Key Tips That Help You Succeed in UX
by Ann Green, Content Manager at ClickHelp.com — professional technical writing tool
Professional UI/UX designers are desired in many modern companies. However, how to become a good UI/UX designer? What do you need to succeed in this sphere? In this article I’ll describe some tips that definitely boost your skills.
Know Your Target Audience
As technical writers, who also help people, you should focus on users. Before you begin the designing process, you should learn your target audience — their age, profession, knowledge level, interests, etc. If you identify your audience before starting your design, it will be easier for you to plan your project and stick to these steps that will make the end product effective. How to identify your future users? It’s easy — gather a focus group and interview people, or ask your clients about their goals and needs.
Be a User
Keep in mind that you develop design for people, so, during the process try to visualize how people will interact with a website, for example. You need to analyze not only stats but what people are looking for, how effective their interaction was, and, of course, consider their feedback — you should add your email or a comment box.
Gathering feedback is an essential part of design, it helps you learn how people use your interface, what content you should highlight to make your design more intuitive.
Don’t be Afraid of Simplicity
Don’t think that complicated and colorful design is what everyone is expecting from you. Minimalistic and simple designs are easy to understand and mostly desired. Buttons, forms and other content should be clear and obvious, and colors should not distract from important moments.Generally speaking, colors in design are not only for creating a beautiful website or product, they should highlight necessary information.
For example, Lars Tornoe. It is a Norwegian design studio devoted to furniture design and related fields of product design. If you open this website, you’ll find that it is minimalistic that works greatly — it’s easy to find work samples, and other interesting information like company news. You’ll not find unnecessary buttons, just important information and photos.
You don’t need to recreate the wheel, just surf the Internet for inspiration. I have some great examples for you that are below.
Always Seek Inspiration
As I said, surf the Internet to find inspiration, there are so many great examples that definitely sparkle your creativity. Some of them you will see in the posts below:
UI Testing
When you’re done with designing, play a user role to improve your design — it is important to test, test and test your product. Moreover, if it’s possible you can ask another person who was not working on this project to use your website, for example. Then interview him/her what was unclear, and based on these answers, improve your design.
These are the basic tips that can improve your UX/UI designing and make your projects more effective. Follow my blog not to miss more helpful information and inspiration.
How did you become a UX/UI designer? What helped you?
