Why is UX so important for company’s success?
Nowadays, even more important than a product is a user experience in general. What does that mean? That in certain situations customers are more likely to choose a thing of lower quality, if they will be pleased with the overall experience (efficient customer service, good prices etc.). So, what means to ensure good UX and why is it crucial for your company success.
What is UX?
UX stands for user experience. In general, it is related to the overall end-user interaction with a company, its products, employees etc. Simply, if by a product we understand an application, website, or a software, user experience will mean all emotions of your program user and his perception of your application. To achieve high level of users satisfaction, you need to create an application or website that will be easy and delightful to interact with, practical and aesthetic — that is what we have UX designers for.
Attention: While talking about UX, you will probably also hear about UI (user interface) design. Remember — those are not the same things! Creating of intuitive interface for navigation on your website or application is an important part of UX, but it is not all that UX is about.
Why well-designed UX is so important?
The UX design is an attempt to answer certain needs of the customer. A good UX design make our customers lives easier. There is plenty of applications with the same or similar features, and great UX is the reason customer choose one over another. The thing is to create a solution that will be more intuitive, fast and easy to use. Ensuring your clients’ satisfaction allow you to build brand loyalty among them.
Properly designed UX helps you reduce the number of errors and need for customer support. If the application is easy to use and user is pleased with your brand product, he won’t need to contact your customer service often. Taking care of your clients’ user experience will allow you to build a professional brand and gain competitive advantage on the market.
Designing UX for your business application — what to consider?
You’ll find a lot of guides for UX design beginners. Since you probably won’t design your app UX totally on your own, you don’t need to go into all details. You should understand, though, what are the most important elements of application UX design — or at least to which elements you should turn your attention to, while discussing your app design with your development team. We will also tell you about some main rules that all UX designers should follow.
General tips on designing UX
Put functionality first
An application always starts from the idea — one day someone simply wakes up and says: “It would be cool to have an app that…”. On the very beginning, name the key features your application should have. Be careful, so the additional ideas will not make your application unnecessarily complex and difficult to use.
Make it simple
The goal is for your customers to leverage the app to save time or to manage some tasks more efficient. Distracting graphical designs and huge amounts of content will not make your app more attractive to the users.
Build intuitive navigation
Users can get irritated in no time, when they’re having problem with navigating through the application of website — and honestly, who can blame them? Design UX carefully, so using the app will require low physical effort.
Enable some customization
People like to adjust view and functionalities according to their needs. Plan to leave the space for some final touch of the customer. Making the application more custom is fun for many users and in it enable them to organize it in the way that suits its user best.
Plan clear communication
No matter what message should be sent to the user, you have to make sure that he’ll receive it and understand it. Necessary information needs to be placed in the way user will notice them at once.
UI and UX design elements that you may find useful
Here are some elements of UI and UX that can improve your application:
Call-to-action buttons
CTA is a short communicate that can be placed on the button or be combined with link. It is important to choose information and place where you’ll put it wisely. It can help you enhance the navigation and increase conversion.
Graphical design
Functionality is one thing, but most of the users prefer applications with modern look, nice graphics and animations that sometimes surprise.
Intuitive navigation and UI
Dropdown menu or maybe horizontally organized buttons on top of the website? User Interface is actually not so easy to design. Moving fast from one site to other is very important for user experience.
Error messages
It may be, that your customers will meet some errors, especially shortly after building or redesigning your application. Funny and respectful error messages can even turn a bad experience into a good one.
To sum up
UX design is a vast topic and as UX designers and application developers we could talk about it all day long. Contact us, if you have any questions or need our assistance.
