UX design - what is it? The UI industry is currently growing at a rapid pace, but UX design is still a whole new world for most executives and managers. This area aims to increase user satisfaction with the product, improve usability, accessibility and interaction. Combines traditional human-computer interaction design and considers all aspects of user interaction with a product or service.
UX designers take the lead in improving the basic needs of the end user and trying to create a product that makes the audience happy. This, in turn, leads to healthy investment returns and helps support a growing business or organization.
What does a UX Designer do?
UX designers study and evaluate how users feel about a system, looking at things like ease of use, perceived value of the system, usefulness, efficiency in completing tasks.
UX designers also consider subsystems and processes within a system. For example, they can look into the checkout process on an e-commerce website to see how easy and affordable it is to complete the process of purchasing products from the site. They can delve into the subsystem's components, such as seeing how efficient and enjoyable the user experience is when filling out input fields on a web form.
UX design - what is it? Technology concept
An important concept in UX design is the process by which users create experiences. When a consumer first encounters a product, an instant impression is formed that changes over time. In this process, perception, action, motivation, and cognition come together to form the user experience. This process elicits emotional responses that largely determine whether the experience is positive or negative.
UX designers aim to create process influencing factors intentionally. To do this, the UX designer considers three categories of questions: what, why, and how.
Why- implies the motivation of users to accept the product and desire to possess it.
What- concerns what people can do with the product and its functionality.
How refers to the design of functionality in an accessible and aesthetically pleasing way.
UX design starts with the why, then the what, and finally the how to create products that users can have meaningful experiences with.
Historical retrospective
Compared to many other disciplines, especially web systems, UX design is relatively new. The term "user experience" was coined by Dr. Donald Norman, a cognitive science researcher who was also the first to describe the importance of user-centered design, the notion that design decisions should be based on the needs of consumers. Since publication this concept The history of UX design began.
Whether working for a startup or a large corporation, a UX designer is directly involved in making the product useful and enjoyable to use for the company's target market. The process of creating a product contains several important steps:
consumer research;
product design;
testing;
implementation.
Let's consider each of them in more detail.
Consumer research: where to start as an aspiring designer?
Analysis of the consumer audience and identification of needs involves communication with real users in the target market. If the subject of research exists only hypothetically and has not yet been created, similar products of competing firms, their advantages and disadvantages become the subject of discussion. If the product already exists, consumers are asked questions about how people feel when navigating the site with the current design, whether it is easy to find the information they need, how structured the pages are. The quality of written and graphic content and the overall visual impression of the site are evaluated separately. The following methods can be used for this part of the process:
prototyping.
project management;
effective communication with the team.
questionnaires;
focus group discussions;
online surveys;
task analysis.
It is important to note that if a product is a product of design thought and has nothing to do with user experience and feedback in its development and implementation, it is not the result of UX design.
Design
Design hypothesis development involves envisioning how a new product or service might adapt to how a customer is already behaving (this is revealed by user research). Product design focuses on functionality and usability, not how it looks. At this stage, the following are used:
information architecture;
Testing
Testing involves verifying that the changes made during the design phase work as intended and fit the purpose. This great way get rid of user problems or difficulties that were not visible at the design stage before starting work at the implementation stage. There are various:
a/b testing;
usability;
remote user testing.
Implementation
Implementation involves working closely with web developers to achieve the end goal. Web development specialists work to turn design ideas into a real website. It is important that developers work as a team throughout the process to make this final step more efficient and optimal.
What is user experience?
Websites and apps are becoming more complex as technology advances. What used to be a one-way static environment has now evolved into a wide interactive experience.
But no matter how much the manufacturing process has changed, the success of a website still depends on only one thing: how users perceive it. “Is this site giving me value? Is it easy to use? Is it nice to be here?" are the questions that users ask themselves when they interact with the company's products, and it is on the basis of this experience that, as a rule, they make a purchase decision.
The user interface (UX for short) in design is how a person feels when interacting with a system. The system can be a website, web application, or desktop software. In a modern context, this is often referred to as human-computer interaction.
The concept of User experience covers all aspects of the interaction of the end user with the company, its services and products. It is important to distinguish the overall design of a project from the user interface, although the user experience is an extremely important part of the design.
It is also necessary to distinguish between UX and usability: according to the definition, the quality attribute of the user interface, which covers ease of learning, efficiency of use, pleasantness, visual acceptability, design aesthetics.
Professional competencies
The UX designer is responsible for all of the steps in the process described above and their implementation. There are a number of professional competencies that are given great attention when training a designer:
leadership;
These professional characteristics are very important for successful work.
What is the difference between UX and UI design?
User Interface (UI) designers focus on the layout and actual design of each element that the user interacts with, while User Experience (UX) designers focus on the user's interactions with that element as well as the overall product experience. UI and UX designers often work together as well as in teams with web developers to create a product that is both visually appealing and enjoyable to use.
What does a UX designer actually do?
UX designers perform different functions depending on the project and stage of development. In the early stages of a project, experts conduct preliminary user experience research, and then plan interactions through the framework and prototyping of their projects, which are then tested using various heuristic techniques.
During development, testing and development of the user interface continues to improve the product and user experience.
Once a project is launched, a UX designer can analyze user metrics to track the results of their work, go back, and keep iterating to improve design weaknesses.
Tasks and methods
UX designers perform different tasks at different points in the process. Below is the main list:
Assessment of the current system. If the system already exists, the UX professional will holistically assess its current state. Problems are identified and corrections are proposed based on the analysis of research data.
A/B testing. A specialist can develop a study to compare the effectiveness and quality of experience of different user interfaces. This is done by hypothesizing (e.g. "a green button is more attractive than a red one"). It then proposes multiple versions of the design and determines the "best experience" in order of testing (e.g. "The green button is better because users clicked on it more often.").
Polls. The UX designer conducts a survey of existing and potential users of the system to get an idea of what was the most effective design decision. Since the experience of a single user is subjective, The best way to get direct information is to study and interact with group opinion.
Frameworks and prototypes. Based on their findings, UX specialists can develop wireframes of various layouts and higher fidelity prototypes.
User flows. Designing how users should navigate the system is another popular tool.
Design patterns
Templates provide consistency and a way to find the most efficient "tool" for the job. For example, when designing user interface templates, choosing the right elements (e.g. module tabs, slideshows) for certain tasks based on their effectiveness leads to the best solution. Not only do UX developers come up with design patterns that are used on other websites, but they also develop their own patterns for the current project.
Programs
There are several popular and easily accessible UX design software for work and study. The tools are not just for UX designers. Programmers and webmasters also use them.
UX design courses use prototyping tools - initially they can be done with pen and paper. This inexpensive and accessible tool for training a designer in practice allows you to quickly prototype and move on to design.
Some wireframe and prototyping software tools:
Teaching the basics of UX design uses A/B testing, also known as split testing or multivariate testing. This tool compares different versions pages. Testing can be done with any of several programs.
Basically A/B testing software splits website traffic into two equal segments. One group sees version A and the other sees version B. Statistics such as conversion rate and bounce rate are tracked for each version. Split testing determines which version is better, and this decision based on statistical data. One of the most popular A/B testing apps is Google's Website Optimizer.
Content Management
When teaching UX design from scratch, there are many methods of content inventory. Usage server application in-place (for which you'll need access to a web server) is best suited for production sites. Being closer to the source than third party software, these applications are more accurate and efficient. A simple Excel tool for creating and managing a content inventory, such as the GetUXIndex() template, can be used for this purpose.
Websites built with content management systems like WordPress and Drupal typically have built-in tools that show a map of the existing website.
Polls and feedback
User surveys are another popular UX design challenge. The most efficient and cost-effective way to do this is with a survey app and feedback or testing a remote user.
Common survey tools such as PollDaddy are flexible solutions that can be used for other tasks as well. There are usability feedback tools such as Usability and remote user testing services such as Usability Hub that administer the testing system.
Examples
An example of UX design - what is it? User interface design is the process of creating products that provide a meaningful and experiential experience. This implies careful design and usability of the product, aesthetic pleasure of use and extensive functionality.
Thus, products that provide a great user experience (i.e., the iPhone is the best example of UX design) are designed not only for the consumption or use of the product, but for the entire process of acquiring, owning, and even troubleshooting.
Design is a rather broad and vague term. When someone says, "I'm a designer," it's not immediately clear what they do on a day-to-day basis. There are a number of different industries included in this concept.
Design-related job responsibilities exist in areas ranging from industrial design (cars, furniture), print (magazines and other publications), to web design (websites, mobile apps). With the recent influx of high-tech companies focusing on creating interfaces for screens, there has been a lot of new work in design. The position of a UX or UI designer can be incomprehensible not only to the uninitiated, but even to the designers themselves, who come from other industries.
"This question does not have a single correct answer."
Let's try to figure out what this really means in the IT industry.
UX designer
UX designers are primarily concerned with how the product interacts with the user. This question does not have a single correct answer. UX designers explore different approaches to solving a particular user problem. The main job of a UX designer is to make sure that the product flows logically from one step to the next. One way a UX designer can figure this out is by doing user tests in person and drawing conclusions from their experience. By identifying verbal and non-verbal stumbling blocks, it corrects and iterates, thereby creating a "better" experience for the user. An example is creating an amazing onboarding experience for a new user.
“Define interaction models, user task flow, and interface specifics. Develop scenarios, end-to-end interactions, interaction models, GUI development. Working with our creative director and graphic designer to combine the visual side of Twitter with its functionality. Develop and maintain wireframes, mockups and specs as needed."
An example of an app screen designed by a UX designer
Source: Kitchenware Pro Kit Wireframe by Neway Lau on Dribbble.
Task: Screen wireframes, storyboards, site plan
Tools: Photoshop, Sketch, Illustrator, Fireworks, InVision
You probably heard from him: The “Thank you” page should be visible to the user after registration is complete.”
UI designer
Unlike UX designers who are concerned with the overall perception of a product, UI designers care about how the product looks. They are responsible for designing each screen or page that the user interacts with and provide the visual part of the user interface that the UX designer has designed. For example, a UI designer, when creating an analytics panel, may bring more important information to the top, or decide whether a slider or control panel is the most intuitive to add to a chart. The UI designer is also usually responsible for creating complete guide on design, which provides a coherent design language that spans the entire product. Maintain consistency of visual elements and determine which direction to work on. For example, how to display errors or warnings is the purview of a UI designer.
“The concept and implementation of the Airbnb.com visual language. Creation of an extended style guide.»
The lines between UI and UX designer are quite blurry and very often companies choose to combine these roles.
UI designer determines the overall perception and appearance applications.
Source: Metro Style Interface 4 by Ionut Zamfir on Dribbble.
Tools: Photoshop, Sketch, Illustrator, Fireworks
"The 'login' and 'register' fields should be moved to the upper right corner."
Graphic Designer
"Graphic designers tinker with the little details that others don't pay attention to."
A graphic designer is someone who does graphics - a non-designer is more likely to answer you if you ask them what a designer does. Graphic designers don't care how screens link to each other, or how someone interacts with the product. Instead, their focus is on designing beautiful icons, controls, and visuals and creating the right look and feel. Graphic designers work on small details that others can't see and often work in Photoshop at 4x and 8x magnification.
“Produce high-quality visual projects from concept to execution, including for desktop, web and mobile devices with different resolution (icons, graphics, and marketing materials). Creating and iterating resources that reflect the brand, make the product beautiful and bring it to life.”
UI designers also often have to do not only their work, but also make pixel-perfect layout. Some companies choose not to have a separate person for the role of graphic designer.
The graphic designer designs, directs and adjusts every pixel to ensure the perfect end result.
Source: IOS 7 Guide Freebie PSD by Seevi kargwal on Dribbble.
Tools: Photoshop, Sketch
You probably heard from him:"Reduce kerning and move the button 1 pixel to the left!"
Motion designer
Remember the subtle movement when you drag the screen to update your mail on your iPhone? This is the job of a motion designer. Unlike graphic designers, who typically deal with static objects, motion designers create animations within an application. They deal with what the interface does after the user touches it. For example, they decide how the menu should slide, what effects to use for transitions, and how the button will be pressed. When done well, motion becomes an integral part of the interface, providing visual cues on how to use the product.
“Knowledge of graphic design is required, motion design, digital art, a sense of color and typography, a general awareness of materials/textures, and a practical understanding of animation. Knowledge of iOS, OS X, Photoshop and Illustrator firmware, as well as familiarity with Director (or equivalent), Quartz Composer (or equivalent), 3D computer modeling, motion graphics.
Tools: After Effects, Core Composer, Flash, Origami
You probably heard from him:"The menu should pop up from the left after 800ms."
UX researcher
A UX researcher knows all about user needs.
A UX researcher knows all about user needs. The goal of the researcher is to answer two main questions: “Who are our users?” and “What do our users want?”. As a rule, this includes user surveys, market research, and data analysis. Design is a process of constant iteration. Researchers can help with this process by conducting A/B tests to find out which design option best meets user needs. UX researchers tend to be the mainstay of large companies, where access to large amounts of data gives them ample opportunity to draw statistically significant conclusions.
“Working closely with development teams to identify research topics. Research design related to both user actions and perceptions. Conducting research using and applying a variety of methods, such as surveys.
It all depends on the degree of pumping grandmother. If the grandmother is a UX/UI designer, then, most likely, simplifying metaphors are not required. For a less inquisitive grandmother, this may be an excuse: “I am engaged in mobile and online applications.” If we try to make a definition from words understandable to the average grandmother, reflecting the meaning as concisely and closely as possible, then it will be: “I am engaged in improving the quality of digital services (UX), including designing points, channels for obtaining these services (UI)”.
Tatiana Pchelintseva, Graduate of the UX/UI Design course at BHSAD
“To my grandmother... It turned out that even my dad, until recently, did not understand what I was doing. There was a funny incident. Dad asked who I was studying for. I answered that we are making digital products, improving user experience. (Pause) “Do you sell cheese over the Internet?” Why exactly cheese, I still do not understand, but I was very impressed. I had to tell that each of us is a UX designer.
Parents recently made repairs in the apartment, arranged it in accordance with their needs: wall shelves at the height at which it would be convenient for mom to arrange books, the sofa is at such a distance from the TV that its impact on the eyes is minimal, the coffee maker is always in a prominent place . A UX designer is also designing, but not so much his own as someone else's experience: he identifies the goals of the user / business, determines their pains and offers solutions.
Denis Ushakov, BHSAD graduate
“The hardest thing about what I do was to explain to my grandmother, who perceives the phrase “product design” as something related to the grocery store - and constantly asks what kind of products I work with. :)
But in general, for both grandma and parents, an explanation using the example of a car steering wheel is quite suitable: UX design explains the location of the steering wheel in the car, and UI explains its appearance.
As an example, one of the graduation projects of our students this year is a digital showcase for Tele2. This is a self-service kiosk in Tele2 stores, which allows you to get the necessary services yourself and save time. The course students were faced with the task of reworking the UX and UI of the digital storefront in such a way as to make this service convenient, increase conversion and “digitize” communications between subscribers and a mobile operator.
Project of students of the BHSAD UX/UI Design course for Tele2: digital showcase for Tele2
The designers thought over both the list of storefront functions and their sequence, the location of navigation on the screen, the steps for obtaining this service. To do this effectively, it is not enough just to draw the screen, it is all developed based on research, testing and other product design tools that a UX / UI designer should own.
2. What are the competencies of an ideal UX/UI designer?
At the time of the emergence of the term "user experience design" (UXD), the term "interface design" (UID) already existed and had a clear stable list of artifacts - those results of the work of a digital product interface designer that made it possible to make an interface: icons, buttons, mockups, UI kit, working with fonts, grids, creating illustrations, and so on.
The introduction of UXD competencies into the development of digital solutions has spawned a class of UX designers who have added new artifacts to this process related to a more scientific and metric approach to service design: usability research, user research, information architecture development, user route analysis. It's like a furniture designer working with an ergonomist to create chairs that are not just beautiful and strong, but also more comfortable.
With the advent of flexibility in software(Agile, Scrum), the number of highly specialized experts in teams begins to decrease due to an increase in the number of competencies of each participant. In agile product teams, it becomes immediately clear that separating UX and UI responsibilities increases development time due to the fact that the requirements for “acceptance” of work between designers are constantly changing and growing. In the end, one of the designers may get sick, then all the work gets up. Therefore, product teams prefer to recruit UX/UI designers who combine, albeit sometimes superficially, both UXD and UID competencies than two deep experts.
A combination of UX/UI designer competencies
How much do these designers earn? hh.ru will most accurately answer this question. According to the service, today companies are ready to offer UX / UI designers from 70 to 200 thousand per month and more.
You can build your trajectory from different starting points, but, of course, if you start from a graphic designer, software developer, digital business analyst, social or psychological researcher, then this trajectory will be shorter and the path will be faster. Design teams have an element of complementarity, mutual learning. For the effectiveness of this process, the so-called "star maps" are compiled, where the degree of possession of different competencies is marked. And, for example, if the designer does not know animation, then he is transferred to a team where this skill is developed. This is how we treat our students, only rotation occurs at the end of each module.
Daria Salnikova, UX/UI designer at Tele2
“Before studying in Britain, I worked as a graphic designer, there were projects on web services, but at some point I didn’t like the fact that I connect to the product only at the last stage, when I can no longer influence its usability. That is, you draw buttons, icons, arrange them according to the technical task, even if you internally understand that it will be inconvenient or will not solve the problem.
Therefore, I decided to delve into UX / UI design, understand how a product is developed from scratch, research is carried out, the user is studied, his tasks and behavior? and how all this is reflected in the interface. First, I took an introductory online course from AIC, then I went for an internship in Britain. After several training projects for Golden Crown and Mail.Ru, I got a job as a UX / UI designer at Tele2. In addition to the portfolio, it was important how I can work in a team, what roles I took in these projects, what tasks, in addition to interfaces, I can solve other soft skills.
Now I am working on a loyalty system for Tele2 customers. And this is completely different: we work with analysts, and when it comes to UI, I can already argue the location, shape, color of each interface element. We had guys on the course who did not come from the field of design (marketers, managers, developers). On the course, they mastered prototyping tools, learned how to make some interface elements. It is clear that they do not have the same design background as graphic designers. But it's so great when even managers or developers understand design, can make a prototype, fix a banner, an icon, and generally begin to understand that design is a lot of work.
Dmitry Ershov, Head of Cloud Services, MegaLabs JSC
“MegaLabs has several teams, among which MegaFon products are distributed. For example, we are currently looking for designers for the MegaFon.Bank and MegaFon.TV teams. When I have already looked at the portfolio and communicate with a UX / UI specialist, I first check my knowledge of the theory: composition, typography, coloring. I ask several questions for each of the topics, and if the designer answers “I see it that way” - immediately minus 1 point. But if, for example, he suggests choosing a color using a triadic scheme, it becomes clear that he is familiar with the basics of coloring.
When the theory is tested, I find out which of the five levels of UX according to the Jess Garrett model is the most “pumped” in the candidate, and depending on the level I give several tasks. MegaFon product designers are people who create interfaces based on the goals and needs of the company's customers. Preference is given to those who understand the problems and offer several solutions on the spot.
Development questions are also always asked at the interview. I usually show several sites and ask how many columns are in the grid, or what is the difference between JS and CSS. The designer must be able to explain all this in order to “package” his ideas in a language understandable to developers.”
3. Is it difficult to find a job?
On the one hand, the industry is experiencing a shortage of such specialists and is ready to pay a lot, on the other hand, many designers are now looking for work and cannot find a decent job for a long time. What is the problem with both?
First of all, you need to change your thinking. From "how to make beautiful portfolio screens" to "how to make people happier after interacting with a product". It may turn out that you don’t have to draw screens at all, and people will thank you for it. To create these artifacts, actual design tools and methodologies are used: Design thinking, User story mapping, User Flow Mapping, Customer Journey Mapping, Split testing, Usability testing, quantitative research and many others. Although sometimes you can come to the right results in the wrong way. The situation in the market for new professions is unstable, now this is a rather popular and profitable occupation, but demand creates supply.
Evgeny Zasimenko, BHSAD graduate, product designer at Avito
“I started looking for a job as a product designer a few months before the end of the course. It cannot be said that it is very active, but I liked Avito when we were there on an excursion from the British. The hiring process was pretty standard for the design industry: portfolio review, test assignment, two interviews, and I got an offer.
Product development is primarily a team effort in which the designer must participate from the very beginning and draw interfaces based on metrics and research, be able to create prototypes for tests, work in conjunction with developers and, most importantly, must help achieve a common goal.
The processes of companies that require a product designer raise the bar for entry: in addition to understanding design tools, they also require practical experience in using them, as well as the ability to work in a team. Therefore, in addition to relevant tools and methodologies, we give our students real cases from major brands and combine them into cross-functional teams.
During this year, we managed to complete about 20 projects for various types of companies: from the expected fintech - Alfa-Bank, MTS, MegaFon - to start-ups from the field of agricultural technology. Many students were able to find a job after defending projects in those companies for which they did the project, because customers see their competencies and practical experience in the process.
Denis Ushakov, BHSAD graduate
“Our project was to develop the AgroClick mobile application for Exact Farming. The scouting agronomist app helps him keep all his plant data in one place, organize it and share it quickly. The essence of the solution is to speed up communication between the scouting agronomist, who is in the field all day collecting information about crops, and the specialist agronomist, who makes key decisions in the office, for example, on the purchase of pesticides.
Now I continue to work on the project as a product designer already on the staff of this company. The client himself offered me the position of a product designer, because they already saw what I was capable of, we had experience joint work. It seems to me that almost all classmates by the end of their studies got a job related to UX / UI in companies such as Raiffeisenbank, Sberbank Technologies, Tele2, Mail.ru, IBM Russia and others.
4. Will the demand for such specialists continue to grow in the next 5 years?
Due to the fact that the businesses of various companies - from banks to restaurants - are being digitized, we can expect the growth of in-house development and the transition to custom-made product rails. Hence, the need for UX/UI designers will be high. I can’t promise mountains of gold, as the market for new professions is adapting faster and faster to demand, as it was with specialists in big data, machine learning, blockchain and other areas, but an educated product designer with a good portfolio and track record is now expensive and in demand all over the world.
“I think that the point here is not so much in the name “UX / UI design”, but in the functionality and responsibility. Demand will not fall, of course, but for whom? Waves are observed: at first everyone was looking for a generalist - a designer-layout-copywriter. This was due to the fact that companies either did not have the money for this, or they did not understand why they should spend it on designers. Then the UX hype began, in-house research and design departments appeared, and not so much the concept of a button as of a user experience began to be used. We started playing testing, design thinking, eye trackers. We began to think in processes, not screens.
I think the next wave will focus on awareness and implementation of the basic concepts and principles of UX in all professions involved in the creation of a product. That is, specialists who at the DNA level understand the principles of research, the main methods of analyzing users and processes, and designing experiences will be in demand. And this does not exclude high design skills. I believe in the growth of design competence, because a designer is good, but no one has canceled the feeling of beauty in the broadest sense of the word.
5. How does the work of a UX/UI designer affect everyday life?
If we accept that almost everything we use was invented by designers, then almost all mass digital services - mobile sites, web services and others - are now being invented by Digital Product Designers. Banking applications, telecom services, e-commerce, dating services , geolocation and information services... You can continue for a long time - it's easier to open the desktop mobile phone or laptop desktop and browse installed apps. All these are digital products, the logical and visual components of which are being worked on by UX/UI designers.
BHSAD for MTS UX/UI Design course students project: a mobile guide for adaptation and development of MTS employees
The work can range from creating an entirely new product to digitizing existing services. For example, our students made a case for MTS - a mobile guide for the adaptation of new employees and their development with a gamification system and other functions. There has always been an adaptation system: from a standard HR department to HR services and a mentoring system, but it is the digital solution that is something new. It is more flexible, efficient and allows you to solve various problems of the company through a single service: networking, training, organization of work of employees.
The lifetime of profitable business models is rapidly shrinking. To stay afloat, you need to constantly create new and develop existing digital products. Brands that can't adapt to speed go off the track. Therefore, modern companies are moving to fast adaptive cycles of constant change. This is just about the notorious Agile and Scrum. Design-Develop-Learn and again in a circle. Therefore, design expertise as part of this circle becomes fundamental.
Alina Ermakova, Head of Analytical Research of User Interaction at Sberbank-Technology
“A couple of weeks ago, I returned from the Enterprise UX conference in San Francisco. Large companies talked about how they design government services, or large fintech systems, or, for example, how Uber maintains consistency, being located in 77 countries of the world. UX/UI is already in their DNA. This is not a stage, not a method, this is a normal production process. There are no design thinking ceremonies, for example.
The whole process of creating products is design thinking. The team uses the necessary methods where they feel they need to. This is part of the job. And it was not young hipster designers hired to draw interfaces that entered the scene. There were uncles and aunts over 45, business owners, managing directors of corporations. Because it is already at the level of common sense.
6. What methodologies are currently the most popular?
In Russia, the culture of product design is just emerging. The Design Thinking framework has already become an integral part of the internal corporate training program in our large companies and corporations: Rosatom, Sberbank, Alfa-Bank and others.
In digital companies, Design Thinking derivatives are traditionally popular - Google Ventures Design Sprints, IBM Design Thinking, as well as various Design Thinking tool parts - character modeling, ethnographic research, stakeholder maps, user journey mapping (Customer Journey Mapping) and others. Relatively new, but noteworthy is the Jobs To Be Done framework, where the product is developed not so much based on the characteristics of the user, but on the basis of the situation in which he finds himself. The relevance of the methodology depends both on the scope of the company and on internal processes. Implementing the same Scrum in a large company is longer and more difficult than in a startup, but everything is real, the main thing is the desire to make a cool product for people.
Dmitry Ershov, Head of Cloud Services, MegaLabs JSC
“For products that will not change, we use the classic waterfall development model, and for constantly evolving ones, we choose SCRUM. We describe new products or functionality using use case diagrams, but try on the concept of Jobs To Be Done, in which such diagrams are not needed.
During the planning of new releases, we evaluate the functionality in terms of importance for users, for business and for labor costs. The most difficult thing is to evaluate the importance for users. To achieve greater objectivity, we use the HEART framework. It helps to look at new functionality through the prism of user goals.
Sometimes disputes arise, for example, the product owner does not agree with the designer. In such cases, we develop and launch different options at the same time to evaluate the effectiveness of each of them. The most effective solution is determined by user behavior statistics.”
7. What industries are UX/UI design techniques integrating into in the future?
If we take world practice, the slowest developing areas with low competition, for example, public services - there is where to put your hand. In our country, traditionally low financial and legal literacy, because of this, products aimed at wealth management and all kinds of legal services do not appear as quickly as we would like.
On the course, we are just doing a lot of fintech, one of the recent cases is mobile service that helps a person manage their finances and invest. In order to remove the communication barrier between the bank and the user, the students came to the decision to make a tool in the chatbot format that can work in any messenger convenient for the user.
A project by students of the BHSAD UX/UI Design course for Ak Bars Bank: a personal financial assistant, a tool for investing in any convenient messenger.
IDEO has been a recognized driving force in the application of design thinking for many years. From their latest cases, you can see that this methodology is actively beginning to be applied in the field of education, the development of wearable electronics, and solving global problems.
It is obvious that the growth of competition in various types of business has forced companies to go digital. Therefore, if today we see that agrotech, medicine, restaurant business and other offline areas have begun to provide services online, then tomorrow they will need our methodologies to offer the market new functions and products, come up with and update their digital solutions faster, be more flexible. and make your customers happier.
“Most companies still treat UX/UI research, design thinking and other creative techniques as a service, a separate service that can be ordered or hired. “Thinking like a designer” can’t be bought, you have to start. Everyone =),” says Alina Ermakova, Head of Analytical Research of User Interaction at Sberbank-Technology.
UX design is built around knowledge of human psychology, and over the years of studying users, there are many laws of the psyche that you need to know when designing an interface.
UX Design: Fitts' Law
The time to reach the target is a function of the distance to the target and its size. In 1954, psychologist Paul Fitts, who studied the human motor system, showed that the time it takes to hit a target depends on the distance to the target, and is also inversely related to the size of the target. According to this law, fast movements and small targets lead to more errors. Fitts' Law is widely applied in UI and UX. For example, according to this law, interactive buttons should be made large because small buttons are harder to click and take longer.
Hick's law
Decision time increases with the number and complexity of choices. The greater the number of stimuli, the longer the user will have to choose which one to interact with. If users are bombarded with choices, they will have to take the time to interpret and decide what they don't want to do.
Jacob's Law
Users spend large quantity time on other sites. This means that users prefer your site to work just like the sites they already know. Jakob's Law was invented by Jakob Nielsen, co-founder of the Nielsen Norman Group, who has made huge contributions to UX, such as inventing the heuristic evaluation method.
law of pregnancy
Humans will perceive and interpret ambiguous or complex images in the simplest possible way, because this interpretation requires the least amount of cognitive effort from us. This law was discovered in 1910 by psychologist Max Wertheimer when he saw lights near a railroad crossing. It was like turning lights on and off around the stage. To the observer, it appears to be the same light that goes from light bulb to light bulb, when in fact it is just a series of light bulbs that turn on and off in turn.
UX Design: The Law of Proximity
Objects close to each other are perceived as a group. This law is also one of the fundamental ones in Gestalt psychology and was discovered by Wertheimer. He observed that a rapid series of events created the illusion of movement. Movies, for example, are fast moving frames that are perceived as a continuous visual experience.
Miller's Law
On average, a person can retain 7 ± 2 items in their working memory. In 1956 George Miller that the range of immediate memory and absolute judgment was limited to about 7 pieces of information. The basic unit of information is the bit, the amount of data required to choose between two equally likely alternatives. That is, 4 bits of information is a decision between 16 paired alternatives (4 consecutive binary decisions). The point at which the confusion causes misjudgment is the bandwidth of the link.
Parkinson's Law
Any task takes all the time allotted for it. According to this law, restrictions in time, space or budget lead to increased productivity and efficiency.
Serial Arrangement Effect
Users remember best the first and last objects in a series. Serial placement manipulation to create a better user experience is used in many popular designs by successful companies like Apple, Electronic Arts and Nike.
UX Design: Tesler's Law
Tesler's Law, or the Law of Conservation of Complexity, states that for any system there is a certain value that cannot be reduced. In the mid-1980s, Larry Tesler realized that user interaction with applications was as important as the applications themselves. He says that in many cases, an engineer should spend an extra week simplifying an application rather than having millions of users spend an extra minute using a complex program. However, Bruce Tognazzini argues that people resist simplifying their lives. Therefore, if the application is simple, users begin to strive for more complex tasks.
UX Design: The Von Restorff Effect
The development of user interfaces with a competent approach is built in such a way as to create it as attractive and convenient as possible to optimize its interaction with the user.
Web interface developers in any project are faced with the task of creating a user-friendly interface. However, this is not always such a simple task as it might seem at first glance, and sometimes requires considerable design experience. The main requirements here are convenience, practicality and intuitiveness. It is at this point that concepts like UX and UI design come into play, which are often confused. Let's consider each of them separately and define their key points.
UX design (UX design)
User Experience Design translated means "interaction experience" and includes various UX components: information architecture, interaction design, graphic design and content.
In general, UX design implies an integrated approach to the user's interaction with the interface, whether it be a website, mobile app or any other program. The person who does this job is UX designer(recently, more and more often you can hear the names of a UX architect, UX engineer or strategist, since the word “design” in this context is more of a common noun than what we actually used to understand as the meaning of this word) - when developing an interface should take into account as much as possible all the little things, starting from the user environment and the type of electronic device and ending with the ways of entering and displaying information.
Simple example: let's say you invested an impressive amount of money to promote your resource to the first lines search engines However, its convenience leaves much to be desired. In this case, an impressive number of users will simply leave the site and the effect of this will be minimal. That is why it is necessary to constantly analyze the actions of visitors to the resource, improve your site and follow current trends.
Key questions addressed by UX design:
- Setting goals and objectives - what do we need to achieve in the end?
- Selection of suitable UX tools to achieve goals
- Development of a product that is as convenient and easy to perceive by the target audience
- Analysis of the end result - whether the product meets the customer's expectations and how high the level of user satisfaction is.
It is the competent thoughtfulness of all the details at these stages that will allow you to create an army of fans of your product. A prime example here is Apple company who followed this path and won the hearts of thousands and millions.
UI design
User Interface Design or user interface is a narrower concept that includes a certain set of graphically designed technical elements (buttons, checkboxes, selectors and other fields). Its task is to help the user organize interaction with the program / site. At present, there are some UI design rules:
- Organization of interface elements. This means that they must be logically structured and interconnected.
- Grouping interface elements. It implies grouping logically related elements (menus, forms).
- Alignment of interface elements. It's hard to imagine that a badly aligned interface can be user-friendly!
- Uniform style of interface elements. Styling plays an important role, because it is stored in the user's memory.
- Availability of free space. This allows you to delimit information blocks, focusing on one thing.
The user interface developed according to all the rules significantly increases the efficiency of the resource and gives it a competitive advantage.
Information architecture (IA)
Separately, I would like to say a few words about Information Architecture (IA). Its activity is focused on the organization of data, that is, how much information is structured in terms of the user, and not technical or system rules. It determines the placement of elements on the page, the connection of the pages themselves. The competence of IA is rather a menu and navigation and their competent implementation.
Summing up, I would like to note that in different sources UX design means different things, but in general they all mean the work on the product described in the article. What does UX mean to you?
