Basically, the start-up concept emerges from the intent to sort out an issue the users deal with. Generally the first thing that startupers do is building and raising the quality of their apps. Only after that they think about developing design. In order to attract and get more customers, the main attention is paid to features instead of design.
However, the key point of the product’s success depends on how people use it. Imagine that you count on your imagination and presumptions, thinking that is enough for your developers to work with. That is where you do not see the point, because the usability will not adjust for your users. So, what we want to say is that startupers must take into account User Experience Design (UX) and User Interface Design (UI) while developing MVP. We will dive into topics of user interface and User Experience design, and, of course, UI/UX services.
Let’s jump right into the details. First, it is necessary to see the point of UX and UI design.
Distinction Between UX And UI Design
UX means the connection between the user and the app. UX represents User Experience. To put it simply, UX design is about creating products that are convenient and simple to use. It’s about how to improve the product experience so that customers find it valuable.
UI is an abbreviation for User Interface. This is a direction in the digital product’s improvement, which includes work on the design of visual details of an app or service.
The user interface must be pleasing to the eye, meet high standards, and remain long-lasting. The last point is especially significant, because UI design is not only about the creation of beautiful icons, but these icons should immediately make it clear to the client what their function is.
UI is responsible for how the elements look. UX’s main purpose is how quickly you can access the necessary information and how many steps you have to take to achieve the goal.
A UX designer builds and raises up a system model that is designed to help the user achieve certain purposes. The UI designer, on the other hand, draws all these steps in the smallest detail.
So, the fundamental distinction between UX and UI design is that UX design is about how the interface works, while UI design shows how the interface looks.
One part cannot exist without the other. Nowadays for us, it is practically impossible to imagine that you can develop an interface and not think about how it will look, and vice versa, design the UI separately from UX design.
UX Significance For Business Development
When you think through UX design, it helps to improve customer productivity, reduce errors and training costs, make your app awesome from the very beginning, and also save money on product development later on.
More than that, UX design increases sales, reduces technical support costs and raises the distribution of the product around the world as customers themselves begin to recommend efficient and convenient company products.
Needless to say that a good user experience design benefits a lot. Using UX design, it is much easier to understand the customers. UX design always puts customers first. Moreover, user experience design increases brand value and makes it catchy.
So, taking into account the above-mentioned aspects, it goes without saying that user experience design is an essential part of a startup, if your intention is to make it successful, of course.
UX Design For Mobile App and Desktop
Websites are primarily designed for selling, except for services. Hence, web design means not only for the site to be convenient, but also attractive for users. The big screen opens up a whole field for creativity and must be used effectively in order to combine efficiency and aesthetics. However, sometimes in web design there is a big focus on the way the site looks, which harms the convenience of the site for the users.
When we talk about mobile apps, it is slightly different. The main purpose of apps is the service. Unlike websites, people use apps multiple times a day, so the priority in app design is to think about solving the user’s challenge as quickly as possible. Although sometimes you want to add a highlight, the success of mobile app design depends on how well you absorb the distribution of patterns.
What Makes Good and Bad UX Design
The user experience meaning refers to any experience that a user receives when interacting with an IT product. Experience can be both good and bad. And this experience is not always associated with the design of the interface itself. It is a mistake to think that UX equals good usability. We will try to point out what mistakes can not be done and how to avoid making them.
What can be more irritating than hint absence when interface elements can be clicked? Bad navigation? Music on site? Intrusive pop-ups? Well, let’s see.
One of the main user experience design rules is that the user of any digital product using any device can answer three key questions. Where am I? Where is the information I need? How do I get there?
If you put all the visual features of a link away from interface elements, then you can discover their interactivity by placing the cursor on the object.
Too much animation is another problem. Animation is a great opportunity for a designer to improve the user experience, as it helps to quickly capture the essence of an element. For example, if you hover over a card, and it enlarges, you understand that you can click on it. But it’s important for UX designers not to cross the line when animation becomes distracting.
It is worth studying the target audience and understanding the context of interaction with the service. If you’ve logged into a banking app to quickly find the nearest ATM, you probably don’t want to see a jumping animation while loading addresses. However, a map that loads smoothly will calm and create the feeling that information is about to appear.
The most undesirable mistake is information overload. There is such a term as white space. It means blank spaces in the interface. Why would a designer make those spaces intentionally? The answer is easy, to point out and read the objects.
It seems to many customers that the empty space is not used properly, and there is so much extra to place there. But now users no longer read the text – they view the screen in large blocks, they do not have time to look at each detail. This was influenced by the habit of scrolling, scrolling and scrolling again. So it is the designer’s choice to find out how to work with “white space” and demonstrate to clients why it is useful for the interface.
UX/UI Design Services
So, what services can be used in UX/UI design? For research and process analysis we can use Customer Journey map (CJM), BPMN diagrams, and analytics systems (Google Firebase, Amplitude, OWOX BI, Google Analytics 360).
To develop the structure there are XMind, FlowMapp, MindMeister, Miro.
For design concepts Figma, Sketch, InVision Studio, Adobe Photoshop, Procreate, Adobe After Effects are suitable for creating design concepts with expressive graphics.
For interactive prototypes InVision Studio, Principle are suitable for creating interactive prototypes.
Wrapping Up
There are lots of new apps emerging every day, making it increasingly challenging for businesses to capture and hold the customers’ attention. In order to turn their apps to be more interesting and make really appealing marketing tools, businesses need to keep developing them with the best-known technical innovations. This is why a business should pursue the latest UI/UX design trendy steps and think about what is the best way to apply them to their apps.
