What is User Experience (UX)?
In this article, we will learn about the history of user experience (UX), the key factors for success, and the correct user experience design path.
First of all, the history of UX
The concept of user experience (UX) began to appear since 4000 BC indirectly when the Chinese philosophy known as“Feng Shui” became known literally as “Wind” and “Water”, and the concept generally refers to the way of arranging things in an appropriate and easy to use way whether it is an Office, a sleeping room or any other room.
There are many models later that indicate the development of the UX concept overtime, and the latest model is when Donald Norman gave User experience its name that became famous from that time until the present day. And he was the first person who got called a user experience designer when he was employed in Apple.
The UX is constantly evolving and we continue this exciting journey from AI to VR. We, as UX designers have a new challenge every day that is different from the old challenges!
However, what do we mean by UX, and how we can define it at present?
UX Concept
First of all, we have to differentiate between user experience design and user experience, and this concept only doesn’t guarantee that the user will enjoy using our product.
- User experience. It is all that relates to the user’s behavior, attitude
and feeling, or in other words, it is the set of feelings, behaviors, and
actions that a user generates based on his use of a specific system,
product, or service.
The user experience may have a positive or negative result by the users, and based on that, the competition is taking place between companies to achieve the best user experience for the users, to obtain their satisfaction and the company outperforms the rest of the competing companies.
- Designing the user experience. We can say that it is a process of increasing the sense of loyalty and contentment of users when they use
a specific product due to the continuous improvement in their usability
and the ease and pleasure of using the product by the customer.
7 Key factors of UX
- Useful. Provide a purpose for its target customer.
- Usable. Enable users to effectively and efficiently achieve their objectives.
- Findable. Ensures the product and its contents are easy to find.
- Credible. Ability to trust the product.
- Desirable. Conveyed through branding, image, identity,
aesthetics, and emotional design. - Accessible. It provides a UX that can access by a user with a full range
of abilities. - Valuable. Delivers value to their business and the customer.
UX Design Stages
- Strategy. During this stage, the strategy is built, determining the technologies used and setting the steps that we will take during the process of designing the user experience, which includes determining
the budget, determining the type of product, whether it is digital or
tangible, and easy access to the target segment. - Research and exploration. During this stage, the objectives of the project are studied, the users and their needs are studied, and the competitors’ market is studied, to gain a general idea of the project.
- Analysis. At this point, we are building a sitemap and analyzing tasks, and this step is important because analyzing the information we obtained helps us build a rugged user (persona).
- Design. Here, we will convert the information we obtained into wireframe models before building the user interface.
- Production. programming the prototype of the product.
- Experimental Launch. Experience the product with some users and
take their notes to develop and improve the product. - Evaluation. Evaluation and modification of user feedback from the
beta. - Final launch. We launch the product permanently for users while following up on feedback to continue improving the product.
Final thoughts
Here, in this article, we learned quickly and briefly about the user experience, the basic factors for its success, and the correct user experience design path.
This article is not enough to become a professional user experience
designer, but it is a peek and a quick look. Things will be detailed in other articles.
