Let’s define “User Experience” as encompassing all aspects of the end-user’s interaction with the company, its services, and its products. This definition was provided by the Neilson Group here. In our case, and for this post, we’ll focus solely on any digital experience served on a device like a laptop of mobile phone .

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What is the goal of User Experience

The goal of exceptional user experience design is to meet the precise needs of the end user by designing with simplicity over complexity and ingenuity over ease. What may seem like an overwhelming set of archaic data structures and endless database fields on the backend, become a delightful and elegant to consume on the frontend. So what makes things delightful and elegant?

User Experience Design Protocols

Fundamental and foundational elements of any digital experience aren’t as complex as once understood. Let’s look at the basics…

• Speed
• Comprehension
• Relevancy
• Functionality
• Outcome

Speed: I think we can all agree no one likes a slow website or slow mobile app. If you’re like me, I have to be deeply invested to hold patience for slow experiences. But in business and the real world most website visitors and mobile app users aren’t deeply invested. in fact, they aren’t invested at all. Speeding up your website or app is priority number one. Simply by increasing the speed you begin inviting the user to interact more. They won’t be as prone to leave immediately and never return.

Comprehension: Business owners speak in business terms. Service providers often use language that the average Joe’s don’t know or understand. As a first impression, it may seem appropriate to a tenured plumber come across well-educated in his field but introductions are for connection, not information. When a website visitor first sees your web page, can they understand what you’re saying. Is your main headline headline making sense?

Relevancy: Which brings us to the next field of user experience design, relevancy. This one is often overlooked and the devils are in the all the little details. From the snippet cached in google that displays 160 characters of text to the searcher, to the content (text and images) above the fold on the screen (what is visible before scrolling) , are things connecting for the user? But relevancy comes in all shapes forms and sizes in the user experience. On brand colors, consistent typography, copy writing geared toward the end users intent, a simple to follow flow from entry to lead to sales. All of it matters.

Functionality: Ever heard the phrase don’t fix something that isn’t broken? Funny enough, most websites and mobile apps today are in fact broken to some degree. It may not look broken. Interactions may work fine. So what’s the big deal? That question looks at a few different elements of the design. Most importantly is the website meeting the needs of the end user. Did the site load fast, can the read the writing on the page. Do they understand the writing? Are the able to navigate from page to page with ease. Does the navigation make sense? Do the webpages and funnels help the user achieve their goals on site? What are their goals? I can keep this up all day. The bottom line here is that we want to design the user experience in a manner that meets their needs (and yours).

Outcome: Finally, we’re at the end result. Was the user able to complete their tasks. Did their intent align with the outcome we provided? The user experience of a website to execute a task or gather information can be complex but it doesn’t have to be. They should easily be able to navigate to the desired result and it should benefit you in the process.

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Need a user experience designer for your project?

Partnering with me gets you many things. Empathetic design practices. Understandable & relevant copy writing. Common sense approaches to complex user scenarios. Detailed flow diagramming. Error & success paths. AS well as the core elements of my work which is working with search engines like Google, the WordPress content management system (CMS), and a host of specialty tools to help us get you where you want to be.