Things to Know About UX Design

UX design is an amazing discipline, but it cannot, or will not, accomplish certain things.

UX Design Is Not One Size Fits All

User experience design won’t work in every situation for every user because, as human beings, we are all different. What works for one person might have the opposite effect on another. The best we can do is design for specific experiences and promote certain behaviors, but we can’t manufacture, impose or predict the actual experience itself.

And just as we can’t design a user experience, we can’t replicate the user experience for one website exactly on another website. User experiences will be different between websites. a design must be tailored to the goals, values, production process and products of its website.

Can’t Be Directly Assessed With Traditional Metrics

You can’t determine the effectiveness of a user experience design based solely on statistics such as page views, bounce rates and conversion rates. We can make assumptions, and we can ask users for anecdotal evidence, but we can’t install an app (at least not yet) that automatically records user experience statistics directly.

Not the Same Thing as Usability

User experience and usability have become synonymous, but these two fields are clearly distinct. UX addresses how a user feels when using a system, while usability is about the user-friendliness and efficiency of the interface.

Usability is big part of the user experience and plays a major role in experiences that are effective and pleasant, but then human factors science, psychology, information architecture and user-centered design principles also play major roles.

Tasks And Techniques Of UX Designers

UX designers perform various tasks at various points in the process. Here are a few things that they deliver.

Evaluation of Current System

If a system already exists, a UX professional will holistically evaluate its current state. They will report issues and suggest fixes based on their analysis of research data.

A/B Testing

A UX specialist might devise a study to compare the effectiveness and quality of experience of different user interfaces.

This is done by stating a hypothesis (e.g. “A green button is more attractive than a red button.”), proposing or creating multiple versions of a design, defining what a “better experience” means (e.g. “The green button is better because users clicked it more.”) and then conducting the test.

User Surveys

A UX designer could interview existing and potential users of the system to gain insight into what would be the most effective design. Because the user’s experience is subjective, the best way to directly obtain information is by studying and interacting with users.

Wireframes and Prototypes

Based on their findings, UX specialists might develop wireframes of different layouts and perhaps also higher-fidelity prototypes.