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User experience (UX) design can be a complicated and overwhelming field for newcomers, as it encompasses a wide range of topics (from accessibility to wireframing). Some of these topics overlap, while some of them complement one another. Therefore, it's important to come to a common and basic understanding of what the term “user experience” means in a design context.
User experience design, as its name suggests, is about designing the ideal experience of using a service or product. As such, it can involve all types of products and services—think, for instance, about the design involved in a museum exhibition. However, in the main, the term user experience design is used in relation to websites, web applications and other software applications.
Since the second half of this century’s first decade, technologies have become increasingly complex, and the functionality of applications and websites has become far broader and far more intricate. Early websites were simple static pages that served up information to feed curious searchers; however, a few decades later, what we can find a wealth of online are sites that are interactive and offer a much richer feel for users.
You can add all the features and functionality that you like to a site or application, but the success of the project rides on a single factor: how the users feel about it.
“Humans have always been emotional and have always reacted to the artifacts in their world emotionally.”
—Alan Cooper, President of Cooper
The questions that we as UX designers are concerned with are these:
A UX designer can say he's or she’s doing a good job when the answer is "Yes!" to all of the above.
In general, user experience is simply how people feel when they use a product or service. In most cases, that product will be a website or an application of some form. Every instance of human-object interaction has an associated user experience, but, in general, UX practitioners are interested in the relationship between human users and computers and computer-based products, such as websites, applications and systems.
A UX designer is someone who investigates and analyzes how users feel about the products he or she offers them. UX designers then apply this knowledge to product development in order to ensure that the user has the best possible experience with a product.
UX designers conduct research, analyze their findings, inform other members of the development team of their findings, monitor development projects to ensure those findings are implemented, and do much more.
In times gone by, product design was simple; designers built stuff they thought was cool and that they hoped their clients would like. Unfortunately, there are two problems with that approach. The first is that, back then, there was far less competition for people's attention online. The second is that there's no consideration for the user of the product at all in that approach—the success or failure of a development project was down to luck as much as it was down to the judgement of the design team.
Focusing on UX enables design to focus on the user. It increases the chances of a project's success when it finally comes to market, not least because it doesn’t gamble on the faith of users in taking to a product just because it’s a brand name.
UX Design can be found in a variety of project environments today, including:
The main methodology used to guarantee the user experience in most projects is user-centered design. Simply put, user-centered design is all about designing with the users’ needs and expected behaviors in mind. It's important for us as UX designers to remember that user-centered design is a means of achieving good UX—and not the only methodology or tool that one can use to ensure optimal UX in a project.
UX design is all about guiding product development to ensure how users feel when using our products. It's not a perfect method; sometimes, even with all the UX design know-how in the world behind it, a product will still fail. However, the appropriate use of UX design does offer a much higher chance that a product will be successful for our clients than products developed without the application of UX design principles.
Beginner course
If you want to join one of the most rapidly growing fields in design, then look no further—Become a UX Designer from Scratch is the course for you. You’ll learn the skills required to assist companies in delivering the right UX for their products through being taught tried-and-tested, industry standard techniques. You’ll also discover how to create various UX deliverables with the help of downloadable templates. From customer journey maps to paper prototypes, this course will show you how to make use of such templates when creating your UX portfolio—something that will truly make an impact on your UX job applications. What’s more, you’ll gain access to video interviews with senior UX hirers and experts from companies such as Google and SAP—providing you insight into what skills and attributes will give you an advantage over fellow candidates during the UX hiring process. Wait no longer to kick-start your professional UX career!
“The lessons are clear and easy to understand. The content in the lessons are thoroughly explained, and there's a good balance between video content vs. text content. This really is an intro or UX 101 course, which I really appreciated.”
— Seth Lemon, United States
“The strength of this course is its content and the way all the lessons are organized. The experience the instructors possess is also a huge advantage to the course and its members in understanding the design methods effectively.”
— Prudhvi Raj Midasala, India
“The course has given me a great overview of the foundation of UX design, the processes, players and understanding of the expectations of / on designers.”
— Barbara-Anne Tane, Australia