What Is UX Design?

Introduction

Think of a door you have pushed when you should have pulled. The door worked, but the design failed you. User experience (UX) design is the craft of making products, websites and services that are useful, easy and pleasant for the people who use them. It is partly psychology, partly problem solving and partly making things.

The simple explanation

UX design starts from people's needs, not from technology or decoration.

Good UX answers: Who is this for? What are they trying to do? What gets in their way? How can we make it simpler?

UX versus UI

• UX (user experience) covers the whole journey: whether the product solves the right problem, how easy it is to learn, how it feels, and what happens when something goes wrong.
• UI (user interface) is what people see and touch: screens, buttons, colours, text and layout.

UI is part of UX. A beautiful interface on a confusing product still gives a poor experience.

What makes something usable?

Usability experts describe five qualities:

1. Learnability: how easily first-time users can do basic tasks
2. Efficiency: how quickly experienced users can work
3. Memorability: how easily users return after a break
4. Errors: how few mistakes users make, and how easily they recover
5. Satisfaction: how pleasant it is

Accessibility, making products usable by people with disabilities, runs through all of these.

The design process

Teams use many versions, but the shape is similar:

1. Understand: research the users, their goals and the context.
2. Define: state the problem clearly.
3. Ideate: sketch many possible solutions.
4. Prototype: make something quick that people can try.
5. Test: watch real users, and learn what works and what does not.
6. Iterate: improve, and repeat.

The cycle is not a straight line. Testing often sends you back to earlier steps. The aim is to find problems cheaply, early and not after you have built everything.

Who does UX?

Roles include UX researchers who study users, UX and product designers who shape solutions, content designers who write the words, interaction designers and accessibility specialists. In small teams, one person may do several. Developers, product managers and customers all influence the experience too.

Good UX is everywhere

A clear road sign, a ticket machine, a form that tells you exactly what went wrong, a settings page where you can find what you need: these are all UX. You will notice bad UX even more: forms that erase your answers, menus you cannot find, apps that interrupt you.

Ethics

Designers influence people. Design should respect users' time, attention, privacy and wellbeing. Tricks that mislead or pressure people, often called deceptive patterns, harm trust and may be unlawful. We return to this in the advanced course.

Try it yourself

Choose a website or app you use daily. Write down one thing that works really well and one thing that frustrates you. For each, name the user goal and say which of the five usability qualities it affects.

Summary

• UX design makes products useful, easy and pleasant by starting from people's needs.
• UI is the visible interface, and UX is the whole experience, including usability and accessibility.
• The process is understand, define, ideate, prototype, test and iterate, finding problems early.