What is UX Design?

User experience design (UXD or UED) is a process of amplifying customer satisfaction and retention by enhancing the usefulness, ease of use, and joy provided in the interaction between the customer and the end product. User experience includes every aspect of a person’s interaction with the product, including the user interface, graphics and hardware design.


Elements of User Experience Design  

• Visual Design: This element deals with the appearance or look-and-feel of the user interface. The aim of visual design is to use elements like images, graphics and symbols in a way that it conveys a given message to the audience in the most appealing manner. In short, Visual Design enhances the look and information conveying capability of visual data.

• Interface Design: As in the traditional Human Computer Interaction, an effective interface was designed to facilitate communication of the user with the hardware (or functionality), interface design involves creating and designing interface elements to provide a friendly user-interface.

• Information Design: It involves designing information to facilitate easy and better understanding.

• Interaction Design: It involves designing the interactive systems to optimize their behavior and usability. It plays a crucial role in providing a better end user experience. Interaction designers take care of several things while working, like defining suitable interaction patterns, including user needs in the design, maintaining uniformity, etc.

• Navigation Design: It involves designing of interface elements to facilitate smooth navigation throughout the product or application.

• Functional Specifications: It involves creating a set of features the product must include in order to meet the user requirements.
• Information Architecture: It involves creating, organizing and maintaining information to facilitate easy access to content.

• Content Requirements: It involves defining required content elements to meet user requirements.

Software and tools for UX designers

Most of the UX designers prefer inexpensive and browser-based tools. Here is a list of a few of them:

Wireframing and prototyping tools:

• UX Pin: UX Pin is one of the most popular tools, providing a wide range of features, including fast and easy wireframing, solid prototyping and easy responsive designing.

• Wireframe.cc: It is a very simple wireframing tool best suited to develop mockups, concepts and layouts.

• Solidify App: With this wonderful tool, you can create and test prototypes, and get numerical facts about user behavior.

• Proto.io: It is a very useful tool for creating mobile prototypes. With the new version, you can even add your feedback.

• Other popular tools include InVision, P.O.P. App, Axure, Paper sketches, Flinto, Pidoco, Appery, Easel, Mockflow, OmniGraffle, HotGloo, Handcraft and the list is very long.

User research and testing tools:

• Wufoo: This tool automatically builds the database, backend and scripts when you create online forms for conducting surveys. This makes gathering and analyzing data quite simple and fast.

• TypeForm: This tool helps you create simple, stylish, responsive and user-friendly forms for online survey needs.

• Bagel Hint: This tool makes the process of comparing different UI versions with a pre-defined array of questions quite easy.

• Verify App: With this tool, one can upload his/her design quickly and perform testing. You can even check detailed reports after the test.

• Other tools include Usabilla, Morae, UX Recorder, Google Hangouts , PollDaddy, WebNotes, Concept Feedback, Frelay, Plunk, Intuition HQ, Delight.io, Camtasia etc.

Information Organization tools:

• Lucid Chart: Allows you to draw a variety of effective visual elements like flow charts, UML diagrams, and ER models.

• MindMeister: Allows you to organize information in maps that connect content, images and links.

• Other tools include Coggle.it, Optimal Sort, WebSort, Xsort, Gliffy, Google Drawings, Xmind, Mindjet and many more.

Analytics and Metrics tools:

There are numerous analytics and metrics tools available in the market like Crazy Egg , Good Data, KISSmetrics, Tableau, Maxymiser, App Annie, Click Density, Flurry, Woopra, Piwik, Clicky, etc.

Providing an enhanced user experience is crucial to the success of any product. UX design clearly provides a way to achieve this success with a planned and strategic approach. If the designer takes care of all the elements of user experience design and use appropriate software and tools, he/she can provide a better end user experience and thus, better business.