How can you improve your front-end projects with design principles and user research?

User research serves as the foundation for informed decision-making in front-end development. It ensures that the user interface you create aligns with the real needs and expectations of your target audience, ultimately leading to a more user-friendly and effective product.

In today's mobile-centric landscape, prioritize a "mobile-first" approach. Optimize your design for low-end devices and closely monitor user interactions to inform improvements. For instance, if a button isn't easily accessible, make necessary adjustments based on user behavior and feedback.

Having a strong front-end project needs a solid design system, if you are using known ones good, but if you are making it from scratch for your own brand; These are essential: - Style guide (micro interactions step by step) - Component based designs and developments - Using design tokens - Full-responsive designs

Not just that! These days a unique composition is a must if we really want to differentiate our designs from others. Great compositions help us to make our own UI identify. It attracts users to explore more and unlock the new interactive experience. But still for just the sake of a very different layout we need to consider the UX first approach.

I think that creating an aesthetically pleasing website it's important, it is, after all, the thing the user sees and interacts with; but I think it's important to remember that when we are designing and building a project for a client, it's not something that will be changed every year with every new trend that comes up, and not every design trend is feasible when we're going to code them. Practicing new trends it's fine when working on personal projects and practicing our skills, but making smart decisions that will stand the test of time, it's a fundamental part of growing as designers.

For front-end projects, think of user research as your toolkit for building a site that people will love. It's like your compass in the wilderness of the internet. You can sit down and have one-on-one chats with users (interviews), send them questionnaires (surveys), watch them navigate your site (usability testing), and even spy on how they interact with your pages (analytics).

When conducting user research, it's crucial to consider all stakeholders and users, ensuring that your front-end build-out is accessible to everyone. To achieve this, follow the guidelines set forth by the Web Content Accessibility Guidelines (WCAG). It's important to continually remind ourselves of accessibility, especially when considering the implementation of appealing features that may not be practical or accessible to all users.

User research, especially when conducted with a diverse user base across different geographical locations and user segments, serves as a valuable tool for evaluating both the strengths and weaknesses of a design. It also enables us to identify potential enhancements that could better align the feature with user needs and address pain points associated with the feature. Equally important is the evaluation of whether we are over-engineering the feature by adding unnecessary elements that could negatively impact application performance.

For user research, it is important to apply appropriate methods such as interviews, usability testing, etc., with the goal of validating data through participants. Data collection will help observe or identify needs, areas of opportunity, or deficiencies that we may find. We should identify our insights to make relevant and informed decisions when designing and implementing our designs.

Some ways to get started: - Maintain clear project documentation - Plan layout and interactions - Ensure compatibility with various devices - Prioritize user needs in design - Always refine based on feedback and evolving requirements

It is highly important because we can identify and understand our users, define objectives based on both the user and usability, apply principles such as consistency, accessibility, usability, applicability, etc. Once this is done, we can iterate and create prototypes that align with the real needs of users. The key is to have the openness for continuous improvement, so the product we create adapts to the needs, expectations, and visions of the users.

Yup, this sounds about right and it's probably the best practice we need to follow. However, in many startups where it's fast paced, they often not do any user testings and research simply because there is no time/budget to do that. So if the company has low UX Maturity level, expect that the best practice isn't implemented.

Apply design principles to your user interface. When designing your user interface, keep the design principles you have chosen in mind. For example, if you want to create a visually appealing user interface, you might use the design principles of contrast and alignment. If you want to create an easy-to-use user interface, you might use the design principles of repetition and proximity. Test your user interface with users. Once you have designed your user interface, test it with users to see how they interact with it and to identify any areas where it can be improved. You can use the same user research methods that you used to identify your users and their needs.

The output of design research should feed the construction of the functional specifications document -elaborating what the solution should do from the user perspective. Subsequently, the technical specifications document should be generated. In essence we are going from what and why to how a solution should be built to best support the user experience and business strategy. Those are documents that should be referred to often and evolve over iterations of design. They help articulate acceptance criteria to ensure accuracy and value if implementation.

To apply design principles and user research effectively: Discover: Define project goals, scope, and requirements. Conduct user research using interviews, surveys, personas, and user stories to understand user needs and motivations. Design: Generate ideas and create sketches, wireframes, mockups, and prototypes. Use brainstorming, sketching, wireframing, and prototyping to design features and interactions. Test: Test your web page or prototype with real users. Employ usability testing, A/B testing, and analytics to measure usability, functionality, and user satisfaction. Identify and address issues. Implement: Develop and deploy the web page using the appropriate technologies.

I can't stress this enough but consistency is very crucial here. Designers (esp. Interface designers) should think about reusing components as much as possible instead of making new ones as it would ensure not just better quality interface design, it also saves time and energy for the development team as well!

Mobile Responsiveness: Ensure your designs are responsive to various screen sizes and devices. Mobile users make up a significant portion of web traffic, and a responsive design is crucial for a seamless user experience. Performance Optimization: Pay attention to page load times and overall performance. Users expect fast-loading web pages, so optimize images, use efficient code, and minimize unnecessary scripts to improve site speed. Cross-Browser Compatibility: Test your front-end projects on various web browsers to ensure they work consistently across different platforms. This prevents compatibility issues that can lead to a poor user experience.

Our goal should always be to help deliver value to users. We should never use an element only because "it works" without first asking ourselves if: 1?? Is this element ethic, or is it deceiving the user? 2?? Does this contribute to create a better internet for everyone? Some examples: ? Annoying newsletter popups. It DOESN'T matter if it "works" or not. It's distracting, and ruins your users experience. Often users don't even know your business when they see it. And the popup is asking them to take extra action about something they don't yet know or care about. ? Deceiving checkout processes. Especially low-cost flights companies deploy confusing interfaces to "trick you" into paying more. "It works" (for them) but exploits you!

Inclusive Design: Prioritize designing for all users, including those with disabilities. Implement accessibility features like screen reader support, keyboard navigation, and sufficient color contrast. Use tools and guidelines like WCAG to ensure your project is usable by everyone. Accessibility not only broadens your audience but also enhances the overall user experience, making your site more intuitive and inclusive. Consider user feedback and iterate on the design based on real-world usage to continuously improve accessibility.

The design should be user-friendly and intuitive. Elements such as color, spacing, size, and data representation are of paramount importance. Developers and designers should always consider the perspectives of all types of end users when implementing their designs.