The UX design process is everything behind those applications or websites that we like so much. It is everything that takes care of those processes where with just one click we can receive our purchase tomorrow, or the speed of response to our questions.
Everything that has to do with the UX design process is done by people who have tried to create a site that has the features that users like the most. Easy to use, delivers information effectively, and allows us to make intelligent decisions according to our challenges or concerns.
The UX design process will not only provide users with an intuitive and enjoyable experience but will also offer designers the opportunity to iterate and improve their designs.
In this process, a satisfactory relationship between the user and the product or service will always be sought. Professionals and related teams must be as committed to the client’s well-being as they are to the business objectives and technological limitations or possibilities.
All this means that in any project or software creation process it is very common to find very disparate teams with multidisciplinary profiles, but that in the end try to mesh to achieve a pleasant experience for the user.
What is UX design?
UX design or user experience design is the process focused on increasing a user’s level of satisfaction with a product or service by improving its functionality, ease of use, and convenience.
Good UX design creates a positive user experience by anticipating and meeting the user’s needs. Any product or service, such as a website or app, needs good UX design. Without it, the user could become frustrated with the product, which could result in fewer users.
4 types of UX design
1. Interaction design
A subset of UX design is interaction design (IxD). It is defined as the interaction between a user and product, where the goal is to make it enjoyable for the customer.
2. Visual design
In visual design, one of the main keys is to check how it looks and feels to navigate through an application; it also covers other aspects of user experience such as efficiency, mood, level of entertainment or pleasure.
To have a successful visual design, artistic design principles include: balance, space and contrast. Color, shape, size and other elements also affect visual design.
3. User research
This involves companies determining what their customers and users want and need. In essence, your website must solve a problem, so this is an important step to detect what exactly your users require. Without it, your designs are based on guesswork.
4. Information architecture
Designers use information architecture to structure and label content so that users can find information easily. It is used on websites, smartphones, apps and even in physical locations.
Ease of use and discoverability are two important factors, so they are closely related to UX design.
The stages of the UX design process
There are several stages of the UX design process to consider. UX design takes a human-centered approach to create useful things for users.
It involves you considering the needs of the people you are designing for, devising a wide range of solutions to solve the problem they face, creating prototypes for users to test, and finally implementing the best solution for the user.
1. Understand your user’s pain points
Since UX design is about improving the user experience, the first step is to find out what your users’ challenges and expectations are. Once you understand what the problems are, you can solve them.
2. Make a user persona
Now that you have your user research, you’ll want to summarize it. Creating user personas is a great way to do this. Also known as buyer personas, they are semi-fictional representations of your ideal customers based on data and research.
They help you understand your current customers and prospects better, so you can customize your products, as well as your services, content and messaging to meet their specific needs, behaviors and concerns.
3. Map user journeys
While it’s useful to classify different types of user personas, each user is unique. That means that different users will interact with your site in different ways, even if they have the same goal.
4. Make page layouts
By creating an outline for your website or product, you can map out how you want to display its main features, allocate spaces and present images and content. You will see how this layout helps or hinders the user to achieve their goals before introducing design elements, such as color schemes.
5. Start the prototyping phase
Think of a prototype as the final draft of your product or website before coding begins. It’s not the final version, but it’s close enough that you can fully test the product before launch and demonstrate it to management and other stakeholders.
6. Maintenance and monitoring
A website is not a static environment, it changes in content, audience, needs and therefore requires continuous redesigns and improvements.
In general, the more we know about our audience, the more tailored the design will be and the more satisfying the end-user experience will be.
If you are interested in learning more about WillDom and how we can help in your UX design process, connect with us on LinkedIn or visit our website at WillDom.com.
