Our Picks: Top UX Design Articles

Companies like Uber, Snapchat, Airbnb, and Netflix are successful not because of their technology alone. The code that powers these platforms is possible to replicate. Instead, these companies have won on their user experience. They understand what customers want in terms of convenience, usability, and speed. UX testing, design, and implementation is now one of the most important aspects of creating a new piece of software. However, many companies neglect to implement UX design from day one.

What Is UX Design?

When people think of UX design, the first thing they think of is the user interface. Yes, UX designers do contribute to where the buttons are placed, which graphics you use, and what copywriting you need. However, the job of a good UX designer goes way beyond that. UX design involves speaking one-on-one with customers to determine what they need. The things the UX designer learns will inform your product’s features, benefits, and overall structure. In many cases the product you originally had in mind may not be the product the customer needs.

To illustrate the value of UX design and how to do it well, here are our top UX design articles from across the web:

1. Getting the First Time Experience Right

The first user experience is the most important. Ideally, you want the user to be blown away by your elegant solution to their specific problem. This is hard to do, but it’s worth it if you get it right.

2. The Gap Between Design and Development

Often, designers and developers work as separate teams, but that paradigm can be detrimental to the overall usability of a project. If you want your project to be intuitive, you’ll need to bridge the gap between design and development.

3. Keeping the User Engaged

While it’s great when a user tries your new software, getting them to use it daily is the goal. In order to do that, your software solution has to be compelling and clearly better than the competition. Luckily, there are steps to creating an engaging user experience that keeps users coming back for more.

4. Bring Design Thinking to Your Development Process

Do your developers know about the basic principles of good design? Today’s software market requires products that are beautiful and simple to use, no matter how complicated the underlying code is. This means your development team should be implementing design thinking every step of the way.

5. UX Design Best Practices on the Web

If you follow a few simple guidelines and best practices, your software will already be better than most. Consider this a checklist for baseline user experience.

6. Guidance from the Federal Government

The federal government has weighed in on accessibility and usability in software, and especially in web development. Part of user experience design is considering that people with difficulty seeing, hearing, moving, etc will be using your product, as will people with various levels of education and cultural backgrounds. Inclusivity applies to software.

Prioritizing UX Design

Implementing design principles from day one and throughout the development cycle could mean the difference between a product everyone uses and low adoption. Even for proprietary software with a limited user base, prioritizing design makes it more likely that your users will enjoy the software, and that drives the rate of adoption. In 2017, there’s no room for poorly designed software. Users demand intuitive experiences that make their lives easier.

At Intertech, we have a team dedicated to UX design, and our developers are versed in the principles of good design. If you need help with pages, user paths, design elements, or brainstorming a new software experience, check out our UX design services.