Even though many of us are familiar with the term, I am willing to bet there is still a lot of confusion as to what it means or where it applies.
User Experience Design (UXD a.k.a. UX) is essentially the design of the experience between an end-user and the points of interaction with products and/or services. Design, is the purpose, planning and intention behind bringing a product or service into being.
Designing a user experience can apply to anything from an email to the handling of an assistance request, to the physical design of a door. If you have ever pushed on a door that was meant to be pulled, you can begin to appreciate the importance of good user experience design.
You’re kind of doing it already
In our daily work we are continually designing things to engage the end-user with our products, to either inform their decisions or enable their objectives. Design decisions also extend beyond look and feel, into choosing how and where products and services become available to target audiences, maximizing impact and availability. Using the principles of good UX makes it more likely that your outputs will connect with your end-user in a meaningful way, which means that they will likely be more successful.
There is a lot of material on UX right now, but here are a few of the basic principles to get you started.
Know your audience
Demographics will give you some generic parameters, but will not give you very meaningful information about what your audience wants, who they are, how they think, and how they plan to use your outputs to enable or inform their own objectives. One of the best ways to get to know your audience is to go out and talk to a sampling of them. Inform your assumptions about your audience, their needs, and how they think.
Prototype and test
Prototyping is essentially making drafts. Create that first draft and test it with some of your audience members and let them tell you how well it meets their needs. This will allow you to find ways to fine-tune your outputs before you release them. Prototyping is scalable and adaptable to any type of deliverable or project. But don’t get caught up in the term; they are just drafts. Don’t make your users think
Good UX should be seamless. Don’t make your users guess what you mean, or what they are supposed to do when they interact with your service or product. Use plain language in your instructions, and be clear. How memorable was the last ATM you went to take money out of? If not at all, it’s because you didn’t have to think. When users have doubt as to what they are supposed to do with a product or service you designed, that’s a gap you need to fill; prototypes will let you identify these gaps early on.
Become a steward for your outputs
Everything changes, so your products and services should evolve and adapt to keep up. When you produce or launch something, think about what the maintenance (a.k.a. in-service) strategy will be. This will ensure that consistency in your product or service is maintained once it starts to be updated.
UX is an outcome, not a process
When something is a process, we tend to assign responsibility (and accountability) for parts of that process to others, which means, that we assume the responsibility is no longer ours. When we think of things in terms of outcomes, we assume that we are all responsible to contribute to getting something done—even though the accountability for more specific parts may be given to a few. UX as an outcome means that we are all consciously mindful of the user experiences we create when designing products or services. Doing so will make us all more engaged, productive, and efficient.
