Designing is more of how it works rather than how it looks and feels, says Steve Jobs. This statement pretty much explains how important a systematic and efficient UI and UX design is in creating any platform for end-users.
A simple and exciting user interface is easier for people to understand, giving a better user experience. Having clarity of where to go and how to use interests users. And attaining this clarity is the key to creating a good design.
With that being said, let us go through the basics of what UX design means and the various steps involved in its designing process.
What Is User Experience?
User experience refers to the value the end-users get while using your product. It is the key element used to enhance customer satisfaction and can be done by improving the usability and accessibility of products when customers interact with them.
A well-designed user experience helps to effectively present your product and also helps boost the customer's confidence and create a sense of trust in the brand, making them come back to you whenever they require related products or services. Hence user experience design plays a vital role in meeting your business goals.
UI/UX is an important and irreplaceable part of the product designing process. The best approach to making your user experience successful is following a user-centric approach in your UX design process. Adopting this strategy will help you develop simple and engaging products that can satisfy the end-users.
Steps Of The Ux Design Process
UX design agencies follow 5 important steps to develop their UX designs. Following these steps allows designers to polish their interfaces and provide a good user experience that helps their products to stand out from the rest.
Product Definition
This phase is the first and most important step in the UX design process, and is done before the product is created. In this step, the designers brainstorm around the product and try to understand the product's ‘context of existence' through stakeholder interviews, value proposition mapping, and concept sketching. It is the product definition phase that sets the foundation for the final product.
This step ends with a project kick-off meeting that brings all the key players together to set proper expectations for the product team and stakeholders.
Product Research
This phase includes both user research and market research. Good research helps designers make effective design decisions, and doing research early in the process can save a lot of money and time down the road.
Product research varies depending on the complexity of the product, timing, available resources and many other factors. This phase includes individual in-depth interviews and competitive research.
Analysis
This phase uses the data collected during the research phases and draws insights from them. In this phase, we move from what to why regarding the user's wants, needs and thoughts. This phase includes creating user personas, user stories and storyboards.
Design
Product designers move to the design phase when the wants, needs, and expectations of a product are clearly defined. An effective design phase is highly collaborative and iterative as it involves active participation and support from all team players. This step involves various activities, including sketching and creating wireframes, prototypes, design specifications and design systems.
Validation/ Testing
It is the phase in which the team understands whether their design works for their users. The validation phase usually starts after a high-fidelity design is ready as it provides more valuable feedback from end-users. This phase goes through many testing sessions to validate the product with both stakeholders and end-users. The main activities included in this phase are in-house testing, user testing, surveys and analytics.
Conclusion
When it comes to UX design, effective communication is key. Whatever process you follow, you must be able to properly communicate your design decisions to build a team that can bring the product to reality. The phases of the UX design process overlap, and there may be a lot of back and forth between them. By constantly learning about the problems and users, redesigning and restructuring, you will be able to create a great product that will satisfy the users and stakeholders. You must use what works best for your product and evolve your UX design process as the product evolves.
