Why UX UI designers are so popular?

The convenience and simplicity of a food delivery service or a marketplace site determine whether we will return to shop again or stop using these products forever. According to a joint study by Google and MTM, 74% of users uninstall retailer apps precisely because they are dissatisfied with the interface. But at SECLGroup.com you will find the best designers to avoid such a fate.

What is UX / UI design and what does a specialist in this field do?

UX / UI design is the design of convenient, understandable, and aesthetic user interfaces. To understand what tasks a specialist in this field solves, you need to understand what UX and UI are.

UX – user experience. This concept includes navigation through a site or application, the composition of functions within a digital product, and understandable text.

A UX designer is a specialist whose task is to make a product convenient, understandable, and logical for all users. It depends on his work whether the client can quickly and conveniently receive the desired service. Before launching a product, he always does a lot of preparatory work: he audits competitors, interviews users, and studies the target audience of a site or application.

UI – user interface: filling the site, organizing elements, choosing colors, building a visual composition, designing buttons, columns, and other graphic elements. All this is done by a UI designer.

Because UX and UI design work are closely related, most of the time it’s done by the same person. In many companies, the functions of a UX / UI designer are taken over by one employee.

Stages of work of a UX/UI designer

Applications and sites solve different user tasks, so the process of creating an interface cannot be strictly regulated. However, the work of a UX/UI specialist can be divided into several stages.

Stage 1. Target audience analysis

The average age and gender of users, their interests and goals for which they enter the site or application, and the geography of residence – all this information helps to create a portrait of the target audience. Thanks to him, it is easier for a designer to predict people’s behavior and create the most convenient product for them.

If you finish the analysis of the target audience in this form, the audience of the product will turn out to be too wide, it will be difficult for a specialist to create an application specifically for it. Therefore, you can divide the audience into segments:

Stage 2. Competitor analysis

Studying the strengths and weaknesses of competitors helps the UX designer improve the product without repeating the mistakes of colleagues. At this stage, you can analyze the sites and applications of not only competing companies but also those involved in related businesses. For example, if you work with a chain of fitness centers, you should pay attention to the interfaces of sports nutrition or clothing stores.

Stage 3. Struct definition

At this stage, the main sections of the product are created, and their interaction and location are determined. Information architecture will help to correctly design the structure of a site or application. It defines what data should be placed on each page and how to link them to each other so that the content of the product becomes convenient and logically connected for users.

At this stage, a Customer Journey Map can also be created – a map of user journeys. In essence, CJM is a visualization of the interaction between the consumer and the product from the user’s point of view. In the map, the designer describes how the client came to the site, what barriers he faced, what he is afraid of, and because of which he may refuse to purchase. With the help of CJM, the structure of the future project is formed.

Stage 4. Prototyping

Prototyping is a very important stage of product development. This is where UI design begins. The prototype is tested by the target audience of the project, it is shown to the customer or shareholders, and investors are attracted with its help.

To begin with, the designer creates a wireframe – a diagram that reflects the general concept of the product and its main sections. The wireframe is distinguished by its monochrome and low level of visualization. We can say that this is a simplified sketch of a site or application that contains all the elements of the product. A wireframe shows how the interface works and how the user interacts with it.

After the wireframe, the specialist proceeds to create the layout. At this stage, the interface is filled with logos, colors, pictures, and texts – the design of the future product becomes more detailed. The layout helps the client and the team evaluate the visual content of the site or application.

Finally, the designer creates a full-fledged product model – an interactive prototype. It includes all the content of a site or application: users can click on buttons, navigate from page to page, and see how product features work.

Stage 5 Testing

The prototype contains all the visual and functional elements of the site or application, so before release, it is tested to identify errors and improve the final result.

There are two types of testing: quantitative and qualitative. In the first case, the study is carried out on a large sample of users, in the second, a focus group from the target audience is involved in the case.

After testing is completed, UX / UI specialists are engaged in finalizing the site or application. Several prototypes of a product may enter the market before a product is released.

Stage 6 Support and product development

The release of a website or application does not mean that the work on the project is over. Some time after the release, designers test the product again, improve it and make it more effective for users. Often sites and applications acquire new features, sometimes they need a redesign.

Conclusion

UX/UI designer is a sought-after profession that provides career opportunities. The competition for customers in the virtual world is becoming as big as in the real world, so businesses are trying to be more empathic and customer-oriented online. A specialist in UX / UI design helps him with this by creating convenient websites and mobile applications that solve user problems in one click.