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UX / UI principles of web design.

7 principles of UX design

User experience design or UX UI design is what website builders use from user experience. This includes the entire product creation process, including aspects of branding, design, usability and functionality. 

You are faced with UX principles design whenever you use an application created by a large company or one of their products. 

preparation of design and user
UX design is what makes an app or website enjoyable and easy to use.

When you start exploring the world of web design, you will pretty quickly come across the concept of UX. It probably originated in 1988 with the publication of Donald Norman's book Design of Everyday Things. 

Norman, who was Apple's lead designer at the time, used this book to draw attention to the complexity of the design of objects that are often overlooked. Since then UI / UX design developed and changed.

However, despite the popularity of the concept, the main UX / UI design principles still poorly understood by many designers. In fact, there is an ongoing debate about how to define this term. Many designers have a vague understanding of what it means to be a user-centric UX design. Moreover, it can be even more difficult to apply it in practice.

In this article, we'll introduce you to the 7 most important UX design principles and show you how to use them.

This is the most important principle in UI design. Developers are becoming more adept at creating complex web design frameworks. They can sometimes design websites to impress their fellow designers. Not for the convenience of users.






1. Focus on website visitors.

many website design options
There are many design options - not all of them are user-friendly.

An elegant combination of form and function is important. By integrating user experience into your web design early on, you get a site that is truly user-centered. 

Applying this principle requires careful consideration of how your users will interact with your site.

The most practical way for web designers to apply this principle will depend on the type and size of the organization. Can you hire a specialist or contract with a third party company? For small businesses, you may need to create your own user feedback mechanisms. 

2. The principle of web design. Sequence.

Consistency means that design and functionality remain the same across all your pages and products. Many of the most popular and successful apps and websites use similar patterns for user interfaces across different resources, be it button placement or how menu systems "flow".

uniform website design for different devices
Consistent branding and design across multiple platforms in website design by FusionTrek

For this reason, users will come to your site with a pre-existing understanding of how things “should work,” and it's important to respect that. While you shouldn't copy your competitors' apps and websites, creating an interface that looks like market-leading websites can help users navigate your pages with ease. 

The more familiar a page looks, the easier it will be to use. The more comfortable your interaction with users will be. 

The implementation of this principle should be approached using three methods:

First, you must consider all the ways your users interact with your site. It is important to use the same design across all of these systems. This means integrating your website design with your applications and your ecommerce store. 

Second, you should not be tempted to try crazy new ideas. While innovation is important to web design, it should never get in the way of usability. 

Third, you may want to consider adopting a "design language" as a way to keep your designs consistent: good examples of design languages include Apple's Human Interface Guidelines and Best Practices Google on material design.

3. Hierarchy. The basic principle of UX design.

Hierarchy is another key UX design principle that is often overlooked. At its simplest level, this approach means thinking through all the features and information that your website will contain. This is then displayed in a tree structure. In it, every aspect of your website flows “naturally” from the latter. 

There are many benefits to using this approach early in the design phase. This will allow your users to navigate your site more easily and find what they are looking for. 

The temptation to constantly add new plugins and themes to your site should be avoided. It's important to keep things simple with a logical design approach. 

Dieter Rams put it this way in his "Ten Principles of Good Design": "Good design is as little design as possible."

Implementing the basic principle of hierarchy in web design should start with developing an information sequence. This can then be used to create a sitemap. This sitemap should contain everything you want to embed into your site. From there, you can build a design hierarchy that links your pages in a consistent and logical way.

4. Context is key in UI design.

One of the key takeaways from the UX / UI design approach is that context is an extremely important part of how users interact with your projects. 

Context in this sense means paying attention to what devices will be used to access your web page. It is important to pay particular attention to the fact that mobile browsing is now the main form of web traffic.

smartphone is the main means of accessing the Internet

Designing for context or setting also means considering a wide range of other factors. Your design can work great when you're sitting in a cool, quiet office. But it can happen that your users will interact with your site in a completely different environment: during lunchtime or in a noisy club.

In practice, there are two main ways to bring a contextual approach to the design process. One of them is the user polls we mentioned above. Another option is simpler, but possibly more efficient. Do a little "ethnographic" research using your web pages in the same setting as your users. 

More recently, a related term “emotional design” has emerged. This approach can be used in parallel with broader UX design principles and focus on the emotional content of the pages. The basic idea is that users expect web pages and applications to have different emotional "tastes" depending on when, how and where they use them. 

5. Give the user control.

This does not mean that you should give users complete control over your web pages. Too much information can overwhelm inexperienced users. Your website should remain easy to use, no matter how many additional features you provide. 

The web page should work for both power users and regular clients. You can hide these advanced options elsewhere on your site, but they should always be available to anyone who would like to use them.

Only one "BUT". While giving your users control will lead to a better experience, you should always open an "emergency exit" from these advanced options. 

In other words, a careful balance must be struck. You should always set confirmation fields so that users don't accidentally break their session. Also consider a "reset" button so they can revert to the default settings for your site.

6. Principle of Accessibility.

Accessibility means ease of use of your projects for everyone, including people with disabilities.

simple website design
Using accessible design principles can drastically simplify your design, as in this DSKY webpage.

It seems that focusing on making web pages accessible to everyone will take a lot of resources. Is it better to spend it on improving the basic design of your web pages?

In fact, these two processes are closely related. For example, if you focus on providing a user-friendly experience for the visually impaired, that could mean you are dramatically simplifying the visual design of your pages. As we saw above, simple design is the best design. It will be convenient for the "average" user as well.

7. Usability testing of design.

The last principle UX / UI design closely related to the first mentioned principle. To ensure that your web pages work for your users, you need to implement an ongoing rigorous usability testing system.

important for the user elements of the site in the foreground
Usability testing means that the pages your users want are in the foreground and center.

The basic idea to keep in mind is this: The design process doesn't stop when you publish your web page. You are constantly striving to understand how users actually use your web pages. Then you improve them.

In practice, applying this principle means creating a usability testing model, and there are many resources that can help you with this. 

Great UX design can be your guiding principle.

After reading these basic design principles, you will notice that most of them stem from the first UI / UX design principle we mentioned: user focus.

simple website design example
UX design principles focus on simplicity and usability.

This is not a coincidence. The core value of UX design processes is that they recognize a fundamental truth about web design:

You are not designing your website for yourself, but for your users. 

What seems obvious to you may not seem so to your users. Many web designers will find that their audience will end up interacting with their designs in unexpected and unplanned ways.

If UX design can be boiled down to one idea, then it is this: user feedback constantly influences the development of your site. For this reason, web designers should strive to interact with their users as closely as possible.

It's important to remember that the most beautiful design in the world is worthless if your customers can't use it.

By applying these basic principles, you will undoubtedly create a design for your web resource that is user-friendly and attractive to people.

Based on materials from the site: 99designs.com.

❤️ How does UX stand for?

UX stands for user experience - user experience.

⏩ How to check the usability of a website?

Using A / B testing.

❤️ How to make the site display well on different devices?

You can make a mobile version or make the site responsive initially.

⏩ What colors are best to use?

It depends on the topic of the site and for which users it is. Sometimes these are contrasting colors, sometimes pastels. A / B testing will show what your page visitors will like.

⏩ What is UX / UI?

UX stands for User Behavior and UI is User Interface.

⏩ Why do you need UX / UI?

UX / UI design takes into account user behavior on the site or in the application. This allows for increased profits and user loyalty.

⏩ What are the features of UX / UI design?

UX / UI design features are minimalism. The design focuses on usability.

⏩ What is UI and UX in web design?

User interface (UI) is a web design specialization related to the controls that people use to interact with a website or application, including displaying buttons and controlling gestures. User experience (UX) is another web design specialization related to the behavior and user experience when using a website or app.

15 rules of UI / UX design.

ux design 15 key rules

User experience is a vast discipline. Anyone who practices UI / UX-designmust have skills in many areas. While it is impossible to summarize all the useful information in one article, it is still possible to highlight the most important rules. It is important for them to follow every designer UXto create people-friendly sites.

Here are 15 basic principles every designer should be familiar with.

1. UX and UI design for users.

The user interface is the space in which interactions between people and a product take place. User experience is the emotional outcome after interacting with this product.

UX means designing the interface of apps and websites to take the user experience into account. This will help create people-friendly products. Then the visitors of such resources will have only pleasant impressions. They will become clients of the company or regular readers of its blog.

2. Key rule of UX. Know your audience.

Researching user habits and preferences is the first step in website design.

You strive to develop a product that will appeal to your visitors. To do this, you need to know what your audience really wants and needs. What information are your potential customers looking for? How do they navigate the pages of the site? What arrangement of the site elements will be convenient for them? What annoys them about web resources?

Answers to such questions show what the audience needs, how it can be attracted. They also help you understand what to avoid in your site design so that visitors don't leave without doing the things you expect.

3. You are not a user.

Testing with real users is an important part of the design process.

Designers often assume that people will use their interfaces the same way they do. As a result, developers project their behavior and reactions to users. But it is a misconception to think that you are your user.

This effect in psychology is called false consensus - the tendency to assume that others share our beliefs and will behave in a similar way in a similar situation.

Chances are, the people who will be using your product have different backgrounds, different mindsets, different mental models, and different goals. In other words, they are not you.

There is a technique that helps designers overcome the false consensus bias called usability testing. Testing with real users, rather than teammates, friends, or family, allows designers to learn how to create products that are suitable for those who will be using them. This can take a long time. However, this is the only way to make sure you are heading in the right direction.

testing helps to understand the behavior of site users
UX design is all about making assumptions and then validating them through testing.

4. Adapt UI / UX design for short-term attention span.

Don't overwhelm users with too much information.

Attention interval is defined as the amount of time a person concentrates on a task without being distracted. A 2015 study by Microsoft found that the average attention span of a person dropped from 12 seconds to 8 seconds. It is necessary to present information to people in such a way that they can familiarize themselves with it within 8 seconds.

how many seconds a person can be focused on something
Modern apps and websites must deliver meaningful content that users can assimilate.

Designers should simplify interfaces by removing unnecessary elements or content that doesn't address the user's needs. One of the techniques that allows you to achieve this is functional minimalism. At the same time, the information should be valuable and relevant.

5. UX design is not set in stone.

Adapt the design process to the product you are developing.

A clear and concise user interface design process creates an amazing experience for your site visitors.

Many designers believe that there is one universal UX process, UI design, that can be applied to all projects. Unfortunately, there is no universal UX design. While individual steps can be defined for each project, the exact UX process should always be selected based on the requirements of a particular development.

This means that in order to create the best user experience, the designer must be willing to adapt their design process to the specifics of the project. For example, if you are developing a new product, you may need to spend more time researching users and identifying development requirements. But if you are redesigning an existing web resource, you may need more time to check the design, analyze usability and A / B testing, or work with analytical reports.

6. Create prototypebefore working with this product.

The digital product design phase should include a prototyping phase.

We put a lot of effort into creating something that we think is great. It can be very frustrating to realize that our solution is not working as expected when we release it to the public.

Prototyping is the creation of a product model that can be tested. This allows you to test your hypothesis before spending time with a team of engineers creating a real product. Designers can use different techniques to create prototypes. One useful technique is called rapid prototyping. 

mobile app prototype
Mobile app prototype in Adobe XD.

7. Use real content when developing.

Avoid using Lorem Ipsum and dummy placeholders.

Almost every product is content-based, be it text, images, or video. We can say that design is about improving content. However, many developers do not take content into account during the design phase. They use Lorem Ipsum instead of real copy and placeholders instead of real images. While this design may look great on an artboard, the image can be completely different if the same design is filled with real data.

8. Keep your design simple and consistent.

The features of a great user interface are simplicity and consistency.

In the context of digital products, simplicity means that the product is easy to understand and interact with. Your users don't need to read the instructions to understand how to use the app. It's part of your job as an interface designer to make things clear. Subtly guide them from where they are to where they need to go.

highlighting the main elements on the page
The most important elements on the Hipmunk home page are highlighted so that users can focus on them. This makes it clear to the user what to do next.

Interfaces should also be consistent throughout the project. In an effort to make designs more creative and memorable, many developers deliberately add inconsistencies to the style. 

For example, on different pages of a website, some use different color schemes. Such decisions often cause confusion and frustration among users. It is important that the design element is familiar, reinforcing the most important aspects of your design at every step. 

9. Recognition of UI elements is more important than originality.

Displaying items that users can recognize is more convenient than having to remember them from scratch.

Due to the limitations of human memory, designers must ensure that users can automatically recognize how to apply certain features of their product. There is no need to make them have to remember this information. It would be a mistake to hide the same functions behind different-looking elements for the sake of design originality. Strive to minimize cognitive load by making information and interface functions visible and easily accessible.

youtube uses recognition offering to watch started videos
YouTube uses recognition. The service shows users lists of items they have recently viewed. This helps them remember to watch a video that they may have started a few days ago.

10. Make UI / UX design user-friendly and accessible.

The design should be suitable for a wide range of users who will interact with your products.

When it comes to design, developers often focus on looks and appeal rather than functionality and accessibility. Most of us try to make things beautiful. Quite often, this leads to the fact that aesthetics becomes more important for designers than usability.

Of course, aesthetics are important, and we should definitely try to make our designs attractive, but only after we have useful designs. The most important task of digital products and services is to perform a function.

An accessible interaction design allows users of all abilities to successfully navigate, understand, and use digital products. A well-designed resource is available to users of all skill levels, including those with visual impairments, hearing impairments, or mobility impairments. 

It's true that accessibility introduces a set of constraints that need to be considered when considering your design. However, improving this metric improves the convenience for all users. 

a visually impaired person uses a website optimized for its capabilities
The visually impaired person browses the web pages.

11. Do not try to fix the problem yourself.

Design is a team sport. Don't work in isolation.

Great user experience is the result of collaboration between designers and developers, stakeholders and users. There are no lone geniuses. When designing, you need to work with as many people as possible to get their ideas.

12. Don't try to solve everything at once.

UX design is not a linear process.

The phases of the UX process: idea generation, prototyping, testing often overlap to a large extent. As a rule, there are many mutual changes. As you learn more about the problem, users, and project details, it may be necessary to revisit some of the research done or try out new design ideas. 

Don't feel like you can make your design perfect right away. Instead, refine ideas to the point where you can test them with real users, gather valuable feedback, and use them in your project.

think do test
UX design is not a linear process. To create great products, you need to make a lot of changes and test them. The key is to define the assumptions, test them, refine them, and repeat them.

13. It is better to prevent mistakes than to correct them.

Whenever possible, design products to minimize potential errors.

Humans tend to make mistakes. Errors often occur when people interact with user interfaces. Sometimes they happen due to user oversights, and sometimes due to an application crash. Whatever the reason, these errors and how they are handled have a huge impact on the user experience. You should strive to either completely eliminate error-prone terms or check them and notify users before they take action.

14. Inform visitors about the progress of their work on the web resource.

An app or website should always keep users informed of what's going on.

As one of Jacob Nielsen's first 10 heuristics for usability, system state visibility remains one of the most important principles in user interface design. Users want to know their current context in the system at any given time.

Apps shouldn't make them guess. They should communicate to the user what is happening with appropriate visual feedback. An animated indicator when the user initiates an operation is a great way to inform users that the interface is working.

15. Avoid drastic design changes.

Remember Weber's Law: The slightest change in things won't make a noticeable difference. If you do a significant redesign, there is a good chance that users will not like it.

Research shows that users don't like massive changes to existing products, even if they benefit from the changes.  

eBay is one of the companies that has learned the hard way that their users don't like drastic changes. Overnight, they decided to replace the bright yellow background on many of their pages with a white one. Instantly, they started getting complaints from customers opposing the change. 

A significant number of complaints forced eBay to redesign again. After that, the team had a different strategy. Over the course of several months, they changed the background color one shade of yellow, until finally all yellow disappeared, leaving only white. As expected, this time almost no one noticed the changes.

So the best way to approach a redesign is to do it slowly, gradually changing a little here and a little there. In doing so, most users won't even know that you are redesigning until you completely change the design.

Conclusion: don't be afraid to be wrong.

Everyone makes mistakes - this is the only way to learn something.

You only really learn when you make mistakes. If you are afraid to make mistakes and are trying to make everything perfect, you will miss out on the opportunity to learn. Follow the rules above. Above all, keep trying new UX design techniques and approaches to find the one that works best for you and your clients.

Based on materials from the site: https://xd.adobe.com.

✔️ What is Lorem Ipsum?

This is generated text that does not make sense to fill the page of the site or its other elements during testing.

❤️ What are Jacob Nielsen's 10 heuristics?

These are the principles of interface design. They are called heuristics because they are general rules, not specific guidelines.

✔️ Как создать "быстрое прототипирование"?

Use special tools and web resources for this.

❤️ How else can you get a user experience?

Browse the pages of competitors' sites. What will you like there and what will be inconvenient? Look for user reviews on the web.

❤️ Where to start doing UI / UX design?

The first thing that is required in addition to knowledge in the field of design is to study the target audience. Every audience wants a different design. There are no universal designs for everyone.

✔️ What is the most important thing to understand in the UX design process?

UX principles.
Satisfaction of user needs. Central to all UX design principles is focusing on users throughout the design process.
Correct definition of the design stage.
Compliance with a clear hierarchy.
Sequence of decisions and actions.
Understanding accessibility.
Understanding the key value of the context.
The convenience of use.
Less - more.

✔️ Why is UI important?

A good user experience is important because it can turn potential visitors into buyers, as it makes the interaction between the user and your site or web application easier. The user interface not only focuses on aesthetics, but also maximizes the responsiveness, efficiency, and accessibility of the website.

How to attract customers to the website of an online store?

we increase the quality of traffic how to attract customers to your website

One of the biggest challenges we face as marketers is attracting to our website or online store those who will definitely become customers. 

There is a common misconception among people in this profession, especially when they start working with a new system or methodology, that all traffic is good traffic. But this is not the case. Stable traffic is not a guarantee of increased sales.

Traffic can be an indicator that you are starting to see some kind of results, but it is much more important to look at additional metrics. For example, the conversion rates of visitors to leads. 

When it comes to traffic, quality is more important than quantity. 

If you can safely say that most of the traffic you send to your website converts to leads and then customers, then that's fantastic. But in most cases, examining your data will show that your traffic is not producing the results you thought you were.

So, how can you attract visitors who will become customers of your online store? 





Step 1. Determine your ideal website conversion path. 

Before developing any plans or strategies for your site, it's important to first understand how you want your site visitors to interact with your resource.

The purpose of the site is to show the value of your products and services to visitors. Ideally, this will turn them into customers. 

This is what this path might look like: 

  1. People have a question or need. 
  2. They are looking for answers on the Internet.
  3. Your site appears in search results. 
  4. These users click on a link to a blog you wrote about the topic and read it. 
  5. They click on the CTA at the bottom of the article leading to the premium content offer and fill out a form. 
  6. Visitors become contact persons in your system. They now participate in the sales process based on their level of readiness.
  7. They become your customers.
Web search

Step 2. Develop a customer image for your online store.

In order for visitors to come to your site and eventually become customers, you must first understand who these people are, what their habits and needs are.

You think through the images of your potential customers. They will guide the shaping of your content. This will help you create relevant and accurate content. He will accompany them at all stages of the sales funnel.

When defining a site's client image, you should ask yourself a few questions:

  • What is their profession or position?
  • How do they define professional success?
  • What are their biggest problems?
  • What key ideas will resonate with them?
  • What online resources do they use?
  • How do they prefer to communicate: by phone, email, instant messengers, etc.?
  • What challenges do they face in their daily work?

Step 3. Develop a personalized keyword strategy.

Once you've clearly identified your buyers, you can start brainstorming suitable content ideas and keywords to attract them to your site. 

Have you already outlined their pain points and problems? What phrases will they enter into the search bar to find a solution? The answers to these questions will be part of your keyword strategy. 

When we advise our clients to choose keywords, we suggest using three main criteria:

three criteria for choosing keywords

Once you've compiled your keyword list, you can start planning your content strategy. Assign keywords to your blog posts, content suggestions, campaigns, web pages, and more. 

Step 4. Start blogging. This attracts customers. 

Now you know who you are targeting and what keywords you are going to use so they can find you. It's time to implement your strategy and develop your content. 

Blogging is a great way to drive qualified traffic to your website.

Here are some statistics to support this:

statistics on the importance of blogging

Blogging is a proven marketing strategy that drives business results. Every time you write a new blog post, you are adding additional content to your site.  

Google uses the date the site was last updated to determine search results. Plus, every blog post gives you another opportunity to be in the Top. 

You will need to decide how often you can blogging and stick to that schedule. Blogging won't give instant results. It takes time for your content to rank, but when it does, it's worth it. 

Step 5. Be active on social media.

Promoting your content on social media is another great way to get customers to your website or online store. Social media is a place where the exchange of opinions and information is encouraged. Through social media promotion, your content can gain wider reach. 

But we also know that it can seem overwhelming and daunting at first. If you are not currently active on social media, we recommend asking yourself these questions first: 

  • Where do your clients spend their time?
  • What platforms are they most active on?
  • Where do they most often share content and interact with their networks?
  • Where is the largest audience in your industry?

As you ask yourself these questions, you will begin to understand what channels your industry is actually operating on. 

It's not worth spending tons of time on Twitter if none of your potential customers or other influencers are on Twitter. You won't see engagement or ROI.

social media traffic source

Once you understand where you want to focus your attention from a channel perspective, develop an editorial social media calendar. This will help you stay on schedule. There are tons of tools out there that allow you to schedule social media posts in advance. And yet, you still have to spend time every day talking and interacting with others. 

Many people focus too much on publishing and promoting their own content. While this is important, social media is a place where sharing other people's content is also important. 

You can leave blog posts with additional thoughts and questions to keep your audience interested. It is also worth sharing industry news with your subscribers and commenting on other people's posts.

Step 6. Paid advertising on Google. 

Organic traffic is a great way to attract potential customers of your online store. But this ranking for super competitive keywords can take time.

Paid advertising can help expand your inbound content, helping you succeed in search results and boost your domain authority. 

This can be done through paid search, paid social media, and display campaigns. 

Your paid advertising efforts must be targeted and measurable. Make sure you pick the right keywords for your content and your buyers. 

Let's summarize how to attract a client. 

Now that you've brought visitors to your site, your job isn't finished yet. Reading a single article probably won't convert right away. Doesn't mean it can't happen. In most cases, it will take more than one great article to convert traffic to customers. 

After creating content to attract people to your site, you should give leads more relevant content in their inboxes. You can invite them to subscribe to receive your content on a regular basis, whether monthly or weekly.

Another important part of the process is making sure that you are updating the published content on your site. This is good for both Google rankings and your buyers. 

All of this will help you build relationships with your site visitors until they are ready to become your customers.

Based on materials from the site: www.newbreedmarketing.com.

❺ How to attract a client to fill out a Lead form?

Use a lead magnet: a bonus or a gift for submitting a form. For example, an e-book or an article.

✓ How to choose a paid advertising method to attract customers?

Look at the statistics for your segment, what is used. Decide on your goals. Make trial campaigns.

❺ I don't have time to blog! What to do on the site?

Hire a copywriter or content manager. You will not be able to increase traffic and site attractiveness without quality content.

✓ What is a CTA for website customer acquisition?

Site element that contains a call to action. This is often a button. This is the main element of the site for the visitor to become a client.

✓ How to attract buyers to your online store?

5 ways to attract your target audience to your online store.
Create an attractive and original design.
Provide quality social media promotion.
Optimize the service.
Organize promotions.
Organize a promotional mailing.

✓ How can I promote my online store?

7 Marketing Tactics To Promote Your Online Store
1. Use a mailing list (and keep growing).
2. Boost your organic social presence.
3. Optimize your site with SEO.
4. Create interesting, useful content.
5. Try Google Ads.
6. Advertise your website on social media.
7. Collaborate with additional brands.

✓ How can I advertise on the Internet for free?

7 ways to promote your business on the Internet for free. Take advantage of major local listing services.
Use social media actively.
Start a blog.
Submit your media to YouTube and Flickr.
Optimize your site with SEO.
Write press releases.
Join the relevant online community and contribute.

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