User Experience Design

Improve the usability of your website through UX design

What UX Design is can be hard to define, as it covers many different roles. At it's core it's simply anticipating and meeting the needs of whoever is using a product, be it a website, mobile app, or even a physcial interface such as a car stereo. This is done by carefully planning layouts, content and instructions, and every other aspect of the product around the users' goals to aid them in their journey.

I like to describe what I do as removing frustrations or confusion associated with your interface, app or website, in order to give people a streamlined experience. A better user experience leads to a better customer experience.

UX Design – What's involved?

UX design employs a range of different techniques for discovering, implementing and testing. The techniques I use vary from project to project, but the most common are listed below:

• User Research: Research and understanding a customer's goals and motivations are key to the UX design process. You are not your customer, so it can be easy to misunderstand their reasons for being on your site or using your product. What is obvious to you may not be to them.
• Information Architecture: Planning where to display content, how to structure it, and how to link to it is important for any site. If people can't find what they're looking for, you'll frustrate them and they'll leave. Good internal linking of pages is a strong factor in SEO too.
• Wireframing: Once we have your content planned, we can start block it out on the page. This process focusses solely on the hierarchy and structure of your content, deciding which elements should have priority, and which can be removed completely.
• Rapid Prototyping: The best way to know if your website or app will be easy to use is to prototype it. There are many quick any easy ways to test changes that can give you great feedback very quickly. Don't just build it, test it!
• Accessability: Not everyone is fortunate enough to be able to use a device or web browser in the way they were intended. Sadly this is something many businesses fail to consider. Good UX design aims to make the experience of using a digital product better for everybody.