A good design is the pulse of any successful application. User interface (UI) and User experience (UX) form the fundamental blocks of designing an attractive and robust application. This article focusses on the intricacies of the significance of UI / UX, what does UI / UX offer, how different they are from each other and what points need to be ascertained prior to designing.
However advanced any software application, website, the mobile app is, it offers great results only when it has a well-crafted user interface (UI) and user experience (UX). Easy navigation and attractive design is the key ingredient to achieve extra mile in terms of getting more users, gaining popularity over the competitors and better business outcome.
“We believe what we see”, isn’t it? What really showcases any application a step ahead of the rest is its UI / UX. The inherent features, modules, outputs, etc. will come later, what comes first is the instant experience that the user feels. What the user needs is a classy, crisp and clear design and not too much complicated and complex interaction. Simple and sophisticated designs are in demand and UI/UX service providers are competent to offer its customers the best. What is interesting is to know more about why and how to do the same.
UI / UX Design – A Confluence of Art, Technology, Psychology and Perception
On a very basic note, what does UI / UX mean? Following are the pointers that put together, can define what it signifies:
- An interface and experience that offers the best mix of art, technology, user psychology, and user perception
- A design crafted keeping in mind user expectations and insights well in advance
- Offering a positive focus to reinvent real-life experience heightened with technology
- Estimating the categorization of user interactions by creating situations, forecasting navigational likings and imitating user behavior.
- Visualizing and gaining insight into the usability of the features
How Important is UI / UX for the Success of a Project?
Before we understand the importance of UI / UX in any project, the following are certain statistics that are self-explanatory:
- “79% of people who don’t like what they find on one site will go back and search for another site
- One in three people will abandon a purchase because they can’t find the right information
- 65% of website visitors wouldn’t submit a form if too much personal information as required
- 86% of visitors who land on a company’s website homepage say they want to see information about the company’s products and services“
Whether an application or website gets accepted or gets rejected depends mostly on the overall design of the same. This showcases the significance of UI / UX in the success of the projects. With online operations increasing by leaps and bounds, the user interface and experience offers a huge impact. There are numerous peer companies offering the same products which give users a lot of choices. Why would they, then, stick to one application that isn’t user-friendly and doesn’t have the best of UI / UX?
Here are some of the key reasons why UI / UX is most crucial to any project:
- Plays a major role in increasing visitors and retaining customers
- Users are looking for easy-to-use and smart designs which needs effective interface and design
- Visitors today look, not only at the content but at the look and feel of the same
- Helps increase sales and business growth
- Improves customer satisfaction and increases user visits
- Allures visitors to spend more time on the application/website
- Increases the confidence level of users
- Offers a great promising first-hand impression
Key Components of UI / UX Design
“To the user, the interface is the product.” – Aza Raskin
Information Architecture
A very prime component of the design, Information Architecture solely focusses on sustaining business approaches by designing an information structure of the application. It offers its end users an easily navigable application irrespective of device and browser that they are using. The major purpose of information architecture is to provide the best possible navigational routes to visitors.
Interaction Design
Encompassing a variety of components like colors, fonts, graphics, images, icons, sounds, etc., this component creates the basic design which interacts with the users.
Wireframing
It is all about designing a sample of the application to see how it looks, interacts and behaves prior to live implementation. Cost-effective and productive, wireframing helps in assuring if the designed application fulfills the basic objective or not.
Visual Design
One of the most crucial aspects of UI / UX designing, the visual design defines the organization’s brand. It gives the appropriate look to the application going beyond colors, fonts, graphics, etc. and offering the actual appearance that the users look at.
Usability
Higher the usability, higher is the success of the business. This key component deals with users getting the information that wants in short span of time. It handles easy navigation for the visitors and any errors that come along the way.
Difference between UI and UX
A very common mistake made by almost all is to understand UI and UX to be the same. No, they are not. Both have their own set of characteristics that give them different responsibilities in bringing out the best design. UI is an aspect that brings users to the application and UX is something that keeps them bound there. As simple as it sounds, there is more to it.
| User Interface (UI) | User Experience (UX) |
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
How Does UI/UX Design Impact Business?
The more the designer and developer understand user needs, the better and more efficient will be the business output. There is a direct relation between the UI / UX of any application and the business success that it can give to the organization. Below are some of the key advantages that organizations garner, with a perfect user-driven design:
Confidence of Customers
With an alluring and robust user interface and experience, you can surely win the confidence of users and make them happier. That has a direct relation with getting more business and increasing customer loyalty. It is not mere good design, it is getting more business.
Increasing Brand Recognition
Your business application showcases your brand. An increasing number of visitors owing to a good design is sure to get more business and spread around the brand name in an effective manner. With the globe going digital, the spread of brand loyalty will be fast.
Getting Futuristic Opportunities
With the design aspects in place, there are sure shot chances of getting future business and observing trends that will give an insight into the future trends. With increasing peer competition, this surely helps.
Less Support Expenditure
A well-made and designed application will garner less expenditure in terms of support and maintenance costing and training / documentation etc., thereby reducing cost efforts on the organization’s shoulders.
Less Development Time
Design is at the fundamental base of development and if done with caution, builds a strong base for the developers. A properly crafted UI / UX give less scope for development to go haywire and hence the overall development time is sure to reduce.
Why is your UI / UX is Failing to Attract and Retain Visitors?
“A user interface should be so simple that a beginner in an emergency can understand it within ten seconds.” – Ted Nelson
You spend a volume behind getting a very attractive and stable application design, as an output but are unable to get the needed viewership and the requisite response. Why? You may have lots of visitors moving around the site, but the visit time is hardly a few seconds and there is least of profit earning. Why? Here are some of the prominent reasons:
- Jumbled, Crowded and Messy Home Page – an Unfriendly Experience
The first imprint creates the last impression. It is a matter of just 10 – 15 seconds which will decide if the visitor will continue to surf around of will exit. Sometimes, being over-determined to fit in everything and more in a single layout rebound with its side effects. The design should look systematic, organized and well driven.
- No Graphics and Only Content Makes the Application Unattractive
A picture speaks a thousand words – so rightly said. Paragraphs of mere text are sure to make the visitor lose interest. A certain amount of relevant graphics and figures are a must to entice the users and encourage them to read further.
- Wrong Placing of Call to Action (CTA) / Missing CTA
Whom to contact should be available instantly. In certain applications, the user needs to keep searching for the call to action and thereby loses interest soon. The contact point should be well defined and with minimal information to be fed in.
- Old and Unresponsive Design
To be fast-paced with the technological moves today, the UI / UX needs to be up-to-date and latest. The visitor must get the impression that the application is abreast with the latest happenings. Also, it needs to respond well in all kinds of devices.
Answer These Important Questions Prior to Creating Classy & Eye-catching Designs
Have you designed the application with a view to delivering an experience?
A real good UI / UX doesn’t just deliver information, it’s a lot more. It comprises the user’s likes, dislikes, preferences and futuristic ideas. The entire look and feel of the application need to touch the user so that there is increased visit time and enhanced user experience.
Are you offering the users what they really want?
With a motive to offer the users the finest, sometimes designers go overboard. There is too much of all design components and possibly not what the users want. There must be a perfect balance of user requirements, creativity and technology. The usability and creativity both need to be equally balanced as there is a very fine line between offering both.
Have you been interacting regularly with your clients?
If you wish to transform your client’s needs into a classy, smart and secure UI / UX design, there must be regular interaction with them right from the beginning. User involvement surely ensures the correct design approach and thereby, less of rework and faster completion.
Are you thoroughly coordinating the application with industry best practices?
The fast-paced technology is offering a variety of design standards, conventions, practices, and technologies. It is important and equally challenging to select the best out of the lot that suits you and your client’s needs, to the optimum. It also should match up to the industry standards that are in vogue today.
Are you ready with your exhaustive design test plan?
Testing is always important in any project, but the equal focus should be given to testing of the design elements that tend to get neglected sometimes. And that is what forms the crux of a stable, secure and user-friendly design. Better the testing, sturdier is the designed application.
Wrapping It Up
UI/UX breathing a fresh lease of air today with user experience getting larger than life. Today’s technology is empowering the design elements to come up with varied, robust and attractive designs to engage the users and keep them happy and occupied. Of course, designers need to catch the pulse of the users’ requirements and translate them sleekly into modern-day designs.
The future of UI/UX shows a bright side with novel concepts like AR, VR and AI bringing in fresh elements to enchant the users. The ‘feel me’ user interface and user experience offered by skilled and experienced designers of today is sure to deliver high-end designs to industry segments world over. It surely would be interesting to await what the designers have in store, for the future!
