<span style="font-weight: 400;">Imagine you have bought a jar of Nutella. The product and its aesthetics are the User Interface. The experience you will have once you eat Nutella defines the aspect of User Experience. That is how the process works. As discussed in our blog “UI Design: An Elevated Technological Experience”, UI and UX are interdependent on each other. One cannot function effectively without the other.</span>

If you require professional assistance, we have an in-house <a href="https://vividreal.com/web-design/">team of web design experts</a>. Check us out.

<span style="color: #00ccff;"><b>What is User Experience (UX) Design?</b></span>

<span style="font-weight: 400;">User Experience focuses on providing an efficient and quick solution to resolve a user’s problem. It embodies a user-centric design process, where meaningful experiences are provided to the users.</span>

<span style="font-weight: 400;">It is inclusive of the processes that the design team undertakes to acquire and integrate a product with elements of branding, design, usability and function. User Experience is such a process that it begins even before the product has come into existence.</span>

<span style="font-weight: 400;">It’s crucial that you think of UX design as a process, from the very initial stages of intent to the final output. The elements of customer service and maintenance have to pave its way into the integration of the process of developing an efficient UX. </span>

<span style="font-weight: 400;">Think of it as starting a hotel. You take care of every single element of running a business, from the convenience of the customers to ensure the provision of the best amenities and comfort. The end result is supposed to be the happiness and fulfilment of the customers. This is exactly how UX works. It’s not difficult to comprehend once you wrap your head around the basic concept of User Experience.</span>

<span style="font-weight: 400;">UX design has to fulfil a few essential criteria. User-centred design asks for research on the users. This spectrum of information is crucial to design effective user experiences, being able to meet their requirements. You have to comprehend the needs of the users, their goals, and aims. By understanding these, you will be able to gauge the scope and aim of the project.</span>

<span style="color: #00ccff;"><b>Basic principles of User Experience Design</b></span>

<span style="font-weight: 400;">As a designer, the onus falls upon you to understand their requirements and design the in-between process before the fulfilment of their goals. </span>

<span style="font-weight: 400;">Just like User Interface Design, User Experience has a repository of basic principles that every UX designer should comprehend and integrate into the developing design. </span>
<ul>
 	<li style="font-weight: 400;"><span style="font-weight: 400;"><span style="font-weight: 400;">Comprehension of the users’ needs is essential for their fulfilment. The focus has to be constantly on the user, throughout the design process. The whole idea revolves around the improvement of the users’ experience with the aid of your product or service. By using methods such as user testing, you will be able to learn what your users are looking for.</span></span></li>
 	<li style="font-weight: 400;"><span style="font-weight: 400;"><span style="font-weight: 400;">Every phase of the design process is integral to its overall development. Various tools are required for each phase. By knowing the phase in the design process, you will be able to conduct user research of a higher quality.</span></span></li>
 	<li style="font-weight: 400;"><span style="font-weight: 400;">A UX principle such as a clear and precise hierarchy will ensure smooth navigation across a particular design. The hierarchy related to the organization of the content in the design is one of the most crucial ones. </span></li>
</ul>
<span style="font-weight: 400;">The navigation bar containing the main sections on a website, such as the “About”, “Join Us”, is a good example of a primary hierarchy. The ones opening into the sub-categories fall under the secondary hierarchy.</span>

<span style="font-weight: 400;">A visual hierarchy is an accomplishment in the field of navigation within a page or section on a website. In order to create an effective design for the users, you have set the priority of placement of the content. The most important content should get placed to make it prominent. </span>
<ul>
 	<li style="font-weight: 400;"><span style="font-weight: 400;">Consistency is the key here. A user will expect a product to share similarities with other kinds of products that they are familiar with. This also proves to be efficient as the additional learning costs are reduced. The increased familiarity of your design with those of other products enhances the user’s experience. This is one of the integral underlying principles of the concept of User Experience design. </span></li>
</ul>
<span style="font-weight: 400;">It also makes it easier for the designers as they do not have to develop an entirely new design every time they work on a brand new project.</span>
<ul>
 	<li style="font-weight: 400;"><span style="font-weight: 400;">Understand the concept of context. You have to consider the user’s context whilst developing a design. Time availability, influences, emotional state, etc are a few examples of the types of context a designer should keep in mind.</span></li>
</ul>
<span style="font-weight: 400;">These aspects will aid in the better comprehension of the behavioral state of a user. Once you accomplish this, you will be able to develop a design that will maximize the element of user experience. </span>
<ul>
 	<li style="font-weight: 400;"><span style="font-weight: 400;">Increasing the level of accessibility will ensure that the design can be easily used by the user. Ensure the removal of hindrances in the design layout to provide smooth navigation to the user. You can utilize the application with the use of contrasting colors in the background. This will also aid visually-impaired users to read the content on the screen easily, thus, increasing efficiency.</span></li>
</ul>
<h3><span style="color: #00ccff;"><b>A plethora of the best practices in User Experience Design</b></span></h3>
<span style="font-weight: 400;">By developing a usable and efficient website or app, you are fulfilling one of the main objectives of the User Experience design. The creation of such a design will ensure users are able to achieve their goals via your website. This will make them utilize your website for a substantial amount of time. The success of your website depends on the organization of your key elements of design.</span>

<span style="font-weight: 400;">There are some practices which should be followed whilst designing your website.</span>

&nbsp;
<ul>
 	<li>
<h3><span style="color: #00ccff;"><b>Select a design type</b></span></h3>
</li>
</ul>
&nbsp;

<img class="size-full wp-image-9226 aligncenter" src="http://localhost/vividreal/wp-content/uploads/2020/07/1-Select-a-design-type.jpg" alt="" width="924" height="526" />

<span style="font-weight: 400;">Designers have to keep up with the new trends in the design community. Although this is essential for design development, it is important to choose a specific design type that will aid in the fulfilment of your design objectives. A few examples of design types are:</span>
<ul>
 	<li style="font-weight: 400;"><span style="font-weight: 400;"><span style="font-weight: 400;"><span style="font-weight: 400;">As we talked about Material Design in the blog, UI Design: An Elevated Technological Experience, Material Design has flat design elements with 3D touches for a better User Experience. It has an engaging interface with the virtual feel of objects, and a collection of styles that will provide the element of consistency to designers.</span></span></span></li>
 	<li style="font-weight: 400;"><span style="font-weight: 400;"><span style="font-weight: 400;"><span style="font-weight: 400;">Minimalism Design is defined by flat textures, with the utilization of white or negative space and a limited number of color palettes. Such designs have faster download speeds, a higher conversion rate, smooth navigation, and efficient responsiveness. Additionally, the maintenance level is quite low.</span></span></span></li>
 	<li style="font-weight: 400;"><span style="font-weight: 400;">Features like 2D elements, plain typography, minimalistic design, and prominent colors define Flat Design. The version, Flat 2.0, has a strong hold in the design community due to factors like an elevated level of readability, a coherent visual hierarchy of colors and shapes, efficient navigation, and adaptive design.</span></li>
</ul>
&nbsp;
<ul>
 	<li>
<h3><span style="color: #00ccff;"><b>Provide clear and precise messages</b></span></h3>
</li>
</ul>
<img class="size-full wp-image-9227 aligncenter" src="http://localhost/vividreal/wp-content/uploads/2020/07/2-Provide-clear-and-precise-messages-1.jpg" alt="" width="924" height="526" />

<span style="font-weight: 400;">The messages to be conveyed on the website have to be useful, so as to guide the users and aid them in the interaction with the product. All the elements, from the smallest CTA button labels to the pop-up messages, play a pivotal role in impacting the user experience in a positive manner. The message cannot be confusing or misleading as it will lead to negative user experiences.  </span>

<span style="font-weight: 400;">You can accomplish this by knowing what to write. By understanding the needs of your audience, you will be able to fulfil the purpose of the user. The conveyed message has to be simple and clear. Users should know the next step just by reading the content. </span>

&nbsp;
<ul>
 	<li>
<h3><span style="color: #00ccff;"><b>Conduct the usability test during the website design process</b></span></h3>
</li>
</ul>
&nbsp;

<img class="size-full wp-image-9228 aligncenter" src="http://localhost/vividreal/wp-content/uploads/2020/07/3-1-Conduct-the-usability-test-during-the-website-design-process.jpg" alt="" width="924" height="526" />

<span style="font-weight: 400;">The objective of this test is to ensure that the developed design can be efficiently used by the user. By conducting tests during the design process, you will be able to easily identify any problems or issues, and resolve them. You will minimize the expenditure as well. You can conduct the test on prototypes before the finished product. This will make it easier for the evaluation of your design in the initial stages of the process. </span>

<span style="font-weight: 400;">Additionally, you have to find the right user to conduct the test of the efficiency of your product. The ideal candidate would be a person who would utilize your product. Take the demographics and psychographics of the candidates into consideration when you choose them.</span>

<span style="font-weight: 400;">By designing clear objectives and tasks, you will be able to create a smooth workflow. The range of issues and challenges faced by the users can be better observed. Get yourself involved in the testing process to witness a user’s interaction with your product or service. You will be able to gather more data on user experience than you can from reading the test results.</span>

&nbsp;
<ul>
 	<li>
<h3><span style="color: #00ccff;"><b>Utilize the fixed navigation menu to your advantage</b></span></h3>
</li>
</ul>
&nbsp;

<img class="size-full wp-image-9229 aligncenter" src="http://localhost/vividreal/wp-content/uploads/2020/07/4-fixed-navigation-bar-anim.gif" alt="" width="924" height="526" />

<span style="font-weight: 400;">The bar that you see constantly fixed on the screen even when you scroll down is the navigation menu, or as it is generally known, sticky headers. By allowing smoother navigation, sticky User Interface elements will give accessibility to key actions or data on any part of the page.</span>

<span style="font-weight: 400;">You have to keep your focus on factors and actions that give value. There’s no need to heighten the importance of unnecessary elements. Elevating these will hardly deliver any benefit for the user. </span>

<span style="font-weight: 400;">Make the visual elements on your website distinct. Use contrasting colors for the fonts, different kinds of images to make them distinctive. Avoid the placement of continuous animations so that the users are not distracted. </span>

<span style="font-weight: 400;">Avoid making the text of the headers too long. Put simply, viewers do not have the patience to read long paragraphs in the headers. Put a line of text in the header, which will have the maximum effect on the user.</span>

<span style="font-weight: 400;">By hiding the sticky headers on mobile when scrolling down provides the user with more space to read.</span>

&nbsp;
<ul>
 	<li>
<h3><span style="color: #00ccff;"><b>Develop a sitemap</b></span></h3>
</li>
</ul>
&nbsp;

<img class="size-full wp-image-9230 aligncenter" src="http://localhost/vividreal/wp-content/uploads/2020/07/5-Develop-a-sitemap.jpg" alt="" width="924" height="526" />

<span style="font-weight: 400;">An efficient sitemap will ensure a better architecture of the website. This is accomplished by categorizing data through groups of related content. The structure of the content can adversely affect the user experience. By developing a sitemap in the initial stages of the design process, you can aid in the improvement of your design in these ways. </span>

<span style="font-weight: 400;">Comprehension of design goals and the plan for its implementation has to be conveyed to your team of developers. In this manner, you can prioritize design decisions.</span>

<span style="font-weight: 400;">The removal of unnecessary pages will enhance the user experience. The hierarchical data in a sitemap will aid your team of developers to find and eliminate such pages. This will also reduce the chances of displaying duplicated content and avoid a confusing experience for the user.</span>
<h3><span style="color: #00ccff;"><b>Some examples of good User Experience Design</b></span></h3>
&nbsp;
<ul>
 	<li>
<h3><span style="color: #00ccff;"><b>Starbucks made it intimate</b></span></h3>
</li>
</ul>
<img class="size-full wp-image-9231 aligncenter" src="http://localhost/vividreal/wp-content/uploads/2020/07/starbucks.jpg" alt="" width="924" height="526" />

<span style="font-weight: 400;">A renowned chain of coffeehouses and roastery, Starbucks has lived up to its name. In this current context, Starbucks utilizes the element of personalization in their mobile app for online deliveries by comprehending a user’s purchase history and pattern.</span>

<span style="font-weight: 400;">Usually, people tend to order the same item they had previously bought, rather than going through the full menu. The “Recents” tab is extremely efficient in this case. </span>

&nbsp;
<ul>
 	<li>
<h3><span style="color: #00ccff;"><b>Duolingo avoids roadblocks</b></span></h3>
&nbsp;
<h3><b></b><img class="size-full wp-image-9233 aligncenter" src="http://localhost/vividreal/wp-content/uploads/2020/07/duolingo.jpg" alt="" width="924" height="526" /></h3>
</li>
</ul>
&nbsp;

<span style="font-weight: 400;">Duolingo makes it extremely easy for users to learn a new language and develop their skills. This particular platform lets users begin the process of learning a new language just after one answers three easy questions. Rather than asking users to decide on a specific plan, pay and create an account before they make a headway, Duolingo makes the process easy and efficient.</span>

&nbsp;
<ul>
 	<li>
<h3><span style="color: #00ccff;"><b>Mailchimp makes technology human</b></span></h3>
</li>
</ul>
&nbsp;

<img class="size-full wp-image-9234 aligncenter" src="http://localhost/vividreal/wp-content/uploads/2020/07/mailchimp-1-2.jpg" alt="" width="924" height="526" />

<span style="font-weight: 400;">By giving their web application a face, Mailchimp is able to establish a personal connection. Although the face is of a chimp, he keeps on popping up across the interface, adding a sense of humor and an emotional connection with users. This aspect of humanization of technology imparts depth to an otherwise tedious task of managing your email marketing. The application takes on the role of a team member with whom you collaborate to get the job done.</span>
<h3><span style="color: #00ccff;"><b>Giving a conclusion to UX Design</b></span></h3>
<span style="font-weight: 400;">Design principles and practices pertaining to User Experience are fundamental. It is crucial to comprehend the fact that the User Experience Design has to be implemented in a manner which will tremendously improve a user’s interaction with the website or app. Designers have to ensure that they are able to catch the viewer’s attention before they exit the website for one that is more user-friendly. Knowing what the user requires is essential to the application of the basics of UX design.</span>

<span style="font-weight: 400;">So, what are you waiting for? Enhance your users’ experience by applying these principles and incorporating the practices.</span>

<span style="font-weight: 400;">And hey, if you want help with improving your UX Design, <a href="https://vividreal.com/web-design/">our team of Design wizards</a> is here. Do give us a try. </span>

&nbsp;