Key UX design concepts include user-centered design, focusing on user needs and behaviors through user research, empathy, and personas. Concepts like information architecture and wireframing help structure content, while prototyping and usability testing ensure the product is intuitive and effective.
Fundamental UX design concepts that every new designer should be aware of.
1. Satisfy user needs
Focusing on users throughout the design process is the most important of all UX design principles. By using the word “user experience,” it is obvious that the focus of your effort must be on enhancing how people interact with your product or service.
Consequently, you must discover what features users seek in a design (through user testing and other methods). You might think a design is fantastic, but keep in mind that you are not the user.
2. Recognize your position in the design process.
Knowing your role in the process is important for a number of reasons because designing involves a lot of work.
First of all, each phase requires a separate set of tools. Second, knowing your design phase enables you to formulate the appropriate user research questions. For example, there is no purpose in testing a button’s color while you are still deciding where it should go in the design.
3. Establish a hierarchy.
While hierarchy is simple to take for granted, it is a UX paradigm that guarantees simple navigation throughout a design. There are two main hierarchies to be aware of. The hierarchy of how material or information is arranged across the design comes first.
For instance, you will see the navigation bar with the key sections when you launch a website or app. The first hierarchy is as shown. You will see that further content subcategories open up when you click on or linger over this bar, taking you farther into the app or website. The auxiliary menus are those.
4. Maintain consistency
Users expect products to be similar to other products they regularly use. This allows them to quickly become acquainted with the new product without incurring any additional learning costs. It may seem counterintuitive, but the more familiar your design is to others, the faster users can learn to use it, which improves their experience.
5. Recognize accessibility
Among the UX design fundamentals, designing with accessibility in mind is becoming increasingly important. In other words, it is a designer’s responsibility to ensure that their design is usable by as many people as possible. This means that your design must be usable by people with disabilities as well.
To that end, you should remove any obstacles from the design layout to ensure smooth navigation. You can, for example, use contrasting colors for the text on the background. This makes it easier for visually impaired users (as well as users in low-light settings) to read the content on the screen.
6. Context is essential.
When designing, you must consider the user’s context. Location is a well-known contextual factor—are you designing for people on the go or for people sitting at a desk? However, there are other factors to consider, such as the user’s available time, their emotional state, the device they are using, the people who influence them, and so on.
7. First and foremost, usability
Because UX design is entirely focused on solving the problems of the users, usability is one of the most important user experience design principles. No matter how visually appealing your work is, it will not resonate with the user unless it is safe and simple to use.
A good example is website design. Any cluttered website is doomed to lose visitors. As a designer, your job is to ensure that every icon, button, and snippet of information in the design serves a purpose. Concentrate on clarity by drawing the user’s attention to only useful features.
8. Less is More
The underlying goal for UX is straightforward: reduce user operational and cognitive costs. By emphasizing this, the design’s usability and consistency improve.
9. Use easy language
Simplicity has become a best practice in visual design, and UX-focused copywriting should avoid technical terms in favor of plain language. Because users are busy, on the go, and multitasking, use words in your design that are closest to the user’s thoughts.
10. Typography
Typography is as important as the words you use in your design. Robert Bringhurst, author of “The Elements of Typographic Style,” emphasizes the importance of this UX design principle. “Typography is the craft of endowing human language with a durable visual form,” he writes.
Typographic choices can have a significant impact on how users interpret the language you use, enhancing or suppressing the message. Furthermore, typography can improve UX in a variety of ways.
For example, considering a typographic hierarchy can improve accessibility and make the design more user-friendly. You can learn from the design of the online publishing platform Medium. To make its content more readable, Medium employs specific typography.