UX stands for user experience. If you find the UXD acronym (which stands for user experience design), it often referes to the same thing.
User Experience is all about the human – product interaction, and it basically is all about designing end-to-end experience for certain products.
Web design UX
When designing a website for your audiences getting the User Experience right is absolutely fundamental to the long term success of your website development. So how do you make sure you get it right? the following gives a step by step of the key areas to focus on;
Competitor analysis – Start with a competitors analysis. Who is doing what, and who is doing it well? remember “Talent borrows, genius steals” Wilde, Oscar
Also, take look at your competition’s help and support boards and learn from their mistakes. You will find out what their customers are complaining about and it will help you prevent the same flow errors.
Audience definition – Just like in marketing, you have to define your target audience so you know how to adress them.
User scenarios – If we are talking about a web project or a software of any kind, at this stage, a HCI (human-computer interaction) research will come in handy.
Site map – If you create your sitemap to early, it will inevitably suffer changes and it will be a waste of your time.
Design – Base your design on the above research. Many designers have their own style and find it difficult to adapt it to the user’s needs. Of course, we all want everything to look great, but if this affects the usability or becomes a nightmare for the developers, you’ll have to make a few compromises. Remember, you are designing for your audiences and not for yourself.
Testing – Test, test and then test some more. This is the key of every project. Does it work? Should it? Why does it work? Why does it not? Ask yourselves all possible questions and DON’T release the product until you have answered all of them.