Foundations of User Experience (UX) Design
What is the difference between *User* and *End User*
*1)* *User* - Any person who uses a product. In addition, the end user is the specific audience a UX designer creates something for. Our goal as UX designers is to think about problems and needs from the end user's perspective and design an experience to meet those needs. - *User Experience*: How a person, the user, feels about interacting with or experiencing a product. *Goals of Good User Experience* 1) Is the product easy to use? 2) Is the product equitable? 3) Does the product delight the user? 4) Does the product solve the user's problem? - These type of questions are something UX designers constantly ask themselves in order to create great user experiences. *2)* *End User* - It is the person that a product or service is designed for. - As a UX designer, you will focus on the end user, acting as the user's advocate and balancing business needs. Your team members might prioritize other goals for a product, like sales or marketing. As a UX designer, you need to keep the end user as your main priority.
What are other *Common User Experience Frameworks & Their Purposes*?
*Framework* - A framework creates the basic structure that focuses and supports the problem you're trying to solve. You could think of frameworks like outlines for a project. - There are many UX design frameworks and over time, these evolve or become obsolete (outdated) thanks to the fast-changing world of technology. *The Five Elements Framework & Design Thinking Framework*
What is *User-Centered Design*?
- *User-Centered Design* is a framework that puts the user front and center. Focusing on the user means to consider their story, emotions, and the insights you've gathered about them. - To keep our focus on the user, the user-centered design process has four steps: 1) Understand 2) Specify 3) Design/Evaluate - Following this framework helps us build products people actually want to use.
What are *Assistive Technologies*?
*1)* *Assistive Technology* - Any products, equipment, and systems that enhance learning, working, and daily living for people with disabilities. They make our lives easier and helps provide a better user experience. *2)* *Color Modification* - Such as high contrast mode or dark mode on a device, increases the contrast of colors on a screen. Black text on a white background, or white text on a dark background are both examples of high contrast. - High contrast makes the interface easier to see for people with low vision. It also helps anyone who might experience eye strain when viewing screens in the dark or daytime, when the sun is creating an intense glare. *3)* *Voice Control* - It allows users to navigate and interact with the buttons and screens on their devices using only their voice. Lots of devices have settings with this feature. - *Switch*: It is an assistive technology device that replaces the need to use a computer keyboard or mouse. These devices can allow users to control technology like a computer or smartphone. *4)* *Screen Readers* - They are one of the most common assistive technologies for people with limited vision. The software works on mobile and web devices and reads out loud any on-screen text. - They can also read any interactive elements, like buttons, along with non-visible text, like the button names, and any alternative text for images. - *Alternative Text*: It helps translate a visual user interface into a text-based user interface. It essentially uses words to describe any meaningful image for someone who isn't able to see the image. It is helpful for those with low bandwidth connections and can also be useful for context when an image fails to load.
What are the *Four Cs of Designing* for multiple platforms?
*1)* *Consistency* - Most companies have specific design guidelines that need to be followed in order to stay consistent with their brand identity (visual appearance & voice of a company). - When designing a product, it's important to stay true to the company's brand guidelines in order to maintain consistency across platforms and drive brand awareness. - Maintaining a consistent design helps improve the user experience and build trust. With trust, users can expect the design to feel familiar across platforms and products. *2)* *Continuity* - To provide users with a seamless experience as they move between platforms. UX designers also have to prioritize continuity. In design, continuity means that users can maintain their progress as they move from one platform to the next. - The user experience for each platform might be slightly different, but the product's functionality should still be connected. Without continuity, users can become frustrated if the progress of their experience does not carry across platforms. *3)* *Context* - This means thinking about when and how users prefer to interact with certain features on different platforms. - For example, a user might check their email on a smartwatch as they sit in their car after they get home from work, then designing with that situation in mind, is an example of *context*. *4)* *Complementary* - One way to create a great cross-platform user experience is to make sure that the design of each platform adds something new for the user. - Taking into account how each platform could uniquely enrich (improve) the overall user experience is the best way to create complementary UX designs.
What are *Platforms* in UX Design?
*1)* *Platform* - It is the medium that users experience your product on, such as desktop, mobile web, mobile apps, tablets, wearables, TVs, and smart displays. - It's important to design with multiple platforms in mind because users want a product to look and feel similar, no matter what platform they're using. - In the past, UX designers could have focused on creating a website only for a desktop computer. But today, users might look at that same website on multiple platforms, like their mobile phone, smartwatch, and TV. - It's important to focus on one platform first when you build a new product. The platform you select should be the one that best meets your end users' needs. *2)* *Brand Identity* - It refers to the visual appearance and voice of a company. It's important to keep in mind that some functionalities only exist within certain platforms. - *Consistency* is key.
What are the steps in the *User-Centered Design Process*?
*1)* *Understand* - First, understand how the user experiences the product or similar products. In order to really understand the end user, it requires a lot of research. *2)* *Specify* - Based on your research, you'll narrow down which end-user problem is the most important to solve. Then, you'll figure out design solutions to the end user's problem. - At this stage, you'll come up with ideas for what the product might look like and can begin to actually start building the product. *3)* *Design/Evaluate* - At this stage, you evaluate your design against your end user's needs. In order to solve the end user's problem, you must test your product with real people. - It's important to keep in mind that as you go through this process, *iteration* is key. - *Iteration*: Means doing something again, by building on previous versions and making tweaks.
What is the *Design Thinking Framework*?
- A way to create solutions that address a real user problem and are functional and affordable. - *Design Thinking* has five actionable steps: *1)* *Empathize* - It is about discovering what end users really need and learning how to think and feel like them. You might conduct surveys, interviews, or observation sessions to paint a clear picture of who your end users are and the challenges they face. *2)* *Define* - The next step is to define the problem by creating a clear problem statement. The problem statement is a clear description of the user's need that should be addressed. Additionally, the problem statement should be based on user research and that it focuses the team on a clear goal. *3)* *Ideate/Brainstorm Solutions* - You should aim to come up with as many ideas as possible. By focusing on the quantity of the ideas, not the quality, you're more likely to come up with innovative solutions. Eventually, we'll need to narrow down to a few ideas that we can prototype. *4)* *Prototype* - It is a scaled down version of a product that shows important functions. You should have a clear goal for your prototype in mind. *5)* *Test* - Finally in this last step, we test the prototypes with users. Testing keeps the user front and center as it gives users an opportunity to provide feedback before the product is built. Based on user feedback, you can make changes and improvements or come up with a completely new idea.
What is the *Five Elements Framework*?
- Steps a designer takes to turn an idea into a functioning product. *1)* *Strategy* *2)* *Scope* *3)* *Structure* *4)* *Skeleton* *5)* *Surface* - Each element refers to a specific layer involved in creating the user experience, and each layer is dependent on the one below it. - The bottom layer is *Strategy*. This is where you'll define the user's needs and business objectives. - The next layer is *Scope*. This is where you'll determine what you're building. You'll decide on features and content to be included in the product. - The third layer is *Structure*. You'll figure out how to organize your design and how the user will interact with it. - The next layer is *Skeleton*, which you can think of as the layout. Similar to how the layout of our bones shape our skin, this layer helps detail how the design works. Like our bones, the user won't see these inner workings. - The last layer is *Surface*, which is the top level of the user experience. The surface is how the product looks to the user. - Together, all these layers make up the *Five Elements Framework*.
What are the *Three Designs for Users*?
- When designers began considering how to include an even broader range of people in their designs. *1)* *Universal Design* - It is the process of creating one product for users with the widest range of abilities and in the widest range of situations. It is a *one-size-fits-all* approach. Designers propose one solution for everyone. - The problem is that when you focus on creating one solution for everyone, the designs lose their effectiveness. It's often difficult to achieve any goals with your product when you have so many intended users. - As UX designers realized that universal design didn't meet the needs of every user, the approach to including people began to change. Designers started thinking about the concept of *inclusive design*, which focuses on finding solutions to meet different needs. *2)* *Inclusive Design* - It means making design choices that take into account personal identifiers like ability, race, economic status, language, age, and gender. - Inclusive design includes researchers and designers from traditionally excluded populations in the process, so they can provide their unique perspectives during all phases of the design process. - If universal design is a one-size-fits-all solution, then inclusive design can be described as *solve for one, extend to many*. With inclusive design, you solve for one type of user and the benefit of that solution can extend to many other types of users. - Our goal as designers is to build experiences that are accessible to users with the widest range of abilities. In inclusive design, there's no such thing as normal. There's no average person or target audience that we should design for. - *Accessibility*: The design of products, devices, services, or environments for people with disabilities. It is just one aspect of inclusive design. - The idea of ''solve for one, extend to many'', only benefits the group the design was created for and existing users. Many groups are still left out. *3)* *Equity-Focused Design* - This design takes the idea of inclusive design one step further. It asks designers to focus on designing for groups that have been historically underrepresented or ignored when building products. - The goal of equity-focused design is to uplift groups that have been excluded historically. In order to design with equity as a goal, we first need to know the difference between *equality* and *equity*. While sounding similar, they're both two different concepts. - *Equality*: Providing the same amount of opportunity and support to all segments of society. - *Equity*: Providing different levels of opportunity and support for each person in order to achieve fair outcomes. - Instead of building products for groups of people who are currently being excluded, which is the goal of inclusive design, *equity-focused design* seeks to build products that meet the needs of specific individuals in groups who have been excluded in the past. - *Social Model of Disability*: Defines a disability as being caused by the way society is organized or how products are designed, rather than a person's ability or difference.
