Examples of good UX design – table of contents:

1. Where to get design inspiration from?
2. How to recognize a good UX design
3. Example of good UX design – Google
4. Example of good UX design – Apple
5. Example of good UX design – Airbnb

Where to get design inspiration from?

The UX industry is currently a rapidly growing and dynamically changing industry. One of the responsibilities of a good UX designer is to keep abreast of current trends, stay abreast of changing technology and seek inspiration from industry leaders. A designer who avoids these activities – simply does not develop. The UX industry requires constant interest, inquiry, looking for inspiration and new research or design methods, comparing, as well as implementing innovations.

How to get inspired? Many people will recommend well-known portals for designers such as Dribble or Behance. There’s one thing to keep an eye there. On these portals, you will find a huge number of case studies of projects from different industries, created by designers from all over the world. You’ll see various points of view, but remember that anyone who creates an account there, can post their projects. Many of them are non-commercial projects, created “for the drawer” as part of a UX course or independently by people who do not work as a UX designer – and are, for example, just learning.

In such projects, the focus is often on the visual part – UI, and UX itself is left behind. There is a lack of research, business requirements, the definition of the problem, the purpose of the whole process, or users’ needs, which makes the project may be visually appealing, but not necessarily well thought out and supported by research and data. So it’s hard to talk about the good inspiration for a UX designer here. We can find much more valuable content in the case of studies from well-known UX agencies or even on the websites of companies considered to be at the forefront of user experience. We’ll take a closer look at a few of them below.

How to recognize a good UX design

After all, the richness of the Internet allows you to draw inspiration from many sources (including Dribble or Behance – we do not negate them entirely). As we have written more than once – the basic characteristic of a good designer is the ability to conduct research and draw conclusions. This can also be translated into the ability to look for design inspiration. But what should a project that can be classified as good in terms of user experience present?

1. First and foremost, it should include a case study, which will present data from the research, user problem, business goals, and KPIs – metrics that will allow checking whether the project, once implemented, is achieving the assumed “success“.

Example: Let’s take an electronics store. The issue is a high number of cart abandonment by users. The goal of the project will be to find out the cause of this behavior and solve this problem.

After analyzing data from Google Analytics and hotjar, and conducting surveys with users, it turns out that their biggest problem is the lack of availability of the selected goods – which they find out only in the shopping cart, wanting to finalize the product order. The project will, of course, require more extensive analysis, research together with changes to the functionality of the interface. It is easy to deduce that here the factor measuring success after implementation will be a decrease in the number of shopping cart abandonments and an increase in conversions on the site (people visiting the site vs. people making a purchase).

Here, we have a clearly defined problem – both from a business and user perspective, we have a goal and established measures of success.

2. Just doing the research in the right way is not enough, of course – their analysis and results must translate into the final interface design. Therefore, during the case study, we pay close attention to whether the design meets the needs of users and solves the design problem.
3. A design that is good in terms of UX is also, of course, a design that will meet the requirements set by Nielsen’s usability heuristics. We have already described them in detail in the separate article. Heuristics are universal principles that are a basic technique for analyzing interfaces for usability. By following, the designer will fully optimize both the appearance and performance of the site.

Of course, conducting comprehensive research, as well as nurturing and developing UX to a high level, requires a lot of money as well as time, as well as an experienced team of UX and UI specialists, developers, analysts and executives. Not surprisingly, very good UX can be boasted by large, international technology companies – such as Google and Apple.

Example of good UX design – Google

Google, which has been on the market since 1998, is certainly a great example of what good UX can look like. Google’s search engine is one of the simplest tools available on the web. Its operation is intuitive and does not cause problems for the average Internet user. It meets the requirements derived from Nielsen heuristics – it is simple, clean, clear, and aesthetic. It does not contain unnecessary links, buttons or banners. It’s instantly clear how to find your way around. What’s more, you can see at a glance what it’s for – search.

In addition, the search engine shows recently searched terms, suggests related searches and corrects us in case of a typo in the phrase we typed incorrectly. Thus, it responds to the users’ needs and makes the whole search process as easy as possible for them.

Example of good UX design – Apple

Apple’s website is not only a beautiful design but also a carefully developed UX. The site has very easy, intuitive navigation. The navigation bar contains not only category names but also small images of products, which allows you to navigate the site quickly. The language used on the site is simple but creative. Without unnecessary description, it presents the specific value of a given product to the user.

The site also enables you to compare products in a category to carefully choose the one that suits your needs. Apple places a lot of emphasis on an innovative but minimalist UI – that is, the look and aesthetics of the site – which, as we remember, is also one of Nielsen’s heuristics, influencing the user’s perception of the site and their experience with the product.

Interestingly, Apple shares design best practices on and provides downloadable mockups, educational materials as well as Human Interface Guidelines.

Example of good UX design – Airbnb

Since its inception in 2008, Airbnb (a platform for renting accommodation from private individuals) has been very popular among users – one of the main reasons is, of course, its well-designed UX.

The home page is neat and clear. In the middle you can see a search box – native to everyone, if only from Google search. So it’s the use of a good pattern, already familiar to users, which makes the site intuitive and no one will feel lost. Another characteristic of good UX practice on Airbnb is the map view with visible prices next to the list of searched places. Airbnb lets you get all the key information in one place – the location of the house on the map, the price, its photos together with its name.

The site also takes a great approach to content – UX writing is at a very high level and conveys important information in a simple way. An example is a text “you won’t be charged yet” at the time of the initial booking – the user gets a clear message that payment will not be charged until the booking is confirmed.

Airbnb, like Apple, shares best practices, interesting case studies and news from the world of design on

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Usability vs functionality in UX – table of contents:

1. Usability in UX
2. The main principles of usability in UX – Nielsen heuristics
3. Usability vs functionality
4. The main principles of functionality in UX
5. Summary

Usability in UX

We can define usability as a measure of attaining a scheduled target in efficiency, effectiveness and satisfaction concerning one single product. In the context of a website or an app, such figures would include, for instance, amount of movie tickets sold, booked trips or purchased items. While the path to meet those targets – from the idea to its achievement (e.g., finalizing the purchase, receiving confirmation of the reservation) will be the process, of providing information about the usability of a given website or application.

The book definition denotes usability as “the property of products that determines their usability quality.” In his book Usable Usability, Eric Reiss provides a clear example to understand what usability is. He presented situations when we own a car that but due to some defect, it doesn’t run at all. In consequence, the defective car loses its basic function – the ability to move – which makes it not classified as a usable product. It is not just the aesthetics, appearance and content of a product that matter – but the combination of these aspects with its usefulness and functionality.

A full-value product is the one that combines all these factors. Thus, our car becomes practical only when it lets us drive safe and freely. Usability in the context of UX, therefore, refers to the experience and quality of the user’s interaction with digital products, enabling free and intuitive product maintenance as well as flawless designation.

The main principles of usability in UX – Nielsen heuristics

We already know what usability is in digital product design. But how do we make sure that the product we design and implement (website or application) is usable? Here it is worth using the Nielsen-Molich heuristics, not without reason referred to as the 10 commandments of usability in the UX world.

Developed in 1990 by Jakob Nielsen and Ralf Molich, heuristics contains general principles of human-machine interaction that can help evaluate the practicality of a solution. To this day, they are still a basic technique for analyzing interfaces. We will provide a detailed description of them in our next post, which will be dedicated just how to measure usability.

Usability vs functionality

Functionality is still often confused with usability. Functionality is determined by how a system (site, service, application) can help meet client’s goals, while usability focuses on how effectively and comfortably it does so.

According to the accepted principles – high functionality is when even a person with little skill can use the system without feeling lost and as intended by the creators. Thus, the functionality of the site is determined by the intuitiveness as well as ease of navigation.

Users who come to a site for the first time is surely unfamiliar with its structure. If it does not have simple, intuitive navigation, they will quickly get lost, frustrated at searching and leave such site, never to come back. This is why the topic of the functionality of websites and applications is so crucial. On the other hand, if they can find their way around the site in a short time, understand its logical layout and easily find the information they look for – it means that the site is functional.

The main principles of website functionality in UX

Knowing your users, their needs, as well as online behavior activities, enables us to help them move around better, To avoid discouraging the user from browsing our site with poor navigation and information architecture, it is worth remembering a few basic principles:

• Maintain a clear hierarchy of elements on the site – the relationships between elements should be intuitively felt. The more important an element is, the more prominent it should be – for example, with a larger font, bold, distinctive color or placement on the page. Elements that are logically related to each other should have a similar text style and placement in one group.
• Divide the site into functional areas – this will allow the user to find the information he is looking for quickly and efficiently. He will be able to quickly decide which part of the page contains content that is useful to him, and which he can skip.
• Mark clickable elements – looking at a given element (link, button, icon) everyone has to know immediately whether it is clickable.
• Go for generally known conventions – such as a logo that takes the viewer to the home page when clicked, a shopping cart icon that takes the user to the shopping list together with a magnifying glass icon that is responsible for the site’s search engine. These are familiar common practices to navigate quickly even for first-timers.
• Limit distracting elements – too many distinctive elements (colorful banners, animations, etc.) can overwhelm the viewer and distract attention leading to frustration and eventually leaving the site.

Summary

We hope that after today’s you’ll see what’s usability and functionality as well as how are differ. However, take care of them equally. Make sure that your site is both usable – enabling users to fulfill their needs efficiently and comfortably (such as downloading a free e-book or buying a new smartphone) – and functional – by keeping the site intuitive to navigate. By taking care of both the usability and functionality of the site, you will have a huge impact on UX rating, which in turn will generate traffic together with profits.

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Why is UX important? – table of contents:

1. Why is UX important and what it is? – a reminder
2. UX responds to user needs
3. UX translates into customer experience
4. UX allows you to stand out from the competition
5. UX influences the brand’s image and position on the market
6. UX affects the company’s bottom line

Why is UX important and what it is? – a reminder

The topic of user experience is definitely the latest buzzword in the business market due to the development of the IT industry and the desire to design better and better digital products. We have already detailed UX in our previous posts. Here, we’ll remind you that the overall user experience associated with a given product (mostly digital).

It is influenced by many aspects – from the functionality of the website or application, its intuitiveness, ease of navigation, speed, ease of performing the intended action (e.g. finding a given piece of information on the site, buying a product online or signing up for a newsletter), to the site aesthetics, transparency as well as the attractive design of the website or application.

Ensuring the best possible experience is the responsibility of user experience designers, who work with researchers, analysts, user interface designers and developers. Below we describe 5 key aspects, hardening how important user experience is in this day and age and how it can support a company’s growth.

UX responds to user needs

One of the most important aspects of successful user experience design is that the process ends with the delivery of the best possible product – tailored not only to business requirements but to the real needs and requirements of users.

As part of the UX design process, researchers investigate users (such as in-depth interviews, surveys, functionality tests with a prototype or initial version of the app/website), and then create numerous canvases and personas to organize the collected knowledge about the user. All to better represent their frustrations, pain points, requirements, needs as well as desires. In an ideal process, such a persona should accompany designers in every design decision. This will help deliver to the market products that people want – the needed, useful and functional ones.

UX translates into customer experience

As we wrote earlier in the text comparing user experience with customer experience, UX is an element of customer experience – so it affects the overall experience related not only to a product but to the brand as a whole. Thus, it creates positive feelings associated with a given company in users, which can translate into subsequent purchases or recommending the company’s services/products to other potential customers.

UX allows you to stand out from the competition

Ensuring a positive UX will help you stand out from the competition. The work of UX designers is gaining popularity and UX specialists are becoming valued experts on the job market. Eager companies do not begrudge money in recruitment processes and compensation for them.

In today’s reality, anyone can easily start a company, an online store or develop an app, making competition in virtually every industry grow by the day. Companies, therefore, need to stand out more. Hiring experienced user experience designers and focusing precisely on the UX associated with our digital product is certainly a factor that will allow to stand out from the competition available on the market.

Because providing UX at the right level is not yet a global standard, one is tempted to say that it is certainly something that a company can distinguish itself with and attract new customers/users to the site, as well as retain those already in place.

UX influences the brand’s image and position on the market

If UX influences feelings, emotions, purchase decisions and reviews. It also helps you stand out from the competition – it will also affect the overall image of the brand and its position in the market. A company that cares about UX is a company that cares about the user, their needs and solving their problems. Such a user will speak positively about the company, recommend it further, give complimentary reviews and build its reputation.

UX affects the company’s bottom line

UX focuses on the user and his requirements, but it is important to remember that there are also business requirements behind it. As you know, “business is business” and the end goal will always revolve around increasing the bottom line, and developing the company as well as its products. A proper user experience is one of the key factors to achieving it.

Thus, all aspects affect the company’s strategic goals aim at maximizing profit and enhancing further development. A company that makes money can take better care of its employees, expand its team, open offices in new locations, or invest in new markets or products.

Fortunately, these days most companies are already keeping up with technological developments and the awareness of how important user experience is to business keeps growing. Businesses are hiring specialists and even entire UX departments and do not spare the budget for research to get to know their customers. This is a good practice and can bring a lot of benefits to the enterprise as well, both in the short and long term.

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What is Human-Computer Interaction (HCI) – table of contents:

1. What is Human-Computer Interaction?
2. Human-Computer Interaction vs User Experience
3. Summary

What is Human-Computer Interaction?

Human-Computer Interaction (HCI) is communication between a human and a computer, occurring through a user interface. Examples of human-computer interaction include engagements with a mobile application or browsing a website on a desktop computer. The human-computer interface design has a direct impact on the effectiveness of interaction between the two parties.

Human-Computer Interaction emerged in the 1980s when computers for laymen appeared and the goal of HCI was to enable operating computers more easily and efficiently for broad groups of users with different skill levels. HCI practitioners observed how people engage in operating computers, and then developed tools or design technologies to help them use computers more effectively. The main aim of HCI is to minimize the cost of interaction – the amount of physical and mental effort a customer has to put in when using technology – and to make interactions more human.

Human-Computer Interaction (HCI) consists of four main elements:

• user
• tasks
• tools / interface
• context

We can also understand HCI as a multidisciplinary field of study of computer technology design that focuses specifically on the interaction between humans (users) and computers. Although HCI initially dealt with computers, over time it has expanded to include almost all forms of information technology design. HCI combines many disciplines – such as computer science, psychology, human factors and ergonomics – into one field.

From its origins, HCI would expand to incorporate multiple disciplines, such as computer science, cognitive science and human-factors engineering.

Human-Computer Interaction vs User Experience

HCI is a broad field that overlaps with areas such as User-centered design (UCD), User Interface (UI) design and User Experience (UX) design. Nevertheless, there are some differences between HCI and User Experience design that are worth mentioning.

Human-Computer Interaction practitioners are primarily focused on research and developing an empirical understanding of customers. User Experience designers, on the other hand, are conversely mostly industry-focused and involved in creating products or services – such as applications or websites.

Regardless of this division, however, the practical considerations and product activities that UX designers deal with have direct links to HCI specialists’ discoveries about how users think. With the wide range of topics and areas that Human-Computer Interaction deals with, user experience designers have many resources from which to draw knowledge and translate it into concrete solutions.

UX designers also often lack the time to conduct comprehensive research – HCI specialists have it in abundance. That’s why it makes sense to take advantage of academic discoveries and resources, in a smart, responsible way, of course. Knowledge from the HCI field can prove crucial for us in a given design process, and important discoveries and insights will help design better digital products for our users. With such collaboration between UX designers and Human-Computer Interaction specialists, the chance of delivering products tailored to real user needs and requirements greatly increases.

Summary

Human-Computer Interaction (HCI) focuses on the design of computer technology, with particular emphasis on the interaction between humans (users) and computers. Because of its academic nature, HCI can become a great help to User Experience designers, who can apply academic resources and knowledge of human-computer interactions in designing digital solutions to create even better products.

HCI enables designers to create a clear dialogue between man and machine. In such a dialogue, interacting with the machine does not require a lot of cognitive effort on the part of the user, so the user does not feel like they are interacting with complex systems, but rather feels like they are interacting with other people. That’s why it’s important to pay close attention to the basics of HCI when it comes to emerging and ever-evolving technologies.

When we put a lot of effort into designing a good interface, we help our users operate machines to solve their problems. On the other hand, not paying attention to the human-computer interaction in question almost always results in the creation of bad user interfaces. Bad HCI means poor performance and increases the chances of product failure, which will translate directly into the financial and brand outlook of a given company.

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Brand Experience – table of contents:

1. Brand experience – four areas that form brand experience
2. Brand experience vs. customer experience
3. How to create a brand experience strategy
4. Summary

Four areas that form brand experience

Perception is undoubtedly a key part of the experience. It encompasses audio-scent or visual interactions that allow customers to connect a specific message to the brand’s advertising campaigns.

Examples include particular sounds or smells that evoke childhood memories, translating into building positive experiences. Brands that successfully combine the senses with marketing activities can effectively influence the decisions and behavior of their consumers.

2. Participation

Likely, customers involved in some way with a brand (not just an observer, but a participant) will walk away with a positive brand experience.

Customer participation activities can include, for example, the ability to send suggestions online or interact on social media (recording lives streams, sharing photos and customer testimonials via a company profile), as well as displaying physical installations that allow consumers to touch the product.

3. Personalization

Personalization can help create promotions and products targeted to a particular customer segment. Using both user-provided data (e.g., in the form of a contact form) and the user’s social media activities, it is possible to create more personalized activities that help find a connection between consumer needs and the brand’s current product offerings.

4. Prioritization

You can never perfectly tailor the brand experience to the requirements and needs of each customer. Still, it is worth choosing brand indicators – such as positive mentions on social media or repeat purchases – to prioritize and focus on a specific area in shaping your brand experience strategy.

Brand experience vs. customer experience

Brand experience and customer experience inherently focus on the same thing – the customer. Both relate to their experience. What distinguishes them, however, is that brand experience satisfies the consumer’s needs before he or she even becomes a customer. In contrast, customer experience helps guide him or her through the entire transaction or interaction with the brand.

Brand experience, then, is a certain preparation for welcoming customers and providing them with the best possible experience. Customer experience, on the other hand, refers to the personal feelings and experiences of an individual customer.

How to create a brand experience strategy

1. Assessing the fulfillment of customers’ expectations of the brand

In the first step of creating a strategy, identify areas where your brand’s current experience does not meet real customer expectations. Talking to customer service, analyzing traffic on the brand’s website and social media, or conducting surveys with current customers (or potential customers) and learning about their pain points and expectations can help identify the problems. Subsequent analysis of the collected data can help formulate the basis of a brand experience strategy.

2. Identifying areas for improvement

The next step in creating a brand experience strategy is to target an area for improvement. Of course, you may identify more than one aspect of the brand experience that needs modification or redesign. However, trying to fix everything at once is not the best idea. Keeping prioritization in mind, work out which area you will focus on first, and which you will refine in subsequent stages.

3. Measuring the effects

Once you have successfully identified areas for improvement and redesigned them, remember to monitor progress and measure the effects of your actions. You can conduct surveys or interviews with users, analyze website traffic data, customer reactions on social media as well as reviews. This is also the time to innovate by testing different possible strategies to see which works best. From marketing campaigns to offering personalized services, changes in customer service, post-purchase service as well as the store design.

Summary

A carefully crafted brand experience strategy can therefore play a key role in building and nurturing long-term customer relationships.

By being able to identify areas for improvement, setting priorities together with planning the strategy accordingly, it is possible to build a brand experience that will improve customer relationships and encourage customers to continue using your services/products, recommend the brand and convince them to remain loyal customers.

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How does User Experience relate to Customer Experience? – table of contents:

1. What is user experience – a reminder
2. What is customer experience – a reminder
3. User experience vs customer experience – what is the relationship between them?
4. Summary – user experience vs customer experience

What is user experience – a reminder

We introduced user experience (UX) in more detail in our previous articles. However, to get a good understanding of its relation to customer experience, we will briefly explain what it is and what it consists of.

User experience is a term that refers to the various types of user reactions to a product – this includes all feelings, emotions, as well as cognitive and behavioral reactions that accompany the application of a product (in the case of UX, this mostly refers to a digital product but it can also be a physical product).

The user experience of digital products refers to the reactions that occur when interacting with a product (website or app). A digital product, to deliver user experience at the desired level, should be usable, intuitive, accessible, easy to navigate and move through the site and have a visually appealing interface. UX design, then, refers to providing the user with the highest possible satisfaction and the best possible experience of using a product. This is what user experience designers do.

What is customer experience – a reminder

It is a well-known truth that a satisfied customer is a returning customer. However, it is worth noting that a customer satisfied with a given service is very likely to recommend it to others. This is why customer experience plays a key role in building a brand and its image in the market.

It starts from the moment of getting to know the brand and is then shaped by the way products and services are presented, the ease of finding answers to nagging questions, the quality of customer service together with the smoothness of purchasing from ordering through to delivery as well as the quality of post-purchase service. The aesthetics and design of a website or stationery store are also of significant value.

Business owners, directors, and managers should keep in mind that their brand is not determined and evaluated by their product alone.

Customer experience refers to the entire path to purchase, the acquisition of product information, and all consumer interactions with the brand such as advertising efforts, promotion, social media channels, sales process, price, service and customer service, and the product itself.

User experience vs customer experience – what is the relationship between them?

User experience is an experience related to a specific product, while customer experience is a collection of experiences related to many aspects of the brand as a whole. What they certainly have in common is their impact on the brand’s image in the market, the number of customers and ultimately on the success and revenue of the company.

The terms are often mistakenly used interchangeably. They are certainly related – user experience is a certain part of customer experience. It also has a very strong impact on the overall customer experience.

While advertising, social media content, the sales team, customer service and return policy meet the needs of customers and fulfill their requirements, the user’s interaction with the company’s website or app leaves much to be desired – the overall customer experience can suffer.

When it comes to user experience vs customer experience – they influence each other, so it is worth taking care of both from the beginning of the company’s operations to create a pleasant experience and enhance a positive brand image in the eyes of customers (or users).

Summary – user experience vs customer experience

So when planning a brand’s activities, we shouldn’t omit any of the user experience or customer experience issues we have discussed.

After all, aspects that seem unimportant can have immense value from the point of view of the customer (user). Thus, neglecting certain issues can affect the customer’s experience of interacting with our brand or product, which can translate directly into their decision to buy or use our services.

However, that’s not all – a customer who did not make a transaction, or one who did, but is ultimately dissatisfied, is very likely to share his or her feelings by issuing an unfavorable opinion of the company/store online or sharing them personally with family and friends. Such behavior can affect the purchasing decisions of subsequent customers, as well as the brand’s image in the market. This is the so-called snowball effect, i.e. a process that begins on a small scale and gradually grows, becoming larger and larger – by further passing on opinions among friends via word of mouth which becomes a kind of “warning” against a particular brand/store or website due to previous experiences.

In conclusion, we can clearly deduce that even the smallest decisions related to a brand can translate into its image in the eyes of customers, its reputation and even affect its bottom line in the future. That’s why when it comes to user experience vs customer experience – it’s worth understanding the difference.

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Customer Experience – table of contents:

1. What is Customer Experience?
2. What is the difference between customer service and customer experience?
3. What diminishes customer experience? – worst practices
4. How to analyze Customer Experience?
5. Summary

What is Customer Experience?

Customer Experience is the sum of all experiences connected with a single company that a customer has at all touchpoints during the entire relationship embedded in time. From the moment the customer becomes aware of a given product till the customer parts with it. This is the so-called Customer Journey, which represents the entire way. Recently, the topic of Customer Experience has become a key driver of growth for all companies, regardless of status and size.

Unfortunately, many managers and business owners hold an obsolete view of customer experience as a matter solely related to the visual aspects such as physical stores or website layout. Such assumptions are wrong. Improving CX is not just about redesigning the logo, revising the website layout or equipping employees with tablets and hiring new, friendlier staff, or training the ones already working. All these elements are just “building blocks” from which you can start building a better Customer Experience.

Steve Jobs managed to capture the true essence of customer experience by saying “Design is a funny word. Some people think that design means how it looks. But of course, if you dig deeper, it’s really how it works”. He points out that design is not just about looks and aesthetics – but about performance, functionality, and usability.

What is the difference between customer service and customer experience?

In short, customer service is only a small part of the overall customer experience. Customer Experience is the customer’s overall perception of a brand based on various interactions. Customer service is just one of those interactions – whether it’s a pre-purchase conversation, a question about product availability, a refund, or complaint handling. All these are the key aspects of CX and we mustn’t use those terms interchangeably.

What diminishes customer experience? – worst practices

Good brand image and positive customer experience are hard to get but relatively easy to lose. Many factors in many ways can lead to poor customer experience. If the customer is dissatisfied with only one aspect – not all is lost! We can still provide a positive perception of the experience as a whole. However, remember and take care that all (even the smallest details) have a positive impact on his journey with the brand.

Examples of aspects that may have a negative impact on Customer Experience may be:

• long waiting time (e.g. for an answer to an inquiry, in a queue in a store)
• misunderstanding of his main needs
• rudeness or lack of competence on the part of employees
• misinformation, misleading e.g. through unclear information on the website
• hidden fees (appearing only at the checkout or in the shopping cart when shopping online)
• unintuitive process of placing an order
• problems with finding a given product or information on the website
• slow loading website

There may be many more examples, so it is worth remembering about each stage of providing the customer with positive feelings from shopping / using the service.

How to analyze Customer Experience?

Customer impressions are rarely objective and analyzing their subjective opinions can be quite a challenge. Therefore, it is worth helping in this process with some indicators that will allow us to assess the current situation of Customer Experience in the company.

Having at our disposal various tools for measuring customer experience, we can track how the perception of our brand by customers improves (or deteriorates). This allows us to assess the success or failure of the changes we are making and to modify our actions if necessary. Below are some of these metrics:

• Customer Effort Score (CES) – This is a “customer effort score” and measures a consumer’s experience with service in terms of how easy (or difficult) it is to use the service or perform an action related to it. CES surveys are sent after a customer service interaction and ask, for example, “How easy was it for you to resolve a problem?” or “How easy was it to use the user panel?” The most common rating scale is 1 to 7, where 1 is “very difficult” and 7 is “very easy.”
• Net Promoter Score (NPS) – stands for “customer loyalty score” and is based on a very simple, closed-ended question “How likely are you to recommend our company to a friend?” In this case, depending on the wording of the question, we can use either a scale (e.g. from 0 to 10) or a yes or no answe

• Customer Satisfaction Survey (CSAT) – is a “customer satisfaction survey” and measures the overall satisfaction or experience of a consumer with one of the aspects related to the product or service (it can be for example order process, shipping time or after-sales service).
• Time to resolution (TTR) – or “time to resolution,” which refers to the time it takes customer service to resolve a problem. This indicator is distinguished by the simplicity of realization because it illustrates an important part of the Customer Experience without the need to send additional messages or surveys to customers.

Summary

All in all, customer experience is the key driver of our brand growth and its general image on the market! A satisfied customer is a returning customer, as well as a customer who recommends our brand, our products or services.

Therefore, it is worth taking care of them at every stage (regardless of whether we are talking about online or offline customer experience), from the very beginning of getting to know a brand, through the presentation of products and services, ease of finding answers to questions, ease of making a purchase, to the delivery and post-purchase service. Of course, an equally important aspect is the design of the website or stationery store, as well as trained and friendly staff who will help the customer at every stage of their journey.

That’s all you need to know about Customer Experience. Follow our blog category “The ultimate UX Guide” so you don’t miss any of our next articles.

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Stages of User-centered design process – table of contents:

1. User-centered design process in a nutshell
2. The first stage – empathizing
3. Stage two – establishing the concept
4. Stage three – design
5. Stage four – usability testing
6. User-centered design process – Summary

User-centered design process in a nutshell

User-centered design is an approach to developing and designing solutions that focuses on the users and places them at the heart of the process. Their needs, desires, expectations, problems, and pains become the essence of examination and creation. We introduced the User-Centered Design methodology, its principles ad pros and cons in more detail in our previous article “User-centered design and its main principles”.

For a quick recap, User-centered design process essentially consists of four stages that are repeated cyclically until achieving optimal usability and meeting core user requirements.

The first stage – empathizing

The first stage concerns researching which aims at empathizing – that is, perceiving the problems, pains, routines, habits requirements, needs and desires of our users. At the outset of this stage, we identify the target group and closely observe them. Conclusions and evaluations in the natural (controlled in the language of science) environment provide the most valuable insight and reliable data.

Our genuine UX data enables designers to sketch out the Persona or Protopersona – a picture of the “ideal user”. Persona is a key element in the User-centered design process as it keeps us focused on the user during each subsequent stage.

Persons are based on the results of research – surveys, in-depth interviews, and desk research, while Protopersons are designers’ ideas about the user – they are supported by the best available knowledge about users. Protopersons will therefore be less detailed and accurate, while in situations where in-depth research and Personas are not possible, Protopersons seem to be the right solution. Of course, it all depends on the company, the project, and the product, as well as the budget, the size of the UX team, and the time they have available.

Based on the research results, UX designers at this stage can also create empathy maps, user stories, user flow, or customer journey maps. All these tools allow the designers to empathize with the user and understand their needs even better. A good understanding of their motivations, frustrations, and desires, as well as determining e.g. their purchase path in the case of e-commerce, allows for creating a solution that meets users’ needs at later stages.

Stage two – establishing the concept

Phase two focuses on coming up with the idea creation (ideation), based on the research findings from the previous phase. During this one, a good practice is team brainstorming, as well as other creative techniques to bring about numerous concepts, ideas, and solutions. Then, it’s just collectively selecting the top ones that go to the hypothesis matrix.

There, we put the ideas against the business requirements. This helps to estimate whether a given solution will translate into a specific business result, e.g. increase in conversions, decrease in shopping cart abandonment, growth in the number of returning users, prolonged in the duration of sessions on the website, spike in the number of new users or increase in the page views.

In the next step, we analyze the hypotheses in terms of their importance to the user and the difficulty of implementation. Functions that are relatively important to the user and feasible in terms of time or financial resources will be implemented in the first iteration.

Functions and solutions that are slightly less important or more difficult to implement may be scheduled for later iterations. On the other hand, ideas that turn out to be of little importance from the user’s point of view or those assessed as extremely difficult to implement may be eliminated from the pool of hypotheses. This chart is called the Moscow prioritization (Moscow chart) and lets you identify key solutions for the user as well as implement them within the planned budget and timeframe.

Stage three – design

The third stage concerns design – translating the generated solutions into mockups. This stage starts with creating a site map and laying out the information architecture. It consists of sketching the page layout, the main menu, tabs functionalities, etc on each subpage.

After this initial layout, designers can move on to creating the first Lo-Fi mockups. These are low-detail mockups, usually in black, white, and various shades of gray. Their role is to present the size and layout of individual elements such as navigation, images, text, links, and buttons. Often there is a lack of detail here as the mockups focus on the key parts of the product.

However, it’s worth taking care of the content already at this stage and keeping away from Lorem ipsum. In cooperation with a copywriter, content writer, or UX writer, it’s good to create first (at least preview) content, to know how particular headings will look on the page or how much space e.g. product descriptions will take.

Currently, you can look for help easily as on the market there are many interface designing tools, like Figma. It’s a standard for designing and creating prototypes (especially in the IT industry). However, it is a relatively new tool. Previously, there were Sketch and Adobe XD.

Stage four – usability testing

The last phase (in theory) consists of usability testing with potential users. This is how designers check if the proposed solutions meet the users’ expectations. We have to conduct usability tests in a neutral, safe environment. To make it, we need to find the right place/location, write a test scenario and recruit participants.

Such tests consist of asking the user to perform several actions on a prototype. Depending on the product, the tasks may concern adding a product to the shopping cart, registering on the website, finding a given product on the list of products, or finding contact details. The tasks require simplicity and coherence while solving, some time to get them you’ll have to ask the users some extra questions.

However, remember to avoid the questions containing suggestions and evocations. For instance, by asking How much you like this button? – we suggest to our users that they like the button, while it may not be so. Also, it’s good to refer to the functionality rather than the visual aspects of the page – after all, it’s just a dummy model.

During usability tests we mustn’t evaluate the users in any way – we should check their way of moving around the website and whether the website is understandable and intuitive for them. It is a good practice to start the tests with a short introduction of the user to the topic – you can introduce yourself, tell a few words about the project and thank them for agreeing to participate.

It is worth emphasizing that his/her role in this process is vital for us. Also, add if and how you’ll record the test or if other people (observers) will participate beforehand. During the test, we mustn’t guide the user or suggest what to do or where to click.

After doing the usability tests, designers watch the recordings and review notes, based on which they create a report with the test results. Such a summary allows to identify recurring problems of the test participants and suggest appropriate changes to the design.

User-centered design process – Summary

Although in theory, User-centered design process consists of four stages, it does not always look like that. After the first usability tests, you may need to return to the mock-up stage and make modifications to the information architecture, functionalities or elements of the website/application (stage 3). Maybe, you’ll have to rethink and improve the concept (stage 2) or even return to empathizing, and conduct additional research or dig into the know-how or users (stage 1).

Such a flexible model allows continuous improvement of product functionality, performance and appearance. All, to perfectly meet the real needs of users and deliver the best solutions.

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User-centered design and its main principles – table of contents:

1. User-centered design
2. Principles of User-centered design
3. What does the process look like?
4. Advantages of using User-centered design methodology
5. Summary

User-centered design

User-centered design (or UCD) is an approach to designing the interaction between humans and digital products that puts the users at the center of the process. Their pains, requirements, need and desires come into focus in great detail.

The UCD method features a multi-step problem-solving attitude. Its key requirements are the UX /UI design and a development team to confidently anticipate the user interaction with the product.

Principles of User-centered design

However, it is a good practice not to rely only on assumptions or predictions, but to involve users in the research and testing process from the very beginning until the solution comes up and gets implemented (and also during subsequent iterations, when testing usability and introducing required improvements). By involving users in the process – that is, people who will potentially apply the product or solution – its designers can gather reliable information concerning users’ requirements, troubles or needs, and then establish a product/service/solution to carefully meet them.

The philosophy of User-centered design focuses on finding answers to the following questions:

• Who is our user and what is important to them?
• What are the goals and tasks of the user (user jobs)?
• How and in what order does the user perform their tasks?
• What conditions make the user achieve their goals?
• What are our user’s pain points, problems and limitations?
• What are the user expectations for our solution?

What does the process look like?

By applying the USD methodology and appropriately selected research methods in particular phases of the project, the designers can constantly improve the project so that it responds to the users’ needs and meets their objectives to the greatest extent possible.

The User-centered design process consists of four stages that repeat cyclically until the previously assumed usability requirements are achieved.

1. The first is the research phase, which aims to empathize – that is, to understand our user’s problems, pains, behaviors, requirements, needs and desires.
2. Phase two focuses on establishing and gathering ideas for the project. In this phase, UX designers use the knowledge gathered in the research phase to propose solutions for the project.
3. The third stage is already about design – creating the first Lo-Fi mockups with a focus on content and information architecture.
4. The last phase consists of usability testing with potential users. This is how designers check if the solutions they propose meet the users’ expectations. However, it is not always the last stage of the design process – there may be a need to return to the stage of mock-ups, establishing the concept, or even research to improve the operation and functionality of the product.

The different phases of User-centered design will be detailed in the next post about phases of User-centered design.

Advantages of using User-centered design methodology

The User-centered methodology allows obtaining the information necessary to design a digital product tailored to real user needs. It establishes the construction of a practical and intuitive website/digital product right from the start.

Basing the research on results and user suggestions avoids wrong design practices and saves time and funds later – the blueprint after implementation will not require as many corrections and improvements as if based only on the assumptions of and development team.

Summary

The User-centered design discussed in the article thus focuses on the users, their pains, requirements, needs and interaction with the digital product. It allows UX designers to create a product that meets real needs. The approach has many advantages and by applying it, you can get substantive results quickly.

That’s all you need to know about UX design processes. Follow our blog category “The ultimate UX Guide” so you don’t miss any of our next articles.

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The UX design process in 5 easy and simple steps – table of contents:

1. Define the user
2. Analyse data
3. Provide solutions
4. Create a prototype
5. Test your product
6. Summary

Define the user

Before you start thinking about any solution, you need to know what problems it is supposed to solve. However, as the UX design process is human-centered, you can’t make good creations without getting to know users first. This involves consulting with experts, immersing yourself with the problem, observing real people and getting to know their point of view, interviewing end users, and reviewing existing research. At this stage, don’t worry too much about putting data in context. Just concentrate on gathering information and constructing a clear picture of the problem.

Analyse data

At this point, you already have a lot (perhaps even too much) of data. It’s time to make assumptions based on gathered information. Synthesize it into simple statements that represent the main problem. Make sure they describe the users’ needs, not the needs of the company creating the product. Also, creating user personas can be especially helpful at this stage.

Provide solutions

Let the creative process begin! Finally, it’s time to get down to generating ideas. Remember to view this stage as a natural continuation of data collection and analysis. Ideas must come from the previous stages. One of the most popular techniques used at this stage is brainstorming. It is important not to exclude any idea at this point, as this may block the author. Sometimes a good solution comes after coming up with a few bad ones.

Gathering several ideas at the beginning helps you look at them critically and choose only the best ones. Make sure you create a safe environment where designers can think out loud, even if their concepts are provocative.

Another example of a popular technique, besides brainstorming, is an exercise called “worst possible idea.” It may seem surprising, but thinking about what won’t work often helps bring a fresh perspective to a problem. Be confident in your creative process. Remember that ideas are never bad. They just may not be selected for implementation.

Create a prototype

It’s time to experiment and see if the ideas are as good as they seem to be. Prototyping means producing an inexpensive version of a product (or even just a few key features of it). It helps to see if the design process is going in the right direction.

Prototypes should be tested by both the design team and a representative group of end users. This approach will help you get accurate feedback.

Features of the prototype can be accepted or rejected. They can be improved and changed. It is important to remain flexible here and not to follow one path blindly.

Test your product

As we underlined at the beginning of this article, the design process isn’t linear. You might think that after testing a prototype, all you need to do is fix the bugs. This is rarely the case. It turns out that you often have to go back to the very beginning of the process, collect more data and do additional research. Since the foundation of design thinking is iteration, there is a lot of back-and-forth.

UX design process – summary

When it comes to the UX design process, there’s no one-size-fits-all solution. It includes iterating and even altering your initial assumptions along the way. It actually never ends. Your products get new functions, the market and trends change, and so do users’ preferences.

That’s all you need to know about UX design processes. Follow our blog category “The ultimate UX Guide” so you don’t miss any of our next articles.

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10 usability heuristics for UX design you need to know – table of contents:

1. Visibility of system status
2. Match between system and the real world
3. User control and freedom
4. Consistency and standards
5. Error prevention
6. Recognition rather than recall
7. Flexibility and efficiency of use
8. Aesthetic and minimalistis design
9. Help users recognize, diagnose, and recover from errors
10. Help and documentation

Visibility of system status

Being in control gives you a sense of power and security. Imagine how you would feel if your smartphone didn’t inform you about its battery status. You would constantly worry if it was just the battery or if it broke down. Similarly, users need to know what’s going on and what’s going to happen next. Therefore, the system should always keep them in the loop about current actions through visuals, and provide timely feedback. For example, if a user is waiting for a video to be loaded, the system should inform them how much time is left by displaying a progress bar.

Match between system and the real world

Keep in mind that your design should speak the users’ language and correspond to concepts they are already familiar with. Therefore, avoid using complex words so as not to confuse them. Also, apply icons that mimic their real-world counterparts in how they look and how users can interact with them. For instance, a recycle bin icon ought to be similar to a real bin, and show whether it is empty or not.

User control and freedom

Users often make mistakes as they perform their actions quickly. Therefore, they must have a way to go back and remove the error without going through an extended procedure. Provide a clear emergency exit for the user, which means supporting solutions like undo, redo, as well as implementing visible and easily discoverable exit buttons.

Consistency and standards

Avoid confusing your users at all costs. The best way to do it is to keep consistency and standards for the same concepts. Apple’s Human Interface Guidelines and Google’s Material Design Guidelines might help you in it. Keeping the same standards in all systems makes interaction easy and pleasurable for all users.

Error prevention

Preventing mistakes is your primary job as a UX designer. Analyzing data about users and their actions helps you communicate to them how to navigate and use your product. If a particular mistake appears frequently, it probably means that your design needs to be improved. You can reduce minor mistakes with dedicated features, for example, suggesting options, confirmations, and warnings. Even the trash can function can prevent users from accidentally deleting something permanently.

Recognition rather than recall

People find it easier to recognize objects, phrases, and actions than having to recall them. Let your users recognize icons and labels. Help them by providing context at the time of action (instead of a tutorial before the action). When users go through a certain process while using the system, they should not be forced to remember information from each step.

Flexibility and efficiency of use

Too many features can be confusing. Too few of them can cause frustration. Think about word processors. They directly display the most necessary functions only, and all the other ones are hidden so as not to distract the user. You should ensure the flexibility and efficiency of your design by letting users customize it to suit their individual needs.

Aesthetic and minimalist design

Minimalism is widely associated with fashion and lifestyle, and with the number of things that would fit in one bag. However, the true meaning of minimalism is to stick to the essentials. You should use this approach in your UX design.

Help users recognize, diagnose, and recover from errors

First of all, error information should be as simple and accurate as possible. Avoid situations where users know that something has gone wrong, but no one knows what exactly. Error codes are also usually not very helpful. Try to give appropriate feedback and offer a solution right away. The user must be able to see that an error has occurred, diagnose the cause – and finally solve it. Use clear visual cues, choose easy language and show possible solutions to problems.

Help and documentation

In general, you should design UX in a way that is clear and doesn’t require tutorials or extra documentation. However, even if the application of the system is obvious to 99% of users, it’s your job to explain how it works to the remaining 1%. Documentation must be easy to find and understand. Try (if possible) to provide additional information when the user needs it. Helpful documentation can include FAQ, tutorials, and other forms of digestible knowledge.

These are all 10 usability heuristics you need to know. Follow our blog category “The ultimate UX Guide” so you don’t miss any of our next articles.

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Are you designing user experiences? – table of contents:

1. The end-user of the product
2. Prototyping
3. Accessibility
4. Simplicity & consistency
5. Familiarity
6. Uniqueness
7. Security
8. Preventing errors
9. Details

The end-user of the product

The first and most important thing you should care about while designing the user experience – is the user. You are not designing for the sake of designing. Do not forget about the user part in the whole user experience.

If you intend to design a product that users will care about, it is a high time to learn what your audience desires. The user research is a crucial part of the UX design process.

If you want to design amazing things – you should know your users inside out. Many tools help to comprehend the nature of your target audience – for example, user personas and user journey maps.

Prototyping

One of the elements of a well-prepared design process is the stage of prototyping. Skipping this phase and going straight to building an actual product is a risky mistake. Prototyping helps in:

• Checking if the product fits into the market – having even the simplest prototype allows getting feedback from the target audience.
• Spotting issues early – you can smoothly spot errors that require quick fixes as they stop users from meeting their goals.
• Lowering the costs – the prototype is cheaper than the ready product but can provide you with the most necessary feedback.

Accessibility

This quality is all about enabling the users to use your product. Some users may have disabilities, and others may find some actions difficult – it is your responsibility to make using the product as easy and smooth as possible for everyone.

UX designers too often overlook a big part of their audience and suffer accessibility for visual attractiveness. Aesthetics are significant, but only if we have functional products.

Simplicity & consistency

A simple product means it is easy to understand and interact with it. Users should be able to use the product without any help. It is part of your job to make things clear and guide them where they need to get. The design must also be kept consistent. Extraordinary design decisions often cause confusion and frustration of users.

Familiarity

Humans tend to stick to what they are familiar with. Familiarity allows users to use new things faster, as the process is similar to their previous experiences.

Showing users elements they can recognize improves usability. Remember the limitations of human memory and the cost of cognitive energy to learn new things. It is always easier to recall than to remember.

Uniqueness

How to spot a good design? It is unique. Product heavily inspired it is not only risky because of the legal issues – it is not interesting for the users to get one another similar product. Uniqueness is the foundation of users’ interest and excitement.

Security

One of the main goals for a well-designed product and great UX is gaining the users’ trust. If the users are constantly worried about personal data – the experience is not great.

Preventing errors

Try to keep potential errors to a minimum level. Easier said than done, right? Sometimes errors happen because of users’ mistakes. Other times they happen because the product is faulty. Whatever is the real cause, in most cases you can prevent these errors.

You should eliminate misleading information provided to the user and always test your product before the launch.

Details

Remember why we started this list in the first place? You must fulfill the user’s wants and needs! The differences between an acceptable UX and exceptional UX are hidden in details.

We are talking about the little things contributing to the “wow” factor. An amount of your attention going to these little things will decide if the user will be in awe.

What details may be worth to look after? For example:

• tangible buttons,
• microcopy,
• usage of negative space,
• loading animations.

Summary

What does it take to make the user experiences outstanding? A positive user experience is one of the best techniques for gaining the interest and loyalty of customers. The key is the UX design process. There are things and rules that you cannot forget about while designing.

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