Mobile app design / 8 min read
What are the top three User Experience Design (UXD or UX) fundamentals?
By Josh / April 22, 2021
Are there any benefits of good user experience design?
Yes, there certainly are many! Recent findings from Forrester Research suggest that a well-conceived, frictionless UX design could potentially raise customer conversion rates up to 400%. And, Toptal Designers claim that 88% of users will not return to a website after a bad user experience.
Users expect useful and intuitive interfaces from one section to the next every time they interact with an app, product, or website and in case it's not seamless, you may never see them again.
This is why good UX matters.
When you stumble upon a poorly designed website or app, it’s immediately obvious that something isn’t working – but it’s not always obvious why.
So what are the top three user experience design fundamentals?
User Experience Design (UXD or UX) in web design is the process of enhancing user satisfaction by improving
1. usability,
2. accessibility, and
3. efficiency
of user interaction with websites and apps.
1. Usability
‘Usability’ means how easy it is for someone to use and navigate your website. The usability of a website or app can be narrowed down to a few key aspects: it should be simple to navigate, consistent throughout, should use familiar patterns, it must be relevant and accessible. In short, website usability is essentially focused on making a website more user-friendly and offers a great user experience design.
Tips: reduce page loading time, use a familiar navigation layout, use headings and subheadings with your content, consistent and easy-to-use web interfaces, use explanatory images (not too many!).
Read more:
Use common website patterns and interfaces; don't make users learn something new and also
Don't use double-taps on mobile devices. Make sure users can interact with a single touch
2. Accessibility
It’s important to remember that it’s not just beginners or inexperienced internet users who benefit from an accessible design, but also people with varying visual, mobility, hearing, and intellectual abilities. Accessibility means that websites and apps, tools, and technologies are designed and developed so that also people with disabilities can use them.
Most people with colour vision deficiency have difficulty distinguishing between shades of red, yellow and green. It's a common problem that affects around 1 in 12 men (!) and 1 in 200 women.
In the United States alone, there are approximately 10.5 million men and 0.6 million women suffering from colour blindness of some form or other.
Contextual links in your website should be descriptive as several people with special needs make use of screen readers.
Also make use of adequate styling. This helps the user differentiate between content, subheadings and main headings.
Tips: structure content and organise with headers, use descriptive titles for links, use tables if needed, ensure site navigation is easily found. Do not use ALL CAPS IN YOUR HEADLINES - it makes it much harder to read.
Read more:
Make the search field easy to find. Users typically look for it in the top right corner
3. Efficiency
Efficiency is a measure of how well a website does what it should do. Speed and loading of pages makes the first impression about your business. Low website speed is one of the most frustrating things that will turn people off you and your product.
According to a report from BuzzCity in 2011, the mobile internet increased by 30% from Q1 to Q2 . Given the prominence (and dominance!) of the mobile web, it’s critical to ensure that your website is 'mobile first'. The strategy should be to code for mobile users first and then progressively enhance the experience for tablets and desktops. Doing so will help reduce the number of unnecessary dependencies.
One of the most common problems and slowing the speed are too large images. Make sure that your images are appropriately sized. Adopting new image formats can also help reduce image weight by 20 to 50 percent without sacrificing quality.
Tips: try a content delivery network (CND) - it uses distributed servers to deliver websites and other web content depending on user’s location, and website’s content. Cache content - this saves server time and makes things altogether faster. Make sure this feature is enabled on your website. Review your hosting service plan and use a cloud-based website monitoring.
IMPORTANT for your success: your website or app exists to improve traffic and make money. The glossy images and trendy styles may seem well and good but they could prove detrimental if your visitors are waiting more than 10 seconds to access your site.
Read more:
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