User experience design (UED) is not only about solving problems, but also about creating positive emotions and memorable impressions for your users. How can you design products and services that delight and surprise your users, and make them want to come back for more? Here are some design techniques that can help you achieve this goal.
Animation and motion can add life and personality to your design, and create engaging and interactive user experiences. You can use animation and motion to guide your users, provide feedback, show progress, reveal hidden features, or create transitions. For example, you can use a bounce effect to draw attention to a call to action, or a slide effect to show a new screen. However, be careful not to overuse animation and motion, as they can also distract or annoy your users. Use them sparingly, and make sure they are consistent, smooth, and relevant.
Incorporate subtle animations and transitions to guide users through the interface and provide visual feedback. Use motion to add depth, context, and personality to interactions, making the experience more engaging and immersive.
Here are some design techniques you can use to create delightful and surprising user experiences: Emotional Design: Tap into user emotions Personalization Storytelling Microinteractions: Small, subtle interactions Seamless transitions Positive feedback Gamification: Integrate game mechanics Challenge and reward Progress visualization UI & Visual Design: Visual hierarchy Delightful elements Accessibility Unexpected Delights: Hidden features Context-aware experiences Humorous touches
Delighting a customer experience is no less than delivering a full course meal. Making user journey more intuitive and rich by adding motion to the elements resulting in enhanced customer engagement, rich user experience, animating the backgrounds on scroll, button click are a few of them to add an element of surprise to the users.
- Use animation and motion to add life and personality to your design. - Guide users, provide feedback, show progress, reveal hidden features, or create transitions. - Examples: bounce effect for a call to action, slide effect for a new screen. - Be careful not to overuse; can distract or annoy users. - Use sparingly, ensure consistency, smoothness, and relevance.
These elements can breathe life into your interface, making it more engaging and interactive. Use animation to guide users through tasks, offer feedback on their actions, or reveal hidden features. For example, a subtle bounce effect can draw attention to important buttons, while a smooth slide transition can introduce new content seamlessly. However, it's essential to strike a balance and avoid overwhelming users with excessive animation. Keep it consistent, smooth, and relevant to enhance the user experience without causing distractions or irritation. Just like seasoning in cooking, a little animation can spice up your design without overpowering it.
Microinteractions are small, often overlooked, but powerful moments that happen when your users interact with your design. They can enhance the usability, functionality, and feedback of your design, and create a sense of delight and satisfaction for your users. For example, you can use microinteractions to show a like button changing color when clicked, or a sound effect when a task is completed. Microinteractions can also help you create a unique and recognizable brand identity, and differentiate your design from others.
A lot of apps do not invest in microinteractions. That is because they are seen in a more aesthetic light than functional. But microinteractions go beyond providing user delight. They provide clarity by providing feedback when an action is performed. A good example is the Google Pay 'tick mark' animation which appears after the user completes a payment. Since Google pay deals with financial transactions for people of different age groups, the microinteraction gives reassurance of a safe transaction. Over time, the more successful transactions that take place, the more that microinteraction and sound becomes familiar to us and helps in building trust with Google Pay. A textual description of the same would not have had the same effect.
Micro interactions and natural motion design when used subtly can cause a lot of visual joy. Microinteractions are often overlooked but they can cause a lot of delight. Make sure they are subtle and not overdone.
Sprinkle magic into your design with microinteractions! Tiny moments like a morphing button or a joyful chime add delight, guide users, and boost functionality. Imagine a "like" exploding in color or a "ding" celebrating success. These interactions not only engage users but also subtly shape your brand, making your design truly unique.
- Microinteractions: Small, often overlooked, but powerful moments that happen when users interact with your design. - Enhance usability, functionality, and feedback. - Create a sense of delight and satisfaction. - Examples: Like button changing color when clicked, sound effect when task is completed. - Help create a unique and recognizable brand identity. - Differentiate your design from others.
Think of microinteractions as those tiny but impactful moments that happen when you interact with a design. They might seem small, but they can make a big difference in how users feel about your product. Picture the satisfaction of seeing a button change color when you click it, or hearing a little sound when you accomplish something. These small details not only improve usability and functionality but also add a touch of joy to the user experience. Plus, they can help your brand stand out by creating a distinct identity that users remember.
Gamification is the application of game elements and mechanics to non-game contexts, such as your design. Gamification can motivate, reward, challenge, and entertain your users, and make them feel more engaged and loyal to your design. For example, you can use gamification to offer badges, points, levels, leaderboards, or challenges to your users, and encourage them to achieve their goals, learn new skills, or compete with others. Gamification can also help you create a sense of fun and playfulness, and tap into your users' intrinsic and extrinsic motivations.
Gamification in design is a game-changer! By incorporating elements like badges and challenges, we turn interfaces into immersive experiences. It boosts engagement and retention rates, making it a powerful tool for designers.
I have worked on the Travel Challenges Section in the Expedia app, which will be a place where users can discover, participate in, track, finish, and get rewarded for various travel challenges. At that time, we considered adding a gamification feature to the section so that users would be more engaged and spend more time in the app. We also utilized the Zeigarnik effect principle by implementing progress bars or levels to visually represent users' progress towards their goals. This can motivate users to continue engaging with the product to reach the next milestone.
More information regarding intrinsic vs extrinsic motivations; intrinsic motivations comes from a sense of enjoyment in the process and personal accomplishment of a goal. While games are fun, if you are attempting to motivate and encourage engagement for an experience that users may be reluctant to complete (such as HR training modules) extrinsic motivation such as digital rewards and leaderboards can help create a similar sense of satisfaction from completing otherwise mundane tasks.
Gamification offers a wide range of game elements and mechanics that can be used to motivate users and increase their engagement. By incorporating reward systems, progress indicators, challenges and leaderboards, users can be encouraged to achieve certain goals or adopt certain behaviours. @duolingo does a great job here, so if you need some inspiration go there.
Gamification means adding game-like features, such as points, badges, and challenges, to things that aren't games, like design. It's a way to make tasks more fun, motivating, and engaging for users, encouraging them to achieve goals and learn new things. It's like turning everyday activities into a bit of a game to make them more interesting and enjoyable.
Personalization is the customization of your design to suit the preferences, needs, and behaviors of your users. Personalization can create a more relevant, meaningful, and valuable user experience, and make your users feel more understood and appreciated. For example, you can use personalization to offer recommendations, suggestions, or reminders based on your users' previous actions, interests, or locations. Personalization can also help you create a sense of connection and trust, and foster a long-term relationship with your users.
There is nothing worse than using a product which was made to accomplish a bunch of tasks and not made to allow a user to navigate the system through progressive discovery. Employing design thinking strategies which allow you to empathise with a user and understand how they will interact with a screen should always be the key focus when designing for a vast audience. Adding small elements such as a greeting when a user creates their profile, and a card informing them of their next steps can go a long way in making a user feel involved.
Personalization builds trust and keeps users coming back for more! Tailoring your design to each user's unique preferences and needs say "You May Also Like", "Your Wish list", or "local weather updates" These small touches make users feel special, understood, and valued.
- Personalization: Tailor the user experience to individual preferences, needs, and behaviors. - Contextualization: Present information or features based on the user's current situation or environment. - Gamification: Incorporate game-like elements such as challenges, rewards, and progress tracking to engage users. - Surprise and delight: Introduce unexpected, delightful elements or interactions to create memorable experiences. - Storytelling: Use narrative techniques to guide users through the experience and create emotional connections. - Accessibility: Ensure the design is inclusive and accessible to users with diverse needs and abilities.
Personalization is one of the most important tools to create delightful user experiences in the current world. From offers to birthday wishes to help the user in the user journey by crafting the UX as per their day to day needs can be pretty useful.
B-B-C Allow your customers to brand wherever possible, especially around marketing type tools or other areas where customers drop off (login flows, f.e.).
Humor and emotion are powerful tools that can evoke positive feelings and reactions from your users, and make your design more memorable and distinctive. You can use humor and emotion to communicate your brand personality, tone, and voice, and create a rapport with your users. For example, you can use humor and emotion to write witty and friendly copy, use expressive icons or illustrations, or add unexpected surprises or Easter eggs to your design. Humor and emotion can also help you reduce frustration, boredom, or anxiety, and create a more enjoyable and human user experience.
Let's say we are designing a meal planning app. Instead of a straightforward notification like "Recipe saved," add a touch of humor and emotion by saying, "Recipe saved! Now you've got more time for Netflix while your masterpiece is in the oven. Chef's hat not included!" This brings a smile to users, making the experience more enjoyable. Another instance could be an unexpected pop-up during a tedious task, saying, "Hang in there! We believe in you – a coffee break is just around the corner." These light-hearted moments transform routine interactions into something relatable and human, creating a connection beyond the functionality of the app.
- Humor and Emotion: Utilize humor and emotion to evoke positive reactions and make the design more memorable. - Brand Personality: Use humor and emotion to communicate the brand's personality, tone, and voice. - Rapport Building: Create a rapport with users through humor and emotion. - Witty Copy: Write witty and friendly copy to engage users. - Expressive Icons/Illustrations: Use expressive icons or illustrations to convey emotions. - Unexpected Surprises: Add unexpected surprises or Easter eggs to the design. - Reduce Negative Emotions: Use humor and emotion to reduce frustration, boredom, or anxiety. - Human Experience: Create a more enjoyable and human user experience through humor and emotion.
Inject humor, wit, and emotion into the design to evoke positive feelings and create memorable moments. Clever copywriting, playful visuals, and unexpected surprises can surprise and delight users, making the experience more enjoyable and memorable.
Research will always be the priority tool that will make it possible to understand consumption habits, uses, obstacles, needs, and user behaviors. If the qualitative and quantitative research is correctly and fully carried out, and the journeys correctly mapped in details, it will be all the easier to write the creative briefs which will fuel the reflection and the ideation sessions used to define the techniques to be implemented, which will then enrich the experiences designed, and will perhaps lead to creating experiences in which the concept of serendipity is present.
First of all use story of your user! What they need What is their goal What is the kob they want to done! If you know more about the ux story, you can make the path of your user much better than others This can be improved with ui techniques :)
Remember: Know your audience: Tailor your techniques to match the specific needs and preferences of your target user group. Test and iterate: Don't be afraid to experiment and see what works best for your users. Balance is key: Avoid overwhelming users with too many surprises or features. Focus on user value: Ultimately, the best surprise is an experience that is user-centered and solves a real problem.
Consider leveraging emerging technologies such as augmented reality (AR) and virtual reality (VR) to create immersive and interactive experiences that captivate users' attention and spark their imagination. Additionally, explore innovative design patterns, unconventional layouts, and experimental interactions to push the boundaries of conventional design and create truly unique and surprising experiences.
I always feel personalisation can make a huge difference in creating delightful experiences... Also showing the user that the product cares for it by building trust is important, seek continuous feedback from the user and make them feel heard. People should always feel connected to the product.