In this blog, we are going to explore in more detail, the processes, and benefits of UX Design. This is the second in our series on UX Design, so be sure to go back and read ‘Part 1’ if you haven’t already – the basics of UX Design.
UX design is credited with helping to solve complex problems in the digital world and the Nvisage UX designers are often called upon to help clients improve their customer’s access to healthcare, education, housing, food, and more.
Our clients – from housing associations to charities to adventure experiences and online language schools – need easy-to-use and functional websites to allow their users to get what they want quickly and efficiently, and this is why UX Design has so many benefits.
Without further ado, let’s dive right in!
What is the usual process that a UX Designer follows?
While every project that we undertake is unique and treated individually, there is of course a series of customary techniques and actions that UX Designers utilise at various stages. This is the process of UX Design.
- Wireframe: A wireframe is an approximate and basic guide for the blueprint of a website or app. It is usually the starting point for every project and these wireframes eventually evolve into the main site layout.
- User testing: Websites that employ the techniques of UX Design are built for people and therefore user testing at every stage of development is a crucial part of any website build. Getting real clients to follow pathways, test actions and perform certain tasks on a website is an essential part of a website build that can never be skipped. Ensuring that test participants are similar to your actual users and running these tests multiple times are key to a project’s success. Interestingly, this is also where empathy comes into the UX Designer job scope, as watching a test user struggle to use a website you have built can be a powerful trigger!
- Creating a persona: A persona is a fictional character that represents one of the user groups for whom a UX Designer is creating a particular website for. Careful research into the end users of the website you are building helps to inform and construct a persona, and therefore in-depth knowledge of your client and their sector is also important. This is why so many UX Designers tend to specialise in one industry or scope of work. Conducting interviews, surveys, contextual inquiries and other activities are all useful ways in which you can create a persona.
- Scenarios and Storyboards: Scenarios are linked directly to the user personas and are another way in which a UX Designer can test the functionality and user pathways of a new website. Storyboards are slightly different and may well be used at the beginning of a project, alongside the wireframe process. As the name suggests, a storyboard is a visual sequence of events used to capture a user’s interactions with a product. It is often a useful tool for capturing how, when, where and why someone might use your product.
- Test again and repeat: There is no point in designing a website if it isn’t used in the way in which it was intended. Once a design has been formed, carrying out usability testing is essential. Taking feedback on the user’s emotions, body language, statements, frustrations, and difficulties they have when using the product is a necessary part of this journey. Once complete, data from the testing sessions is compiled, analysed and reviewed so the whole team understands what improvements need to be made.
It may sometimes feel frustrating, but the UX design process is a cyclical one meaning that this process never stops. Once you reach the launch of a certain website component, it is usually time to start testing again, reviewing new problems, making meaningful improvements and designing even better solutions and more effective iterations. Websites rarely standstill, and UX Designers certainly don’t!
What are the benefits of UX Design?
UX Design has been a game-changer in the digital world, and there is no doubt as to whether our clients love it. The wide range of industries, organisational reach and variety of sectors that it has now been used in shows that UX Designers are doing something right.
So, what are the top benefits of UX Design?
1. UX design boosts customer acquisition and retention.
An enjoyable user experience does wonders for attracting new customers, retaining loyal customers, and creating advocacy for your brand. UX design can help a company’s products, mobile apps and websites operate with maximum efficiency and keep them secure, looking clean, feeling modern and being up-to-date with current developments – all of which help to get new customers, and keep them too.
2. Good UX Design increases revenue
When a user is pleased with their experience with an organisation, they will hopefully spread the word. These ‘active advocates’ who are happy to talk positively about a great service or product are real assets to a company and its bottom line. Natural growth, positive reviews and organic advertisement can have a massive impact on revenue. Part of the UX
Design process is figuring out what users want and how this can correspond to higher conversion rates and increased sales.
3. Great UX design minimises development costs
UX Designers are trained to create the most effective and optimal results, and this extends beyond the end-user and to the business itself. Their ability to problem solve, and create efficient solutions means that they can keep development costs low and maximise the use of resources to reduce any wastage, whether that be time or assets.
4. UX designers increase productivity
With the digital world crossing further and further into ‘real life’, UX designers are being increasingly hired across the globe to streamline business processes, optimise the implementation of company policies, and re-design employee software. In these cases, the ‘end-users’ aren’t a company’s clients, but the company itself and the subsequent smoother workflow can help to maximise employee productivity, boost motivation, improve morale and help an organisation operate more efficiently overall.
5. UX improves users’ quality of life
This is the big one! UX design has the potential to solve complex problems that can blight overlooked populations, challenged societies, and people in high-stress situations.
UX Designers’ ability to empathise with their end-users means they are always looking at ways in which they can make life easier for people, and therefore it is fair to say they are improving lives all over the world.
Here at Nvisage we love working with healthcare, education, housing and social organisations as it allows our UX Designers to put their skills to good use. It is this ability of UX Designers to have a constructive and enduring impact on people’s lives that attracts so many people to this career and is also why UX Designers are in so high demand!
We hope you enjoyed this blog on the process and benefits of UX Design, be sure to look out for our next blog where we delve deeper into UI Design.