Every touchpoint on your website influences the probability of a person converting to customers – from how quickly users find what they need to how easy it is to buy your products.
Designing for user experience (UX) is key here as it ensures potential customers have an intuitive, smooth and pleasant interaction with your brand to the point of conversion.
A well-executed UX design can boost website conversion rates by as much as 400%. That’s why in this guide, we’ll walk you through everything you need to know about UX design, including:
• What Is UX Design?
• The Different Types of UX Design
• The UX Design Process
• Why UX Design Matters for Product Teams
• 7 User Experience Principles for a Successful Website
• UX vs. UI Design
• 10 Common UX Design Mistakes To Avoid
• UX Design Best Practices for Refining Products
• UX Design Tools To Include in Your Arsenal
• UX Design FAQs
What Is UX Design?
User experience (UX) design is the process of enhancing users’ overall satisfaction with a product or service. This could mean optimizing a website’s usability, creating a user-friendly app or designing a seamless customer journey in a retail space.
UX design can be achieved by understanding user behaviors, motivations and needs and then using that information to create a flawless user experience. By building products as effortlessly as possible, you can improve conversions, retention and loyalty.
UX is a continuous cycle of improvement and iteration. Designers and product teams constantly leverage data and usability testing to refine the product experience and make it more user-friendly as the product evolves.
Now that you have a basic understanding of what is UX design, let’s discuss the different types of UX design.
The Different Types of UX Design
Whichever industry you are in, UX design can be divided into four categories. These include:
Interaction Design
Interaction design deals with how users interact with a product or service. It focuses on creating easy-to-use interfaces and intuitive interactions between the user and the product – leaning heavily on concepts such as usability, accessibility and cognitive psychology (how people think).
Visual Design
In visual design, designers employ a variety of visual elements to enhance user experience. They use artistic design principles such as color schemes, typography, spacing, layouts and additional components to enhance the visual appeal of a product or service.
User Research
User research is gathering insights about how users interact with a product. This could involve conducting surveys, interviews and usability tests to better understand user needs and behaviors. Using this data, UX designers can make informed decisions about optimizing the user experience.
Information Architecture
Information architecture (IA) is organizing and structuring information to make it easy for users to find what they need. You can achieve this through intuitive navigation, labeling systems and information hierarchy to ensure users can easily access the necessary information.
| Note: Each category is crucial in creating a positive user experience. However, they do not exist in isolation and often overlap to create a cohesive and seamless user experience. Therefore, it is crucial for UX designers to understand every aspect and how they work together to create an effective product or service. |
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The UX Design Process
Design teams typically follow a series of steps in the UX design process. While the specific steps may vary from team to team, one thing remains constant: UX design takes a human-centered approach, focusing on understanding and meeting the end-user’s needs.
Some design teams use the Lean UX Model, which emphasizes rapid iteration and continuous user feedback to refine the product. Others may follow a more structured approach, such as the Double Diamond Model, which involves four distinct phases: Discover, Define, Develop and Deliver.
Regardless of the model used, the UX design process generally includes these key steps:
1. Research and Analysis
UX design starts with thorough research before creating any mockups (visual representations of a product design). It involves three key stages:
User Research
Design teams identify the target audience, their needs and pain points through surveys, interviews or focus groups. A detailed user persona can be created to represent the ideal user. Laddering up to this persona helps create a product tailored to the target market.
Market Research
Market research involves studying the competition to identify market gaps or opportunities. If a similar product exists, UX designers analyze its strengths and weaknesses to create a better version.
Historical Data Analysis
This step involves analyzing existing user data, product history and other information from previous iterations to identify patterns and areas for improvement. This helps avoid repeating mistakes and identifying successful features that should be kept or enhanced.
These research methods help UX designers gain valuable insights into user needs and provide a foundation for the rest of the design process. You can’t create a great user experience without understanding the target audience and the marketplace.
2. Strategy and Planning
This phase is when the whole design team comes together to brainstorm and explore various solutions to address the user’s needs.
Things may have changed during the research phase, and this is the time to re-evaluate the original assumptions and explore potential solutions. Key processes that take place during this phase include:
• Defining Design Principles: Establish design principles and guidelines based on research findings to ensure consistency and alignment with your brand’s objectives.
• Content Strategy: Collaborate with content writers and editors to develop a solid content strategy that complements the design and meets user needs.
• Planning User Flows: Create high-level user flows to outline the desired paths users should take when interacting with your campaigns and digital assets.
3. Wireframing and Prototyping
Once research and analysis are complete, UX designers create wireframes and prototypes to showcase their ideas. These basic visual representations of the product design help stakeholders visualize how the end product will look and function.
• Wireframes are usually low-fidelity (simple) sketches that outline a product’s basic structure and layout. They focus on functionality and flow rather than aesthetics.
In websites, for example, wireframes show the placement of elements such as buttons, forms and images.
• Prototypes are your minimum viable product (MVP) – the basic version of your product that includes only essential features and functions. They are higher fidelity than wireframes and allow for testing and feedback before investing more time and resources into developing a fully functional product.
In web design, a prototype could be a clickable mockup that simulates the user experience.
Prototyping and wireframing, followed by testing, allow you to collect crucial user feedback before dedicating resources to finalizing your product.
| What prototyping and wireframing tools can you use? Wireframes can be as simple as pencil drawings or as detailed as designs made with free tools like Inkscape and GIMP or paid software like Sketch and Canva. For prototypes, you’ll need to use paid tools like InVision and Adobe CD or a free tool like Justinmind. |
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| Aaron Whittaker, VP of Demand Generation at Thrive, recommends using Figma to develop wireframes and interactive prototypes to visualize the design structure and user flow. This helps identify potential issues early and refine the design before implementation. |
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4. Testing and Feedback
The fun part of UX design – user experience testing! This is where the rubber meets the road and designers see how users interact with their product prototype. Testing can include usability testing, A/B testing or focus groups.
The goal of testing is to gather feedback from real users and use that data to inform changes and improvements. The main objective here is to identify any gaps in the user experience and make necessary adjustments before moving to the final product development stage. For example, your team may find:
– The UX is confusing and challenging to navigate
– Certain features are not intuitive or useful for users
– The messaging is unclear or unconvincing
This feedback is crucial in making data-driven decisions to improve the user experience.
User Testing Methods and Tools
There are various methods and tools used in UX testing, including:
• Usability Tests: Involves recording a user’s screen and audio as they interact with the product while providing verbal feedback. This method helps identify any usability issues or challenges users face.
• A/B Testing: Also known as split testing, A/B tests involve creating two versions of a product feature and testing them with different user groups to determine which performs best.
• Focus Groups: Involves bringing together a group of targeted users to gather their feedback on a product. This method provides valuable insights into how users perceive the product and any changes they want.
Some user testing methods employ product experience and behavior analytic tools to collect feedback and identify friction points.
• Heatmaps: A visual representation of user behavior on a page, showing high and low engagement areas.
• Session Recordings: Recording user sessions to identify any issues or challenges they face while using the product.
• Click Maps: Visualize where users click on a page or screen.
• Scroll Maps: Show how far users scroll down a page before losing interest.
5. Development and Implementation
After collecting valuable insights from user testing, the next step is to integrate this feedback into the design process. Incorporating feedback requires a systematic approach to evaluating the data, prioritizing changes and implementing them efficiently.
Analysis and Prioritization
The UX team analyzes the feedback to identify common themes and pinpoint areas that require immediate attention. Not all feedback will be actionable or relevant, so it’s essential to prioritize changes based on their impact on the user experience and the product’s objectives.
Design Handoff
Using Figma and Adobe Creative Cloud, provide the development team with detailed design specifications, style guides and assets. Ensure that all design elements are well-documented and ready for implementation.
Collaboration With Developers
Maintain open lines of communication with developers to address any design-related questions and ensure the designs are implemented accurately.
Content Collaboration
Ensure that content writers and editors are aligned with the development timeline and prepared to provide or adjust content during the implementation phase.
Internal Approvals
Secure necessary approvals from project managers, team leads and content stakeholders before moving forward with the implementation.
Continuous Testing
Incorporating feedback is not a one-time task but a continuous process. After making changes, testing the updated version with users again ensures that the modifications have effectively addressed the issues. This cycle of feedback, iteration and testing helps refine the product progressively until it aligns closely with user expectations.
Documentation
Documenting feedback, decisions and their outcomes is crucial for future reference and learning. This practice enables teams to monitor progress over time and is a valuable resource for comprehending how the product evolves in response to user needs.
| Key Takeaway: Incorporating user feedback is dynamic and integral to the UX design process. It ensures the final product is functional and user-centered, thereby increasing the likelihood of success in the market. |
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6. The Launch
Once the feedback, iteration and testing cycle has refined the product to align with user expectations and business goals, the project moves toward the launch phase.
This critical moment requires careful planning and coordination across multiple teams to ensure a smooth transition to market.
Key activities during this phase include:
• Pre-Launch Testing: Conduct thorough testing, including usability testing and quality assurance (QA), to ensure the design functions as intended across different devices and browsers.
• BugHerd for QA: Use BugHerd to review the website design after development, allowing team members to report issues directly on the site.
• Launch Planning: Develop a detailed launch plan that includes timelines, marketing strategies and communication plans for stakeholders and end-users. This plan should outline how the product will be introduced to the market, including any launch events, promotional activities or press releases.
• Market Deployment: Roll out the product to the target market segments. Depending on the product and market strategy, this could involve a phased approach starting with a beta launch to gather initial user feedback in a real-world environment before a full-scale launch.
• Post-Launch Support: Establish a support system for users to report issues, ask questions and provide further feedback on the product. This could involve setting up help desks, user forums or live support channels.
• Monitoring and Evaluation: Once the product is in the hands of users, it’s crucial to monitor its performance closely. This involves tracking key performance indicators (KPIs), user engagement metrics and feedback channels to evaluate the product’s success in the market.
The launch phase is where the product team’s efforts come to fruition, but it’s also the beginning of a new chapter in the product’s lifecycle. A successful launch is marked not just by the absence of major issues but also by the product’s ability to achieve business objectives.
Therefore, careful planning, execution and ongoing management post-launch are crucial to the product’s long-term success.
7. Design Iteration
UX design is a constant, cyclical process; even after the launch, there will always be room for improvement. As new technologies emerge and user needs evolve, it’s essential to continue gathering feedback, making iterative changes and testing with users to ensure the product remains relevant and effective.
This could involve rolling out updates, releasing new features or improvements and incorporating user suggestions into future iterations. Furthermore, as the product matures and more user behavior data accumulates, it’s crucial to analyze this information to guide future design decisions and refinements.
This continual improvement process ensures the product remains competitive in the market and consistently meets the evolving needs of users.
Why UX Design Matters for Product Teams
A poor user experience can lead to customer churn. If your product is hard to use, has bugs or just generally frustrates people, users might seek a better alternative, a.k.a. your competitors.
But focusing on better UX can lead to more sales: By prioritizing UX design in your product development, you can address user pain points, encourage repeat purchases and reduce customer churn.
Your product team, in particular, can leverage UX design to:
Increase User Satisfaction
Customers opt for products and services with minimal resistance. Today, they expect seamless, intuitive and user-friendly interactions with products. Even a minor inconvenience like a complicated sign-up process or confusing navigation can quickly turn users away.
Focusing on UX design can create a positive and satisfying user experience that encourages users to stay engaged with your product.
Improve Conversion Rates
People are busy, so if they encounter difficulties while using a product or service, they are likelier to abandon it. Interestingly, investing $1 in UX design can bring a return on investments (ROI) of approximately $100 (Forrester). In addition, 74% of website visitors may return to a website if it has a good mobile UX (WebFX).
Good UX design simplifies processes and reduces friction to improve conversions and retention rates. This could be as simple as streamlining the checkout process for an eCommerce website or creating jargon-free and easy-to-understand instructions for a software product.
Create Brand Loyalty
When users have an enjoyable experience with a product, they are more likely to form an emotional connection with your brand. This could elicit a sense of loyalty and turn them into brand advocates. They might prefer your product over competitors, recommend it to friends and family and overlook small errors due to their favorable experiences.
Improve Brand Perception
According to WebFX, around 94% of people agree that a website reflects a brand’s reputation, with visual appearance being a key factor. Therefore, a carefully crafted interface and user experience can greatly boost your brand’s perceived value.
Save Time and Money
Investing in UX design early in the product development process saves time and money in the long run. Usability tests and user research can help identify potential issues early on, reducing the need for costly redesigns later.
7 Key User Experience Principles for a Successful Product
UX design can be unclear and difficult to grasp at times. The reason being UX revolves around the user and their objectives, which can differ from one product and user group to another.
Regardless, some key user experience principles remain fundamental to creating a positive user experience.
1. User-Centered Design
Rule number one in UX design: The user always comes first.
User-centered design revolves around creating products based on a deep comprehension of user needs and preferences. Every revision, iteration and design decision flows from this understanding.
2. Functionality Over Form
While an attractive and aesthetically pleasing design is essential, the primary focus in UX design should be on developing functional and easy-to-use products. A product that is difficult to use, has complex navigation or requires too many steps to complete a task can lead to user frustration and abandonment.
Good UX design makes the user’s journey from point A to B as smooth and effortless as possible.
3. Simplicity and Consistency
The simpler the design, the easier it is for users to understand and use the product. Consistency across design elements, including layout, color scheme, terminology and navigation, further aids users in seamlessly moving through the product’s interface.
4. Hierarchy
Establishing a clear hierarchy in your design is paramount for effectively guiding users through your product and its functionalities. This involves designing with a logical flow, using visual cues such as size, color and placement to indicate importance and creating an intuitive user interface.
The eyes of the user should be drawn to the most critical elements first, making it easier for them to achieve their goals. For instance, a call-to-action button should stand out and be easily identifiable by its color, size or placement on the screen.
5. Tap Into the Familiar
Great UX leans into design frameworks and patterns already familiar to users. This helps reduce the learning curve and makes the product intuitive, especially for new users.
Design interactions that are too novel and unfamiliar can be confusing and hinder the user’s ability to complete tasks efficiently.
Some mobile dating apps are a great example of this: iPhone users are accustomed to swiping left and right, so dating apps like Bumble and Tinder use this familiar motion when browsing profiles.
6. Accessibility
Designing for accessibility means ensuring that people with disabilities can use your product. It involves making the user interface (UI) perceivable, operable, understandable and robust to all users regardless of their abilities.
To enhance accessibility for diverse user needs, you can incorporate features like screen readers, keyboard navigation and color contrast adjustments.
7. Contextual Relevance
Focus on the user’s objectives throughout each stage of product development. Some features may be useful in one context but not necessary or even distracting in another. Present the user with relevant information and options at each stage to help them complete their goals effectively.
UX vs. UI Design
User interface (UI) is a subcategory of user experience design. While UX design involves the entire process of creating a product, from conceptualization to testing and implementation, UI design deals specifically with the visual elements of a product.
For example, a UI designer may focus on:
• The layout of a website page or app screen
• The color used for buttons and text
• The placement of images and icons
• The font type and size used for the text
Understandably, UX/UI design is often used interchangeably, but it’s essential to understand the distinction between them. UI design focuses on how a product looks, while UX design takes a big-picture approach to creating a product that is user-friendly, efficient and valuable for the end-user.
| Why should you care about UX/UI design? The answer is simple: good design sells. Big companies like Apple and Google have set the bar high in terms of excellent user experience and design, and users have come to expect this level of quality from all products. That said, product developers and designers should strive to meet these expectations by prioritizing UX/UI design in their product development process. Doing so may put them, if not in the same league, at least in the same ballpark as industry giants. |
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10 Common UX Design Mistakes To Avoid
As customer needs and challenges shift, you’ll need to continuously optimize the UX to deliver the best possible product, which can be challenging. Instead of racking your brain about how to enhance a product’s user experience, start by avoiding these common UX design mistakes:
Mistake #1: Neglecting User Research
Arguably, the biggest mistake you can make is ignoring user research. Too often, companies assume they know what their users want and proceed to design a product based on those assumptions. However, customer preferences are as diverse as the customers themselves.
A robust user research process can help uncover valuable insights into your target audience’s needs, desires and pain points, which can inform your design decisions.
Mistake #2: Complex Navigation
A cluttered and confusing navigation system can significantly hinder the user experience. Users should easily locate what they need within a few clicks. Users may abandon the site altogether if finding a specific feature or page becomes too time-consuming.
To create a smooth user experience, keep navigation simple, intuitive and consistent across all pages.
Mistake #3: Ignoring User Feedback
Feedback from actual users is a goldmine for improving your product’s UX. Pay attention to what your customers are saying through surveys, reviews or user testing.
Ignoring feedback can lead to missed opportunities for improvement and may result in frustrated users who feel their opinions don’t matter. To keep your products user-centered, incorporate user feedback at every stage of the design process.
Mistake #4: Inconsistent Design
Inconsistency in design can be confusing and disorienting for users. Visual elements like color scheme, fonts and imagery should stay uniform to foster a cohesive experience.
Mistake #5: Poor Mobile Optimization
About nine out of 10 American adults use their phones to shop or browse online (Pew Research Center). This means that the majority of your users access your product through their mobile devices.
Neglecting to optimize for mobile can result in a poor user experience, leading to lost conversions and frustrated customers. Be sure to prioritize responsive design and ensure your product is just as user-friendly on mobile devices as on desktops.
Use this checklist when optimizing for mobile:
• Is the text legible and easy to read on a small screen?
• Are buttons and links large enough for users to tap with their fingers?
• Is the layout optimized for smaller screens?
• Are there any broken or overlapping elements when viewed on mobile devices?
• Does the product load quickly on mobile devices?
Mistake #6: Flooding Users With Pop-Up Ads
Pop-ups can be useful tools for attracting users’ attention and promoting special deals or offers. However, excessive use of pop-ups can be annoying for users.
Too many pop-ups interrupt the user’s experience and make navigating the product difficult. Therefore, it is crucial to use pop-ups strategically and allow users to dismiss them if they are uninterested.
| Pro Tip: Stick to one pop-up per page and ensure it doesn’t interfere with the UX design by taking up the entire page. This approach will help ensure a positive user experience while utilizing pop-ups for marketing. |
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Mistake #7: Ignoring the Transitional Phases
In design, much like in real life, things can turn out differently than expected. That’s why it’s crucial to remain adaptable and prepared for changes.
When designing a product, consider transitional phases such as onboarding, off-boarding and error states. Ignoring transitional phases can result in a product not being adequately tested or optimized for all possible scenarios.
For example, if a user encounters an error such as a page not loading, a well-designed and informative error message can prevent them from leaving the website out of frustration. Additionally, you should offer them the next step, such as reporting the error or connecting with a support team.
This way, they know that the product is still operational and you’re doing your best to address any issues that may arise.
Mistake #8: Stopping at Launch
One of the biggest myths of product design is that once a product is launched, the work is done. In reality, launching a product is just the beginning.
True user-centered design involves continuously gathering feedback and improving the user experience. A design should evolve with its users and adapt to their changing needs.
The job of a UX designer isn’t over after launch. Keep gathering feedback, analyzing data and making improvements to ensure your product remains competitive.
Mistake #9: Jumping on All UX Design Trends
You see a cool new design trend and want to incorporate it into your product ASAP. While keeping up with design trends is essential, blindly jumping on all UX design trends can be harmful.
As mentioned earlier, users breathe in the familiarity and consistency of a product. Constantly changing design elements can make it difficult for users to keep up and cause confusion.
Instead, carefully consider which UX design trends align with your brand and target audience before implementing them into your product. Remember that what works for one product may not work for another.
Mistake #10: Overwhelming Users With Information
Bombarding users with too much information at once can lead to cognitive overload. When users are presented with abundant choices or dense blocks of text, it can become challenging to process information effectively, leading to decision fatigue and a higher likelihood of abandoning the task at hand.
To improve user experience, you should prioritize content and adopt a ‘less is more’ approach. This involves breaking down information into manageable chunks, using bullet points for clarity and incorporating visual elements to aid comprehension.
UX Design Best Practices for Refining Products
Now that we’ve covered common mistakes in UX design, let’s get into how you can create a user-centered experience. Here are some best practices to follow when refining your product design:
Get a Deep Understanding of Your Target Audience
The first step in UX design, as discussed earlier, is researching and understanding your target audience. Whether you’re designing a website from scratch or optimizing an existing product, you need to grasp the needs, preferences and behaviors of your target audience.
Numerous methods exist for gaining insight, such as employing behavior analytics and product experience tools, listening to sales and support conversations and examining product usage statistics.
However, nothing beats direct conversations with your users using online surveys or personal interviews.
Both approaches enable a deeper understanding of your customers. They allow you to empathize with their needs and create detailed user personas that serve as valuable references during the UX design phase.
Create a Strategy for How Users Should Experience Your Product
A user flow is a visual representation of the user’s journey through your product – from initial contact to the desired outcome.
User flows allow you to evaluate how users interact with your product, where they may face challenges or confusion, and make necessary adjustments to streamline their experience. This is similar to a customer journey map but specifically focused on the digital product experience.
For example:
• For an eCommerce store, the ideal user flow might be: Click on Google ad > Visit product page > Add to cart > Checkout process > Confirmation page.
• For a productivity app, the user flow might be as follows: Download the app from the App Store or Google Play > Onboarding tutorial > Set up account and preferences > Use features within the app.
Based on your research and understanding of your target audience, you can create multiple user flows for different types of scenarios. This helps ensure all users have a smooth and intuitive experience with your product.
Provide Users With Self-Serve Options and Customer Support
While a streamlined and intuitive user experience is crucial, it’s also essential to provide users with self-serve options and accessible customer support.
This includes:
• A comprehensive FAQ section
• User forums or communities for peer-to-peer support
• Live chat or email support with a quick response time
Providing these resources can help reduce barriers to using your product. Let’s say a user needs help understanding a feature; instead of abandoning the product, they can refer to the FAQs or contact customer support for assistance.
This reduces customer churn while creating a positive impression of your brand by showing that you value your users’ satisfaction and are willing to support them using your product.
Test, Test and Test Some More
We can’t stress this enough – testing is crucial in UX design! Conducting user testing allows you to gain valuable feedback and insights, identify potential issues early on and make necessary adjustments before launching a product.
Roll Out New Features in Stages
When introducing new features or updates to your product, it’s best to roll them out in stages to mitigate the risk of major issues like bugs impacting a large portion of your user base.
For instance, some companies utilize an A/B testing approach to introduce a new feature to a small group of users and evaluate its performance compared to the old one before the official launch. This enables quick adjustments to be made before affecting a larger audience.
Aimless redesigns can disorient users and lead to negative reviews or decreased usage. Before implementing any major changes, it’s best to take a strategic approach and involve user feedback in the decision-making process.
Have a Plan B
Not everyone would like to take the conventional path to solve a particular problem. Some users may find alternative ways to use your product that you never considered. Therefore, it’s essential to have a backup plan or “creative solutions” for such scenarios.
For example, you’ve designed an online marketplace for buying and selling handcrafted goods. Users may discover that they can also rent out their items instead of just selling them. In this case, having a plan B to accommodate these users can help improve their experience and potentially open up new opportunities for your product.
This could mean having flexible features or options that allow for renting as well as buying or even creating a separate section of your marketplace specifically for rentals. Being open to new ideas and adaptable in your design approach can help keep users engaged and satisfied with your product.
UX Design Tools To Include in Your Arsenal
There are so many UX design tools that making a short list of “must-haves” is a challenge. To get you started, here are some popular options you can integrate into your design process:
1. Figma
PAID – starts at $12/month for each user
Figma is a premier design tool that enables collaborative design, prototyping and more. It provides a shared, version-controlled design file for teams to work together, explore ideas and gather real-time feedback. Its prototyping feature allows for the creation of realistic, interactive designs for better feedback.
What we like about it: The Dev Mode brings design and development closer, providing clarity to designs and aiding developers in translating them into code. Figma also supports design systems with reusable assets in shared libraries for consistency and efficiency.
FigJam, an online whiteboard, fosters team collaboration from kickoffs to retros. Lastly, Figma’s powerful design files serve as collaborative environments for transforming ideas into responsive, interactive designs.
2. Adobe XD
PAID – starts at $9.99/month for each user
Adobe XD is a vector-based digital design and prototyping tool for UI and UX. It features a clean interface and optimized performance. Its main features include real-time previews, a repeat grid for complex layouts and support for voice commands and gestures, making it ideal for interactive prototypes.
What we like about it: As a versatile tool, Adobe XD is perfect for wireframes, prototypes, UI designs, illustrations and graphics, offering scalable designs thanks to its vector nature. It streamlines the design process by enabling element duplication, content repetition and process automation to save time.
3. Axure RP
PAID – starts at $25/month for each user
Axure RP is a comprehensive tool that allows designers to create wireframes, prototypes and specifications for applications and websites.
What we like about it: Axure offers both a cloud-based and on-premise solution, making it flexible for different working environments.
One of Axure RP’s key features is its ability to create interactive UX prototypes with a wide range of triggers, conditions and actions. It also supports dynamic content, allowing designers to create working forms, sortable grids and other dynamic interfaces.
4. Adobe Illustrator
PAID – starts at $22.99/month with an annual commitment
Adobe Illustrator is a vector graphics editor that provides a wide range of features for creating and editing graphics.
What we like about it: It allows users to create precise lines and shapes, which can be combined to make beautiful graphics. Illustrator also supports opening files from other Adobe software and can connect to various tools and services for collaboration.
5. Inkscape
FREE
Inkscape is a free and open-source vector graphics editor. It offers various object creation tools, including drawing, shape, calligraphy, pencil and pen tools.
What we like about it: Inkscape also provides features for object manipulation, such as transformations, Z-order operations, grouping objects and alignment and distribution commands.
Inkscape can import and export formats, including PDF, PS, SVG, AI, EPS and PNG.
6. Sketch
PAID – starts at $9/month with an annual commitment
Sketch is a design tool that offers powerful vector editing and easy, intuitive prototyping. It comes with shared libraries, styles and components, control over color profiles, variable and OpenType font support and reusable design templates.
7. Storyboard Software
Rates vary per software package
Storyboard software helps visualize stories by allowing users to set up frames per their project and team needs.
What we like about it: Users can add custom fields or predefined ones, add, delete, rearrange, merge or duplicate frames. It also provides features for avoiding confusion and saving time with automatic frame and version numbering.
Improve UX Design and Reduce Customer Churn With a Professional Web Design Agency
The moral of the story: Don’t sleep on good user experience design.
The ultimate goal of any UX design process is a happy, satisfied end-user. However, sometimes, even the best designs fail to meet user expectations, which can lead to customer churn.
Thrive, a full-service digital marketing agency, can improve your UX design for better conversions. Whittaker shares the following tactics on how Thrive tests and optimizes your UX design’s effectiveness:
1. Track Analytics and KPIs
○ Defining KPIs: Set specific, measurable KPIs such as conversion rates, user engagement metrics, lead generation effectiveness and satisfaction scores.
○ Using Analytics Tools: Utilize tools like Google Analytics and internal dashboards to track user behavior and measure the impact of UX improvements.
2. User Feedback and Testing
○ Internal Surveys and Feedback Forms: Collect qualitative feedback from users engaging with your campaigns through internal surveys and feedback forms.
○ Usability Testing: Conduct usability tests within the team to identify potential usability issues and gather insights for improvement.
3. A/B Testing
○ Setting Up A/B Tests: Design and run A/B tests on different design elements or campaign variations to determine which versions perform better.
○ Analyzing Results: Evaluate the results of A/B tests to make data-driven decisions for design optimizations.
4. Audits and Iterations
○ UX Audits: Perform regular UX audits to identify and address usability issues and optimize the overall user experience.
○ Continuous Iteration: Implement a cycle of continuous iteration, regularly updating and refining designs based on new insights and feedback.
5. Heatmaps and Click Tracking
○ Using Heatmaps: Utilize heatmaps to visualize user interactions and identify areas of high engagement or issues.
○ Analyzing Click Patterns: Review click patterns to optimize navigation and layout for improved user experience.
6. Conversion Rate Optimization (CRO): We continuously refine marketing campaigns and user journeys to improve conversion rates and achieve business goals.
The path to great UX design and reduced customer churn is an ongoing process, and you need a professional web design agency like Thrive to help you on that journey. Contact Thrive today for a consultation and see how we can help improve your UX design for better customer satisfaction and retention.
UX Design FAQs
Does UX Design require coding?
While coding isn’t essential for user experience design, having a grasp of its basics can be beneficial for a UX designer. Knowing software development fundamentals offers insights into what can be achieved, leading to more streamlined work and improved designs.
How can UX Design help my business?
By investing in effective UX design, businesses can significantly reduce development costs since fixing issues during the design phase is more cost-effective than post-launch. Strong UX design can boost revenue, especially with the growing number of mobile users, as mobile-friendly and user-centric designs increase sales.
Why should I prioritize UI/UX design?
Today, UI/UX design is a pillar in the tech world, often synonymous with successful business. Airbnb, a tech powerhouse, attributes its remarkable turnaround from near failure to a valuation of $10 billion to its UI/UX design.
What can a UX/UI designer do for my business?
A UX/UI design specialist can elevate your business by optimizing the user experience of your products or services. By understanding your target audience and designing intuitive interfaces, they can enhance customer satisfaction, drive engagement and ultimately boost business success.
What are the differences between low, medium and high-fidelity prototypes?
Low-fidelity prototypes are simple and often non-digital versions of the product concept used to test broad concepts and ideas.
Medium-fidelity prototypes are more detailed and may include some interactive elements, used to refine the product structure and layout.
High-fidelity prototypes are very detailed, interactive and visually similar to the final product, used for detailed user testing and to gather feedback on the visual design and interactions.
How much does UX design cost?
The cost of UX design varies greatly depending on several factors, such as the project’s complexity, the scope of work and the design team’s expertise. Here are some general estimates:
• Creating UI/UX Design from Scratch: For a small to medium-sized website or app, the cost can range anywhere from $10,000 to $50,000. However, the price can soar to $100,000 or more for larger and more intricate projects.
• Average UX/UI Design Cost: According to industry standards, a typical UX/UI design project can cost between $5,000 and $50,0001.
• Hourly Rates: The median hourly fee for UX Designers stands at $27. On Upwork, hourly rates for UX Designers commonly fall within the range of $25 to $39.
Please note that these figures are just averages, and the actual cost can vary based on the specifics of your project. It’s always a good idea to check with the design team or agency for the most accurate and up-to-date information.
