Some of the terms that appeal to us and are getting more and more popular may be confusing and misunderstood. In this case, we are members of the audience in front of which the scene of innovation is getting more and more crowded. This time a term that has been making quite a bit of buzz in the Web industry is “UX/UI”. Under this abbreviation hides not only design but an opportunity to add a lot of value to product development processes and strategic business decisions. So what does this term mean and how can we make the most of it?
What Leonardo da Vinci and Steve Jobs have in common?
From one of the first designers of the UX like Leonardo da Vinci with his conveyor belts transporting food to its preparers in the kitchen to Jobs’ touchscreen, easy-to-use iPhone in 2007 it has been a source of success for many businesses. But it has to be made clear that those terms are different in many ways. They are often taken for the same thing, which is a mistake because the root of every one of them is different from the others. UX is short for “User Experience”. It almost always comes with ” design” at the end. But when people hear “design” their mind often slips into thoughts about colors, unique shapes, etc. UX design is far more than that. It is the experience that your customer has wondering your website. And from here comes designing one into something that makes the customer stay longer and thus create conversions. In real life, it can be the memory of an attentive waiter at a restaurant or the soft feel of fabric while you enjoy watching a movie at the cinema.
This meaning can be confused with “user interface design” (UI), that is, in fact, a big part of the UX. It is the “crossover between visual design (look and feel) and the interaction design (how the look and feel work)”, then it creates an interface. There is a complex interaction with real backend code and frontend javascript, so that is left for a front-end developer, that carries it out with UI implementation in production code. The UI is helping users to roam easily on the website, letting them achieve their goals by knowing what the customer needs thus creating the opportunity to achieve it easily.
How to use UX/UI?
The UI UX is important, especially because, when done with attention and precision, gives the chance of making a good first impression. Great design can make the product grow in popularity as well as the bad one can scare customers and make them forget easily or simply never want to visit the website again.
Taking the example of Walt Disney, that was one of the first UX designers, he paid attention to detail, focused on immersion, and had the constant desire to improve his products. So what made the service always exceptional, and why customers return from every visit with at least one extra-special memory? Well, it has always been about the experience. Disney has always wanted to achieve customer’s satisfaction by creating a “whole new world” of experiences (pun intended). And from him we can learn how to make websites more appealing:
Make the product appealing and try to make it different from anything else to give the unique experience. That will result for customers to come back to you again and again. Next, do not stagnate, always try to keep thinking how to improve or add new features. People like new options, so they will approve the new what you give them. With Disney, it was the creation of four different locales and each with a different theme and different experience. When it comes to problems and bugs, customers are likely to catch sight of them very quickly, so if they are not fixed in time, the customer will be more likely to visit another competitive website. Finally, testing, fixing and testing again to get a 100% of satisfaction will make you sure of your work, moreover, pleasant to your customers.
The future of UX/UI
By the company understanding the value of design, this activity will be more valued. Designers must work on giving and shape and claim the future of UX proactively. Waiting for organizations to create and control the future of UX/UI is not relevant anymore, it is now crucial for designers to control the future of their craft.
