Understanding the UX design process

The basics of UX design

Knowledge of the UX design process will help you avoid making a website that ignores the needs of its users. This is because each design decision that you make will be guided by research that anticipates the needs of a website’s users and resolves any problems that they may have.

As such, you will need to go through an extensive process of research, testing and collaboration before you get to the finished product of your website. In fact, some may say that no website is ever completely finished as it must be flexible enough to meet the constantly changing needs of its users.

The concept of User Experience Design has been around for more than two decades now. There are various theories about what UX actually is. However most would agree that it gives people a useful, usable and enjoyable way to get whatever product or service they are looking for. Here’s how UX would apply to the website that you’re creating:

• Useful - Does the website answer a need that the customer has?
• Usable - Is the customer able to use the site in a simple and intuitive way?
• Enjoyable - Is the website a pleasure to use?

These three factors may sound obvious, but getting a website to successfully feature these elementals of UX design can be trickier than it sounds. This is why implementing a good UX design process is essential to make sure that you don’t get sidetracked.

Putting the user first

It may sound obvious, but the core concept of any UX design task is to put the user first. After all, this is the person who will be using your product or service. It can be all too easy to tinker away with a website that looks amazing and then forget that somebody has to use it.

This is why many websites look great, but are a nightmare to use. Such sites have failed the basic test of UX design which is that they should be easy to use by someone who has never used the site before.

But by putting the user first, you’ll make sure that they aren’t overlooked by either your web design knowhow, or the brand’s business objectives. So take a look below to see the four key steps that are part of all good UX design processes.

1. Research your users

You aren’t going to be able to create a UX-friendly website unless you know your potential customers inside-out. While there might be some guesswork involved, you can get a much clearer picture of who’s most likely to use your site by taking the following simple steps.

• Monitor current usage: You can learn a lot from how your existing customers use your pre existing sites. Obviously this is only relevant if you are upgrading a website rather than starting afresh. But by checking the analytics of a site, you’ll learn which sections are popular and which are bypassed. This is essential for working out why certain areas of a website might be excellent for converting users into customers. Plus you’ll learn more about whether most customers are using the site from a laptop or a mobile device. Above all, it’s a good gateway into seeing how your existing customer base operates.
• Carry our user interviews: Try not to get too bogged down in the quantitative data of your potential users. After all, these are humans with real emotions, wants and needs. This is where interviews can be extremely helpful in learning about the emotions that no amount of analytical tools are going to be able to uncover. These interviews should be as free-form as possible, as it’s here that you’ll learn about the expectations and motives that a user has when they use your website.
• Get accurate statistics about potential customers: There’s a wealth of tools like Google Analytics that you can use to see what kinds of questions your potential customers are asking. Such tools can be invaluable in seeing more about the demographic make-up of your user base. Information about a user’s gender, age and income can be extremely helpful in tailoring the tone and content of your site. Don’t forget that sometimes a good old-fashioned survey can work wonders in getting to know your potential users a little better.
• Check how rival brands function: Don’t get tunnel vision when you’re carrying out your UX design research. After all, chances are that there are competitors out there who are doing things a little differently. As such it’s a good idea to see how they are offering something fresh or unique in their site design. Obviously, you shouldn’t steal any design ideas outright. But it can serve as valuable inspiration to help you see where your own site design could be improved.

2. Analyse what your users want

Once you’ve got a good idea of who your potential customers are, you’ll need to invest some time in identifying what their goals are when they come to your site. This could be anything from a customer wishing to buy a product or find out more about a service that your brand offers. By identifying the users’ goals, you’ll be perfectly placed to conjure up some design ideas that can meet their needs. Here are a couple of simple ways that you can try and second-guess the motives of your customer base.

• Creating personas: This refers to creating fictional identities that are based on the research that you’ve already carried out on your existing customer base. By creating a handful of different personas, you’ll get a good idea of the kind of person that visits your site. This in turn will help you gain the ‘empathy’ that’s an essential part of a good UX design process. You’ll need to humanise these personas by giving them names and backgrounds so that you can figure out what their goals are when they come to your website. Such personas can prove invaluable in helping you spot what a user’s expectations may be from your brand’s site. For example, if your persona is somebody who is likely to spend a lot of time on their smartphones, you’ll need to ensure that your UX design is as mobile-friendly as possible.
• Identifying user scenarios: Once you’ve got your personas in place, it’s time to come up with some potential scenarios that imagine how they will use your site. This will help you see through the persona’s eyes and identify any weak spots in your design process. For example, if the customer was visiting a clothes site, they would want a quick and easy way to browse or search for the item of clothing that they were looking for. Plus there should be simple links by which the user could securely and efficiently pay for their products. This should help you to streamline the entire process without upsetting the customer by introducing too many pop-up ads or unwelcome special offers. After all, the user is at your site to carry out a task, not to admire your web design skills.

3. Test your design

By now you’ll have a good idea of who your users are and what they are looking for. Now it’s time to make sure that your site design is going to be capable of catering to these wants and needs. Here are three basic steps for doing so.

• Using wireframes: A wireframe is either an illustration or diagram that shows how your site will be laid out. This means creating a rough guide of each web page would look like and how they will link together. You’ll have to work out how to organise the content in terms of text, images and space. This will mean prioritising certain elements so as to cater to the users’ goals and expectations. A decent wireframe can be something as simple as a pencil sketch on paper. But it should always aim to help the user carry out their tasks in the shortest possible number of steps. Remember that wireframes won’t factor in any aesthetic considerations, as they are all about basic functionality. They can also be a good way to see how any calls-to-action will be organised on your site.
• Building a site prototype: Once you’ve got your wireframe in place, it’s time to create a prototype of your site. This means creating a draft version of the website that you can use to see how it basically works before you get into the detail of any coding. While many prototyping tools can be fairly basic, you can start to introduce visual themes at this point. This will help you to get an understanding of how the user will think and feel when they encounter the site for the first time. Prototypes are also useful as they can be used for basic testing. This means that you can quickly spot any errors or inconsistencies in the overall site design. Such errors can easily be fixed in the prototype which is much more efficient when compared to having to overhaul an entire website.

4. Evaluate your UX performance

Once you’ve built your website, there are several tests that you’ll need to carry out before you launch the site for public use. Testing will help you identify simple errors like broken links and it will also give you a chance to fine-tune certain areas to enhance the overall user experience. Such a testing process can be time-consuming, but it’s essential for producing a website that’s free of glitches and caters to its users. Here are three basic steps to follow when testing your site.

• Testing a site’s usability: Here’s where you get to see how real users get to grips with your site. You should hopefully find that the customers will be able to carry out their tasks in a simple and efficient manner. The testing process will also identify those areas of the website that are overlooked or cause people to exit the site as a whole. Such tests are essential for spotting any problem areas that may have escaped your notice.
• Getting detailed analytics: Once your website is live, you will be able to take advantage of tools like Google Analytics to see who is using your site. This will help you see whether the customer make-up has changed at all, and you’ll learn how this could be improved. There should also be helpful information about where the users are coming from, and what they are doing when they are on your site. All of which can be powerful in helping you upgrade the UX of your site.

Qualitative data for real users: Don’t forget to get real-life reports from customers to see how they felt about your site. Such information can be helpful as you won’t get to learn about the emotions of your users from analytical tools.

Final thoughts on the UX design process

It’s important to note that the UX design process is never complete. Your site design will always be changing in correspondence to the needs and demands of its users. As such you will need to keep testing and evaluating the site to make sure that it makes the grade. Giving the site a quick refresh every now and then can also keep things interesting for the users. From boosting user engagement to converting more passive browsers to active customers, there’s plenty of ways that good UX design can improve your site.