We dive into the world of UX in this episode, analyzing some basic tactics you can use to ensure that your users have a great experience on your site or app!

UX Rules

Source: https://theblog.adobe.com/15-rules-every-ux-designer-know/

UX is not (only) UI

User Interface is a part of User Experience

Are glitches part of UX?

Know your audience

User research is a natural first step in the design process

Designing a site for a specific industry will very much influence your decisions.

You are not the user

Testing with real users is an essential part of the design process

Many examples where we thought something was simple but a small test group immediately got confused

Adapt design for short attention spans

Don’t overwhelm users with too much information

Short blocks of text because people don’t read

Keep interactions quick, don’t make people fill out massive forms

The UX process isn’t set in stone

Adapt your design process for the product you design

Designing a small one page site for a small business is drastically different than a ecommerce website

Prototype before you build a real product

The design phase for digital products should include a prototyping stage

We always make at least a wireframe to show the interactions and pages to clients so they know at a high level what the experience will be

For larger clients a full clickthrough mockup can be made before any development begins to iron out all misunderstandings and conflicts

Use real content when designing

Avoid Lorem Ipsum and dummy placeholders

Our customers have been confused before asking what is this “gibberish” in reference to lorem ipsum

Also confused as to why the pictures are different then what he had in mind when we use generic stock photos

Keep things simple and consistent

The hallmark of a great user interface is simplicity and consistency

For example I find it confusing when a one page scroll website has a navigation that then opens up a different page. Don’t combine the two.

Recognition over recall

Showing users elements they can recognize improves usability versus needing to recall items from scratch

People know what buttons look like and usually know to click them, same with links and form inputs. Don’t try to reinvent the wheel

Make design usable and accessible

Design for a diverse set of users that will interact with your products

Keep in mind that some users are color blind or even blind so make sure to follow the accessibility guidelines

Don’t try to solve a problem yourself

Design is team sport — don’t work in isolation

Don’t try to solve everything at once

Design is an iterative process

Preventing errors is better than fixing them

Whenever possible, design products to keep potential errors to a minimum

Offer informative feedback

An app or website should always keep users informed about what is going on

Transitions are a great way to show what is happening without holding the users hand

Avoid dramatic redesigns

Remember Weber’s Law of Just Noticeable Differences

Example digg redesign killed the site

Web News - Microsoft

Latest windows update has a chance to delete your user files without a chance at recovery

Randomly corrupted hard drives

Unskippable updates

Windows store

Troubleshooting steps are ridiculous 

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