Design | Aesthetics, function, & usability
It’s always nice when you visit a website or use a mobile app that just makes sense. Having a positive experience as a user makes you look forward to using that web/app again, and in some cases, you’re so pleased with your experience that you practically want to shout it from the rooftops (like getting the urge to leave a positive Yelp review when you have an awesome restaurant experience). One of the main goals of a UX designer is to create this feeling. Human empathy is a necessary tool to this process— defining the problem (based on social research and communication), understanding what the user wants, and proposing a solution.
In this post, I’ll talk about my experience with a couple of websites I find pleasing to use and easy to navigate.
Zappos.com
Ican’t say that I purchase new shoes very often. I wear mine until they’re literally falling apart. (I’ve never been good at goodbyes.) But I have to say, when I do have the urge (or dire need) to purchase new shoes, I usually check out Zappos.com first. They have an enormous selection, good deals, and free shipping (score!). Their website is easy to figure out, and it’s laid out in a very convenient way— you can select what size, color, style, brand, width, even heel height that you’d prefer them to take into consideration when you search for shoes.
This makes sense and, on a website with an almost-overwhelming amount of options, can really help narrow down your search and bring you to the exact types of products you’d be interested in.
The A.V. Club
Another site I think is fun to explore is The A.V. Club, an entertainment website that discusses movies, shows, comedy, video games, books, music, and more. Sometimes I’ll spiral into that internet-exploration mode where all I want to do is find and read in-depth reviews of shows I’ve been binge-watching. It’s always interesting to me to read someone else’s perspective; often someone else says something you were thinking, offers the opinion in a new way, or sheds light on something you may not have thought about or understood at first.
I really enjoy the way The A.V. Club lays out their television reviews. They organize it by show, season, and episode, and it’s listed in a way that makes sense to me as a user. I can simply open a review in a new tab, and when I navigate back to the original list, the next review is there, just waiting to be read.
Good design to me definitely includes visual appeal, such as applying color psychology and efficient use of “white space” (negative space), but an extremely important part of it is the ease, accessibility, and usability of a product. Does it make sense? Is it simple to navigate? Is it pleasing to use? These things are what really keep users (like myself) coming back.
