UI (User Interface) and UX (User Experience) Design

The User Interface (UI) aspect deals with how users are interacting with the website elements. It includes visual elements and defines the point of interaction between the website and the users, with the objective to make communication easy, fast, and efficient. UI mainly focuses on typography, icons, color palette, buttons, and such facets.

Elements of Well-Defined UI

• Consistent Interface – The interface layout and design palette should be consistent across the website which enables visitors to identify the usage patterns.
• Clear in Meaning – All the visual elements of the design should include components that have a clear meaning for the users.
• Ease of Use– The UI should enable ease of usage for the users when they interact with the product, having familiarity with that.
• Efficient Functioning–Efficiency means users have to put in minimal effort to achieve maximum output. They should not be rendered clueless. The interaction has to be fast and productive.

While UI is about the interaction between visitors and a website, User Experience (UX) deals with how the site visitors are able to use the website functions. This is critical as good UX means people move around and find what they are looking for quickly. It isn’t just about the visual appeal but the overall feel and experience of using the website. It focuses to create a website design structure that is highly functional, reliable, and usable.

Elements of Well-Structured UX

• Useful in Features – A good UX means it provides features that have a purpose for the users. It should be able to do something they want to be done.
• Understandable in Use – It should ensure that people are able to grasp how to use it, to accomplish all the basic tasks. It shouldn’t be complex at all.
• Effective in Purpose – It should enable getting the job done effectively and efficiently with minimal effort and fast. Analytics and A/B testing help to refine these aspects.
• Desired and Pleasant – A compelling UX makes people use it again over the alternatives. It should also excite the user with the inclusion of some delightful and fun features also.

You might be wondering which one of these two is more important for your site. In actuality, both are equally crucial as both of these complement each other.

Consider this:

• A website that is visually appealing but you aren’t able to navigate through that and it feels disorderly in use is – Good UI but Poor UX.
• A website that has great to use throughout but looks terribly unpleasant is – Good UX but Poor UI.

So, now you must have gotten our point – These two go hand in hand. And in order to deliver a completely satisfactory user experience, both are extremely important and equally decisive.

In today’s competitive market, having a website that scores above par in both aspects is a must. To craft a compelling and user-friendly website, you need to implement both UI and UX with thorough research and strategic planning.

A website’s success can be defined by not just how appealing it is to attract people but provide an enhanced experience that makes them stay. This is where UI and UX both go concurrently to provide complete user satisfaction.

UI process focuses on:

• Visual Composition
• Layout
• Colors
• Typography
• Interactions

And, UX process focuses on:

• Design Prototype
• Wireframes
• User Research
• Design Impact
• Usability Testing

The objective is to create a fully functional design with engaging aesthetics.

In the product design and development process, usually, UX design is the first step, followed by UI. The UX stage helps to map out and create the essential elements of the particular product’s user experience, while the UI stage helps to add interactive elements and visuals to that prototype.

For an optimum result, both have to be factored in together, through each phase of the design cycle.

• Website UI and UX Design

Our experience and knowledge of usability, accessibility, and compatibility enable us to create intuitive and user-friendly UI and UX for websites. We employ the best tools and techniques to create a seamless experience for the end user.

• Mobile UI and UX Design

Our mobile app UI and UX design process includes creating finger-friendly tap-targets, allowing for higher flexibility, whilst minimizing the need for typing. We create a design experience that makes the app unique with users having better control.

• Responsive Design

We create innovative frameworks that allow ease of interaction of site applications across different devices. Our creative solutions are aimed at providing smooth responses to user inputs, helping them to decide on the next process easily.

• Ecommerce UI/UX Design

For an online shopper, fast access to the product, ease of navigation, and convenient access to cart addition and payment process are critically important. Full attention to minute details is extremely important for ecommerce sites to provide a pleasant experience to shoppers in this highly competitive landscape. This is where we stand out ahead of the rest.

• Single Page Applications

With most people accessing the internet through their mobile devices, single-page applications are becoming more prevalent. These are incredibly effective to provide a better user experience. We advanced frameworks and methodologies that enhance the overall user experience for the page/site visitors.

• Progressive Web Apps

Progressive web apps are platform-specific applications. Our UI/UX design implementation helps you get a great product that is more streamlined, and fast-loading as compared to native apps and feels smooth and reliable to improve user engagement.

PRODUCT DESIGN LIFE CYCLE

The product design life cycle (PDLC) is all about taking the user’s needs into account and ensuring the entire design team is aligned with the stated goals. It involves these stages:

1. Brainstorming the Solution – After determining the user pain point, different solutions are brainstormed through research and ideation to pick the most suitable one.
2. Defining the Specifications – Assessment of project goals and vision, product features, benefits, and metrics helps to define product specifications.
3. Designing the Prototype–Right from wireframes and sketches to full-scale interfaces and prototypes, the design process is implemented.
4. Testing the Prototype–Prototype testing is carried out, including internal testing to usability testing by users.
5. Launching the Design–The final product is released, however, post-launch testing still continues to measure performance metrics.

DOUBLE DIAMOND MODEL

Double Diamond is a design model that includes innovation and constant processes. It includes the following phases:

1. Discovery Phase – It includes the discovery of the problem, and pain points through market research, users’ feedback, and other sources.
2. Outline Phase – It includes sorting out the information and using that data to define how the problem has to be solved.
3. Development Phase – It includes ideating on the different possible solutions to generate applicable ideas.
4. Delivery Phase – The end phase that takes place after continuous evaluation and testing of the product design.

DESIGN THINKING

Design Thinking means putting people at the center of the design process, and building solutions related to the problems they are facing. It involves both problem-solving and creativity approaches. It includes the following processes:

1. 1. Empathize with The Users – It means the designers put themselves into the shoes of the users and understand their problems.
   2. Problem Definition – It means clearly defining the problem, and then aligning that with the business goals.
   3. Idea Generation–It focuses on the creativity aspect, so to create smart solutions to solve the problem.
   4. Prototype Creation – This stage includes creating prototypes of the product design.
   5. Testing – Testing of the product helps to redefine what works best as per the initial objective or the goal.