User Experience Best Practices: Techniques and Strategies to Ensure a Seamless User Experience

We might take for granted that interactive devices, websites, and software are designed around the people using them, but the discipline, as we understand it, is younger than you’d think. 

User experience (UX) is the feelings and sensations that users have as they interact with something, whether it’s a website or a learning program. Designing an easy and pleasant UX is crucial to the success of websites and apps because if users don’t like how it feels to interact with something, they’re unlikely to keep coming back. In this blog, we’ll cover everything you need to know about UX, from its origins to the steps required to provide an excellent UX for your clients and customers. 

Who Created User Experience Design?

According to an article by Nielsen Norman Group principal Jakob Nielsen, the origins of conscious design for user experience began with the telephone. Bell Labs hired a psychologist to help design telephone systems in 1945, he writes. This process would provide insights that led to the release of the touch-tone phone by Bell in 1963, an interactive device he estimates has been used 40 trillion times since its release. 

Though Bell Labs did not invent the phrase “user experience,” their process of thoughtfully centering the user and prioritizing their comfort and enjoyment led to the discipline that is so crucial to the success of web-based businesses today. 

In 1993, Don Norman coined the term “user experience” at Apple Computer. Norman, who led the User Experience Architect Lab, meant the term to be all-encompassing of everything related to using Apple computers, from talking about them with others to getting the computer in your car after purchasing it. 

Today, the term has evolved somewhat to mean, more specifically, the encounter between a customer and a product, whether it’s an app, website, or device. 

The Significance of User-Experience Design Principles

Why not just go with your instinct and make anything you want? Because first and foremost, excellent design is about the people you're doing it for, not you. As a UX designer, it is your job to reduce obstacles for users, yet those obstacles are always changing.

You won't need to start from scratch in your investigation of friction reduction since the path has already been extensively mapped out. The following advantages are to be expected when sound UX design best practices are used in a website, product, or app.

Increased visits come from improved visibility in SERPs, as sites with superior UX tend to stand out from the crowd.

You want people to learn more, choose an option, and finish the trip so that you can increase sales and conversions. Abandonment rates will increase if users have trouble navigating your site.

Customers are more satisfied with your site or product if you show them you care about them and their needs.

When these features are combined, the user's demands will be met, and your product will become indispensable to them.

Strategies For Providing A Great User Experience

Step 1: Research 

To create a product that provides an enjoyable user experience, you must first intimately understand your target audience. You should use primary and secondary research tactics to create customer personas or profiles of the types of customers you serve. 

Once you have a product, conduct user research like focus groups, A/B testing, eye-tracking, and clickstream analytics to understand how your users operate and what they want out of a product. 

Feedback from your target audience on their experience is extremely valuable. Their honest opinions will help you improve their experience and make it better for everyone. 

Step 2: Design

All people should be able to use a good design. This includes those who have trouble seeing or hearing. Take the 8% of men who are colorblind as an example. That may not seem like a lot, but it adds up to more than 26 million adult male Americans.

UX approaches that adhere to accessibility guidelines will allow more individuals to use your product or service. Understanding and connecting with your target audience is the key. Make sure your site is accessible to people with disabilities before going live. You will be provided suggestions on how to make your site more accessible.

Accessibility includes responsiveness to the type of device being used. Whether your customer is using a Mac, PC, mobile device, or tablet, your website or app should automatically adjust its dimensions and text size to be easily legible and navigable. 

Step 3: Navigation and Usability

The user experience of your site may be greatly improved by providing clear, consistent navigation from page to page. A navigation bar that remains in the same position from page to page is called a "sticky header," and it is recommended that such a bar be placed at the top of each screen.

After utilizing internet services for over a decade, your customers have developed certain routines and expectations. Consequently, they anticipate seeing a search bar on top of the page, well-structured drop-down menus that link to landing pages, and a login button. Users also anticipate seeing connections to the company's contact page and job pages at the footer of your site. 

Another important tool for UX is the sitemap. Good user experience design relies heavily on sitemaps, which show the structure of your site and the connections between pages. Making a sitemap may aid in the discovery of relevant content and items for both you and your user.

In addition, you'll know exactly where a new page belongs if you ever decide to expand your site. You should also maintain track of your redirects since even when you remove a page, it will always exist as a 404. Sitemaps, when kept current and well-organized, help guarantee that no such information slips through the cracks.

Step 4: Content Creation

You shouldn't expect your users to read between the lines. In general, users will assume that if a button is labeled "Shop now," clicking it will send them to a page where they can purchase the item. However, if a button reads "Join now," your user may wonder what they're really signing up for. They should join because. I was wondering whether there was a buffet available. Copy written for users should be brief, simple, and easy to understand. 

When we suggest that the content you produce should be "accessible," we mean that it should not assume any prior knowledge on the part of the reader and should be written at around an 8th-grade reading level. For example, if a page fails to load, an error message shouldn't explain why. The page should simply state, "Page cannot load," or something similarly easy to understand.

Step 5: Testing and Iteration

Nowadays, assessing usability is much simpler. Never make changes to a live site without first testing in a staging one. Then, you may use the data to tweak the layout of your website over time. Think about using split testing, heat mapping, and real-time user feedback to improve your site or app. Refine your approach based on the outcomes of your tests. 

Don't let your design stay in one place for too long since it is a live, breathing work of art that will develop and grow with time.

Putting Users First Is a Winning Proposition

It makes sense that people will keep coming back to apps and websites that are easy, pleasant, and, dare we say, fun to use. When you research to understand your clientele, design for every person and every device, have clear navigation and content and keep updating your design as you learn more, you will be able to provide a satisfying user experience for your customers.