The U in the UX design stands not for ‘You’ but for USER. That’s why, in UX design, it is very important to keep in mind the need of the users at first. The designers need to put themselves in the shoes of the user to understand their pain points in order to build a user friendly-app and improve the user experience.
The designers across the world can follow newest of methods to build apps/websites. But some of the basic principles of design lay a foundation to help them start the UX process. This in turn will help designers create powerful and practical experiences that will help their user and business succeed.
We, here, are going to discuss the some of the design principles that every designer must be aware about. Even at ADMEC, students learn these ideologies in UI UX design classes. Let’s explore them.
Must to Check UX Design Ideologies
There are several techniques like user interviews, surveys etc. to get to know more about your user.
UX PRINCIPLE #1: KYU- KNOW YOUR USERS
The ‘U’ in UX doesn’t stand for you but for ‘Users’.
As said earlier, UX is about users. In order to build a successful app, a designer needs to understand users’ motivation, pain points, frustration, feelings, goals.
You need to know about the user’s current experience with a product in order to build a new one or improve the existing one.
There are several techniques like user interviews, surveys etc. to get to know more about your user.
UX PRINCIPLE #2: CONSISTENCY / FAMILIARITY
Familiarity makes learning faster.
A user demands the applications to share some familiarities in order to avoid additional learning of the features of the product. Familiarity also makes the learning faster.
For example, the reels section of Instagram and shorts section YouTube seems similar, so the users did not have to try much to learn the interface of the both again.
Familiarity also makes it easier for designers to design an effective interface as they don’t have to re-invent it entirely everytime they create a new project.
UX PRINCIPLE #3: INFORMATION ARCHITECTURE
IA provides a bird’s eye view of the entire product
Information architecture or IA can be compared to a blue print or it is a visual representation of infrastructure, hierarchy, and features of a product.
IA avail you a bird’s-eye view of the complete product and makes them understand how a product works.
It is up to the designer how detailed he/she wants to make it.
For example, while visiting NMIMS website, the navigation bar shows the header section where all the menus are present.
When you hover at any of these, you’ll notice a dropdown containing the sub sections giving the user an overview of the contents of the website.
UX PRINCIPLE #4: USABILITY
There is no point of a product being aesthetically pleasing if it’s usability is zero.
An application’s success doesn’t only depend on its look and feel but also on its functionality. How well do its features fulfill user needs, how easy are its features to understand, etc? Aesthetic, however, is just a part of the entire process. What is being told here is that Usability > Aesthetic.
In the short term, usability means how effortless it is something to use.
For example, while visiting a college website, are the students able to easily navigate throughout? Are they able to fill out the form correctly? What happens when they enter something wrong in a field? Is that easily handled by giving apt messages? These are a few situations that may leave the student satisfied or frustrated after using the website.
ITERATIONS AND FEEDBACK- Way to enhance usability
A case here is of WhatsApp. They conduct beta testing on some users to gain feedback, then improve their designs before the final product release to all users.
Iterations helps the designers understand the major pain points of a user while using a product. Let the user use your prototype while you sit quietly at a side- No blabbering! Watch closely how the user interacts will the design and after they’re done, take feedback.
This can be done multiple times to enhance the usability to the next level.
UX PRINCIPLE #5: LESS IS MORE
- Do not make your designs cluttered in the name of aesthetics. As discussed earlier, Usability> Aesthetics.
- Keep the designs clean and simple to understand.
- Use limited colours and typography. A combination of 1-2 colours/typography would be enough.
- Don’t use heavy font sizes. They may put a strain on users’ eyes.
- Maintain visual hierarchy.
- Also, use simple language instead of fancy jargon to make the product accessible to a mass audience.
WRAPPING UP!
These are some of the UX design principles that when kept in mind, the designers can change take their designs to a next level. What we basically understood is, giving users the control of the actions they take, can be a different experience for them. The more similar the product is to various applications users use in day-to-day life, the easier it will be for them to learn the interface faster.
Do not just sit and relax when your design is ready. Put users on task. Do multiple iterations and take feedback from the user to rectify mistakes in the product. The ultimate task of the designer should be to make user experience smooth and comfortable for the user.
Author Introduction
Hi, this is Juhi Shrivastava again. I’m a UX designer and a graduate of ADMEC Multimedia Institute. I did 6 months UX design course here. Thanks to Ravi sir, he explained each and every concept clearly. I could explain the UX ideologies because of the clarity sir gave me.
So, now it is your turn to be the next UX designer. Give it a try with professional training with Ravi sir at ADMEC.
