“One cannot not communicate. Every behaviour is a kind of communication, because there is no anti-behaviour concept.“ – Paul Watzlawick’s First Axiom of Communication.
The standard definition of UX is “a person’s perceptions and responses that result from the use or anticipated use of a product, system or service”.
Why UX matters?
That is the first fundamental rule of User Experience concept. When you place any element on your website or mobile app, answer a question whether it has role in the communication process with your potential customer.
User Experience (for short UX) – is a way you behave and interact by using something. In a broadest sense it’s the overall experience of using an incredibly intuitive website, outstanding online store or any other resource where you received all desired information. It’s the hottest topic for business owners who consider ways of increasing sales volumes.
No doubt a CEO won’t consider reviewing the existing website for UX fails if it works and brings money. We only look for ways to improve if there’s a visible reason for that. But remember that perfection knows no limits.
Customers pay back when your website/app doesn’t make them feel lost, slow or misunderstanding something.
Today literally any business has a website, so the overall experience your potential customers get can influence their decision of whether to make a purchase or not. Users take the decision to stay on your website or to leave within several seconds and it is much influenced by their experience.
So how not to spur your visitors into hitting the “back” button to find something better?
Examples of good UX
You need to spend a huge amount of time for designing, planning and testing to build something that would stand out and make sense for your end users. The design should virtually follow their thought order and appear with proper solution at the right time.
To proceed we’d like to share the most appropriate examples of websites from users point of view.
Since User Experience is a combination of user interface design and interaction design, we’ll be considering the following examples with this information in mind.
1. BACKEN and BAECK
A small Norwegian agency helping other companies develop digital solutions. What we like the most is that customers get to their portfolio page as a landing. Being very simple it’s also informative, bright and engaging. All you need to do is to scroll the website to learn the range of services and expertise supported by a case study that is available in a click. A very business-oriented solution for customers who choose providers by “what they do” as a main criteria.
2. GROW INTERACTIVE
A digital agency with the best example of UX. Everything is so connected, all user’s steps are extremely well-predicted. All information a potential customer needs, can be reached within minimum moves and efforts. Moreover, to drive a positive impression these guys also included a detailed description of their team and office! So that when a customer visits their website he feels like visiting a friend who tells him a nice story. And a special thanks to guys for the animated background, it definitely gives your website an edge!
3. Harry’s
And a few words on online stores. These website concentrates all your attention on their product – razor. After visiting their tidy website one will remember the quality of the razor and ease of using it. That’s all! Categorized products’ menu is a smart way to save the customer’s time, make it compact and informative at the same time. So there’s a small wonder that a good UX is a hard work just like anything that works well and brings value. Now let’s consider which ways you can benefit once you have a UX-friendly website.
Ways a UX designer can contribute
Our customers often request us to design a copy or a fancy website to one they liked. That is the core issue: every service and product has it’s own features and points to emphasize. There is even special set of actions every single customer is supposed to do on a way to purchase/order/send a request. Making a copy or build website based on a pattern is not a challenge, but this way the risk of following the crowd is pretty high.
Let’s find out why there’s so much noise about UX design activities and why a UX designer wouldn’t go amiss for your website:
He will make the sign in easier and faster
This step will increase conversion on your landing pages and as a result you’ll get more leads just by optimizing several screens. Your users won’t lose their time searching for needed buttons.
He’ll make sure your customer won’t get lost or confused
So they won’t leave your website in search for more user-friendly place. Based on your product specifications, a UX designer will design a path your visitors are to follow while visiting your website. Believe, every action you do on a UX-friendly website is well-predicted by professionals.
So they don’t have to figure out and search where the needed functions are. Once a visitor ‘lands” on your landing page (let’s assume he’s your target audience), he looks forward to get what he wants asap. People don’t read your website’s content as a book in the evening, they just scan it. So do you best to use enough headers and subheaders to help them scan for what they need and not waste time. They’ll appreciate it.
He will make things feel real
It becomes a vital issue talking about tablet designs, smart-watches etc. The thing is that such specialists are familiar (or have to be) with all industry specific apps and they know which gestures and movements your future customers are got used to. UX designers know well how your competitors’ apps “feel like” and know how to make a difference for yours.
And finally, they can make your customers love you, come back and bring new clients just by the word of mouth.
So UX designers are not about visual design, they are about solving problems. UX designer will show you sketches, not in-colour solutions, he will show you not a single mockup, but a process to develop a working website.
In addition, most visitors give up to 4 seconds to a website to download. If your time limit is higher, we wish you best of luck. You can learn the speed your website downloads here.
So don’t make your visitors “dig” for what they need, passing tones of not skimmable content and unrelated information. First of all 90% of your visitors are interested in your products and services, so a good UX designer would offer them a direct and easy-to-follow way to that info.
Since UX comes up of both User interface, Visual and Interaction design, a UX professional would be able to offer you ways to improve all that aspects.
UX vs UI vs Visual vs Interaction Designer
Too many “vs” isn’t it? Agree, but in order not to waste your money it’s vital you clearly understand the purpose of hiring and asking a UX designer for help and what you really need to be done.
As we have discussed before, a UX designer unites several aspects of design itself:
UX Designer (User Experience)
These specialists are competent with the concept of “how the product feels”. They are not concentrated on solving single issues, they observe the problem on the whole with all aspects involved. They are to make sure that the product has a logical step by step flow from the beginning up to the final decision.
If you need to implement everything from start, a UX designer is a right choice. They imply all the specialities described below. A UX designer will provide you or your customers with sketches, end-to-end experience descriptions, mockups, sitemaps, storyboards and specification documents if needed.
UI Designer (User Interface)
The boundary between the UX and UI designer is blurred enough. The first impression might be that they do the same kind of work and have similar liabilities. But it’s not all that simple.
As opposed to UX designers, UI specialists care how the product is laid out. Their job is to design every single piece of a website and to make sure they will be easily interpreted by users and lead the path previously worked out by UX designer. UI designers speak visual language and to make it evident just keep in mind the following comparison:
A UI without a UX is like an artist that throws paint on fabric without any concept or idea. A UX without a UI is just a set of cold blooded frames and mockups unable to grab anyone’s attention.
Another association you can remember is to imagine your project as a human body: those who write the code are the bones and make up the “skeleton”. The UX represents all the organs inside and are responsible for every vital action. And finally a UI is everything you put on a body to make it attractive.
Visual/Graphic Designer
That is a Photoshop guy. His job is to create something to stand out, eye-catchy and bright. This is what most people call Web Designer. These guys don’t care how users are going to interact with pages on website, how these pages are linked and what is the overall path the user should follow. The result of their art work are icons on websites, nice backgrounds, design concepts, cozy atmosphere, good-looking fonts etc. It often happens though, that companies choose to hire a UI designer than having them both, since User Interface designers can smartly combine these two roles.
Interaction/Motion Designer
Remember an appearing animation once you press download the next level of your favourite game on iPhone? Ta-dah! That was a job of a motion designer whose main responsibility is to engage users. Opposite to graphic designers, they work out how the icons should roll, slide, how the menu should appear/disappear etc. They work not with static elements, but design their animations within the app.
“HIRING: WE’RE LOOKING FOR A DESIGNER!”
A very familiar header, isn’t it? Most companies, especially startups, publish alike vacancies with the desire to get a good designer. But after all we’ve discussed above, what do they mean by saying “Designer”? Is that someone who’s going to deliver only graphics? But who’ll be responsible for animation then? And what about UI and UX?
Perhaps they mean it all together with the hope to find a superstar. In most cases such person has to create outstanding landing pages, catchy icons, choose appropriate fonts and do not forget to make it all interactive. Thanks God they didn’t ask for copywriting as well.
Well, things are heating up and we’d just like to help you realise which kind of specialist(-s) you really need and become specific in your needs.
Are you just starting a project? Would you like to refresh the existing design? Do you have a website that underperforms?
Perhaps we could discuss it together to come up with an idea to improve?
Now web designers are UI/UX designers. I doubt that small businesses can hire professional UX designer. It sometimes makes a sense to use routine decisions with some customizations.