The Journey of User Experience (UX) Design (2/3)

In the first article of the series we talked about the basics of UX design and design thinking. In this second article we are going to discuss about the next important aspects of UX Design named Usability and User Research.

What is Usability and how it is related to user experience(UX)?

Usability and user experience are not the same thing; The usability of a product is a crucial part that shapes its UX, and hence it falls under the umbrella of UX. Many of us might think that usability is about the "ease of use" of a product, but actually it is more than that.

The ISO standard describes usability as: "The extent to which a product can be used by specified users to achieve specified goals, with effectiveness, efficiency and satisfaction in a specified context of use." Hence usability is not just about whether users can perform tasks easily but also concerned with user satisfaction.

Characteristics of Usable Products:

• Effectiveness - is about whether users can complete their goals with a high degree of accuracy. It comes from the support provided to user when they work with the product.
• Efficiency - is all about speed i.e. how fast can the user get the job done? Think about the number of hours you've saved using Ctrl+C and Ctrl+V to copy and paste text.
• Engagement - occurs when the user finds the product pleasant and gratifying to use. Aesthetics matter here but its not only about looking nice but also about looking right.
• Error Tolerance - is about restricting opportunities to do the wrong thing and offering the opportunity to "undo", "redo" and "reset".
• Ease of Learning - is about designing a system that matches a user's existing mental models. A mental model is simply a representation of of something in the real world and how it is done from the user's perspective.

User Research

User experience (UX) design requires you to understand the pains and pleasures of your users and user research is the way in which you can do just that.

User interviews can be a great way to extract information from users so as to understand their user experience as well as the product's usability and the design ideation.

There are many user research techniques, but following seven techniques have been used over the years, in many UX projects, with great results.

• Card Sorting - is about assessing user's priority. It is a simple concept where you write words or phrases on cards and then ask the user to categorize them. Word or phrases that you write on card depends on what you're trying to find out from your users.
• Expert Review - involves a single "expert" walking through a product via the User Interface (UI) and looking for issues with the design, accessibility, and usability of the product.
• Eye Movement Tracking - helps knowing where your users are looking when they're using your system and help you prioritize certain kinds of content.
• Field Studies - is all about going out and observing users 'in the wild' so that we can measure behavior in the context where users actually use a product. It includes graphic research, interviews, observations and contextual inquiry.
• Usability Testing - is the observation of users trying to carry out tasks with a product. It gives a very clear lens for observing users as they attempt to carry out tasks with a system.
• Remote Usability Testing - it the usability testing, but without the need to drag users into your laboratory environment.
• User Personas - are a fictional representation of the ideal user. They focus on the goals of the user, that individual's characteristics and the attitudes he/she might display. They also examine what the user expects from the product.

That's all for the part 2 of the series. We got fair understanding of Usability, it's characteristics, User research and different techniques. In final part we will discuss about interaction design and information visualization, so stay tuned for the updates.