User Experience (UX) Design

Design is arguably *the* defining human endeavor  that separates us from all other species. Take a look around you right now and you'll notice that  *everything* has been designed – from how you sleep to how you eat and to how you communicate; everything around you has been designed by someone. In other words, user experience design, or UX design, is  *everywhere* – from how you interact with your smartphone to how your home is designed. Of course, not all experiences are *well designed*. And that's why UX design is such an incredibly exciting and  rewarding field to be in.

We can trace UX design all the way back to the ancient Romans. They developed theories of aesthetics to construct amazing buildings that have stood the test of time. Vitruvius, a renowned Roman architect who wrote the first-ever book on architecture, asserted that good design must have the qualities of *durability*, *usefulness* and *aesthetics*. These qualities are *as* important to UX design today as they were millennia ago.

From the early 1970s to '80s, UX design was known as "human-computer interaction", or *HCI*. HCI rose to prominence just as personal computers became mainstream, and that was not a coincidence. You see, before the 1970s computers were just large machines that were operated by punching lines of code. So, for most people, computers were really, really hard to use. But in the 1970s, Xerox PARC introduced the first personal computer. And it was not only small, but it utilized the first *graphical user interface*.

Instead of lines of code, you used Windows icons and a mouse. And it started a revolution! Soon, companies like Apple and Microsoft were heavily borrowing from the Alto to create their own personal computers. This explosion of personal computing in the 1970s and 1980s led people to ask questions like "How should people interact with computers?" and "How can we make that interaction as intuitive as when we interact with other humans?". As people started finding the answers to these questions, the field of human-computer interaction, or HCI, started to grow.

Originally, HCI practitioners were mostly from fields such as cognitive psychology and computer science, and they were mostly focused on the concept of *usability*: how to make computers as intuitive as possible. As the field of HCI grew, designers quickly realized that designing intuitive computers required a greater understanding of other fields such as *motion graphics*, *storytelling* and *linguistics*. UX design today is really just  a continuation of what was called *HCI* in the 1980s

and *interaction design* in the 1990s. Today, we're dealing with a whole new set of products and services, the smartphone, virtual and augmented reality and artificial intelligence. But the questions we are asking as UX designers are *exactly the same*. It's still about "How can we make the experience of interacting with a computer, a smartphone, a product, a service as *intuitive*, *smooth* and *pleasant* as possible?".

Don Norman, the prominent designer who coined the term "user experience", once said that *design is everything*. What he meant was that UX designers are not only concerned with the product *when* it is being used but also *before* the product has been purchased and *after* it has been used. Let's think about the smartphone, for example. As UX designers, we care not only about making the software easy to use;

we also care about *designing the right marketing campaign*, about *creating a great unboxing experience*, as well as *making troubleshooting as painless as possible*. Of course, on top of that, we need to make sure  that the product or service that you're offering   actually addresses the need of the user in the first place. If not, you'll just be designing in a vacuum and no one will care how smooth or pleasant the experience is.

This is why UX design has become such a huge umbrella term which encompasses many fields, including *visual design*, *usability*, *psychology*, *sociology* and *aesthetics*. If you're interested in the *questions* that UX designers ask and if you're excited about finding the *answers*, then we have some very good news for you! The first piece of good news is that because  UX design is such a multidisciplinary field, the barriers of entry are very low. It doesn't matter where you come from or what you majored in;

you'll always have something relevant to bring to the field of UX design. All you need is a constant drive for absorbing new knowledge and constantly improving yourself. The second piece of good news is that it's extremely challenging and rewarding to be a UX designer. There's an endless depth to the job, and you'll always be coming up with new  possibilities and new solutions. And, finally, the great news is that you can start *right now*! You can start learning UX design *today*. At the Interaction Design Foundation, because we're a non-profit

we're able to deliver online UX courses at an extremely high quality and at a surprisingly low price. You can also pick up a few books at your library, or you can read some articles online. The point is you can take action right now. You can start learning UX design, and then you can make the world into a better design place than when you found it.

Do you find the terms "user experience" and "user interface" confusing? "User experience" and "user interface" are related and sound similar, but they mean different things. Don Norman, the inventor of the term "user experience", said, "User experience encompasses all aspects of the end-user's interaction with the company, its services and its products." - They're all about optimizing for the people, try to use and understand what they're given so that they can understand it,

so that they know what to do when something goes wrong, so they know how to actually accomplish their goals, so they feel good about it and the technology does not get in the way. - UX designers have to create an all-around pleasurable experience that meets the needs of the users. This holistic perspective is what makes  it different from user interface or UI. - User experience design, or UX design, is everywhere, from how you interact with your smartphone to how your home is designed. Of course, not all experiences are well designed, and that's why UX design is

such a rewarding and challenging field to be in. - The user interface encompasses all the visual elements the user sees, hears and interacts with, including colors, typography, buttons, icons, screen animations and more. These visual elements are key to support tasks and usability. UI is how a product looks and all its visual  elements, which plays a significant role in UX, which is the overall product experience. - What you need to do to get good is to remember those couple of things:

Always align your buttons well. Always  create hierarchy by larger spacing between groups and reuse the basic forms and just a couple of colors initially because that's going to help you get better understanding of what is really  important in that UI design. And then you can experiment and you can explore outside of those boundaries. Let's look at it this way – observe the car dashboard. What you see, the icons, layout, even the shape and location of the gear shift are all UI.

The holistic experience of what you  *feel* – "Is it easy to drive? Is it comfortable and intuitive to use? Is it easy to understand the information displayed?" – is the overall UX, and both are essential to design brilliant and successful solutions and experiences.

When we hear the term 'user experience', we tend to  think in terms of screens, websites, mobile apps or other smart technology. But that's just the tip of the iceberg. The Elements of User Experience In the book *The Elements of User Experience:  User-Centered Design for the Web*, Jesse James Garrett outlines five elements of user experience: strategy, scope, structure, skeleton and surface.

Before beginning any work, product teams conduct  user research to understand who their target users are and what the users' needs are. It's important for teams to be aware of the business's goals and objectives because if the product does not return  a profit, the business will not be sustainable. The strategy helps you identify *who you are designing for and why*. The scope defines *what you will be designing*. Designers work collaboratively with all stakeholders to identify

what features and functionality will help address user needs. While the *scope defines what a solution does*, the *structure defines how the product or solution works*. You create the blueprint of how the system works behind the scenes and how people, the users, interact with it. You then create the *skeleton*, laying out the first interfaces of the solution and creating the first tangible elements of user experience.

And, finally, you flesh out the skeleton to create  the most visible element – the *surface* that your users see and interact with. Much like an iceberg, there is so much more to UX than meets the eye. And, just as in the case of an iceberg, each element of UX above and below the surface affects the other. Decisions taken at one plane can cascade up or  down the layers. For example, if you introduce a new feature, a change in the scope, it will impact all the elements above.

You might even find users interacting with your product in unexpected ways, prompting you to rethink your strategy. There will likely be unknown considerations that  emerge later, which might impact the experience. For example, if the team encounters technical  challenges or budgetary constraints during development, they might have to revisit some design  decisions. User experience design is concerned with *all* the decisions leading up to the surface,

from the most abstract to the most concrete, from the known to the unknown, and continues  to evolve throughout the life of the product.