UX Considerations

We dive into the world of UX in this episode, analyzing some basic tactics you can use to ensure that your users have a great experience on your site or app!

UX Rules

Source: https://theblog.adobe.com/15-rules-every-ux-designer-know/

1. UX is not (only) UI
   • User Interface is a part of User Experience
   • Are glitches part of UX?
2. Know your audience
   • User research is a natural first step in the design process
   • Designing a site for a specific industry will very much influence your decisions.
3. You are not the user
   • Testing with real users is an essential part of the design process
   • Many examples where we thought something was simple but a small test group immediately got confused
4. Adapt design for short attention spans
   • Don’t overwhelm users with too much information
   • Short blocks of text because people don’t read
   • Keep interactions quick, don’t make people fill out massive forms
5. The UX process isn’t set in stone
   • Adapt your design process for the product you design
   • Designing a small one page site for a small business is drastically different than a ecommerce website
6. Prototype before you build a real product
   • The design phase for digital products should include a prototyping stage
   • We always make at least a wireframe to show the interactions and pages to clients so they know at a high level what the experience will be
   • For larger clients a full clickthrough mockup can be made before any development begins to iron out all misunderstandings and conflicts
7. Use real content when designing
   • Avoid Lorem Ipsum and dummy placeholders
   • Our customers have been confused before asking what is this “gibberish” in reference to lorem ipsum
   • Also confused as to why the pictures are different then what he had in mind when we use generic stock photos
8. Keep things simple and consistent
   • The hallmark of a great user interface is simplicity and consistency
   • For example I find it confusing when a one page scroll website has a navigation that then opens up a different page. Don’t combine the two.
9. Recognition over recall
   • Showing users elements they can recognize improves usability versus needing to recall items from scratch
   • People know what buttons look like and usually know to click them, same with links and form inputs. Don’t try to reinvent the wheel
10. Make design usable and accessible
    • Design for a diverse set of users that will interact with your products
    • Keep in mind that some users are color blind or even blind so make sure to follow the accessibility guidelines
11. Don’t try to solve a problem yourself
    • Design is team sport — don’t work in isolation
12. Don’t try to solve everything at once
    • Design is an iterative process
13. Preventing errors is better than fixing them
    • Whenever possible, design products to keep potential errors to a minimum
14. Offer informative feedback
    • An app or website should always keep users informed about what is going on
    • Transitions are a great way to show what is happening without holding the users hand
15. Avoid dramatic redesigns
    • Remember Weber’s Law of Just Noticeable Differences
    • Example digg redesign killed the site

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