INTRODUCTION TO UX

DESIGN
BY Gilbert Clottey
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DESIGN • User experience is how a person, the user,
feels about interacting with or
experiencing a product.
• A product is a good, service, or feature. It
might be a physical product, like a video
game controller or a bag of potato chips, or
a technology product, like an app, website,
or smartwatch.
• There are many things that can make up a
good user experience.
• For example, for a user to have a good
experience, the product needs to be
usable, equitable, enjoyable, and useful.
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JOBS IN THE • UX designers include : Interaction designers, visual
FIELD OF UX designers, and motion designers.
DESIGN • Interaction Designers: They Focus on designing the
experience of a product and how it functions. They
figure out how to connect the users' needs and the
business's goals with what’s actually feasible to build
• Visual Designers: They Focus on how a product or
technology looks. They are responsible for designing
logos, illustrations, or icons. They also decide the font
color and size, or work on product layouts.
• Motion Designers: They think about what it feels like
for a user to move through a product and how to
create smooth transitions between pages on an app
or a website. Similar to UX designers, there are also
graphic designers who create visuals that tell a story
or message.
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OTHER ROLES IN • UX researchers conduct the studies or interviews that help
UX DESIGN us learn how people use a product.
• UX writers think about how to make the language within a
product clearer to make the user experience more intuitive
• Production designers often act as a bridge between
interaction designers and engineers. They make sure the
first and final designs match in the finished product
materials and that the assets to be handed off to the
engineering team.
• The Assets are every thing from text and images to the
design specifications, like font style, color, size, and
spacing.
• UX engineers translate the design's intent into a
functioning experience, like a website or an app.
• UX program managers ensure clear and timely
communication so that the process of building a useful
product moves smoothly from start to finish.
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Product development
lifecycle • The product development
lifecycle is the process used to
take a product from an idea to
reality.
• A project starts out with a team
trying tosolve some sort of
problem.
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Product development • There are five stages in the product development
lifecycle (cont’d) lifecycle.

• Brainstorm: It's an active discovery stage that's all

about generating ideas about the user and
potential needs or challenges the user might have.
• Define is all about using the insights from the
brainstorm stage and starting to narrow the focus.
• In the Design Stage, UX designers begin to actively
develop ideas, and they also check that all
specifications from the define stage are realistic.
• In the Test Stage, the team evaluates the product
design based on feedback from potential users.
• Finally, the last stage of the product development
lifecycle is launch or sharing a finished version of
the product with the public.
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Characteristics of a • Usable : It means the design, structure, and
Good UX Design purpose of the product is clear and easy to
use.
• Equitable: It means a design is helpful to
people with diverse abilities and
backgrounds. Are the needs of a diverse
group of users considered?
• Enjoyable : The design reflects what the
user may be thinking or feeling and creates a
positive connection with them. Does the
design keep the user engaged throughout
their experience?
• Useful: The design intentionally solves a
user problem that the designer has identified.
Does the design add value to the user’s
experience?
 • Researching: UX designers use research to understand audiences
Entry-level UX and learn about their backgrounds; demographics, like age and
location; motivations; pain points ; emotions; and life goals.
designers • Wireframing: A wireframe is an outline or a sketch of a product
or a screen. It helps the designer figure out how a page is
arranged, where each piece of a product fits in with the others,
and how users will likely interact with the product.
• Prototyping: A prototype is an early model of a product that
demonstrates functionality, like a wireframe, but a lot more
advanced. While a wireframe gives you a general idea of where
things go and how the product will function, a prototype
illustrates a progression from one screen to the next.
• Creating Information Architecture: This involves the framework
of a website, or how it's organized , categorized, and structured.
• Communicating Effectively: An entry-level UX design job, like
many jobs, also requires a lot of communication, like meetings
with colleagues, writing emails, creating proposals, or pitching
clients.
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User-centered design
• The user experience is the journey
that the user takes with that product
or service.
• User-centered design puts the user
front and center. Focusing on the
user means considering their story,
emotions, and the insights you’ve
gathered about them. A project starts
out with a team trying to solve some
sort of problem.
• user-centered design process has
four steps: understand, specify,
design, and evaluate.
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user-centered design.
• Understand : It means understand how
the user experiences the productor similar
products.
• Specify: It means specify the end user's
needs. Based on your research, you'll
narrow down which end-user problem is
the most important to solve.
• Design : It means design solutions to the
end user's problem. This is where you'll
come up with ideas for what the product
might look like and actually start building
the product.
• Evaluate: It means evaluate your design
against your end user's needs. Does your
design solv ethe end user's problem?
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Design Thinking • Framework: In the world of UX design, a framework is
a conceptual tool that provides guidance on the best
practices and processes for solving problems and
building solutions that solve the problems of real users.
• Frameworks provide structure for the design process
and foster collaboration, which can spark innovations.
• Design Thinking framework to sequence the
assignments that contribute to the designs that you’ll
create throughout the program.
• Design thinking is both an ideology and a process; its
all about solving complex problem in a user-centric way.
• Design thinking was created as a way of taking the
processes and approaches that designers use and
applying them to problems that designers don't typically
encounter
• The Design Thinking framework involves the
following phases: empathize, define, ideate, prototype,
and test.