UX design is shorthand for User eXperience design. User experience design is about creating the ideal encounter while using a product or service. The term is mainly used in relation to digital experiences, including websites, software, and mobile apps, but can also apply to the remote control to your TV, the control pad on your microwave, and the process you go through to return an item to a store.
Once you start thinking and learning more about UX design, the more and more you'll find some user experiences that you'd like to change!
In general, user experience is simply how people feel when they use a product or service. A good user experience may make you feel happy, productive, or satisfied, while a bad user experience may make you feel frustrated, disappointed, or even miserable. Bad user experience design can even be dangerous! Imagine the design of a control panel in a nuclear power plant, if it wasn't designed with the user experience kept in mind, a lot of bad things could happen.
Remember the false missile alert that was sent out to cell phones in Hawaii in 2018? That was due to a poor UX design which created an awful user experience both for the general public and the employee that sent out the false alert. Often a user determines if the user experience was positive or negative based on whether or not their needs were met.
Before you can create a positive and memorable user experience, you need to find out what your user's needs. If we design only for the business needs without considering the user's needs, we'll end up with an expensive product or service that no one uses. It's a big waste of time and a big waste of money. The core to finding out and understanding your user's needs is empathy. Empathy is the ability to understand and share the feelings of another. By empathizing with your users, you can understand their needs, thoughts, emotions, and motivations.
Similar to Maslow's Hierarchy of Needs, there is a design hierarchy of needs. At the base of the design hierarchy of needs pyramid is functionality. The latest bells and whistles for a mobile application might be fun, but if the product doesn't meet the most basic of needs, functionality, it won't be successful. Each level of the hierarchy cannot exist (or at least it shouldn't) without the previous level.
User experience design can be described by seven factors, according to Peter Morville:
A UX design has various methods to ensure that she designs with the user in mind, including:
Because experience matters! Good user experience leads to happy customers and happy customers lead to more referrals and more business.
User experience is important because it tries to fulfill the user’s needs. It aims to provide positive experiences that keep a user loyal to the product or brand. Additionally, a meaningful user experience allows you to define customer journeys on your product that are most conducive to business success.