Design With You in Mind

Let’s say you’re receiving a call. The process of answering your phone is intuitive and can be done in seconds. But have you ever really thought about the steps that make up this seemingly simple action?

Let’s break it down: You notice your phone vibrates, you pull it out and the screen is already depicting who’s calling, below the portrait of your caller are your answer and reject buttons all within thumbs reach. With a swipe of your finger you’re done. And that’s it! But what if a single one of these elements was missing or poorly designed?

UX is the practice of tailoring a user’s interaction and experience with your product or service. You as the designer are responsible for not only the way a user interacts with this product, but also the way they should be enjoying it.

Renowned American industrial designer wrote,

“When the point of contact between the product and the people becomes a point of friction, then the industrial designer has failed.

On the other hand, if people are made safer, more comfortable, more eager to purchase, more efficient-or just plain happier-by contact with the product, then the designer has succeeded.”

A UX designers process can be broken down into 5 separate steps: Strategy, Research, Analysis, Design, and Production.

• Strategy dictates the designers goals and ultimately what the product is meant to do.
• Research is the phase in which the designer compiles data for their product whether it be through observation, studies, or surveys.
• Analysis extracts insight from the research done which contributes to the design.
• Design is the exhaustive phase in which the designers present several ideas to the users, gather input, then redesign till they are satisfied with the product.
• Production is the phase in which the finalized design fully fleshed out.

This breakdown isn’t gospel, these steps aren’t always taken in this order and some steps can either be repeated or sometimes skipped but it is helpful when understanding the process behind UX design.

References:

Dreyfuss, Henry. Designing for People. New York: Simon and Schuster, 1955. Print.

Tariq, Ali Rushdan. “A Brief History of User Experience — InVision Blog.”InVision Blog. N.p., 26 Feb. 2015. Web. 28 July 2016.

“UX Process -.” UX Mastery. N.p., n.d. Web. 28 July 2016.