CCS370-UI AND UX DESIGN PIT-CSE-III Year –V

COMPUTATION SEM

PANIMALAR INSTITUTE OF TECHNOLOGY

DEPARTMENT OF CSE
R-2021
ACADEMIC YEAR :2022-2023
BATCH :2021-2025
YEAR/SEM :III/V
SUBJECTCODE/TITLE :CCS370/UI AND UX DESIGN
UNIT-3

FOUNDATIONS OF UX DESIGN

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UNIT III FOUNDATIONS OF UX DESIGN

Introduction to User Experience - Why You Should Care about User Experience -
Understanding User Experience - Defining the UX Design Process and its
Methodology - Research in User Experience Design - Tools and Method used for
Research - User Needs and its Goals - Know about Business Goals

INTRODUCTION TO USER EXPERIENCE:

What is user experience?

The user experience (UX) is what a user of a particular product experiences when using that
product. User experience encompasses all aspects of the end-user's interaction with the
company, its services, and its products.

Requirements of user experience:

 The first requirement for an user experience is to meet the exact needs of the customer,
without fuss or bother.
 Simplicity and elegance that produce products that are a joy to own, a joy to use.
 In order to achieve high-quality user experience in a company's offerings there must be
a seamless merging of the services of multiple disciplines, including engineering,
marketing, graphical and industrial design, and interface design.

Difference between user experience and customer experience:

User experience encompasses all aspects of the end-user's interaction with the company, its
services, and its products.
The term customer experience (CX) has been used to describe the totality of the interactions
that a user has with an organization over time.

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Levels of user experience:

The 7 factors that influence user experience

User Experience (UX) is critical to the success or failure of a product in the market. There
are 7 factors that describe user experience, according to Peter Morville a pioneer in the UX
field

Useful
If a product isn’t useful to someone why would you want to bring it to market? If it has no
purpose, it is unlikely to be able to compete for attention alongside a market full of
purposeful and useful products.
Usable
Usability is concerned with enabling users to effectively and efficiently achieve their end
objective with a product
Findable
Findable refers to the idea that the product must be easy to find and in the instance of digital
and information products; the content within them must be easy to find too.
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Credible
Credibility relates to the ability of the user to trust in the product that you’ve provided. Not
just that it does the job that it is supposed to do but that it will last for a reasonable amount of
time and that the information provided with it is accurate and fit-for-purpose.
Desirable
Desirability is conveyed in design through branding, image, identity, aesthetics and
emotional design. The more desirable a product is – the more likely it is that the user who has
it will brag about it and create desire in other users.
Accessible
Accessibility is about providing an experience which can be accessed by users of a full range
of abilities – this includes those who are disabled in some respect such as hearing loss,
impaired vision, motion impaired or learning impaired.
Valuable
the product must deliver value. It must deliver value to the business which creates it and to
the user who buys or uses it. Without value it is likely that any initial success of a product
will eventually be undermined.

The Five Main Ingredients of UX

 Psychology
 Usability
 Design
 Copywriting
 Analysis
1. Psychology
A user’s mind is complex. You should know; you have one, (I assume). UXers work with
subjective thoughts and feelings a lot; they can make or break your results. And the designer
must ignore their own psychology sometimes, too, and that’s hard!
Ask yourself:
 What is the user’s motivation to be here in the first place?
 How does this make them feel?
 How much work does the user have to do to get what they want?
 What habits are created if they do this over and over?
 What do they expect when they click this?
2. Usability
If user psychology is mostly subconscious, usability is mostly conscious. You know when
something is confusing. There are cases where it is more fun if something is hard—like a
game—but for everything else, we want it to be so easy.
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Ask yourself:

 Could you get the job done with less input from the user?
 Are there any user mistakes you could prevent? (Hint: Yes, there are.)
 Are you being clear and direct, or is this a little too clever?
 Is it easy to find (good), hard to miss (better), or subconsciously expected (best)?
 Are you working with the user’s assumptions or against them?
3. Design
As the UX designer, your definition of ―design‖ will be much less artistic than a lot of
designers. Whether you ―like it‖ is irrelevant. In UX, design is how it works, and it’s
something you can prove; it’s not a matter of style.

Ask yourself:
 Do users think it looks good? Do they trust it immediately?
 Does it communicate the purpose and function without words?
 Does it represent the brand? Does it all feel like the same site?
 Does the design lead the user’s eyes to the right places? How do you know?
4. Copywriting
There is a huge difference between writing brand copy (text) and writing UX copy. Brand
copy supports the image and values of the company. UX copy gets shit done as directly and
simply as possible.

Ask yourself:

 Does it sound confident and tell the user what to do?

 Does it motivate the user to complete their goal? Is that what we want?
 Is the biggest text the most important text? Why not?
 Does it inform the user or does it assume that they already understand?
5. Analysis
In my opinion, most designers’ weak spot is analysis. But we can fix that! Analysis is the
main thing that separates UX from other types of design, and it makes you extremely
valuable. It literally pays to be good at it.
So, ask yourself:

 Are you using data to prove that you are right, or to learn the truth?
 Are you looking for subjective opinions or objective facts?
 Have you collected information that can give you those types of answers?
 Do you know why users do that, or are you interpreting their behavior?
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 Are you looking at absolute numbers, or relative improvements?
What Is User Experience (UX) Design?
User experience (UX) design is the process design teams use to create products that provide
meaningful and relevant experiences to users. UX design involves the design of the entire
process of acquiring and integrating the product, including aspects of branding, design,
usability and function.

UX Design—A Formal Definition

The International Organization for Standardization (ISO) defines user experience as:
―A person's perceptions and responses that result from the use or anticipated use of a product,
system or service.‖
We can break this definition into two parts:
 A person’s perceptions and responses.
 The use of a product, system or service.

In user experience, designers do not have much control over a person’s perceptions and
responses—the first part of the definition. For example, they cannot control how someone
feels, moves their fingers or controls their eyes as they use a product. However, designers can
control how the product, system or service behaves and looks—the second part of the
definition.

The simplest way to think about user experience design is as a verb and a noun. A UX
designer designs (verb)—ideates, plans, changes—the things that affect the user experience
(noun)—perceptions and responses to a system or service.

UX Designers Consider the Who, Why, What, and How of Product Use

The Why involves the users’ motivations for adopting a product, whether they relate to a task
they wish to perform with it or to values and views that users associate with the ownership
and use of the product. The What addresses the things people can do with a product—its
functionality. Finally, the How relates to the design of functionality in an accessible and
aesthetically pleasant way

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UX Design is User-Centered
User-centered design is an iterative process where you take an understanding of the users and
their context as a starting point for all design and development.

Why is UX design important?

UX design is important because it focuses on fulfilling user needs. This ultimately benefits
businesses as it improves brand reputation and loyalty. A good user experience provides a
competitive edge and reduces the risk of product failure
What does a UX designer do?
 A UX designer’s role in a project depends on the team size and project type. In small
projects and teams, you can expect to conduct several tasks, including user research,
creating user flows, wireframes, and prototypes, conducting usability tests, producing
visual elements such as icons, and even defining the brand identity.
 In larger organizations and complex products, you may have more specialist roles such
as researcher, interface designer and UX writer.

UX designers tend to be concerned with, as you can see from the image below, 3 primary
factors: the look of a product, the feel of that product and the usability of that product.

 The look of a product is all about creating a product that has visual appeal and which,
in particular, harmonizes with a user’s values and captures the spirit of what they
expect in that product
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 The feel, which is really about developing products that are ―a joy to use‖. That is,
whether you’re interacting with them or reacting to them
 Usability is the cornerstone of user experience. If a product isn’t usable, the experience
of using it can never be good

Skills for UX designer

 Leadership
 communication
 project management
 presenting

What Do Graphic Design and UX Design Have in Common?

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Emotional Design
Graphic design is about emotional communication through typography, color and images;
serif fonts and dark, duller colors evoke seriousness, while san-serif fonts and bright colors
tend to bring out a sense of joy or excitement.
Graphic designers are hence very often emotional designers who elicit specific reactions in a
user. UX design is also concerned with shaping the emotions of the user
Creative thinking
Graphic designers and UX designers are both equally skilled at creative thinking. For graphic
designers, creating visuals that adhere to conventions. UX designers have to create products
that solve users’ problems
Prototyping
Graphic designers often create mockups and wireframes of their designs prior to delivering a
finished design.
UX designers create mockups and prototypes too, but these tend to be less focused on the
―look‖ of the product and more on the ―feel‖ of it.

The Differences between Graphic Design and UX Design

User-focused vs pixel-focused
Graphic designers tend to pursue pixel perfection in their designs. Ensuring that texts have
perfect kerning and colors conform to brand guidelines. UX designers, however, are
primarily focused on users. They study the interface between users and the product, finding
ways to ensure that the product answers to the user’s key needs

Iterative problem solving

UX design is very much an iterative problem solving process, and it can be very different
from what you’re used to doing as a graphic designer.

Multi-disciplinary vs specialized
Graphic design is a specialized discipline, and there is a certain level of craftsmanship and set
of specialized skills (such as typography and color theory) required to produce great visuals.
UX design, on the other hand, is much more multi-disciplinary and involves many schools of
knowledge. UX designers have to constantly learn about human psychology, interaction
design, information architecture and user research techniques

What are the Five Elements of UX Design?

The 5 elements that we’ve selected that need to be examined in a UX context are:

 Usefulness of the Website

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 Adherence to Functionality
 Usability
 Influence
 Visual Design

Usefulness of the Website

The most fundamental question asked of each website by its users; ―How is this useful to
me?‖
One of the reasons that we define our users before we develop a website is because we need
to be able to show usefulness to an audience. By defining an audience clearly, the developer
of the cars and maintenance site can safely ignore people like me when considering their user
experience

Adherence to Functionality
Adherence to functionality means – ―does it work?‖. Dead links, for example, are a case of
broken functionality. Failure for a site to display properly on a particular screen or in a
particular browser is a case of broken functionality. It stands to reason that a user’s
experience will be less than perfect if they find that your website is a buggy mess that doesn’t
deliver on the promise of that site

Usability
Some people tend to see usability as the whole of UX design. Usability is a part of UX
design. Usability is quite simply a measure of how simple it is for a user to learn the site and
how easy it is to use the site in the long-term.

Influence
Most websites are designed to serve a commercial purpose. To sell products, services,
subscriptions, etc. A critical component of user experience is the ability to influence your
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users to do what you want them to do. The key metric of influence is usually the conversion
rate.

Visual Design
Different audiences react differently to different elements of design. Visual design plays a
critical role in the user experience and once again, the users will know what they respond to
and what they don’t respond to.

WHY YOU SHOULD CARE ABOUT USER EXPERIENCE:

•UX tries to fulfil the user’s needs and builds a better customer satisfaction–conversion–
retention journey.
•UX aims to provide positive experiences to the user that keeps them loyal to the product or
brand.
•UX defines customer journeys on your product and establishes a two-way relationship
between the maker and the user.
•UX reduces costs for development/bug fixing/marketing and so on.
•UX provides improved return on investment (ROI)
•Sometimes the product doesn’t need to be innovative. It simply takes the usual idea and
represents it differently. The user-focused design makes the product stand out.
•UX helps provide intuitive experience, coherence & continuity and platform-specific
designs.
•Providing a good user experience foundation for your product or service ensures that people
use your products because they genuinely enjoy using them, not just because it gets the job
done
•It also helps to reduce development-waste. Research has shown that companies who invest
in UX reduce development cycles by 33 to 50%.
•People are willing to pay up to 25% more for a reliable product or service
Increased Customer Satisfaction
A good UI/UX is therefore essential if you want a website that is easy to navigate and that
customers will look forward to buying products or services from.
Establishing Brand Name
When people want to know more about a brand, they look up its website. What they see in
the first few seconds is crucial as that marks the first impression they ever have of your
brand. So it is important to help develop a good first impression with a website that is
aesthetically pleasing, interactive, and not only simply opens with one click.
Encourages Conversions
Given the increase in competition in every type of industry, many websites are selling similar
products. One way to make sure that visitors of your site turn into customers is by giving
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them a great experience on your website.
Conserves Time and Money
If you spend on an effective UI/UX design, there is very little chance that your customers
will discover any trouble or difficulty using your product. A flawless product will not require
frequent updates and thus, help you in saving time and money.

10 Reasons Why UX is Vital to Success

1.Efficiency and Productivity:
•A good user experience (UX) ensures that users can navigate, find what they need, and
accomplish their goals quickly and efficiently.
•This is achieved through a combination of user research, usability testing, and design
thinking.
•A UX designer will work to understand the needs and behaviors of users, create user-
centered interfaces that are easy to use and navigate, and continuously test and refine the
design to improve the overall experience.
2.Loyalty and Retention:
•When users find a website or application easy and enjoyable to use, they are more likely to
return to it.
•UX design not only improves the usability and accessibility of a digital product but also
focuses on the emotional design aspect, which helps create positive emotions and feelings for
users when they interact with the product.
3.Accessibility:
•Accessibility is important not only from a user’s point of view, but it also has legal and
ethical considerations.
•Accessibility in digital products refers to the ability of a website or application to be easily
used by people with disabilities, such as visual, auditory, motor, and cognitive impairments.
•It ensures that everyone, regardless of their abilities, has equal access to the information and
functionality of the digital product.
4.Increase user engagement:
•When users find a website or application easy and enjoyable to use, they are more likely to
spend more time on it, which can lead to improved conversion rates, sales, and other key
metrics.
•User engagement is a measure of how much time users spend interacting with a website or
application, how many pages they view, and how frequently they return.
•When users are engaged, they are more likely to make a purchase, sign up for a service, or
take other actions that drive business goals.
•A good UX also helps increase user retention and loyalty, which will lead to more repeat
customers and more word-of-mouth advertising, ultimately driving success.

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5.Brand reputation and trust:
•Positive word-of-mouth advertising is one of the most powerful forms of marketing and can
have a significant impact on a brand’s reputation.
•A well-designed digital product with an intuitive flow can help create a positive user
experience, which can lead to more positive word-of-mouth advertising.
6.Boost search engine optimization (SEO):
•Search engines, such as Google, favour websites and applications that provide a positive
user experience, as they want to provide their users with the best possible results.
•A well-designed digital product that is easy to navigate, has a clean and organized structure,
and can help improve the website’s or application’s ranking in search engine results pages
(SERPs).
•A good UX can also lead to increased user engagement, which can help improve the
website’s or application’s SEO by lowering the bounce rate, increasing the average time on
site, and increasing the number of pages viewed per session.
7.Decreases the need for customer service and support:
•When a website or application is well-designed, it is easier for users to find what they are
looking for and complete their tasks quickly and efficiently.
•This can result in a lower rate of frustration and confusion among users, which can lead to
fewer errors and less need for customer service and support.
•The correlation between a decrease in customer support calls and higher renewals suggests
that a well-designed product with a good UX has fewer issues and overall satisfaction with
the end user.
8.Stay Competitive:
•Competition is fierce, and businesses must find ways to differentiate themselves from their
competitors.
•A good UX can help a business by providing a positive and memorable experience to users.
In today’s digital age, people have come to expect a seamless and enjoyable experience when
using websites and applications, and a positive UX can help meet those expectations
9. Improved conversion rates and sales:
•When a website or application is well-designed, it is easier for users to find what they are
looking for, complete their tasks quickly and efficiently, and ultimately make a purchase or
take the desired action.
•A positive UX can also increase user engagement, leading to more time spent on the website
or application, which can further improve conversion rates and sales.
10.Reduced development and maintenance costs:
•By designing a website or application that is intuitive, straightforward, and easy to use,
businesses can minimize the need for ongoing technical support and maintenance.
•A well-designed digital product can reduce frustration and errors from users, which
decreases the need for customer service and support, freeing up resources that can be used to
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develop and maintain the product.

UNDERSTANDING USER EXPERIENCE:

•The user experience is product (or service) specific. It is the experience that a user (or
customer) has when they interact with that product.
•We can measure the results of the user experience to some extent too.
•We can look at satisfaction reports, the level of customer care enquiries following an
interaction, the time it takes to get something done with our product, etc.

DEFINING THE UX DESIGN PROCESS AND ITS METHODOLOGY:

There isn’t any standard UX design process. However, most teams tend to follow a variation
of the 5-step design thinking process. UX design is a highly collaborative and iterative
process. Designers plug back their findings from research and testing to improve the end
user's experience.
What is a UX Design Process?
A UX design process is an iterative step-by-step methodology UX design teams use to
complete projects. It is derivative from a design thinking process. As in design thinking
process, UX designers spend time empathizing with the user, learning about the business,
context, defining problem scope.

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UX Design Process vs. Design Thinking Process
The design thinking process is a five-step process for developing user-centered solutions to
human problems. A UX design process is a multi-stage, end-to-end methodology that
incorporates design thinking for delivering UX projects.
Importance of a UX Design Process
Here are some reasons why companies standardize a UX design process:
Ensures projects meet quality and consistency standards
 Ensures designers design solutions without bias and assumptions
 Enables designers to test and iterate on many ideas to find the best solution
 Promotes collaboration between teams and departments
 Reduces the risk of rework by following set protocols
 Allows stakeholders to track a project’s progress
 Identifies hidden risks and opportunities
Steps of UX Design Process

A typical UX design process has 8 UX design process steps, from defining the product’s goal
to design handoff and making sure everything works as intended

Step 1: Define project & scope

The first step of a UX design process defines the project’s goal and scope with team
members and stakeholders from multiple departments–usually consisting of representatives
from:

Business – explains business requirements and goals for the project.

Design – communicate what they need to do prior to design and manage expectations.
Product – shares context, help plan the timeline and resources needed for design.
Technical – define feasibility and technical constraints of a UX design.

Step 2: Run research

Next, designers research the problem to find possible solutions. During the research phase,
UX designers conduct several types of research, including:
User research: Studies the target user to understand who they are, what they need, and what
context they operate; the outcome of this research are user personas, journey maps, and so
on.
Market research: Analyzes the market to determine market segmentation and product
differentiation.
Competitive research: A competitive analysis to understand how competitors solve similar
problems and identify opportunities.
Product research: Analyzing insights and analytics from an existing product to understand
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user behavior.
Step 3: Create rough draft of a solution
With a clear understanding of their users, market, and competitive landscape, designers can
create a rough draft of what a solution would look like, which is often referred to as
the ideation phase. Designers use paper and pen during early ideation to iterate on many
ideas fast.
Some of these low-fidelity techniques include:

 Sketching: Hand-drawn sketches of user interfaces

 Paper prototyping: Paper versions of a prototype
 Wireframing: Digital versions of paper prototypes featuring basic lines and shapes
 Low-fidelity prototypes: Digital prototypes using wireframes to test user
flows and information architecture
The team might also use a design sprint to solve a specific problem fast.
Step 4: Design high-fidelity mockups and prototypes
Next, the UI design team converts wireframes into mockups to build high-fidelity
prototypes that look and function like the final product. If the company has a design system,
designers will use the UI component library to build interactive prototypes.
Step 5: Conduct usability testing
The primary purpose of high-fidelity prototypes is usability testing. UX designers test these
prototypes with real users to:

 Validate ideas
 Identify usability issues
 Test accessibility
Steps 2 to 5 are iterable. Using test results, designers return to stage two or three to iterate on
ideas until they find a solution that meets desirability, viability, and feasibility criteria.
Step 6: Perform design Handoff
The second to last stage of the UX design process is the design handoff, where the design
team hands over prototypes and documentation to the development team to start the
engineering process.
Step 7: Launch your product
The final stage of the UX design process is a launch and a clear inspection of the new
release. It’s time to ensure that the new release meets the project’s business goals, user
experience, and accessibility requirements.

User Experience (UX) Process and Methodology

 User Research
 Design
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 Wireframing
 Prototype
 Testing
 Implementation and Launch

1. Always start with User Research

If you ask an experienced UX researcher what is the best UX for your website, product or
service, most likely you will not get an answer. A UX researcher should always be mindful
of the differences in opinions and perceptions toward a good user experience.
2. Start Designing with User Inputs
Users may think of the appearance of a website or product when we talk about design. They
will describe it as pretty or not pretty.
Personas
Persona is a fictional character created to describe a specific end user. Example persona is a
frequent backpacker with name, age, job details, education, location, income level, family
members and friends, familiarity with technology, hobbies, goals, characters etc explained
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and elaborated in details.

Example Persona: Alex, a 24 yo backpacker

During a meeting, you can say ―Alex would not like this feature‖ and everyone will
immediately know that you are referring to a young backpacker instead of a elderly.
User Journey Map
A user journey map is an illustration of the interaction between a user with a company,
product or service at every stage of engagement from researching, making the decision,
purchasing to post-purchase. It includes the personas, time frame, and actions for each stage,
touch points and sales channels, emotions, and experience.

Storyboards
A storyboard is a comic strip used to capture a user’s interaction with a product or service. It
allows researchers and stakeholders alike to visualize and brainstorm.

3. Wireframing
If you haven’t employed wireframing as part of your process, you should probably start
doing so. A wireframe is a visual guide with the framework of your product. It allows you to
define the information architecture, navigation design, and interface design.

4. Prototype
A prototype is the version 1.0 of your website or product. It resembles the closet version of
your final outcome.
A prototype allows the UX researchers to examine and identify any flaws, errors or
inconsistencies in overall design and experience before it is converted to the actual version
by the development team.
5. Testing
With prototypes, user testing can be conducted with users to validate the design flow and
user experience. In some e-commerce companies, testing usually makes up a big bulk of
daily routine of UX researchers. It allows them to continuously improve the product.
6. Implementation and Launch
After user testing, the validated prototype can finally be converted into actual product for
UAT Testing before an official launch.

RESEARCH IN USER EXPERIENCE DESIGN:

What is UX Research?
 UX (user experience) research is the systematic study of target users and their
requirements, to add realistic contexts and insights to design processes.
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 UX researchers adopt various methods to uncover problems and design opportunities

UX Research is about Finding Insights to Guide Successful Designs

 When UX research is done , it is able to give users the best solutions—because it can
discover exactly what they need.
 The UX research can be applied at any stage of the design process.
 UX researchers often begin with qualitative measures, to determine users’ motivations
and needs. They might use quantitative measures to test their results.
 To do UX research well, a structured approach is taken when data is gathered from
users.
 It’s vital to use methods that
1) are right for the purpose of your research and
2) Will give you the clearest information. Then, interpret the findings so it can build
valuable insights into the design

What is the UX research process?

Every research project will vary. However, there are some common steps in conducting
research, no matter which method or tool you decide to use:

 Define the research question

 Select the appropriate research method
 Recruit participants
 Conduct the research
 Analyze the data
 Present the findings
Why is UX research important?
 User research is very important in designing products people will want and use. It
helps us avoid designing based on what we think instead of what users actually want.
 UX research helps designers understand their users’ needs, behaviors, attitudes and
how they interact with a product or service.
Subsets of UX research
We can divide UX research into two subsets:
Qualitative research – Using methods such as interviews and ethnographic field studies,
you work to get an in-depth understanding of why users do what they do (e.g., why they
missed a call to action, why they feel how they do about a website).
Quantitative research – Using more-structured methods (e.g., surveys, analytics), you
gather measurable data about what users do and test assumptions you drew from qualitative
research. With this data, you can discover patterns among a large user group.
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We can additionally divide UX research into two approaches:

Attitudinal – you listen to what users say—e.g., in interviews.
Behavioral – you see what users do through observational studies.

Use UX Research Methods throughout Development

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15 Guiding Principles for UX Researchers
1. Mix It Up
2. It’s Easier To Find ―You Got it Wrong‖
3. You Can’t Standardize Sample Sizes For All Your Research
4. Testing With Just One User is Not Pointless
5. Increase Sample Sizes for Better Accuracy
6. Randomizing Can Overcome Research Design Flaws
7. Research Results Belong to No-One
8. Scale Ratings In Questions Aren’t That Important
9. Participants Need to Reflect Personas
10.What They Say vs. What They Do
11.Keep Growing Your Toolkit
12.Usability – A Polite Fiction?
13.Keep Reports Short
14.Be Aware that Observers Observe Differently
15.Cults of Personality Suck

Tools and Method used for Research

Tools used for Research

 The Choice of tools depends on your research question, how you're researching, the
size of your organization, and your project. For instance:

 Survey tools such as Typeform and Google Forms.

 Card sorting tools such as Maze and UXtweak.

 Heatmap tools such as HotJar and CrazyEgg

 Usability testing (through first-click testing and tree-testing) tools such as Optimal
Workshop and Loop 11

 Diagramming applications such as Miro and Whimsical to analyze qualitative data

through affinity diagramming.

 Spreadsheet tools such as Google Sheets and Microsoft Excel for quantitative data
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analysis

 Interface design and prototyping tools like Figma, Adobe XD, Sketch and Marvel to
conduct usability testing.

 Presentation tools such as Keynote, Google Slides and Microsoft PowerPoint.

Method used for Research

Use UX Research Methods throughout Development

Discover
 The discovery stage is when you try to illuminate what you don’t know and better
understand what people need.
 Good things to do during discovery:
 Conduct field studies and interview users: Go where the users are, watch, ask, and
listen. Observe people in context interacting with the system or solving the problems
you’re trying to provide solutions for.
 Run diary studies to understand your users’ information needs and behaviors.
 Interview stakeholders to gather and understand business requirements and constraints.
Explore
 Exploration methods are for understanding the problem space and design scope and
addressing user needs appropriately.
 Compare features against competitors.
 Do design reviews.
 Use research to build user personas and write user stories.

Test
 Testing and validation methods are for checking designs during development and
beyond, to make sure systems work well for the people who use them.
 Do qualitative usability testing. Test early and often with a diverse range of people,
alone and in groups. Conduct an accessibility evaluation to ensure universal access.
 Ask people to self-report their interactions and any interesting incidents while using
the system over time, for example with diary studies.
Listen
 Listen throughout the research and design cycle to help understand existing problems
and to look for new issues. Analyze gathered data and monitor incoming information
for patterns and trends.
 Survey customers and prospective users.

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 Monitor analytics and metrics to discover trends and anomalies and to gauge your
progress.
 Analyze search queries: What do people look for and what do they call it? Search logs
are often overlooked, but they contain important information.

20 UX Methods in Brief

1. Usability testing (aka usability-lab studies): Participants are brought into a lab, one-
on-one with a researcher, and given a set of scenarios that lead to tasks and usage of
specific interest within a product or service.
2. Field studies: Researchers study participants in their own environment (work or
home), where they would most likely encounter the product or service being used in
the most realistic or natural environment.
3. Contextual inquiry: Researchers and participants collaborate together in the
participants own environment to inquire about and observe the nature of the tasks and
work at hand. This method is very similar to a field study and was developed to
study complex systems and in-depth processes.
4. Participatory design: Participants are given design elements or creative materials in
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order to construct their ideal experience in a concrete way that expresses what matters
to them most and why.
5. Focus groups: Groups of 3–12 participants are led through a discussion about a set of
topics, giving verbal and written feedback through discussion and exercises.
6. Interviews: a researcher meets with participants one-on-one to discuss in depth what
the participant thinks about the topic in question.
7. Eyetracking: an eyetracking device is configured to precisely measure where
participants look as they perform tasks or interact naturally with websites, applications,
physical products, or environments.
8. Usability benchmarking: tightly scripted usability studies are performed with larger
numbers of participants, using precise and predetermined measures of performance,
usually with the goal of tracking usability improvements of a product over time or
comparing with competitors.
9. Remote moderated testing: Usability studies are conducted remotely, with the use of
tools such as video conferencing, screen-sharing software, and remote-control
capabilities.
10.Unmoderated testing: An automated method that can be used in both quantitative and
qualitative studies and that uses a specialized research tool to capture participant
behaviors and attitudes, usually by giving participants goals or scenarios to accomplish
with a site, app, or prototype. The tool can record a video stream of each user session,
and can gather usability metrics such as success rate, task time, and perceived ease of
use.
11.Concept testing: A researcher shares an approximation of a product or service that
captures the key essence (the value proposition) of a new concept or product in order
to determine if it meets the needs of the target audience. It can be done one-on-one or
with larger numbers of participants, and either in person or online.
12.Diary studies: Participants are using a mechanism (e.g., paper or digital diary, camera,
smartphone app) to record and describe aspects of their lives that are relevant to a
product or service or simply core to the target audience. Diary studies are typically
longitudinal and can be done only for data that is easily recorded by participants.
13.Customer feedback: Open-ended and/or close-ended information is provided by a
self-selected sample of users, often through a feedback link, button, form, or email.
14.Desirability studies: Participants are offered different visual-design alternatives and
are expected to associate each alternative with a set of attributes selected from a closed
list. These studies can be both qualitative and quantitative.
15.Card sorting: A quantitative or qualitative method that asks users to organize items
into groups and assign categories to each group. This method helps create or refine the
information architecture of a site by exposing users’ mental models.
16.Tree testing: A quantitative method of testing an information architecture to
determine how easy it is to find items in the hierarchy. This method can be conducted
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on an existing information architecture to benchmark it and then again, after
the information architecture is improved with card sorting, to demonstrate
improvement.
17.Analytics: Analyzing data collected from user behavior like clicks, form filling, and
other recorded interactions. It requires the site or application to be instrumented
properly in advance.
18.Clickstream analytics: A particular type of analytics that involves analyzing the
sequence of pages that users visit as they use a site or software application.
19.A/B testing (aka multivariate testing, live testing, or bucket testing): A method of
scientifically testing different designs on a site by randomly assigning groups of users
to interact with each of the different designs and measuring the effect of these
assignments on user behavior.
20.Surveys: A quantitative measure of attitudes through a series of questions, typically
more closed-ended than open-ended. A survey that is triggered during the use of a site
or application is an intercept survey, often triggered by user behavior. More typically,
participants are recruited from an email message or reached through some other
channel such as social media.

7 Great, Tried and Tested UX Research Techniques

Technique Number 1 – Card Sorting

Card sorting was originally a technique used in psychological research long before UX
research was a ―thing‖. It’s a simple concept, you write words or phrases on cards, then you
ask the user to categorize them. You might also ask them to label the categories. It’s a great
way to determine whether your Information Architecture (IA) is heading in the right
direction or to examine IA for new products.

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Why is card sorting a good technique?
 It’s a very cheap form of research – particularly face-to-face, online tools may be
more expensive.
 It’s a very easy technique for users to understand and for clients to understand too.
 It’s a very easy method to get user input (or even to get user validation) for ideas
early on in a UX project.
Technique Number 2 – The Expert Review
Expert reviews involve a single ―expert‖ walking through a product via the User Interface
(UI) and looking for issues with the design, accessibility, and usability of the product.
There’s no fixed process to follow and the expert review can vary from professional-to-
professional as well from product-to-product. The more expertise the reviewer has in
usability and UX design – the more valuable their input (in most cases).
Why is an Expert Review a Good Technique?
 It’s quick, easy and cheap. This is doubly so when you compare it to more formal
usability testing methods.
 It only takes a single professional to conduct an expert review.
 It is a great way to inform further UX research and caution should be used in taking
an expert review at face value without further user testing.

Technique Number 3 – Eye Movement Tracking

It can be really useful to know where your users are looking when they’re using your
system. It helps with UI design and it helps with knowing how to prioritize certain kinds of
content. This technique was developed for academic research and has been used extensively
in medical research and has now become popular and cost-effective enough to be deployed
by the UX team too.

Why is Eye Movement Tracking a Good Technique?

 Now that technology is advanced enough, eye movement tracking systems are no
longer bulky and invasive and they do not interfere with the results of usability tests.
 The technology is reasonably affordable now. It won’t suit every project budget but it
often won’t break the bank either.
Technique Number 4 – Field Studies
This is actually a number of techniques under a broad heading. It’s all about going out and
observing users ―in the wild‖ so that behaviour can be measured in the context where a
product will actually be used. It includes; ethnographic research, interviews and observations,
plus contextual enquiry.

Why are Field Studies a Good Technique?

 There’s no stronger form of research than observing users behaving as they will when
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they use your product. Researchers love these techniques and are often passionate
about persuading their clients to take them on board.
 When conducted well, the outputs of field studies provide the deepest insights into
user issues and how they might be solved.
Technique Number 5 – Usability Testing
A firm favourite that has a long and prestigious history in UX research. Usability testing is
the observation of users trying to carry out tasks with a product. They can focus on a single
process or be much more wide ranging.

Why is Usability Testing a Good Technique?

 Usability tests produce specific results that lead to specific action. Better still, it’s very
hard for people to contradict decisions based on these tests; it’s nearly impossible to
refute evidence of user behaviour.
 You can bring clients into usability testing easily as observers. This increases their
enthusiasm for such testing and shows clearly why such testing adds value.

Technique Number 6 – Remote Usability Testing

This is usability testing but without the need to drag users into your laboratory environment.
It was once complex and expensive but technology has moved on and now it’s fairly simple
to set up and reasonable value for money too.
Why is Remote Usability Testing a Good Technique?
 It often saves time and money when compared to lab testing and it allows for a wider
range of participants when you don’t have to get them in the lab.
 It is closer to field testing in some respects in that the tests are conducted in the user’s
environment and not an artificial lab environment. This delivers better results in many
cases than a lab environment.
Technique Number 7 – User Personas
User personas are a fictional representation of the ideal user. They focus on the goals of the
user, the characteristics that they have and the attitudes that they display. They also examine
what the user expects from the product.
User personas are created from other forms of user research and thus offer an in-depth real-
life vivid portrait that is easy for the whole team to keep in mind when designing products.
User personas have a name and a backstory. They inspire the imagination and keep focus on
the user.
Why are User Personas a Good Technique?
 They are a step above the old user profile and give a more in depth and specific look at
a user.
 They are easy for people to relate to and become part of the team as they are constantly
spoken about during a project.
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USER NEEDS AND ITS GOALS

 Designers must consider the types of needs they are targeting with their products so as
to grab the customer's/user's attention and accentuate the positive aspects of both
owning and using them.

 An understanding of how users think and how they behave in response to sensory
information is essential to design

Maslow's Hierarchy of Needs

Abraham Maslow has provided one of the most prominent accounts of human motivation
with the 'Hierarchy of Needs', representing his most well-known contribution to psychology.

The Levels of Maslow's Hierarchy of Needs

 The most basic human needs are shown at the bottom of the hierarchy, and these are
the physiological drives that ensure survival, including the need for air, food, water,
and sleep

Physiological Needs – The most basic needs of all are those that are needed to sustain us as
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individuals and as a species. They include food, drink, shelter, breathing, and sleep.

Safety Needs – The next level of needs to be met are those that offer us some guarantee of
being able to satisfy our physiological needs in the long-term. These include fiscal and
personal security, health, protection from the elements, etc.

Social Needs – The human animal is a social one and there is a deep-seated requirement for
company in life. Social needs include friends, lovers, intimacy, families, communities,
relationships and a sense of belonging.

Esteem Needs – Basic social needs become more complex for people and there is a need for
our efforts to be recognized by others. Esteem needs may be fulfilled by social status,
achievements, mastery, prestige, etc.

Self-Actualized Needs – The final, top layer of the hierarchy is associated with our ability to
grow as an individual. These needs include peace, contentment, self-growth, maximum
experiences, etc.

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The Hierarchy of Needs in Design Terms

The Design Hierarchy from Bottom to Top

 As with Maslow’s hierarchy it is essential for a design to meet the lowest need on the
pyramid before progressing to meet further needs.

 Functionality – for a design to meet any need it must work and it must meet the basic
needs of the user. However, if this is all it does; it may well be seen as having little
value if any to the user in the short to long-term.

 Reliability – the next step is for your design to function in a reliable manner and
present a consistent experience. This may increase the user’s perception of the value of
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your product from a purely functional one but it does not add large amounts of value
either.

 Usability – then a design should be simple to use and relatively forgiving of user error.
When you meet this need the product is likely to be considered of middling value by
the user.

 Proficiency – a design which helps a user to do more or achieve more is one which is
likely to be desired as a high-level of value and fulfil user needs more effectively.

 Creativity – the final step in the design pyramid is to create products which fulfil all
other needs and are beautiful not just in form but also in interaction and function. This
is where the highest user value is placed

Flow Design Processes - Focusing on the Users' Needs:

 To create great user experiences – designers must focus on the user’s needs and that
means developing an understanding of how to create the best task flow for that user.
 The better you facilitate the user moving from start to finish on a particular process –
the easier the product is to work with and the more likely that you are to deliver an
awesome user experience.
 UX designers are concerned with user flows.

Example User flow:

A retail website might include:
 User wants to buy a new product
 User wants to research alternative products
 User wants to return a product
By mapping out all the possible objectives and comparing them to business objectives – it
becomes easy to create user flows. Flows are simply the process steps from the user arriving
on a website to completing their task or tasks.

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User Goals and How They Influence Information Design Decisions

 Understanding user goals and using this understanding to influence design decisions is
essential
 It involves understanding the information users need for performing their tasks and
how they want to feel as they undertake them.
User Goals in Each Step of the Design Process
Taking user goals into account will impact decisions along all steps of designing an
information visualisation.

 Define the problem.

 Define the data to be represented.
 Define the dimensions required to represent the data.
 Define the structures of the data.
 Define the interaction required from the visualisation.
Step 1 – The Main Step of Defining the Problem
When designing information visualisations, understanding the information people need to
perform their tasks is the starting point. It requires some user research

Steps 2 to 5 – The Remaining Steps of Designing the Information

Once you understand the user needs and the context in which they will be using the
information design, you can proceed to step 2 and start selecting the data necessary for
providing them with the insights they need.

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Determine the right dimensions and structures so as to translate this data into relevant
information. That is what you do in steps 3 and 4.

Finally, in step 5, you need to define the interaction required from the visualisation.

KNOW ABOUT BUSINESS GOALS:

 UX/UI is a bridge between business and clients. Its purpose is to help the business
achieve its goals.
 UX/UI helps your business grow by creating a memorable and recognizable brand,
expanding your audience, increasing conversion rates, improving user retention and
loyalty, and helping you collect and analyze data.
1. Imbalance toward users
User goals are important, but they are secondary. Without achieving the goals of your users,
you cannot achieve the goals of your company. Designers typically put all effort into
satisfying users, inadvertently putting business goals on the backburner. It’s no surprise that
designers are often called ―users’ advocates.‖
2. Imbalance toward business
This is the other extreme. When a businessman has a good grasp of what UX/UI is capable
of, he is often tempted to use this knowledge unethically. User interactions with the product
morph into data collection, manipulative product pushing, and fostering a dependency that is
closer to drug addiction than to healthy business practices. The users are exploited as an
audience that disseminates certain information. This approach is typical of the companies
that value their business above all else.
3. Perfect balance
Data collection, advertising on social media platforms, or creating engaging products is a
common practice. No business can avoid them. But to establish effective interaction,
business goals and user goals need to be balanced.
Client-oriented design is considered the optimum solution for small companies, up-and-
coming startups, consumer goods, or novel and unusual products.
Business-oriented design, in its turn, does not imply that the company only cares about
profits. It’s design that works toward the brand’s image, making it more respectable and
trustworthy in the eyes of both partners and clients.
4. Data collection
To solve any problem, you need input data. Digital products often turn out to be ineffective
just because their creators were not provided all the necessary information by their clients.
Here are some common reasons for that:
 The client only has a vague vision of his business prospects and has no clearly
established goals and strategies.
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 The client does not know what marketing data are required to design a digital product.
 The client fails to provide complete information and sets arbitrary requirements with
no basis in marketing research.
 The client provides only a minimum of information because he is hesitant to share it.
 USP is the central bridge support
 UX/UI needs another, central support. The unique selling proposition is between the
business and the clients. This is what the user comes for. On the one hand, the USP
characterizes your business, and on the other, it affects the consumer.
5. Action goals
 If a goal does not encourage action, then it’s either poorly defined or not a goal at all.
A goal must excite the imagination and galvanize into action.
 This applies to both business goals and user goals.
 If everything is done right, then every time the user accomplishes their goals, the
business wins as well
 Action goals:
 have a motivational core;
 imply a solution to problems;
 are emotionally exciting.
6. Maintaining the supports
In reality, maintaining all business supports equally is hard. The balance can shift from time
to time. You have to be aware which support needs attending to at the moment.

How to accomplish business goals and user goals

 Set business goals and user goals.
 Make these goals clear to project designers.
 Remember the ―perfect bridge‖ and all its supports. Devote as much work to the
company’s image as to the product and user interests.
 Maintain a balance between business goals, user goals, and product goals so that the
bridge does not become crooked at any point.
 Work with designers who understand the importance of all goals and are willing to
seek a compromise solution.

•User experience (UX) design is often seen as a balancing act between satisfying user needs
and meeting business objectives.
•Designers must navigate the tension between these two priorities to create successful digital
products.
•Designing for user needs is critical to creating products that are user-friendly and meet the
expectations of the intended audience.
•UX designers must understand the users they are designing for, including their needs, goals,
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and pain points.
•This understanding enables designers to create products that are intuitive and easy to use,
resulting in a positive user experience.

How to balance user needs and business goals

It is essential for designers to find a balance that satisfies both user needs.
•One way to do this is to involve stakeholders from both sides early in the design process. By
doing so, designers can ensure that the business goals are aligned with user needs and that the
product they create is valuable to the company and the user.
•Another way to balance user needs and business goals is to prioritize the most critical user
needs and business objectives. Designers should identify the core needs of their target
audience and focus on designing a product that meets those needs while contributing to the
business’s objectives.

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