Fundamental Principles of UX Design and How to Use Them
If you're considering pursuing a career in UX design, you may be wondering what skills and expertise you'll need to thrive in this exciting field. Learning and applying UX design concepts is an essential component of every UX designer's curriculum. These best practices and principles form the cornerstone of the discipline and will be extremely useful as you navigate various projects and obstacles.
In this post, we'll start with a definition of UX design principles before going over the key concepts of UX design that you should know. We'll also provide hands-on help for implementing these critical rules and ideals in your UX practice. With this information at your disposal, you'll be well on your way to becoming a UX design expert.
Here's a clickable list of everything we'll be discussing in the post, allowing you to go to the area that interests you the most.
Let’s get going!
What are UX design principles?
The Interaction Design Foundation defines user experience principles as "fundamental points of advice for making easy-to-use, pleasurable designs as we select, create, and organize elements and features in our work." UX design principles serve as the discipline's foundation, making them critical for new designers to learn and use in their UX practice.
UX concepts revolve around the following themes:
1. The user comes first
It should come as no surprise that putting the user first is the most fundamental of all UX design principles; after all, the term "user experience design" refers to this. The user, their requirements, preferences, wants, obstacles and behavior should be the focus of every stage of the UX design process, and the designer's role is to improve the user's experience with the product or service wherever possible.
To put the user first, a designer must set aside any assumptions and interact with them in the actual world. They may do this by conducting extensive user research, testing, and considering all input.?
2. Prioritise usability
As we all know, the goal of UX design is to address users' issues and improve their overall experience with a business in order to convert them into loyal and repeat consumers. As a result, usability is an extremely necessary UX design principle.
“Usability” is defined by the Nielsen Norman Group as: “A quality attribute that assesses how easy user interfaces are to use. The word “usability” also refers to methods for improving ease-of-use during the design process.”
They identify the following five quality components as essential to the definition:
This idea makes it apparent that, no matter how beautiful your design is, its usability will ultimately decide its success. A designer must prioritize clarity, context, clean design, and prominent, recognizable iconography in familiar areas. This entails directing a user's attention to the most useful items on a page, with each part of the design serving a specific purpose. Usability may be assured by usability testing, which involves checking style, typeface, text, and clarity with end users.
3. Know which stage in the design process you’re in
For those new to UX design, the design process might be overwhelming. The process, which consists of numerous phases such as user testing and prototyping, demands the designer to be aware of what has come before, what will come next, and the best results required of each step in order for the team to go ahead.
When you first start working as a UX designer, you'll need to understand where you are in the process so you know what questions to ask end users, what aspects to test or prioritize, and what tools to employ to obtain the best results.
4. Understanding and testing accessibility
In recent years, there has been an increase in awareness of accessibility in design, which is understandable. Rather of concentrating simply on the ordinary user, designers must be able to build designs that allow everyone to use and appreciate their work, regardless of disability or access issues. While providing access to products or services for people with disabilities was formerly considered a 'nice to have', it is now critically necessary.
Elements that UX designers should take under? consideration when conducting accessibility testing include:
5. Implement clear hierarchies
A UX designer is required to incorporate two forms of hierarchy into their designs. The first is the principal hierarchy, which is concerned with the organization of content within a website or application. This may be determined by checking the sitemap, which includes major and secondary menus for all of the content on the website or application pages.
In addition to the basic hierarchy, there is a visual hierarchy. This hierarchy focuses on how people move inside a page or section. Visually prioritize content on the page in an order that corresponds to the user's key demands. Important information should be conspicuous and eye-catching; less important information may be placed lower on the page, in a smaller font, and in less striking colors.
6. Consistency is key
Although every designer wants to leave their imprint on a brand's content and output, people prefer familiarity and consistency when exploring websites, apps, and goods. Why are they doing this? Because when a user is comfortable with actions, icons, and navigation, they can achieve their goal much faster and without having to learn anything new. The sooner a user gets to know your website, the better their experience will be (even if this may seem dull to you as the designer!).
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7. Always be aware of context
Context is an excellent instructor for UX designers because it directs them to the essential aspects that affect the end user as well as what influences the problem that the designer is attempting to address. It also refers to the setting in which the solution will be employed. To be aware of context, a UX designer must consider what kind of devices the user generally uses, why a user could utilize a product or service, and any other signs as to how the solution will be implemented.
Users rely heavily on context as well. It allows customers to become acquainted with a brand before delving into the specifics of a product or service, and it assists them in navigating hurdles on a new interface. The appropriate context also improves communication between a brand and its users by ensuring that the correct message is sent.
8. Less is more
When a designer's attention shifts away from improving a product's usability, it is possible for them to become too focused on the originality or distinctiveness of the design. This is where the "less is more" philosophy kicks in. To prevent mistakenly cluttering or over-filling an interface, this concept reminds designers to prioritize simplicity and intuitive above rich but needless adornment that inhibits, rather than supports, users in achieving their goals.
9. Be mindful of typography
A typographic hierarchy is the visual arrangement of a page's content based on the relative importance of each piece. Simply said, this is how we arrange the content, headings, subheads, paragraphs, and calls to action on each page to emphasize their significance to the overall message. typographic and typographic hierarchies have a significant impact on the user's perception of a company's web pages by amplifying or suppressing messages and improving or hindering reading. It's also critical to realize the significant influence typography may have on accessibility and usability.
The following sites provide examples of great typography:
10. Feedback is king
Feedback is an important aspect of the UX design process, whether it is used for user research, testing, or design itself. As part of the user research stage, feedback from end users will inform the design's purpose by indicating which fundamental needs should be addressed, whereas feedback during the user testing phase will inform the necessary improvements and additions to make the design intuitive, easy to navigate, and enjoyable for users.
When utilizing the product, feedback is also important; people want a response or "feedback" from the page when they execute an action to know if it was successful or failed. When a button is clicked, it may change color, or a message may display indicating that an order was successfully placed.
11. Confirm, confirm, confirm
We're all human, which means we occasionally make mistakes when attempting to perform a task. This scenario becomes much more typical when we deal with a new interface. A UX designer should always build with this in mind, giving the user the option to affirm their decision or remedy an error before it becomes permanent or irrevocable. You may have noticed that when you book tickets, you are prompted to double-check your itinerary before clicking the 'book tickets' option. This significantly enhances the user experience, making it a vital UX design element to put into practice.
12. Information Architecture (IA)
Information architecture is the notion of organizing, structuring, and labeling material to improve user discoverability and usability. This is commonly done on a website or in an app, but the approach may be used to format data in a variety of systems. The purpose of information architecture is to assist people locate what they're looking for, performing their activities, or achieving their goals in an easy manner with few impediments. To do this, the UX designer will utilize clear content labeling and structure, giving consumers a clear picture of where they are on the site and the activities they must take to complete their intended action.
13. Storytelling
Users are inherently drawn to tales, and when a story is constructed around a product or service, it is more likely that they will remember it. In reality, products and services that communicate inspiring tales sell better than those that do not.
The pace and rhythm with which the narrative is delivered will be critical components of the storytelling design, and they must reflect the business's existing branding and message while still maintaining the user's interest. A designer will utilize images, graphics, videos, animation, and text to tell a story that elicits an emotional reaction in the user. Different tales might be used to promote the launching of new features or items or for particular advertising or marketing campaigns.
14. Add some personality!
Great UX design has personality, even with all of its standards and best practices. By incorporating personality into your design, you're more likely to pique the user's interest, attract new audiences, and give a connecting point between the brand and the user, which may often be missed in a design that lacks the human touch. Including some personality or character is also an excellent means of clearly distinguishing your product or service from that of your rivals, providing users a reason to return to your site rather than that of a comparable firm that does not speak as directly to them.
15. Keep the language simple and relatable
If you consider yourself a poet, it may be tempting to wax poetic with your landing page copy. However, attempting to wow your readers with your extensive vocabulary and graceful turn of phrase might frequently fail since users tend to avoid technical or overly complex language. Remember that consumers are usually short on time and frequently execute numerous activities at once. This implies they are seeking clear messages that will help them get to their destination as smoothly as possible. Keep your target user's voice in mind and try to write in the language you believe they would use and comprehend. Avoid using jargon at all costs.?
Consistency of terminology is also key in UX writing; don’t use different terms for the same thing, and keep in mind the information the user already has and what they may need reminding of.
16. Understand the difference in designing for web-based and mobile products
Understanding the significant difference between designing for web-based and mobile products is an essential aspect of every UX designer's learning path. Screen size influences visual hierarchy, information architecture, and how easily a user can move through the design. Streamlining a design originally intended for the web to match its mobile counterpart will be critical here, as will giving additional context and navigation cues to keep visitors from becoming lost or confused. User testing will also help you rapidly determine what other modifications you'll need to make to adapt a site design for mobile.
17. Make use of UX design patterns
It is fairly unusual for a designer to encounter the same difficulty again throughout software design or development. When this occurs, design patterns are tried-and-true methods that may be utilized to address common issues. These solutions are an effective way out of a sticky situation that has been utilized by several other designers and is likely to have been refined and improved over time to become even more efficient. Adopting UX design patterns allows a UX designer to speed up the entire UX design process and therefore go to the next step of the process even faster.?
Parting Notes
In this post, we've gone over the core UX design concepts that you should be familiar with if you work in the UX sector. If you want to learn more about each of these ideas and how to use them at work.