User experience is crucial to achieving effective web design. This article discusses the importance of meeting user needs and expectations, as well as best practices and approaches for achieving this goal successfully.
Table of Contents
- Introduction
- What is User Experience (UX)?
- Key Questions to Redefine the User Experience
- Elements for a good User Experience
- Conclusions
- References
Introduction
In today’s digital world, effective web design has become a key element in reinventing the user experience. In this article, we’ll explore how smart and engaging design can make a difference in the professional world. Discover how to maximize the user experience and captivate your target audience with innovative techniques and strategies. Get ready to transform your online presence and reach new levels of success!
What is User Experience (UX)?
The International Organization for Standardization (ISO) defines user experience as:
User experience (UX) is defined as the emotional/physical response of a user due to the use or anticipated use of a product/service.
— ISO 9241-210, Ergonomics of human-system interaction—Part 210: Human-centred design for interactive systems
The primary role of graphic designers is to ensure that the products or services we create work perfectly. This doesn’t necessarily mean oversimplifying the product/service. It requires intentionality and empathy.
So we can’t ‘design a user experience,’ but we can design for a good user experience.
You can’t control how a user clicks a button, but you can make the click easier, such as:
How visible is the button, how intuitive is the text?
UX is not tangible, it is felt.
Now, there are certain questions that every UX designer takes into account when embarking on the creation of a new product:
- Is it effective? Does it do the right thing? Does it do things right?
- Is it efficient? : Do you perform the task with minimal physical and mental effort?
- Are users and stakeholders satisfied?: Does using this product make you happy? Do you feel good?
The third is often overlooked, while arguably the most important: emotions are the ultimate outcome and guarantee business success or failure. When your users are happy, your business will grow.
Elements for a Good User Experience
Jesse James Garrett is a user experience designer based in San Francisco, California, and co-founder of the strategy and design consultancy Adaptive Path. His diagram, titled The Elements of User Experience, launched his popularity in the web design community in the early 2000s and was later published as a book. He discussed the five elements of design; here’s a brief summary of each element.
1. Strategy
At this stage, decisions must be made about the objectives for which the product should be designed. These objectives should include the goals that both customers and stakeholders behind the product want to achieve, as well as the goals of users, who will eventually look for the product to solve specific problems.
2. Scope
After deciding on the strategy, the product scope can be determined and detailed. This is where all of a product’s features are decided, including the information users can find and the functionality users can interact with.
In this phase, the UX team will create a set of functional specifications that identify and describe each product feature and a content requirements list that identifies each piece of content to be included.
3. Structure
The ideation phase begins, and in this process, more is definitely better. There are no restrictions on the number of ideas we can generate to address the problem we identified during the scoping phase. In this phase, conversations begin about the structure and user interaction with potential solutions.
As our ideas take shape, it’s crucial to set aside any biases and focus on inclusion and accessibility. We must visualize the user journey and anticipate potential obstacles. We put ourselves in the user’s shoes, ensuring we design a solution that is perfectly suited to the problem we’ve identified. The tools we employ in this process include user flows, narratives, information architecture, and interaction design.
4. Skeleton
Once the product structure has been determined, its framework is designed. In this step, the placement of navigation and functionality elements on each product page is defined, taking into account the decisions made in the previous phase. This is where user experience experts make decisions about the design of product information, creating wireframes and prototypes that organize each product component, such as buttons, links, images, and text.
These elements are designed to allow users to quickly navigate each page to find the information they need, while also understanding which elements are interactive and which are not.
5. Surface
The wireframes and prototypes generated in the skeleton phase will be used in the surface level, which is the final and most concrete stage, to create the final product pages. At this point, we focus on the user experience, paying attention to how the colors and textures used in the visual design facilitate user understanding of the site’s navigation and interaction, and how the content presentation draws their attention to key information.
What does universal UX design have to do with the 5 elements?
According to the Center for Excellence in Universal Design , Universal Design involves creating and structuring an environment that is accessible, understandable, and usable by all people, regardless of age, size, or disability, to the widest extent possible.
This implies not only the need to develop products, services, and environments that take into account the needs of individuals with disabilities or special needs, but also the importance of creating designs that consider the needs of all users, seeking to ensure they are accessible to as many people as possible.
The goal of the 5 Elements process is to help UX designers systematically consider all user needs and the functional requirements of each product. This involves carefully considering the needs and requirements of people of all profiles.
Conclusions
In conclusion, effective web design is essential to providing an exceptional user experience. As we’ve explored in this article, the five elements or phases of “The Elements of User Experience” provide valuable guidance for achieving this. Our team of web development experts is ready to help you build an effective website that meets your specific requirements. Don’t hesitate to contact us at HABILWEB to start reinventing your user experience today!
References
The Elements of User Experience – Jesse James Garrett