UX design is one of those terms that get thrown around a lot. Or at least, people who don’t know what it is confuse it a lot. First things first, it’s not another ubiquitous buzzword. This term has actual meaning, which we will discuss in this article.

The term UX Design stands for user experience. However, it’s more than that. It covers all aspects of the product, including landing page, website, the product itself, and the community.

It’s all about users and the experience they get. It’s considered essential to product development by many companies. But most people don’t understand it. And most importantly, they don’t understand the details that make it up and make it work. This article is about gaining a deep understanding of what UX Design is and why it’s important.

Let’s get started!

What Is User Experience (UX)

As I said earlier, this site is more than a search engine and video platform: It’s a social network. So you should work on creating a community.

Think about it: Many famous YouTube channels have a community, which no matter what happens go to those channels. When you have followers like them, you don’t have to work that much on bringing new people.

Think of any interaction a user has with a product or service. That’s User Experience (UX) in simple terms. How the elements of a product influence the users and how they with interact with it is UX. From the aesthetics of the product to how it makes the users feel, it’s also UX.

Ultimately, UX design is the process in which a designer makes the experience of using a particular product seamless for the users. So again, it’s all about the user. Designers strive to create easy, smooth, and enjoyable experience.

It should be intuitive, efficient, and relevant at the same time. That’s why it involves having a deep understanding of users, what they need, what they value, their abilities, and their limitations. Not only that, but it also involves a good knowledge of business goals and objectives of the company. That’s because the product is a representation of a company.

As I was talking about in the intro, it’s important to understand what UX isn’t. Even though it feels like UX designers aim for aesthetically pleasing work, it’s not the end goal. Their main focus is to empathize with the user. So, that’s why they don’t just beautify the product that they’re working on: They also focus on building the best user-friendly experience they can.

UX design is about helping people. It’s about making the usage of a product as easy as possible. It’s about taking the audience from point A to point B in the most intuitive way that feels joyful.

Why Is UX Important?

By reading the definition of UX, you might have already learnt why it’s important. It’s simple: It’s about helping users.

Go to indeed.com or any other job site for that matter. And search, UX designer, there. You’ll see that they have dozens of vacancies in this field from notable companies. That’s because these designers help them make more profits. No wonder why this is not a buzzword anymore.

Let’s take Airbnb for example. This company attributes good UX for taking them from being a near-failure to being valued at $10 million. The car giant LandRover thinks UX is a must-have investment. And the tech titan, Elon Musk, broke the design world by saying, “any product that needs a manual is broken.” So, yeah, it’s that important now.

This term is at the forefront of almost every business now. But has it been like that ever since? Let’s find out by taking a history lesson.

For the past few years many, many companies have been investing in good UX designers. But this term was coined in the early nineties by Donald Norman who worked for Apple as a cognitive scientist.

This scientist had a keen interest in how customers would use Apple products. He empathized with the user to make sure that they could access what they needed with the minimal fuss or bother. Following Norman’s footsteps, many big companies are doing it and putting a lot of resources into it.

What Does A UX Designer Do?

Next comes the big question: What does a UX designer do? Well, its description can vary from company to company. Also, sometimes, you’ll see that it varies from project to project within the same company. Not only that, but other fields like interaction design, information architecture, visual design, usability, and human-computer interaction have it.

With all that, you might be confused about the role of a UX designer. But don’t be. The basis remains the same throughout the field.

In general, a UX designer’s role involves researching, designing, writing UX copy, and  validation and testing with users. And finally, he/she presents and sells their design solutions to the company. During all that, they ensure that there’s a balance between what users need and what companies want as their business goals.

Here’s a breakdown of what they do:

User Research

How would a designer understand the user’s wants and needs? By conducting a thorough research. Learning about user’s needs, pain points, behaviors, and goals means that you are laying the foundation of a good design.

Design

Design in not all about aesthetics. Designers strive to solve problems and connect the user to improve usability and accessibility. And they do it by creating an overall joyful experience for the end-user.

Writing UX Copy

The written copy should reflect what the company is about. It should also help the user to navigate through the product.

Validating And Testing With Users

They take the product to the court of last resort: End users.

Sell And Present The Design To The Business

And finally, they must get their ideas seen, heard, and through the approval process.

How’s the UX design on your website? Does it need some tweaks? Or does it need amplification from scratch? Send use a message. We’ll make sure it reflects you as an authoritative brand!