your users and meets your business goals.
If you have a small team, you can do all these steps in one day. For larger teams, it’s a good idea to break down the tasks into smaller chunks so you can get them done more quickly.
Final words
User experience design can make or break your business. And that’s what makes it important in today’s competitive modern markets.
UX also helps you reach your maximum potential without any side effects or complexities for users in using your websites or applications.
UX design can be complicated but you can implement it successfully with the help of experts and talented designers. Because in this digital UX and UI is the way of winning customers.
About the Author!
Firoz Irani is a highly skilled technical business analyst with years of experience at TatvaSoft. He has a background in design, data analysis, and project management. He strongly believes that knowledge is meant to be shared, for there is a lot we can learn from each other.
Comments are closed.