UX design process is systematic, iterative, and structured series of actions that is necessary for designing a product’s user experience. It helps teams to follow easy-to-replicate protocols to deliver products while meeting the organization’s quality standards.

Speed up your design process by building prototypes with the same UI components that devs build apps with. Meet tight deadlines and release quality products. Discover UXPin Merge.

Reach a new level of prototyping

Design with interactive components coming from your team’s design system.

Discover UXPin Merge

What is UX Design?

UX design (user experience design) is a digital product design methodology to solve a human problem. This human-centered design approach ensures design teams make decisions based on users’ needs rather than assumptions.

Empathy is at the core of this human-centered approach. UX designers must understand what a user wants to achieve using a digital product and the pain points they might encounter along the way.

What is a UX Design Process?

A UX design process is an iterative, step-by-step methodology UX design teams use to complete projects. It is derivative from a design thinking process. As in design thinking process, UX designers spend time empathizing with the user, learning about the business, context, and defining problem scope.

What’s the Difference Between UX Design Process and Design Thinking Process?

The design thinking process is a five-step process for developing user-centered solutions to human problems. A UX design process is a multi-stage, end-to-end methodology that incorporates design thinking for delivering UX projects.

While companies base their UX design process on design thinking principles, the steps and methods might differ slightly.

Why is a UX Design Process Important?

Here are some reasons why companies standardize a UX design process:

• Ensures projects meet quality and consistency standards
• Ensures designers design solutions without bias and assumptions
• Enables designers to test and iterate on many ideas to find the best solution
• Promotes collaboration between teams and departments
• Reduces the risk of rework by following set protocols
• Allows stakeholders to track a project’s progress 
• Identifies hidden risks and opportunities

What are 7 Steps of UX Design Process?

A typical UX design process has 7 UX design steps, from defining the product’s goal to design handoff and making sure everything works as intended. 

Step 1: Define project & scope

The first step of a UX design process defines the project’s goal and scope with team members and stakeholders from multiple departments–usually consisting of representatives from:

• Business – explains business requirements and goals for the project.
• Design – communicate what they need to do prior to design and manage expectations.
• Product – shares context, help plan the timeline and resources needed for design.
• Technical – define feasibility and technical constraints of a UX design.

This early design phase aims to identify the problem the new product or feature must solve. The product team will also outline the project’s scope, plan, deliverables, and delivery date.

Step 2: Perform UX Research

Next, designers research the problem to find possible solutions. During the research phase, UX designers conduct several types of research, including:

• User research: Studies potential users to understand who they are, what they need, and what context they operate. They may invite focus groups to explore user needs or do a desk research. The outcome of UX research are user personas, user journey maps, and so on.
• Market research: Analyzes the market to determine market segmentation and product differentiation.
• Competitive research: A competitive analysis to understand how competitors solve similar problems and identify opportunities.
• Product research: Analyzing insights and analytics from an existing product to understand user behavior.

Step 3: Create rough draft of a solution

With a clear understanding of their users, market, and competitive landscape, designers can run a brainstorming session to make initial drafts of what a solution would look like, which is often referred to as the ideation phase. Designers may use paper and pen during early visual design planning or jump straight to digital UX tools.

Some of these low-fidelity techniques include:

• Sketching: Hand-drawn sketches of user interfaces
• Paper prototyping: Paper versions of a prototype
• Wireframing: Digital versions of paper prototypes featuring basic lines and shapes
• Low-fidelity prototypes: Digital prototypes using wireframes to test user flows and information architecture

The team might also use a design sprint to solve a specific problem with their stakeholders or other team members.

Step 4: Design high-fidelity mockups and prototypes

Next, the UI design team converts wireframes into mockups to build high-fidelity prototypes that look and function like the final product. If the company has a design system, designers will use the UI component library to build interactive prototypes.

Step 5: Conduct usability testing

The primary purpose of high-fidelity prototypes is usability testing. UX designers test these prototypes with real users to:

• Validate ideas
• Identify usability issues
• Test accessibility

Steps 2 to 5 are iterable. Using test results, designers return to stage two or three to iterate on ideas until they find a solution that meets desirability, viability, and feasibility criteria.

It’s important to note that even though user testing is the fifth stage, design teams conduct multiple tests throughout the UX design process to validate ideas and hypotheses. These tests include internal testing with team members or sharing ideas and prototypes with stakeholders for feedback.

Step 6: Arrange Design Handoff

The second to last stage of the UX design process is the design handoff, where the design team hands over the final design and its documentation to the development team to start the engineering process.

Although the design handoff is near the end of the UX process, designers and engineers start collaborating during ideation to streamline the transition from design to development while ensuring designs meet technical constraints. Their collaboration is facilitated through different tools that make communication easier.

Read about 5 Mistakes that Kill Collaboration Between Designers and Developers.

Step 7: Launch your Product

The final stage of the UX design process is a launch and a clear inspection of the new release. It’s time to ensure that the new release meets the project’s business goals, user experience, and accessibility requirements.

Best Practices for a Great UX Design Process

While the UX design process might not be the same for all organizations, projects, or teams, there are some best practices designers can follow to streamline the process.

Apply User-Centric Thinking

Designers must keep end-users at the center of design decisions to ensure designs meet users’ needs. This human-centered mindset delivers products that users want while reducing costs on irrelevant UI components and features.

Practice Empathy

One of the ways to maintain a user-centered mindset is by empathizing with users. As designers progress through the UX design process, they can drift from focusing on users to designing features that look great but don’t serve a specific user need.

By practicing empathy throughout the UX design process, designers stay focused on solving users’ pain points.

Build a Design System

Design systems can significantly reduce time to market while enhancing consistency and coherency across the organization. If you can’t afford to build a design system from scratch, consider using a themeable open-source component library like MUI or Bootstrap.

UXPin has built-in design libraries, including Material Design UI, Bootstrap, iOS, and Foundation so that design teams can build mockups and prototypes quickly.

Take prototyping to the next level using UXPin Merge–a tool that connects UXPin’s design editor to a component library, so designers can build fully functioning prototypes their dev’s components.

Communicate and Collaborate with Devs

Communication and collaboration are vital for a successful UX design process. Designers must connect with other design teams and open communication with engineers, business managers, product teams, and stakeholders.

DesignOps can help facilitate better communication and collaboration while streamlining other time-consuming operational and administrative tasks.

Enhancing the UX Design Process With UXPin

A successful UX process relies on tools that allow design teams to make changes and iterate fast. UXPin is an end-to-end design solution, providing designers with features for every stage of the UX design process.

Fully Interactive Prototypes

Designers can use one of UXPin’s built-in design libraries or import their dev’s component library to start prototyping immediately. Because UXPin is code-based, prototypes feature higher fidelity and more functionality than image-based design tools.

Quality User Testing

With code-based prototypes, UX designers can conduct accurate, more comprehensive tests. Better quality testing means fewer errors and usability issues make it into the final product.

Insightful Stakeholder Feedback

Stakeholder feedback is crucial during the iterative process of UX design. If prototypes aren’t intuitive, stakeholders battle to understand design concepts that could impact buy-in and funding.

Whether you’re using UXPin, prototypes have significantly higher fidelity and interactivity than other popular design tools. In turn, designers enjoy meaningful, actionable feedback from stakeholders.

Level up Your UX Design Process

UXPin Merge allows designers to get better results during testing while streamlining the design handoff, thus reducing time to market and costs. 

Instead of designing from scratch, designers drag and drop components to build fully functioning code-based prototypes that look and work like the final product. Discover UXPin Merge.

The post UX Design Process – An Actionable, 7-Step Guide appeared first on Studio by UXPin.

User Experience (UX) design is all about ensuring that the relationship between the user and the digital product is positive. Thankfully, with the many modern tools out there, teams of designers can easily collaborate on a design in real-time as well as test its usability and make iterations to designs.

However, not all UX design tools are equal and there are some that just focus on one part of the design process (like wireframing tools) whereas others are more comprehensive and can take the design from idea to reality, plus help you keep consistency by using design systems’ elements in your projects.

So, depending on your needs, you may find yourself needing an advanced tool that allows for personal coding inputs, or you may just need a tool that provides you with a library of features that you can simply drag and drop into your design.

Research is one thing, but you will be able to pick the best UX design tool only after you try it. Design prototypes that feel real in UXPin. Try UXPin for free.

Build advanced prototypes

Design better products with States, Variables, Auto Layout and more.

Try UXPin

UXPin

UXPin gives you all the features you need to design high-fidelity prototypes that actually feel like you’re using the finished digital product. UXPin comes with hundreds of user interface elements that make it easy to design fast and stay consistent across the team.

One of the greatest benefits of UXPin is its one-of-a-kind Merge technology which allows for a high level of team collaboration on a project. It allows you and your team to work on the same code components as the actual developers. In simple terms, you can import a piece of the coded app into UXPin and use it to further improve your designs.

On top of that, instead of having to manually create standard design elements, UXPin provides a library of thousands of components that you can use, customize, and simply drag and drop into your design. This includes animations and icons as well as components that are specifically designed for other systems like iOS and Bootstrap.

If you want to create your own animations, you can, or you can simply use Photoshop or some other program and download the file to UXPin. There is no need to worry about the layers of the animation being erased as UXPin will preserve the layers for easy integration.

Figma

Figma focuses on interface design and brainstorming. Similar to Google Docs, you can see who is presently working on the project and what they are inputting, which allows for a convenient real-time collaboration on a project. You can build mockups and partially functional prototypes.  

To make Figma designs work like an end-product, you may integrate it with a prototyping tool. UXPin has their own extension of copying and pasting Figma designs to UXPin, to make it interactive. Read the full tutorial of how to do that: From Figma to UXPin – Full Tutorial.

Sketch

Sketch is another UX design tool that supports shared libraries and layouts and allows you to share and export designs with others. It also has many editing tools such as vector and plugin tools. If you are working on a detailed design, then you can zoom in and edit at a more precise level. Another convenient feature is the ability to resize parts of your design on command.

Sketch is good for creating unique icons and designs that you can then save in your library. This allows for an easy share feature across projects where, for example, an icon can be used on multiple separate designs with relative ease. On top of that, you can store your designs on the cloud which allows your team or organization to have easy access to designs and a more fluid design process. Another important feature allows contributors to comment, edit, and make changes to a project that are then automatically synced to the cloud.

Marvel

Marvel is another cloud-based platform that will automatically sync web designs to the cloud. Plus, it offers mobile support for quick changes on the go. There is also a library of templates, images, and screen components like buttons that can easily be accessed and implemented into your project. 

Marvel is built more for beginner use and has a drag-and-drop system that allows users to develop a design without the need for self-imputed coding. It is also a collaborative design platform that allows other team members to provide feedback and input their own designs. 

There are templates specifically designed for various devices such as tablets, smartphones, and desktop computers. Mockups can be tested as if they were the real thing which allows for the designer to quickly find any faults and update the design as needed.

You can also download the Marvel app onto your iOS or Android device. This allows for ideas to be tested on smartphone devices and easy sharing options.

Pick the best UX design tool

As you’ve seen from the examples above, some of the most popular design platforms allow you to focus on one element of the design process. While some, like Marvel, are great for casual designs, others are catered to working on more complex digital products and mobile apps. 

Unfortunately, using several solutions means a larger design toolkit that can slow you down. Your designers will need to integrate or jump between a number of apps in their daily work. 

Luckily, you can also turn to advanced tools that allow you to work on a design from idea to completion. Or, like UXPin, they’ll even allow developers to copy HTML and CSS code from design to their workflow.

When compared to other solutions, UXPin is one of the most comprehensive UX design tools in the industry. This makes it a particularly attractive alternative to software like Axure, Proto.io or Figma which were traditionally used for specific phases of the design process.

With UXPin you can design fully interactive prototypes that make it clear what the final user experience should be like. See how UXPin helps you design more realistic prototypes. Sign up for UXPin trial.

The post Top UX Design Tools to Try Before 2023 Ends appeared first on Studio by UXPin.

One of the best things about being a part of the design community is that most designers love to exchange ideas, spread knowledge, and share their experiences regardless of their seniority level. You can be a starting designer or an established thought leader, and it’s almost a given that you find a design conference that may teach you something new.

What’s also great about UX conferences is that not all of them target the UX/UI community, but the people who work with them on a daily basis. Product managers, developers and other professionals who work closely with design can find an event for themselves.

Increase design maturity with UXPin Merge. Build a more collaborative design process and bridge the gap between designers and devs by using a single source of truth in your prototypes: interactive components. Discover more about UXPin Merge.

Reach a new level of prototyping

Design with interactive components coming from your team’s design system.

Discover UXPin Merge

January 2024 Conferences

 QRCA 2024 Annual Conference

QRCA stands for Qualitative Research Consultants Association. The conference covers research methods, tools, and lessons that will prepare designers for the next era of qualitative research.

• Date: Jan 22-25, 2024
• Free: No
• Where: Virtual & Denver
• Audience: UX researchers, marketing researchers
• Common topics: qualitative research, research methods, research tools

UX360 Research Summit 2024

We will welcome the third edition of a conference dedicated entirely to research. The line up includes UX researchers from top companies: Google, Meta, Dropbox, Delivery Hero, and more.

• Date: Jan 30-31, 2023
• Free: No
• Where: Virtual
• Audience: UX researchers, UI designers, UX designers
• Common topics: research, design strategy, human-centered design

Design Matters Mexico

Join Design Matters and listen to Mexican designers telling you about local design and the intersection between technology and humanity.

• Date: Jan 31-Feb 1, 2023
• Free: No
• Where: Mexico City
• Audience: UX researchers, UI designers, UX designers
• Common topics: inclusivity, design future, technology

February 2024 Conferences

What about the second month of the year? We’ve found a couple of conferences that may catch your eye. Let’s see them.

AXE CON 2024

Sign up to attend a virtual accessibility conference focused on building, testing, and maintaining accessible digital experiences.

• Date: Feb 20-22, 2024
• Free: No
• Where: Virtual
• Audience: designers
• Common topics: accessibility, UX

Product World [Hybrid]

Product conference that concerns itself with sharing the product success stories from tech product professionals at Silicon Valley’s top tech companies.

• Date: Feb 21-29, 2024
• Free: No
• Where: Virtual and San Francisco Bay Area
• Audience: product managers, developers, product designers
• Common topics: collaboration, leadership, growth

ConveyUX 2024 [Hybrid]

Learn about what is going on in the world of user experience in this AI-driven era. 

• Date: Feb 27-29, 2024
• Free: No
• Where: Virtual and Seattle, US
• Audience: product managers, developers, product designers
• Common topics: design process, design future, AI

HUCCAP 2024

At the same time as ConveyUX, there’s a Human-Computer Interaction Conference hosted in Rome, Italy. Join to discuss HCI matters in an interdisciplinary environment.

• Date: Feb 27-29, 2024
• Free: No
• Where: Virtual and Seattle, US
• Audience: product managers, developers, product designers
• Common topics: human-computer interaction.

March 2024 Conferences

Leading Design New York

One of the design conferences by Clearleft will be hosted in New York.

• Date: Mar 20-21, 2024
• Free: No
• Where: New York, US
• Audience: UX designers
• Common topics: career, leadership, future of design

UX Copenhagen [Hybrid]

It’s the 10th edition of annual “Human Experience” conference. This year it will examine overconsumption and tackle degrowth.

• Date: Mar 20-21, 2024
• Free: No
• Where: Virtual & Copenhagen, Denmark
• Audience: UX designers, UX researchers
• Common topics: UX design, leadership, future

ACM IUI 2024

Interested in AI for design? If so, you can’t miss out on this conference! It focuses on the advances at the intersection of Artificial Intelligence (AI) and Human-Computer Interaction (HCI).

• Date: Mar 18-21, 2024
• Free: No
• Where: Sydney, Australia 
• Audience: product designers, researchers
• Common topics: information architecture, artificial intelligence

April 2024 Conferences

Information Architecture Conference

It’s one of the leading conferences for information architects, designers, and others who create and manage UI and information environments. This year theme is to examine the impact of AI on information architecture.

• Date: Apr 9-13, 2024
• Free: No
• Where: Virtual 
• Audience: product designers, researchers, product managers
• Common topics: information architecture, artificial intelligence

UX Research Festival [Hybrid]

Being a brainchild of UXInsights, the largest UX research communities in Europe, UX Research Festival invites you to Breda (in the Netherlands) to hear out amazing talks about UX research.

• Date: Apr 15-17, 2024
• Free: No
• Where: Virtual and Breda, Netherlands
• Audience: researchers, designers
• Common topics: UX research, ResearchOps

May 2024 Conferences

CHI 2024 [Hybrid]

This year’s annual ACM Computer Human Interaction conference is hosted in beautiful Hawaii. It embraces the theme of Surfing the World – which means reflecting the focus on pushing forth the wave of cutting-edge technology and riding the tide of new developments in human-computer interaction. 

• Date: May 11-16, 2024
• Free: No
• Where: Virtual & Honolulu, Hawaii
• Audience: researchers
• Common topics: research tools, research methods

UXDX Community USA [Hybrid]

UXDX is a popular conference for UX designers, developers and product people around the world, sharing with them collaboration ideas.

• Date: May 15-17, 2024
• Free: Yes
• Where: Virtual and on site
• Audience: UX designers, UX researchers, developers and product managers
• Common topics: leadership, collaboration, design system

UXLx

Join fellow designers in sunny Lisbon. Soak up UX knowledge, network with like-minded individual, and hone your design skills.

• Date: May 21-24, 2024
• Free: No
• Where: Lisbon, Portugal
• Audience: designers
• Common topics: UX, design process

From Business to Buttons 2024

Spend one day in Stockholm to discuss user experience and customer expaerience. Great conference for business-savvy designers.

• Date: May 24 2024
• Free: No
• Where: Stockholm, Sweden
• Audience: designers, product managers
• Common topics: design process, design impact, leadership

WebExpo

Travel to Prague, an extraordinary European city, to join fellow web designers, developers, marketers, and more discussing innovations in web design and development.

• Date: May 29-31, 2024
• Free: No
• Where: Prague, Czechia
• Audience: designers, developers, product managers
• Common topics: web design, front-end design, UX

June 2024 Conferences

DRS 2024 BOSTON

Hosted by Design Research Society, this conference is about 4 Rs: resistance, recovery, reflection, and reimagination, which we’re sure are relevant to the state of design in 2024.

• Date: Jun 24-28, 2024
• Free: No
• Where: Boston, US
• Audience: design research
• Common topics: research, leadership, future of design

August 2024 Conferences

UX Nordic [Hybrid]

Sharpen your skills and nurture your growth as a UX researcher, designer or writer. Meet other design professionals and explore your interests.

• Date: Aug 28-29, 2024
• Free: No
• Where: Virtual & Aarhus, Norway
• Audience: UX researchers, UX designers, UX writers
• Common topics: design process, leadership

UX Australia [Hybrid]

It’s the 16th edition of UX Australia. The conference focuses on UX, product and service design, and the surrounding disciplines of research, content, operations, management, and more.

• Date: Aug 27-30, 2024
• Free: No
• Where: Virtual & Melbourne, Australia
• Audience: UX researchers, product managers, product designers
• Common topics: research operations, leadership, research methods, research tools

November 2024 Conferences

Leading Design London

Let’s meet in London to discuss design.

• Date: Nov 6-7, 2024
• Free: No
• Where: London, UK
• Audience: UX designers
• Common topics: career, leadership, future of design

May 2023 Conferences

May will be the month for on-site UX and product conferences. Let’s see where we can travel to. Are you ready?

Product Day by ADPlist

Elevate your career in product design with ADPlist. The conference has four tracks: entrepreneurship, career growth, trends, and groundbreaking work, so everyone can find something for themselves.

• Date: May 10, 2023
• Free: No
• Where: virtual
• Audience: product designers, product managers, design leaders
• Common topics: design career, design leadership, innovation

DIBI Conference

DIBI stands for Design it, Build it, and it’s one of the best conferences in the UK for everyone who’s involved in the product development process.

• Date: May 11-12, 2023
• Free: No
• Where: Edinburgh, Scotland
• Audience: product designers, product managers, design leaders
• Common topics: design process, design leadership

UXistanbul

Organized by UXServices, this conference is a place for gathering Web3 enthusiasts and designers interested in the field. Come and join them online on Discord.

• Date: May 22-26, 2023
• Free: No
• Where: Virtual 
• Audience: product designers, researchers, product managers
• Common topics: NFT, metaverse

ACE!

This Polish conference has two tracks: Agile Software Development and Product Design & Management. Yet, there will be a lot of content for product designers, too.

• Date: May 18-19, 2023
• Free: No
• Where: Kraków, Poland
• Audience: product managers, developers, product designers
• Common topics: leadership, product strategy, product growth

June 2023 Conferences

That month looks very exciting for those of you who got used to participating in events from the comfort of their homes. In other words, there will be a few interesting online design conferences and meetups.

UX STRAT Europe

Sign up for a European edition of a popular UX STRAT conference. Learn from the product design and innovation experts.

• Date: Jun 5-7, 2023
• Free: No
• Where: Amsterdam
• Audience: product designers, researchers
• Common topics: design strategy, future of design

Pixel Pioneers

It may be just a day-long, but the Pixel Pioneers is fully-packed with inspirational presentations from leading UX/UI designers and front-end developers.

• Date: Jun 16, 2023
• Free: No
• Where: Bristol, UK
• Audience: product designers, developers, researchers
• Common topics: human-centered design, inclusive design, future of design

UXPA 2023

Looking for inspirational talks? San Diego’s UXPA conference may be your cup of tea. It is a design conference in the USA.

• Date: Jun 20-22, 2023
• Free: No
• Where: San Diego, US
• Audience: product designers, researchers
• Common topics: human-centered design, leadership, research

July 2023 Conferences

The summer season is on, but there are a few exciting events coming. Curious what are they?

ProductCon

Organized by Product School, ProductCon is a 1-day conference for product people who want to learn more about managing products. This is an online design conference, so you can watch it whenever you are.

• Date: July 2023
• Free: Yes until April 2023
• Where: Virtual
• Audience: product managers, developers, product designers
• Common topics: leadership, product innovation, collaboration

HCI INTERNATIONAL 2023

That international conference on human-computer interaction that is usually held in Gothenburg, Sweden, but this year it will be hosted in Copenhagen, Denmark. We highly recommend to attend. It’s a great treat for the interaction designers.

• Date: Jul 23-28, 2023
• Free: No
• Where: Virtual
• Audience: product designers, researchers
• Common topics: human-centered design, research, leadership

#mtpcon Digital Americas

The summer edition of the Mind the Product conference for both Americas.

• Date: Jul 10-14, 2023
• Free: No
• Where: Virtual
• Audience: product designers, product managers, developers
• Common topics: leadership, future of product, product growth

August 2023 Conferences

UX Australia 2023 [Hybrid]

You don’t need to be located in Australia (but if you are, we’re jealous) to attend this. Designers from the vast fields like UX, product and service design, research, content, operations, etc. meet to discuss product design.

• Date: Aug 22-25, 2023
• Free: No
• Where: Sydney, Australia
• Audience: product designers, UX researchers, content designers
• Common topics: design process, leadership, DesignOps

‍UX Nordic [Hybrid]

Almost on the exact same date, another conference is taking place – UX Nordic. This one is great if you want to hone your skills and to grow as a user experience designer in 2023.

• Date: Aug 24-25, 2023
• Free: No
• Where: Aarhus, Denmark
• Audience: product designers, researchers, content designers
• Common topics: accessibility, case studies, design process

September 2023 Conferences

SmashingConf Freiburg 2023

Are you a UX Architect, UI Developer, or a Product Designer that needs to work a lot with engineers? You can’t miss this UX design conference that oh-so-smoothly merges development and design.

• Date: Sep 4-6, 2023
• Free: No
• Where: Freiburg, Germany
• Audience: product designers, developers
• Common topics: accessibility, web development, design process

The UXConf 2023

Brought to you by The School of UX, The UXConf has an incredible lineup. Designers from Hotjar, TripAdvisor, HubSpot, Skyscanner, Goldman Sachs, Eurostar, and more will walk you through important UX-related topics.

• Date: Sep 13, 2023
• Free: No
• Where: London, UK
• Audience: product designers, UX researchers
• Common topics: tutorials, design process, tools

UX+ Conference 2023

Gain creativity and inspiration by attending Asia’s biggest UX conference in 2023. This year’s theme is “Redefining the UX path: embracing growth, inclusivity, and impact.”

• Date: Sep 17, 2023
• Free: No
• Where: Manila, Philippines
• Audience: product designers
• Common topics: design leadership, design process, design future

Design Matters Copenhagen [Hybrid]

This well-known design conference advertises itself as, “Made for designers, by designers.” And it truly is so! We highly recommend you attend it, but if you can’t, check their library of talks.

• Date: Sep 27-28, 2023
• Free: No
• Where: Copenhagen, Denmark
• Audience: product designers, UX researchers
• Common topics: tutorials, design process, leadership

October 2023 Conferences

See October conferences for designers and product teams.

World Usability Conference

Let’s meet in Austria and discuss usability with other UX professionals and participate in talks and masterclasses where handpicked speakers share meaningful hands-on insights.

• Date: Oct 10-12, 2023
• Free: No
• Where: Graz, Austria
• Audience: product designers, UX researchers
• Common topics: design process, usability, sustainability

Productized Conference 2023

Come to Lisbon for a product conference that gathers people interested in product development, design thinking, and product management. It is an exciting two-day event for anyone who works in SaaS or enterprise solutions.

• Date: Oct 11-12, 2023
• Free: No
• Where: Lisbon, Portugal
• Audience: product designers, front-end developers
• Common topics: design process, design thinking, product growth

Push UX 2023

From Lisbon travel to a lovely Munich to meet like-minded UX professionals that will discuss design research, presentation, and other aspects of daily UX designer’s activities.

• Date: Oct 19-20, 2023
• Free: No
• Where: Munich, Germany
• Audience: product designers, UX researchers
• Common topics: design process, design leadership, product growth

George UX Conf [Hybrid]

Are you designing a FinTech or banking app? Then, this UX design conference is a must-watch. Connect with experts in the field coming from Revolut, Wise, Deutsche Bank, and more.

• Date: Oct 19, 2023
• Free: No
• Where: Vienna, Austria
• Audience: product designers, UX researchers
• Common topics: design process, design leadership, product growth

November 2023 Conferences

Web Summit Lisbon

Come to a sunny Lisbon to participate in lively discussions on web design and development.

• Date: Nov 13-16, 2023
• Free: No
• Where: Lisbon, Portugal
• Audience: product managers, developers, product designers
• Common topics: web design, web development

UXDX APAC 2023

It’s yet another UXDX event, but this one is an Audio-Pacific version. It’s dedicated to Product, UX, Design and Development teams that want to find a way of working together.

• Date: Nov 14-16, 2023
• Free: No
• Where: San Diego, USA
• Audience: product managers, developers, product designers
• Common topics: product direction, scaling design, validation, product growth

7th Design Thinking Summit [Hybrid]

Get inspired and discuss innovations in design thinking in Europe. Discuss the methodologies of managing design systems and discover innovations that make human-centered design even more relevant in 2023.

• Date: Nov 15-17, 2023
• Free: No
• Where: Prague, Czechia
• Audience: product designers, UX designers, developers
• Common topics: design thinking, design process, leadership

ProductCon San Francisco

Another Product School’s ProductCon is happening in November. It is a 1-day product design conference for those who want to learn more about managing products and the future of product management.

• Date: Nov 16, 2023
• Free: No
• Where: San Francisco
• Audience: product managers, developers, product designers
• Common topics: leadership, future of product management, product growth

Which Design Conferences Are You Attending in 2023?

It seems as if 2023 is going to be full of inspiring and educational content coming from the best speakers in design and product management. Have you found a conference for you? We will definitely keep you posted if any new event comes our way.

Use the knowledge that you acquired from design conferences in practice. Instead of working in siloed environment, unite your team with a single source of truth: interactive components that can be used across design and product. Discover more about it. Check out UXPin Merge.

The post Best Design Conferences in 2024 appeared first on Studio by UXPin.

Personalization, scrollytelling, data storytelling, and buttonless UIs are some of the most exciting 2023 UI design trends. Our research has also noticed an interesting UX UI trend toward larger screens, with Instagram improving its desktop experience to accommodate the growing demand.

Create high-quality, fully functioning prototypes to test your UI design ideas with UXPin. Sign up for a free trial to explore UXPin’s advanced features today!

Build advanced prototypes

Design better products with States, Variables, Auto Layout and more.

Try UXPin

Top UX UI Trends in 2024

Trend #1: AI-integrated Design

From brainstorming design solutions, constructing research plan to complex UX design decisions, artificial intelligence is becoming integrated into the design process. ChatGPT took most industries by the storm and design is no different.

In 2023, designers shared prompts left and right and design tools like Framer and other integrated AI processes to help users come up with initial UI to iterate. We believe that AI-integrated design will be a thing that will help put most repetitive tasks on autopilot. Let’s put our energy into solving complex problems, right?

Trend #2: Cross-Platform UX

While cross-platform UX isn’t new to most of you, it will be taken to another level in 2024. Last year we reported that apps like Instagram have upgraded their desktop versions to take advantage of large-screen monitors. YouTube, on the other hand, embraced TikTok-like stories format, making it better suited for hand-held devices.

An approaching trend is personalization within cross-platform experience. Apps want to stay relevant and give the users content that they may enjoy to make them stay longer.

Trend #3: Location-Based UX

The buzz around location-based experiences is growing. The apps that offer it will be the epitome of user-centric design next year, as users are starting to value experiences that are both personalized and effortlessly convenient. Picture this: having public transport recommendations more suitable to your lifestyle.

AI takes center stage in shaping the future of location-based experiences. It helps predict user movements and behaviors. Product teams may use AI to anticipate user preferences, intuitively suggesting relevant places, events, or services—often before users actively seek them out.

Trend #4: Animated Icons

Animated icons have officially made their grand entrance into iOS17, injecting life into your Apple apps. Whether you prefer solid icons or lean towards the elegance of outline icons, now is the time to infuse movement into your visual elements.

Get ready to breathe new life into your interface with animated icons that resonate seamlessly with the dynamic spirit of iOS17.

Trend #5: 3D Visual Elements

Are you trying to visualize complex data, building a UX of a VR app or trying to enhance brand recognition? Include 3D elements in your work! Such interfaces are going to be big in 2024.

3D elements help designers draw the user’s eye and add depth and realism that draws users in. We can’t say what originated the trend but some of the designs look like something that was created using Midjourney – another AI tool.

Trend #6: Emotionally Intelligent Design

Emotionally Intelligent Design means creating products, services, or experiences that take into account users’ emotions. It acknowledges and addresses the emotional aspects of human interaction with technology. Examples of emotionally intelligent design might include features like empathetic error messages or interfaces that adapt to users’ moods.

Key aspects of emotionally intelligent design include:

1. Empathy: Understanding and empathizing with users’ needs, desires, and emotions. This involves considering the user’s perspective, emotions, and potential pain points throughout the design process.
2. Anticipation: Predicting and responding to users’ emotions and needs before they explicitly express them. This can involve using data, user research, and intuitive design to anticipate user reactions and proactively address potential issues.
3. Feedback and Communication: Providing clear and supportive feedback to users, acknowledging their actions, and communicating effectively. This includes using language, visuals, and interactions that resonate emotionally with the user.
4. Adaptability: Designing interfaces that can adapt to users’ emotional states or changing needs. This might involve customization options, personalization features, or dynamic content that responds to user behavior.
5. Inclusivity: Recognizing and accommodating a diverse range of users with different emotional responses, cultural backgrounds, and preferences. Inclusive design ensures that products and experiences are emotionally resonant for a broad audience.
6. Ethical Considerations: Ensuring that design decisions consider the ethical implications of the product or service, including potential emotional impact. This involves avoiding manipulative practices and prioritizing the well-being of users.

Trend #7: Focus on Typography

The latest trend in typography for 2024 can be summarized in three words: big, bold, and capitalized. It’s fantastic strategy for UI designers looking to grab users’ attention. Even the global web trends website, Awwwards, uses capitalized bold typography for its homepage H1 and header callout.

UI designers also mix typefaces and styles to emphasize words or draw users’ attention. For example, this hero from Lacoste’s Draw it Yourself campaign uses bold capital styling combined with solid and outlined text for its H1.

Tennis star Venus Williams also uses big, bold, capitalized typography throughout her website design. The font helps reinforce Venus’ status as a strong, dominant world number one.

If you want to stand out and position your brand as a dominant market leader, big, bold, capital typography can help achieve that in 2024! For a softer, calmer approach, you can use thin, condensed, and capitalized lettering–like this example from the Aussi-based creative initiative Hip Opera.

Take your UI design to the next level with UXPin–the world’s most advanced design and prototyping tool. 

Improve user testing and get meaningful stakeholder feedback with fully interactive prototypes that look and feel like the final product. Sign up for a free trial to explore UXPin’s advanced prototyping features.

The post 10 UX UI Design Trends that Will Dominate 2024 appeared first on Studio by UXPin.

A UX Architect is a person responsible for the structure of the product and user flow. She or he works on the verge of UX design and engineering. This role has emerged as the UX space is continually growing and evolving, with new UX roles and departments popping up from time to time.

We’ll explore what a UX architect does, and the roles and responsibilities for UX designers and UX architects differ and overlap. At the end of this article, we provide a brief overview of how UXPin can help UX teams collaborate effectively.

Key takeaways:

• UX architect is a hybrid role that sits in between design and engineering.
• UX architects build information architecture, create wireframes, and take care of technical feasibility of the project.
• They differ from UX designer in that they have engineering skills and they prioritize clear information architecture.

UXPin is a collaborative tool for UX experts that helps them design better UIs that are fully interactive, responsive, and accessible. Sign up for a UXPin trial today.

Build advanced prototypes

Design better products with States, Variables, Auto Layout and more.

Try UXPin

Who is a UX Architect?

A user experience architect is essentially a UX specialist with a high-level view of a product or design. UX architects are concerned with the structure and flow based on in-depth user and market research.

To achieve this, UX architects will often work closely with research teams or even conduct research themselves. This research guides UX architects to make informed decisions about how a user will use the product and organize the information architecture accordingly.

What Does a UX Architect Do?

Here’s a brief outline of a UX architect’s responsibilities:

• Ensure the product fulfills the user’s needs
• Makes sure information is organized and easily accessible
• Fixes usability and accessibility problems

Organizing Content

Rather than creating content and assets, a UX architect organizes and arranges content to best serve the user. This organization falls into three categories:

• Content inventory—a list of all the product’s digital content.
• Content grouping—a logical structure for organizing the product’s content, defining the relationships between different pieces of information and how they all connect.
• Content audit—a regular review of the product’s content to determine what needs updating and if new content is required.

UX architects must organize the content on each page and determine where to add titles, subheadings, links, and navigation to help users find what they’re looking for.

Hierarchy, Sitemaps, and Navigation

Information architecture arranges a product or website’s hierarchy, sitemaps, and navigation. These crucial elements determine how easy and accessible an app or website is to use.

• Sitemap – all of the app or website pages.
• Hierarchy – how to arrange a page’s content in order of importance.
• Navigation – how a user moves through an app or website.

Internal Wireframing & Low-Fidelity Prototyping

UX architects create wireframes and low-fidelity prototypes for internal UX teams to use as an architectural reference for designing a product or website. 

UX teams will only use these mockups for design purposes and usually won’t use them for usability studies or sharing amongst stakeholders.

Who is a UX Designer?

A UX designer is a broad term encompassing design and research roles. But in the context of a UX designer vs. a UX architect, the designer is responsible for designing user interfaces. Ultimately, a UX designer makes a product usable.

A UX designer will take a UX architect’s wireframes, prototypes, and architectural instructions and turn them into a high-fidelity prototype that resembles the end-product the most out of every design deliverable. UX designers also work with UX researchers as well as content designers to determine which fonts, colors, buttons, and other design elements to use.

Persona Development

UX designers are responsible for early research and creating user personas. Larger organizations might have a dedicated UX researcher or team, but they still fulfill a UX design role.

User personas tell UX designers about the user’s demographic information, motivations, desires, potential responses, and more to design user interfaces that accommodate these user needs.

Wireframes, Mockups, and Prototypes

UX designers create wireframes and mockups for the product’s pages and flows with initial user research and the UX architect’s information architecture.

UX designers also look at the UX architect’s sitemap to link the pages and navigation to make working low-fidelity and high-fidelity prototypes.

Research teams will use these high-fidelity prototypes for usability studies to learn how users interact with the final product.

User Testing

Where companies don’t have a dedicated research team, UX designers conduct the necessary usability studies. This crucial part of UX design provides UX designers with valuable feedback on how users will interact with the final product.

With the results from usability studies, UX designers tweak their designs to improve the user experience.

The Main Differences of UX Architect and UX Designer

The most significant difference between a UX architect and a UX designer is that the UX architect looks at the bigger picture while the UX designer focuses on the details.

The UX architect focuses on navigation and user flows while the UX designer creates the user interfaces and interactions for each screen or page.

While both UX architects and UX designers review research, the UX architect considers what features and content the user needs. In contrast, the UX designer wants to know how the user will interact with these elements.

We can summarize the roles of a UX architect vs. a UX designer as follows:

• UX architect – who are the users, and what do they need?
• UX designer – who are the users, and how do we meet their needs?

How UX Architects & UX Designers Work Together

It’s important to note that a UX designer performs the UX architect’s responsibilities in many companies, especially small businesses. 

Where these roles are split, the UX designer is often referred to as a UI designer (user interface designer) because they focus on the interfaces and interactions. 

A UX architect is a UX specialist in information architecture rather than focusing on design.

UX architects and UX designers work closely on content. The UX designer focuses on the content’s details while the UX architect decides how to structure the content. To get this right, designers and architects must work closely together.

A Typical UX Architect & UX Designer Workflow

The following workflow is a broad overview to show the separation of responsibilities between a UX architect and a UX designer. 

1. A project will start with a UX architect analyzing market and user research to determine what the project needs and how to structure the content—similar to an architect designing a physical structure.
2. The UX architect puts together a blueprint (wireframes & prototypes) for the UX designer to start the build process.
3. The UX designer analyzes user research and the UX architect’s blueprints to start designing each user interface.
4. The UX designer will create wireframes, mockups, and high-fidelity prototypes for stakeholders and usability studies.
5. During usability tests – the UX architect wants to know how the user accesses content and navigates through the product. The UX designer wants to see how the user interacts with the elements and content on each screen.
6. Once a product is live – the UX architect’s job is to ensure accurate and up-to-date content. They will also look at accessibility issues and recommend updates accordingly. The UX designer will take the UX architect’s recommendations and analyze interaction data to optimize each screen to best serve the user.

Does Your Company Need a UX Architect & a UX Designer?

With each team focusing on different design aspects, separating the UX/UI designer and UX architect roles can improve the quality and efficiency of a product or website.

There might not be enough work for a dedicated UX architect for smaller projects and cash-strapped startups. It’s important to note that UX designers are capable of fulfilling a UX architect’s role.

As projects scale, information architecture becomes complex and time-consuming to manage. In situations like this, a UX architect is critical to a project’s success.

While agencies generally work in small teams, they often work on multiple apps and websites for clients. Having a UX architect can help to streamline productivity by handing UX designers all the information they need to start building immediately—effectively creating a tech production line.

Businesses should ask a series of questions to determine if they need a UX architect:

• How much time do UX designers spend on building layouts and information architecture?
• Do these tasks create production delays?
• Do users often struggle with navigation issues in usability studies?
• What is the cost of a dedicated UX architect in relation to the benefits from an increase in quality and efficiency?
• Does your product frequently struggle with usability and accessibility issues?
• Is someone monitoring your product’s content? Do you regularly find out-of-date content or unused product features?

UXPin Increases Productivity for UX Teams

UXPin is a powerful design tool for UX teams to build better products collaboratively. UX architects can use UXPin to create layouts, wireframes, and lo-fi prototypes, with comments for guidance and context.

UX designers can use this information to design beautiful screens and interfaces with mockups to present to stakeholders and use for usability studies.

Get a free UXPin trial and see how this design tool can help your UX teams collaborate effectively to build better products for your customers. Try UXPin today.

The post UX Architect vs. UX Designer – What’s the Difference? appeared first on Studio by UXPin.

Prototyping tool is a product that helps designers create a replica of the final product, used for user testing, presenting to stakeholders, and handing off to developers. Most design tools offer a prototyping as an additional feature, but you will get to an advanced prototyping with dedicated tools.

UXPin is one of the companies leading the code-based design revolution. Sign up for a 14-day free trial to explore UXPin’s advanced prototyping features for your next digital product or web design project.

Build advanced prototypes

Design better products with States, Variables, Auto Layout and more.

Try UXPin

UXPin

UXPin is a code-based prototyping tool which means that your design can be fully interactive. Unlike many leading design solutions, UXPin doesn’t need plugins – everything you need for prototyping and testing is built-in!

UXPin gives you the option to download the software on your desktop (Mac & Windows) or use it in the browser. The benefit of downloading UXPin is that you can continue working even when you’re offline.

You can test prototypes in the browser or use UXPin’s Mirror app to run prototypes on mobile devices (including iOS and Android). UXPin’s documentation is excellent, covering every aspect of the tool with step-by-step instructions and video tutorials.

UXPin also has another advantage over the rest of prototyping tools – UXPin Merge for building fully-functioning prototypes with React components.

With Merge, you have the option to sync React components via Git repo, npm or use the Storybook integration for Vue, Angular, Web Components, Ember, and more. It helps design a layout and launch a product 10x faster.

Figma

Figma is one of the most widely used design tools. They have a big, engaged community with lots of YouTube content and detailed documentation.

Figma has built-in prototyping functionality with a mobile app to test prototypes on multiple devices. You can work in the browser or download Figma to work offline on your desktop.

While Figma is excellent for early stage concepts, advanced prototyping is still not perfect, and it’s unlikely that designer can create a prototype that’s ready for user testing.

In 2023 Figma added a lot of features that simplify interactive prototyping, yet Figma’s inputs are still limited, and UX researchers can’t test any actions that require users to enter information. The tool makes it difficult to create dynamic user flows that adapt to user interaction.

Add interactions to your prototypes made in Figma. Use a plugin for importing Figma designs to UXPin for interactive prototyping. Check out the tutorial: Quick Tutorial: Make Figma prototypes interactive in UXPin.

Adobe XD

Adobe XD is another popular user experience design tool. However, it got discontinued in 2023.

One interesting Adobe UX prototyping feature was Auto-Animate which saved time for specific interactions. With Auto-Animate, you could create the first and last frame of an animation sequence and Adobe XD filled in the rest. The feature didn’t work for all animations, but it saved a significant amount of time when creating something like a parallax effect.

Invision

Invision was a strong prototyping component for many years, yet it decided to focus on its tool for collaboration, which is similar to Figjam. It still has a prototyping tool, yet compared to other tools on the market, it’s not strong enough for creating interactive products in 2024.

Invision has a great Design System Management feature, which is handy for managing your design system and providing developers with CSS and starter code at handoffs. DSM integrates with Storybook so that designers and developers can sync their design systems. Unfortunately, designers can’t use the code components to build prototypes like you can with UXPin Merge.

Framer

Framer is one of the top prototyping tools in 2024 for creating web layouts. It has an AI feature for rapid prototyping. Users type in what kind of a website they want and Framer gives them a design to customize. It embraced AI very quickly.

Other notable features include Layout and Insert Menu, which allow you to design and iterate concepts fast. Although impressive, UXPin offers similar features with Auto-Layout and built-in design libraries.

Framer’s Smart Components feature offers similar functionality to UXPin’s States, but not as comprehensive. Using Variants and Variables, you can give elements a hover or pressed state, like toggling a switch or activating a checkbox.

While Smart Components is a step up from other vector-based design tools, it still doesn’t give you as much fidelity as you get from UXPin’s States, Interactions, Expressions, and Variables features.

More Design Tool Comparisons

Check out more popular prototyping tools and how they stack up against UXPin:

• Marvel App
• Justinmind
• Proto.io
• Axure
• Zeplin
• Balsamiq

Would you like to try UXPin?

If you’re looking for a design tool, there are plenty (including the five listed above) that designers can use to create beautiful low-fidelity wireframes and mockups.

But designing a user experience requires testing, which means you need high-fidelity prototypes, not mockups! UX designers design products for coded products but conduct user testing on image-based prototypes. It’s impossible to get accurate and meaningful results. Invariably there will be usability issues that make their way into the final product.

With code-based tools like UXPin, designers can build functioning high-fidelity prototypes. Usability participants don’t have to “imagine” that a button or input works; they can use it as they would with a final coded product.

Join the user experience design revolution. Sign up for a 14-day free trial and discover better prototyping and testing with UXPin.

The post Top 5 Prototyping Tools for 2024 appeared first on Studio by UXPin.

Today’s digital product users have simply decided that they don’t have the attention span–or the time–to wade through poorly designed apps. Luckily, since designers study users and their behavior, they can help with improving user retention through the right design practices. 

In this article, we propose a solution to the customer retention issues that plague user interfaces. The goal is to engage app visitors so that they feel compelled to return. Done properly, casual users stay engaged. Loyalty prospers, followers are born, and an app becomes a daily staple. 

Key takeaways:

• User retention is a behavioral pattern of users who keep coming back to the site, app or other digital product.
• It’s measured as a percentage that reflects total number of users at the start of a period divided by number of active users at the end of the period.
• What helps you make design decisions for improving user retention is behavioral science but also usability, customer service, and more.

Build fully interactive prototypes that can be easily translated into code. Try UXPin, one of the best design tools for bridging the gap between designers, devs, and product managers. Try UXPin for free.

Build advanced prototypes

Design better products with States, Variables, Auto Layout and more.

Try UXPin

What is User Retention?

User retention is when a casual digital browser is transformed into a power user who returns to consume more of what your app or website offers. These users follow this pattern of product or service consumption, staying for longer periods to benefit from the app or website. 

More accurately, teams track this metric as a percentage. By tracking this rate, you can help your team focus on improving user retention. You see trends in motion, which lets you quickly spot and address any downturns in user engagement. Following a user retention strategy lets your team meet their objectives and keep the return user statistics in your favour.

How Can Designers Measure User Retention? 

By using something as simple as a user survey or more complex analytics tools, developers determine repeat visits. They can also generate ballpark figures by selecting a timeframe and dividing the total number of users recorded at the start by the number of active users at the end of that period.

Here’s a general formula for tracking user retention:

Total number of users at the start of a period / number of active users at the end of the period = user retention rate (%)

With the figure in hand, product teams can discover what resonates with app traffic. Say that there’s a sudden drop in user returns. After speaking to a few users, your team learns that a UI element doesn’t work or is confusing and causes user frustration. The design team can then work on a fix that would remove the blocker in the user journey. 

Product teams also commonly review churn rates – more on this later – and other analytics, but it’s the user retention figure that provides the greatest understanding of in-app behavior.

All of this analysis and user querying result in a more personalized experience. In the end, the app doesn’t overwhelm or confuse with information overload or navigation-slowing pages.

How to tell if user retention is low?

Let’s introduce a predictability baseline. Fact: the average customer retention rate after 30 days of app usage is typically 5.6% of users. Designers might use this statistic as a very rough benchmark when rolling out their creations.

That said, when setting their user retention objectives, they should always prioritize their industry-standard rates. You can establish what a ‘good’, ‘average’, or ‘poor’ retention rate means to you after considering several factors, like what your product does, who is the target user, and how much it costs. 

So much for theory – now let’s look at some factors that can help keep users coming back.

7 Design Tips on Improving User Retention

Before thinking about your app’s improving retention rate, it’s essential to understand the basics of behavioral science. The Hooked Model, created by Nir Niyal, will be used to illustrate this concept:

• The trigger – humans gravitate towards familiar screen anchors. Links, clickable icons or images, emails; these are all habit-forming triggers. They prompt users to take familiar actions. They’ve been “hooked” by a trigger. An emotional component is activated when triggers work as they’re designed to.
• Action – this is a key part of the action/reward cycle that drives human interactions. If the action is to be viewed as “good,” a rewarding response is expected.
• Variable rewards – we become excited when unforeseen incentives are on the line. Your customers can’t help themselves; they want to click through to another part of your app when they’re tempted by a hidden image or, say, the promise of a discount code.
• User investment – interest rises. Your users want to interact with your app, to leave feedback or fill out a form. This final part of the four-phase hooked model equals customer investment and a healthy future for burgeoning users.

Although human behavior lies at the core of UX design practices, the ‘human factor’ can be unpredictable at times, and belongs in another realm altogether. It is crucial that this emotional element is understood.

Understand who your loyal customers are

Retained users are potential brand advocates. They’re already satisfied with your app and have the power to draw in more customers. Consider the following:

• Track churn rate, which is defined as the percentage of users who have stopped using the app over a predetermined amount of time. If user investment is dropping, you need to find out why.
• Know your ideal customer profile but match expectations against real-world results. Using analytics tools and app retention figures, how often do visitors use your app? 
• What’s the habit-forming trigger in your app?
• Can those triggers be recreated on command?

To learn more about the psychology behind habit forming in design, give our dedicated piece a read.

Once you’ve determined the level of user retention you need for your app or website, you can then focus on refining your user experience (UX). 

Reward those users who use your product regularly

These incentives aren’t always monetary. In fact, they could be anything, including:

• Points (e.g., used to reward returning users of the ‘Health’ app in Apple devices)
• Badges (e.g., Facebook groups, where the most active members of the community are given special badges for top contributors)
• Discounts (e.g., eCommerce stores that often display discount codes in their app, site, social accounts, or deliver them to customers via email)
• VIP status (e.g., language learning app Duolingo puts a heavy emphasis not only on gamifying the studying experience, but also offers VIP status to those who return to the app daily)
• Free upgrades (e.g., hotels offering free room upgrades for booking directly through their site or app)
• Compliments (e.g. a free ebook for the first 50 users who log into the app on a given day).

Rewards inspire feelings of achievement. You feel like you’ve accomplished something, so you return for more. Customer retention rates increase as users react positively to this sense of accomplishment.

The Stepler app represents a fine example of the reward principle. Points are won every time a user walks, and earn bonus points every time they log into the app. Always on the mind of the fitness enthusiast, because they’re hooked up to a wearable fitness device, the app is accessed regularly.

In this case, the rewards program aligns with the user’s activity goals to build closer ties to advertisers and brands.   

Improve usability

Usability is a term that describes the degree to which an individual can use an app, website, or other product to achieve a specific end goal – conveniently and enjoyably. If you spot that a user struggles with completing a process due to a usability glitch, then you need to decide how you can resolve the issue.

To get started, you need to understand if the design meets your users’ needs. If it doesn’t, what’s lacking? A good way to gather answers is by gathering feedback from customers.

Make sure your onboarding is good

Just like when reading a book or meeting someone for the first time, first impressions are everything.

Make sure your onboarding process is smooth and streamlined. First-time visitors to your app should experience smooth sailing through the tasks. 

Unfortunately, customers tend to remember problems, whether they’re due to site navigation or some app slowdown incident. Avoid such bad memories by conducting exhaustive dummy-run app tests to iron out the wrinkles. Pair the above steps with a well-designed in-app onboarding flow.

Put a customer feedback loop in place

Feedback is offered to customers as a means of gathering insights and actionable suggestions. To ensure you retain your hard-won customer base, you need a process for obtaining customer feedback. 

Not to be skipped when consolidating customer insights, feedback loops play a crucial role in collecting and analyzing user reviews and surveys.

There are several methods to gather customer feedback:

• Run a survey like Net Promoter Score®
• Request that users participate in focus groups and provide feedback sessions.
• Combining all of the above results, the data is analyzed for discernible trends in user behavior.
  

Use the right trigger

There are a number of tools available for the discerning app designer. From a design point of view, the initial trigger must be functional and aesthetically attractive. Function, of course, is more important than app attractiveness. Both work together to draw in users, though.

A dynamic design is yet another piece of the puzzle that is the human experience. By incorporating interactive elements and visually appealing graphics, users are more likely to engage with the app. Animations and scaling graphics, lines, and color changes – these dynamic elements all serve to engage the eye. Audio cues work just as well as an attention-grabbing device.

Share new feature updates with relevant users 

You can use the same design techniques to separate new features and updates from the presence of regular app content. A different font color or a flashing banner directing the attention of a user’s eye causes the static of the familiar to fade while fresh new features stand out.

Kommunicate announces a new feature through a convenient tooltip: It’s a great way to share information without overwhelming the screen with attention-stealing detail.    

Conclusion

Tracking user retention is a great way to verify if your app meets user needs. As soon as you notice it going down, you should start to investigate the reasons behind it. You can do it by running a survey or speaking directly to your target audience. 

By using a tool like UXPin you can quickly test new features before you proceed into full launch. This way you will ensure a seamless user experience by keeping your designs easy to navigate around, and clutter-free. Try UXPin today.

The post User Retention – 7 Design Tips to Improve it appeared first on Studio by UXPin.

Whether you work in an early-stage startup or a multinational enterprise, design constraints limit or influence design projects and the desired output. Seasoned designers understand that true creativity often emerges when we confront and master the constraints that shape our work. In this blog post, we delve into the art of design constraints, a topic close to the hearts of senior designers.

Key takeaways:

• Design constraints are restrictions that influence the creative and technical decisions made during the design process.
• The first step is acknowledging these limitations and that they constrain UX designers from delivering great design outcomes.
• Understanding and managing design constraints will minimize adverse effects or eliminate issues altogether.

Eliminate prototyping constraints, bridge the gap between designers and engineers, and deliver exceptional user experiences with UXPin Merge. Visit our Merge page for more details and how to request access.

Reach a new level of prototyping

Design with interactive components coming from your team’s design system.

Discover UXPin Merge

What are Design Constraints?

Design constraints are limitations or restrictions in the design process imposed by internal and external factors. These constraints impact the final product, so it’s critical that everyone in the organization is aware of them and considers these limitations before every project.

Common types of design constraints include:

• Technical constraints: how a product’s tech stack and engineering team limit design
• Financial constraints: departmental and project budgets
• Legal and regulatory constraints: laws design teams must follow
• Organizational constraints: culture, structure, policies, bureaucracy
• Self-imposed constraints: each designer’s workflow and creative decision-making
• Talent constraints: designer skills and experience and professional shortcomings
• Project-specific constraints: limitations relating to the project, including time, budget, available team members, etc.

We’ll explore these in greater detail and discuss how team members and stakeholders address design constraints.

Technical constraints

Technical constraints significantly impact design projects because they dictate how far designers can push creative and innovative boundaries.

Some examples include:

• Device and operating system limitations: iOS and Android constraints, screen sizes, processing power, etc.
• Accessibility constraints: how voice control and screen readers impact design decisions.
• Performance constraints: the impact of user bandwidth/Internet connectivity, product servers, and tech stacks.
• Integrations and APIs: limitations from external services and API requirements.
• Tech stack constraints: how front-end and back-end tech impact the design process.

Financial constraints

Financial constraints impact many areas of the design process, including human resources, tools, user research, project scope, and technology. While many see financial constraints as a roadblock, they often drive creative thinking and design innovation through bootstrapping and workarounds.

Some ways financial constraints impact the design process include:

• Limiting the scope of each discipline (research, wireframing, prototyping, interviews, testing, etc.)
• Limits the number of iterations and testing rounds
• Specifies what tools designers use
• Determines the size and skill level of the design team

Legal and regulatory constraints

Legal constraints impact content and user data the most regarding UX projects. These laws change depending on the country, so designers rely on advice from legal counsel and stakeholders.

Some examples of how legal constraints impact design include:

• Privacy laws: dictate what data designers collect, how they collect it, the legal notices they give users, and how they get permission–notably, General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR) in the European Union or the California Consumer Privacy Act (CCPA).
• Accessibility laws: what designers must do legally to make user interfaces accessible for users with various impairments– for example, the Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA) in the United States.
• Intellectual property laws: copyright for original works, including text, images, video, etc. Additionally, designers must consider whether they infringe on competitor/brand IP, trademarks, and other legal protections.
• Industry-specific regulations: some industries, like financial and healthcare, have laws about privacy and security that significantly impact design–for example, login and authentication procedures.

Organizational constraints

Organizational constraints describe limitations imposed on Design by other parts of the company. These limitations often relate to the organization’s values, culture, company vision, and competing interests from other departments.

Some examples of organizational constraints include:

• Time constraints: deadlines set by stakeholders can impact how designers research, prototype, and test design ideas.
• Brand guidelines: an organization’s brand influences stylistic and messaging decisions.
• Marketing and business goals: designers often have to balance user needs with organizational goals, which can limit design choices.
• Design system constraints: available components, design principles, style guides, guidelines, and design system governance impact how designers create products.
• Organizational silos: poor communication and collaboration lead to silos that hamper progress. These silos often lead to duplicate work, delays, design drift, inconsistencies, and other friction.
• Design’s value: how the organization perceives the UX department can impact resource allocation and buy-in, limiting what designers can do.

Self-imposed constraints

Self-imposed constraints come from the designers, relating to the choices and options during the design process, like which design tool they use, the time it takes to complete tasks, and whether they use the product’s design system.

Talent constraints

Talent constraints relate to the skills and specialists available to the design team. It’s important to know every designer’s skill set and expertise so that managers can assign people who complement one another. Understanding talent constraints enables managers to source the right people and when to hire specialist contractors for specific design projects.

Project-specific constraints

Project constraints create design problems that otherwise don’t exist or are rare to an organization. For example, designers might have to complete a project in a shorter timeframe than they’re used to, resulting in adapting workflows or switching tools to accomplish the desired outcome.

How to Overcome Design Constraints

In many organizations, overcoming constraints is a DesignOps function. The DesignOps team must reduce these limitations and roadblocks to maximize the department’s output and organizational value.

This problem-based framework will help overcome design constraints starting with your organization’s biggest challenges. A problem-based approach will allow you to solve a specific issue and its related constraints, thus increasing the impact.

1. Define the problem: what challenge are you trying to solve? This could be reducing time-to-market or increasing designer productivity.
2. Identify the constraints: list the constraints related to this problem, i.e., budget, resources, time, technical, etc.
3. Prioritize the constraints: determine which limitations are most consequential and prioritize accordingly.
4. Brainstorm solutions: meet with appropriate experts, team members, and stakeholders to brainstorm solutions. Create a list of possibilities.
5. Evaluate the solutions: consider the pros and cons of each idea and determine which has the highest feasibility with the most significant potential impact.
6. Choose a solution: select the solution you believe will deliver the best results and put plans in place to implement it.
7. Test and iterate: create KPIs to measure your solution’s effectiveness and tweak them over time to optimize the results. Don’t be afraid to abandon poor-performing ideas and iterate on new ones.

Define the problem: efficacy vs. efficiency

In a webinar with UXPin, DesignOps expert Patrizia Bertini outlined how practitioners must frame problems to measure results from solutions. Patrizia argues that it’s essential to recognize the difference between efficacy and efficiency because you evaluate these differently.

Efficacy uses qualitative metrics, including:

• Empathy and ongoing user engagement
• Ideation and experimentation cycle times
• Composition of teams’ skills (skill matrix)
• Design skills’ distribution
• Perceived value of design by cross-functional partners
• Designer satisfaction and retention

Efficiency is measurable and quantifiable using numbers, percentages, and ratios:

• Tools’ ROI (cost/engagement/adoption)
• Testing and prototyping lead time (time)
• Number and type of quality reviews
• Team productivity (resources utilization)
• End-to-end delivery time (time)

Reducing Constraints With UXPin Merge

Traditional design workflows and image-based tools present many constraints for designers–most notably, prototyping fidelity and functionality which have many adverse effects, including:

• Limited user testing scope
• Inability to spot usability issues during the design process
• Fewer problem-solving opportunties
• Limited stakeholder comprehension impacting buy-in
• Less ability to identify business opportunities
• Poor designer/developer collaboration and challenging design handoffs

UXPin Merge solves these issues and many more by syncing your product’s component library to UXPin’s design editor, so designers use the same UI elements during the design process as engineers use to develop the final product.

Merge components are fully interactive and function in UXPin exactly as they do in the repository and final product. This interactivity provides design teams with a component-driven workflow that increases project scope and enables significantly faster testing and iterations.

Merge breaks down silos and operational constraints because designers and engineers speak the same language. Design handoffs with Merge are seamless and frictionless, requiring less documentation and explanation because engineers already have the same component library. UXPin renders JSX, so engineers simply copy/paste to apply these to the component’s props.

Merge also significantly reduces testing constraints. Usability testing participants and stakeholders can interact with prototypes like they would the final product, producing meaningful, actionable results to iterate and improve outcomes.

“Our stakeholders are able to provide feedback pretty quickly using UXPin Merge. We can send them a link to play with the prototype in their own time and UXPin allows them to provide comments directly on the prototypes. UXPin’s Comments functionality is great because we can follow along and mark comments as resolved once we address them.” – Erica Rider, UX Lead EPX at PayPal.

Eliminate prototyping limitations with a code-based design solution from UXPin Merge. Iterate faster to deliver high-quality projects, even under the tightest time constraints. Visit our Merge page for more details and how to request access.

The post 7 Constraints in Design and How to Overcome Them appeared first on Studio by UXPin.

Interaction design is one of the most critical facets of user experience design. It makes the product’s interface respond to user’s action, aiding in human-to-computer interaction.

Key takeaways:

• Interaction design is a multidisciplinary design field that focuses on the interaction between users and digital products, systems, or interfaces.
• It involves designing how users engage with and experience a product, with the goal of making that interaction intuitive and efficient.
• It’s often abbreviated as IxD.

It’s one of the most challenging stages of UX design process. UXPin’s code-based design tool reduces those challenges by allowing designers to build functional prototypes with extreme fidelity and interactivity. Deliver better customer experiences today. Sign up for a free trial.

Build advanced prototypes

Design better products with States, Variables, Auto Layout and more.

Try UXPin

What is Interaction Design?

Interaction design is a process of making human-to-computer interfaces (HCI) feel human-like. Interactive digital products create this “human” connection by giving feedback to the end-users. The feedback can be through a scroll-provoked animation, clicked state of a button or transition to another page.

Often shortened to IxD, interaction design uses appropriate interactive elements, such as transitions, microinteractions, animation, but also text, color, visuals, and layout impact users’ feeling and behavior–allowing them to design interactions strategically to elicit the appropriate response.

A good use of interaction design successfully leads to positive user experiences, including:

• Greater product satisfaction
• Deeper usability comprehension
• Faster learnability
• A deeper personal connection
• Increased likelihood of repeated use

Interaction Design vs UI Design

Interaction design focuses on human-computer interaction, including animations, microinteractions, transitions, search, and other motion-based designs. They decide, for example, what happens when a user taps an element.

User interface design focuses on visual design and aesthetics, including color, fonts, iconography, layouts, etc. They decide what a user interface must look like.

To summarize:

• Interaction design is about Interactions and movement
• UI design is about visual design and aesthetics

In smaller companies and startups, a UI designer is often responsible for both tasks, while the roles are separate in larger organizations. Like anything in digital product design, the roles and responsibilities can synergize. It all depends on the company, product, and organizational structure.

Interaction Design vs UX Design

Interaction design is a specialized discipline within UX design. Where UX looks at the entire user experience and how everything ties together, interaction designers focus on user interactions and motion.

User experience designers apply UX fundamentals like design thinking, human-centered design, and user research to make decisions. They’re specifically concerned with a user’s tasks, actions, and environment, while interaction designers focus on making the digital product respond to user actions in an appropriate way. They tend to think about what happens when a user clicks a button, types a phrase into a search bar or hovers over an image.

Interaction Design Principles

We’ve chosen our favorite IxD principles from Don Norman’s (co-founder of the Nielsen Norman Group) book, The Design of Everyday Things.

Visibility

With many features and limited space, prioritizing visibility is a significant design challenge. Don Norman’s theory is that the more visible something is, the more likely a user sees and interacts with it. Interaction designers must balance visibility prioritization based on user needs and business goals.

A typical example of visibility is prioritizing navigation links on mobile devices. What links are visible via the app bar, and what do designers place in the navigation drawer behind a hamburger menu?

Feedback

Feedback is how a digital product or system communicates with users. Interaction designers have several ways to express this feedback, including motion/animation, tactile, audio, copy, etc.

They must also consider accessibility and how products relay feedback to all types of users and assistive technologies.

Constraints

Cluttered UIs with too many possibilities confuse users and create usability issues. Good interaction design limits (or constrains) user actions to guide them through the product more efficiently.

We see these constraints most commonly with landing pages. Designers strip away navigation, links, and anything else that might tempt users to leave the page, leaving only a prominent CTA or form. Constraining users to a single action allows them to focus on the content that leads to a conversion.

Mapping

Interaction designers must create a clear relationship between controls and their effect on a digital product. The idea is to map these relationships to feel natural to users.

For example, the top button on an iPhone increases the volume while the lower one decreases. This intuitive layout means users don’t have to think about which button performs which action.

The more intuitive and obvious a product is to use, the easier and more enjoyable the experience.

Consistency

Consistency is vital for interaction and UI design. Inconsistency can confuse users and create usability issues. Designers not only have to design consistent UIs and interactions but also consider consistency across multiple screen sizes and devices.

Many organizations build a design system or adopt an open-source component library to increase consistency with approved UI patterns and interactions. When designers don’t have to think about these choices, they can focus on the user experience and apply the appropriate pattern to help users achieve the desired result.

Affordance

Affordance tells users how to use something or perform an action. It’s an interaction designer’s job to ensure that it’s obvious to users how to complete tasks using UI elements.

For example, a submit button’s disabled state tells users to complete a form’s required fields before submitting. Using a different color and underline for links tells users which text they can click.

Cognition

Interaction designers must have a basic understanding of cognitive psychology in UX design–attention and perception, memory, problem-solving, and creative thinking. The aim is to design products and experiences that don’t overload these mental processes.

Cognition deals with several design psychology principles, including:

• Gestalt principles: how the human brain perceives visuals to create familiar structures.
• Von Restorff effect: predicts that in a group of objects, the one that differs stands out or is most likely to be remembered.
• Hick’s Law: the more choices you give someone, the longer it’ll take them to make a decision.
• The Principle of Least Effort: users will make choices or take action requiring the least amount of energy.
• The Serial Positioning Effect: humans are most likely to remember the first (primacy effect) and last (recency effect) items in a list, sentence, or piece of content.
• The Principle of Perpetual Habit: people rely on familiar routines and habits–which is why it’s crucial to use universal design patterns.
• The Principle of Emotional Contagion: humans will mimic or empathize with the emotions and behaviors of others, including animals and animations–which is why designers use faces (even emojis) to emphasize feeling and emotion.
• Fitts’s Law: the time required to move to a target area is a function between the distance and the target’s size.

Dive deeper into cognition in this article: UX Design Psychology Tricks for Design Excellence and this one: A UX Designer’s Guide to Improving Speed of Use. These principles apply to all UX disciplines.

Interaction Design Checklist

We found this helpful interaction design checklist from the US Government’s Technology Transformation Services website, usability.gov. The checklist includes several questions to consider when designing interactions.

• Define how users interact with the interface – click/tap, push, swipe, drag & drop, keyboard controls, etc.
• Give users clues about behavior before they take action – correct labeling, different colors for links, using consistency for clickable UI elements, etc.
• Anticipate and mitigate errors – how do you prevent errors while providing helpful messages to correct problems?
• Consider system feedback and response time – what happens after users complete an action, and how soon does that feedback appear?
• Strategically think about each element – have you chosen the appropriate element/pattern? Is there enough space between clickable elements to avoid errors? Have you followed design psychology principles (mentioned above)? Scrutinize every decision from a user’s perspective.
• Simplify for learnability – make user interfaces and tasks as simple as possible, use familiar patterns, and minimize cognitive-draining tasks and features to simplify the user experience.

Also, check out the IxD Checklist from Aaron Legaspi and Amit Jakhu.

Interaction Design Resources

• Interaction Design Association
• Interaction Design Foundation
• 50 Best Interaction Design Programs

UXPin–The Ultimate Interaction Design Tool

A lack of fidelity and functionality is a significant problem for interaction designers when prototyping and testing using traditional image-based design tools.

Interaction designers must create multiple frames to replicate basic code functionality, which takes considerable time and effort. With UXPin’s code-based design tool, designers can achieve significantly better results with less effort. Here’s how:

States

UXPin enables designers to create multiple States for a single component. For example, you can build a button with default, hover, active and disabled states, each with separate properties and triggers.

UXPin’s States also allows designers to create more complex UI patterns like carousels, accordions, dropdown menus, and more using a single frame. These UI patterns behave like code, giving interaction designers accurate results and feedback during testing.

Interactions

With UXPin Interactions, designers can build immersive, code-like experiences far beyond the capabilities of image-based design tools. UXPin offers a wide range of triggers, actions, and animations to create fully functional, animated prototypes.

Conditional Interactions allow designers to take prototypes a step further with Javascript-like “if-then” and “if-else” conditions to create dynamic user experiences. 

Variables

In UXPin, form fields look and function like the final product. Variables allow designers to capture user inputs and use that data elsewhere in the prototype–like a personalized welcome message after completing an onboarding form.

Expressions

UXPin Expressions take prototyping to another level with code-like functionality, including form validation and computational components (updating a shopping cart). When combined with States, Interactions, and Variables, Expressions allow designers to build prototypes that function like the final product.

These powerful features mean interaction designers don’t have to learn code or rely on engineers to build fully functioning prototypes for accurate testing. With UXPin, designers can build, test, and iterate faster and achieve significantly better results.

Tired of asking usability participants and stakeholders to “imagine” something happening? Switch to UXPin and start prototyping with the world’s most advanced code-based design tool. Sign up for a free trial today.

The post What is Interaction Design? appeared first on Studio by UXPin.

The Double Diamond design process is a widely used methodology for identifying a problem and developing a solution. This outcomes-based framework encourages creativity and innovation while focusing on the core issue and its impact on end-users.

Key takeaways

• Double Diamond is a design framework for developing digital product’s UX and UI design.
• The process is represented by two diamonds that symbolize divergent and convergent thinking.
• It involves four stages (discover, define, develop, and deliver) that go one after the other, but you can jump between them if needed.

Deliver better products to your users with the world’s most advanced prototyping tool. Sign up for a free trial to explore interactive prototyping with UXPin.

Build advanced prototypes

Design better products with States, Variables, Auto Layout and more.

Try UXPin

What is the Double Diamond?

The Double Diamond model is a framework for innovation and design developed by the British Design Council in 2003. The Design Council wanted a simple design process for delivering projects, no matter the methods and tools used.

The design framework features two diamonds:

• a diamond that represents the problem.
• a diamond that stands for the solution.

Designers work within these diamonds. They help them to truly understand the problem and thoroughly test their solutions.

Once designers identify a core issue in the first diamond, they create a design brief as a foundation for the second. The second diamond focuses on prototyping and testing a solution until its ready for release. 

The Origin of the Double Diamond Design Process

The Double Diamond we know as a design framework came from the British Design Council, but the inspiration for this process came from Hungarian-American linguist Béla H. Bánáthy’s divergence-convergence model.

Béla’s model looks very similar to the design framework where he used the first diamond to explore an issue widely and deeply (divergent thinking) and then took an appropriate focused action (convergent thinking).

What is a Design Framework?

Design frameworks provide teams with a systematic approach to solving problems and delivering projects. These frameworks include tools, workflows, protocols, and processes that guide designers in delivering a project successfully.

The Four Phases of the Double Diamond Design Process

The Double Diamond design process comprises two diamonds and four phases (also called the four Ds):

1. Discover
2. Define
3. Develop
4. Deliver

Diamond One – Discovering and Defining the Problem

The first diamond is about UX research and exploration, often referred to as the “problem space”–similar to the empathize and define stages of the design thinking process. 

Designers start by researching the problem and user needs. This phase might include reviewing analytics and UX artifacts, interviewing end-users, conducting a service safari, and other early-phase research methods.

In phase two, designers use discovery phase research to define the problem and how it impacts users. Design teams may iterate over phases one and two a few times until they get to the core issue. Some UX artifacts designers might create include:

• User personas
• Customer journey map
• A problem statement
• Empathy map

At the end of phase two, designers create a design brief to guide the second half of the design process towards finding an appropriate solution.

Diamond Two – Developing and Delivering the Solution

The second diamond is about ideating, prototyping, and testing to find a suitable solution. 

The develop phase is a busy stage of the Double Diamond framework where teams use various tools and methods, including:

• Workshops and brainstorming: gathering as a team to ideate, hypothesize, conduct experiments, and discuss possible solutions. 
• Low-fidelity design: sketches, wireframes, paper prototypes, and other lo-fi methods designers use to develop and test many ideas quickly.
• Cross-functional collaboration: designers meet with engineers, product owners, and other stakeholders to discuss ideas for feedback on possible challenges and constraints.

The development phase is an iterable process of ideation, prototyping, and testing several ideas until designers identify a single solution with the most potential to:

• Solve the problem
• Align with user needs
• Meet budget and technical constraints

In some circumstances, designers choose a single solution or select their best two or three ideas for high-fidelity prototyping and testing in the deliver phase. The first goal is to eliminate those that don’t work until you arrive at a single solution.

Once designers arrive at a single solution, they conduct further testing to refine the final prototype. During this round of testing, designers focus on usability and user experience to ensure the final result satisfies the design brief and stakeholders.

If designers encounter a problem, they return to the develop phase to find a solution, iterating and testing until they find a solution.

Once prototyping and testing are complete, design teams prepare for the design handoff, including documentation, annotations, assets, and other instructions engineers will use to develop the final product for release.

Lastly, design teams must conduct a UX audit and quality assurance to ensure the final release meets the project’s requirements, business goals, and user needs.

Try End-to-End UX Design With UXPin

Prototyping and testing are significant in the end-to-end design process, including the Double Diamond framework. Designers must use high-quality prototypes to thoroughly test potential solutions and achieve accurate results.

Unfortunately, high-fidelity prototyping can be slow with certain tools, which isn’t ideal when testing many ideas in the Double Diamond design process.

With fully interactive design from UXPin, designers don’t have to compromise on quality for speed. They can build high-fidelity prototypes that look and function like the final product. Better prototypes yield accurate results during testing, allowing designers to go beyond what’s possible with image-based design tools.

UXPin also comes standard with built-in design libraries, allowing design teams to drag and drop components to build high-fidelity mockups in minutes. In a few clicks, they can add Interactions to create prototypes with code-like functionality, including:

• States: create multiple states for any element, each with separate properties and interactions.
• Variables: capture user inputs and take action based on the data to create dynamic, personalized user experiences during testing.
• Conditional Interactions: create “if-then” and “if-else” rules to execute different reactions to user actions and inputs.
• Expressions: design functions to perform complex operations traditionally only available with code, including form validation, computational components, simulate password authentication, and more.

No matter the framework, UXPin can enhance your design process to create better user experiences for your customers. Sign up for a free trial and discover the possibilities of code-based design with UXPin.

The post Double Diamond Design Process – The Best Framework for a Successful Product Design appeared first on Studio by UXPin.

Buttons are pivotal in this experience, acting as road signs for user actions. This guide unravels the complex world of button states, revealing how they facilitate effective user interface design. Learn about common types of button states, design principles, and cross-platform considerations.

Key takeaways:

• Button states serve as critical visual cues that inform users of possible interactions within a digital interface.
• Consistent design across various button states enhances user experience by providing familiar, easy-to-recognize cues.
• Accessibility considerations like ARIA roles and keyboard navigation are non-negotiables when designing button states.
• Cross-platform design requires adapting button states to meet the distinct guidelines and user expectations of web, mobile, and other devices like smart TVs.

UXPin’s States lets you apply states depending on different user actions or system changes to enhance testing during the design process. Sign up for a free trial to design with States and other advanced UXPin features.

Build advanced prototypes

Design better products with States, Variables, Auto Layout and more.

Try UXPin

What are Button States?

A button’s state indicates the element’s current interactive condition, whether ready for a user action or in a non-responsive mode. Understanding these states ensures clear user feedback, highlighting possible actions or barriers.

For example, a hover microinteraction (changes the button style, animation, etc.) suggests a button is clickable, while a grayed-out one indicates an unavailable action. Properly utilized button states streamline user experiences, reduce confusion, and elevate interface intuitiveness.

What are the Types of Button States?

Buttons typically have four to six states (sometimes more) depending on the product and available actions. Here are seven standard states found in modern product development:

• Default state
• Hover state
• Active state
• Focus state
• Disabled state
• Loading state
• Toggle state

These states apply to all button types, including:

• Primary: The main action button, often bold and contrasting, directs users to the most important task.
• Secondary: Less prominent but still important, used for alternative actions that complement the primary task.
• Tertiary: Least emphasized, usually for low-priority tasks, often appearing as simple text or an outline.

Default state

Use case:

Default is a button’s initial or clickable state, the one users see when a page loads. 

Design principles and best practices:

Opt for high-contrast colors that are compliant with accessibility standards. Make sure the label clearly communicates the button’s function.

Hover state

Use case:

The hover state is triggered when a user places a cursor over the button without clicking, indicating that the UI element is clickable.

Design principles and best practices:

Change the color or elevation slightly to indicate it’s interactable. Don’t make drastic changes; it should be subtle yet noticeable.

Active state

Use case:

This state appears when the user clicks the button, informing users the product has successfully received the action.  

Design principles and best practices:

Apply a visual effect like a color fill or a shade to signify the action is processing. Make sure the effect reverses when the click is released.

Focus state

Use case:

The focus state activates when the keyboard navigation or other non-user action selects a button, usually on page load or after completing a specific task. 

Design principles and best practices:

Implement a border or outline to indicate focus. Focus states are crucial for accessibility because they reduce work for screen readers and keyboard users.

Disabled state

Use case:

The disabled state indicates a button is not available for interaction. The users must usually complete another action–like a form’s required fields–before the button is clickable.

Design principles and best practices:

Gray out the button and lower its opacity. Ensure it’s visually distinct from the default state, but don’t hide it entirely–users should know it’s unavailable.

Loading state

Use case:

Loading state activates when the system processes an action triggered by a user click or tap. This state follows the active state immediately after the user releases their click or tap.

Design principles and best practices:

Use a spinner or other loading indicator within the button. Keep the user informed without requiring them to leave the button area.

Toggle state

Use case:

A toggle button turns someone on and off. You often see a toggle state in settings or interactive elements that let the user choose between two conditions, such as turning a feature on or off.

Design principles and best practices:

Clearly differentiate the two states–commonly “on” and “off”–through color, shading, or icons. The user must understand the current state immediately. Make text labels descriptive to eliminate ambiguity.

What are the Design Principles for Button States

Visual consistency

Maintain uniformity across button states to improve usability. Consistency speeds up interaction by creating familiar visual cues. For example, use the same rounded corners for default, hover, and active states.

Size & position

Position buttons where users expect them and keep sizes optimal for interaction–i.e., touch targets large enough to avoid mishits or errors on mobile devices. Predictable placement and sizing reduce navigation effort. For example, place primary action buttons on the bottom-right corner of modal windows.

Transitions

Use subtle transitions for state changes to avoid jarring shifts. Smooth transitions guide users’ eyes and improve flow. For example, implement a 200 and 500 ms fade effect when a button transitions from hover to active state.

Color & contrast

Leverage color and contrast to indicate button states effectively. High contrast aids visibility; color changes signal state shifts. For example, use a darker shade of the original color for the hover state to ensure the button remains noticeable.

Accessibility

Make button states discernible for all users, including those with impairments. ARIA roles and attributes clarify button functions, while keyboard navigation compatibility ensures universal usability. For example, add role=”button” and aria-pressed attributes to make custom buttons accessible and ensure they’re focusable for keyboard navigation.

What are Some Common Mistakes in Button State Design?

• Inconsistent visual cues: Failing to standardize button state cues across the interface disrupts the user experience.
• Indiscernible disabled state: When disabled and active buttons look too similar, users click without feedback or understanding.
• Overcomplicated transitions: Using excessive or inconsistent animations can distract and disorient users.
• Low contrast: When button states lack sufficient color contrast, users can’t distinguish between them, affecting engagement and causing potential errors.
• Ignoring Accessibility: Lack of ARIA roles or non-functional keyboard navigation alienates users who rely on assistive technologies.

How to Design Button States

Here is a step-by-step tutorial for designing button states. We’re using a FinTech app to provide context and examples.

1. Step 1 – Identify User Actions: List the actions users will take in your FinTech app. For example, users need to “Transfer Money,” “View Account,” or “Invest.”
2. Step 2 – Sketch Initial Designs: Use wireframes to sketch your buttons’ basic shapes, sizes, and placements.
3. Step 3 – Determine Button States: Decide which states each button will have–default, hover, active, focus, disabled, loading, and possibly toggle for feature toggles. For example, the “Transfer Money” button will need a default, hover, active, and disabled state.
4. Step 4 – Pick Colors and Contrast: Use high-contrast colors that align with your FinTech app’s brand guidelines. Use a Contrast Checker and Color Blindness Simulator to test accessibility.
5. Step 5 – Design Transitions: Choose subtle animations for transitioning between states and screens.
6. Step 6 – Test Size and Position: Ensure buttons are large enough for mobile users and positioned where they are most intuitive.
7. Step 7 – Implement ARIA and Keyboard Navigation: Make the button states accessible. Use ARIA roles and ensure keyboard navigation works seamlessly.
8. Step 8 – Testing: Conduct usability testing to catch any mistakes or areas for improvement. Share designs with stakeholders for feedback on business objectives.
9. Step 9 – Iterate: Based on testing feedback, make necessary adjustments. Test redesigns to ensure they solve user and stakeholder issues.
10. Step 10 – Design handoff: Collaborate with engineering teams to convert designs to functional code. Ensure devs implement non-visual elements like ARIA attributes for accessibility.

How to Design Button States for Cross-Platform Applications

Platform differences between mobile, web, and other interfaces like smart TVs require distinct design strategies. Even within the mobile universe, iOS and Android have different rules and principles for UI design and interactivity. Here are some things to consider when designing button states for cross-platform applications.

Mobile vs. web design

Mobile: Buttons must be large enough for touch but not so big that they overwhelm the interface. Mobile environments often use tap states similar to hover states on web interfaces.

Web: You can employ hover states and tooltips with more space and a cursor. These don’t translate well on mobile, so make sure your web designs are mobile-friendly.

iOS vs. Android

iOS: Apple’s Human Interface Guidelines specify rounded corners and a flat design. States are often less flashy, focusing on simple color changes or subtle shading.

Android: Google’s Material Design allows for more expressive animations and elevations. Android buttons lift when tapped, adding depth to the state transition.

Other platforms and devices

Smart TVs, Game Consoles: These platforms often rely on remote or controller-based navigation. Button states must be prominent and highly visible, and focus states are more of a priority than web and mobile design.

Interactive Button State Design With UXPin

UXPin is a code-based design tool with more features and functionality to create fully interactive prototypes. UXPin’s States lets you create simple component states and complex UI patterns like dropdown menus, tab menus, navigational drawers, and more.

Designers can define properties and interactivity for each state, with triggers for web and mobile applications–i.e., click and hover for desktop or tap and swipe for mobile.

UXPin’s code-based interactivity provides users with a realistic prototyping experience, indistinguishable from the final product, giving designers meaningful, actionable feedback to iterate and solve more challenges during the design process.

Design button states faster and achieve accurate results during testing with UXPin. Sign up for a free trial to explore States and other advanced UXPin features.

The post Button States Explained – How to Design them appeared first on Studio by UXPin.

Data tables are essential components for many enterprise UX projects. UX designers must find the best UX table design solution to visualize and sort data according to user needs.

This article explores table UI design best practices with examples to solve common content and usability issues. We also provide links to resources to help research specific topics further.

Key takeaways:

• Data table UX design involves organizing and presenting data in a way that allows users to easily find, understand, and interact with information.
• Effective data table design involves layout selection, data organization, legibility, and user task functionality.
• Data table designers should prioritize readability, create visual hierarchy, ensure responsiveness, order columns sensibly, and focus on accessibility for a better user experience.

Data table UX design and prototyping are challenging for designers using image-based design tools. These tools lack features to create basic table functionality like sorting, search, scrolling, actions, etc. 

With UXPin Merge, designers can sync a fully functioning data table or use a component library like MUI to design, prototype, and test table UX.

Reach a new level of prototyping

Design with interactive components coming from your team’s design system.

Discover UXPin Merge

Data Table Design

First, let’s break down the data table anatomy and how these elements fit together so users can visualize information.

• Table Header: The labels for each column in the data table
• Rows: Each entry from the database
• Toolbar: Tools to work with the data (search, edit, delete, settings, etc.)
• Pagination: A UI pattern for displaying multiple pages of data
• Row checkbox: Used to select one or more rows to complete tasks, i.e., delete, copy, process, etc.
• Sorting: Allows users to sort a specific column, i.e., ascending or descending
• Horizontal rule: A horizontal line (the <hr> HTML element) separating each row

What Makes a Good Data Table?

There are four primary ingredients to designing good data tables:

1. Use the correct data table UI for the content you want to display
2. Prioritize table layout and content correctly
3. Make content legible
4. The data table provides users with the functionality to complete tasks

First and foremost, your table must be sufficient to display all the data users need. UX designers must also prioritize data correctly, with the most crucial information starting from the left.

A good data table has a clear header and description, so users know what they’re viewing. Designers must also use legible typography and adequate spacing between columns and rows to make it easy for users to read and absorb content.

Lastly (and most importantly), your data table must be user-friendly. It must solve users’ needs and be intuitive to use. There should be little or no learning curve, so users can focus on analyzing data rather than learning how to use the data table. 

How to Design User-Friendly Data Tables?

Here are some best practices for designing user-friendly data tables. 

Data Table Readability

Readability is crucial for data table UX. Designers must assess several elements to make data tables readable, including:

• Reduce visual noise: Only display content and UI elements necessary for users to read and manipulate data.
• Use legible fonts: The data table’s typeface, sizing, white space, and letter spacing must be adequate for users to read content–even if this means using a different font from the rest of your application.
• Create separation: Padding, spacing, alignment, and lines can help create separation so users can differentiate and absorb data easily.
• Consistency: Using fonts, spacing, sizing, etc., creates consistency and familiarity so users can scan tables faster to find what they need.
• Fixed headers: Keeps headers visible even when users scroll so they always have context.

Create Visual Hierarchy

Linked to readability is creating a visual hierarchy–where designers use typography, sizing, spacing, and other elements to differentiate data and make tables scannable.

• Use bold and slightly larger font sizes for column and row headers
• Use shading to differentiate between headers and table content
• “Zebra stripes” help create divisions between rows, making them easier to read
• Use a contrasting color for links, so users know what content is clickable

Data Tables Must be Responsive

UX designers must understand how users use these tables while completing day-to-day tasks to create a consistent and cohesive user experience across the organization.

Data tables must be responsive so users can analyze data anywhere in the business. The sales team might want to access the data from their mobile device on the go, while warehouse employees primarily use tablets.

Order Columns According to Data Relevance

An article from the NN Group recommends, “The default order of the columns should reflect the importance of the data to the user and related columns should be adjacent.”

UX designers must arrange and group columns according to their relevance. For example, location details like address, city, country, and zip code must be together. Placing these apart would create more work for users as they scroll or scan the table to compare columns.

Data Table Accessibility

WebAIM offers several tips for Creating Accessible Tables, including:

• Table Captions: An HTML element <caption> placed after the opening table element provides context for screen readers. While HTML falls on engineers, UX designers must provide the appropriate caption description based on user research and testing.
• Identify Row and Column Headers: UX designers must use appropriate row and column headers so screen readers can identify content correctly.
• Associate the Data Cells with the Appropriate Headers: The scope attribute tells screen readers whether a header belongs to a row or column. For example, <th scope=”col”>Name</th> and <th scope=”row”>Jackie</th>. The scope attribute makes it easy for screen readers to jump around the table like a user would scanning it visually.
• Use Proportional Sizing, Rather than Absolute Sizing: Using percentages rather than fixed pixel cell sizing allows tables to automatically adjust to a screen’s dimensions, making it easier to read for visually impaired users.

More resources for data table accessibility:

• Creating Accessible Tables by WebAIM
• Accessible Tables by the University of Minnesota
• Tables Tutorial by Web Accessibility Initiative

Atomic Design for Complex Data Tables

Smashing Magazine outlines an atomic design approach to designing complex data tables. Atomic design is a technique for designing from the smallest UI element and progressively building to create more complex components, patterns, and entire user interfaces.

Smashing Magazine breaks down data tables using this methodology as follows:

• Atoms: Fonts, colors, icons
• Molecules: Cells, headers, and accessories
• Organisms: Rows, columns, pagination, toolbar
• Templates: The entire table

6 Great UX Tables Examples

Here are six examples of UX tables and the problems they solve for users.

Horizontal Scrolling for Large Datasets

Large datasets require horizontal scrolling to accommodate many columns. UX designers must decide which content is most important to users to prioritize what is always visible and what users must scroll to view.

This preference may change across an organization, so allowing users to personalize what’s visible by rearranging the columns is crucial for creating a good user experience.

It’s advisable to place identifiers in the first column and fix it so users always have a reference as they scroll. Allowing users to fix multiple columns can help when comparing different data.

Expandable Rows and Columns

Expandable or resizable columns serve two purposes for users:

1. Allow users to view cells with exessive content
2. Allow users to minimize cell widths for the content they deem less important

UX designers might also consider making rows and columns “hideable” to reduce visual noise and make it easier to read the content that matters most for the task at hand.

Expandable rows allow UX designers to include detailed information only visible when users need it. This example from CodePen shows a series of job cards with a brief description and status. Users can open the accordion to display additional notes and job costs.

Row Focus Data Table

This hover effect allows users to focus on a single row at a time. If you have multiple columns and data points, this effect enables users to highlight a row, making it easier to read. 

UX designers could also blur the other rows, making picking out a single row easier. 

In a similar example, this data table highlights a specific cell with a raised hover effect.

Infinite Scroll Data Table

Infinite scroll is helpful for tables with lots of data. It’s an excellent alternative to pagination, where instead of having to click, users only have to scroll to see more content.

Column Sorting

Column sorting is essential for users to reorder data according to their preferences. For example, a warehouse manager can sort orders from the earliest first to monitor progress and address issues early. They can also sort by shipping preference and ensure that same-day orders are on track to leave before the deadline.

Inline Filters

Data table filters help users narrow their preferences to only display relevant entries. This data table example allows users to apply multiple filters to find exactly what they need. These inline filters are especially helpful for large datasets where users can eliminate irrelevant content.

How to design a table in UXPin

UXPin is an advanced prototyping tool for building interactive, high-fidelity prototypes. Instead of creating multiple static artboards to simulate one interaction, UXPin enables designers to utilize States, Variables, and Conditions to design functional components using just one artboard (‘Page’).

To insert a table in UXPin, click on the “Search All Assets” search icon (command + F / Ctrl + F), type “table” into the input field, and then click on “Table” under the “Components” heading.

Importing data into a table component

To populate the Table Component with real data, connect it to an external data source such as a JSON file, CSV file, or Google Sheet. It’s best to do this before styling the table to get a better idea of the content that you’ll be designing for.

First, you’ll need to ensure that the Layer names match that of the JSON/CSV/Google Sheet table headers. See the image below to understand how this would work with a Google Sheet.

To sync the data, select the Layers that you’d like to populate, click on the “Fill with Data” icon in the horizontal toolbar, navigate to “JSON / CSV / Sheets”, and then either click on “Browse File…” (to import data from a local JSON or CSV file) or paste a URL to an external JSON, CSV, or published-as-CSV Google Sheets file into the “Import from URL” input field.

After that, the data will appear in the Table Component (if the structure matches up correctly).

Adding sorting functionality to a table component

It’s also possible to make the data sortable using States and Interactions.

First, select all of the Layers that would be different in the new State (which in this case would be all of the Text Layers from a specific column). After that, click on the “Add state” (command + shift + S / ctrl + shift + S) icon in the horizontal toolbar and then give the new State a name using the “Set state” input field.

Next, reorder the table cells (e.g. numerically, alphabetically, or however you want). The best way to do this is by creating an alternative external data source (Google Sheets would be best in this case) and then repeating the previous steps to pull in the new data.

After that, switch back to the original State (which should be called “Base” by default).

Finally, select the relevant table header, click on the “New Interaction” icon (“+”) in the “Properties” panel, choose “Set State”, choose the relevant element under “Element”, and then choose the State that you created under “Set state” (plus any additional settings that you’d like to specify).

Styling the table component

Next, you’ll want to style the Component. It’s already structured and styled in a way that commits to the UX design best practices outlined in this article, however, you can still use the Properties panel to adapt it to your design’s visual aesthetic.

If you’re using Design Systems in UXPin, you can speed up this step by reusing your Design System’s Color Styles and Text Styles. To do this, select the Layer that you’d like to style, navigate to your UXPin Design System Library by clicking on the “Design System Libraries” icon (⌥ + 2/ alt + 2), and then selecting the Style you’d like to apply.

Design Better Data Tables With UXPin Merge

UXPin Merge allows you to sync your company’s design system or an open-source component library so designers can use code components to build prototypes that look and function like the final product.

Traditionally, UX designers would need programming skills or have to rely on engineers using HTML, CSS, and Javascript to build functioning data tables. Merge puts UX designers in control, and they don’t need to write a single line of code to use components. They can also make changes and iterate without input from engineering teams.

The post Table UX Best Practices – What Makes a Good Data Table? appeared first on Studio by UXPin.

Everything is about lean these days. The lean startup, lean manufacturing, lean software development, lean UX, and the list goes on! The goal with all of these lean processes is to trim the fat. Remove the systems and processes that slow or disrupt productivity.

Key takeaways:

• Lean UX is a collaborative approach to UX design that incorporates principles from Lean and Agile methodologies.
• It is an off-shoot of a book in early 2000s about Lean software development.
• It has 15 principles such as prioritizing learning, placing importance on outcomes, continuous discovery, and more.

Choosing the right design tool can help streamline UX workflows and processes. UXPin is a collaborative design tool built to increase speed, consistency, and efficiency. Sign up for a 14-day free trial.

Build advanced prototypes

Design better products with States, Variables, Auto Layout and more.

Try UXPin

What is Lean UX?

Lean UX is an outcome-based design process that promotes collaboration and encourages lots of testing and experiments on minimum viable products (MVP).

Lean UX prioritizes outcomes over deliverables. Instead of asking “what are we designing,” lean UX asks, “why are we designing?” By replacing what with why designers must find reasons and supporting data to do design—rather than building something because someone thinks it’s a good idea!

In this way, lean UX design is more of a thought process than a workflow concept. Designers must formulate and validate a hypothesis before they commit to building it. This thinking process is why testing and experiments on MVP concepts are a significant part of a lean UX workflow.

The History of Lean UX

Lean UX is an off-shoot of the 2003 book Lean Software Development and the Agile methodology. Janice Fraser, an internationally recognized design and business expert, coined the term lean UX in the late 2000s stating, “Lean UX is UX practice adapted for Lean Startups…”

Janice used her knowledge and experience of innovation and scaling several Silicon Valley startups to apply lean concepts to UX design.

Agile UX vs. Lean UX

Agile UX and lean UX are similar concepts; however, Agile UX is effective for teams using Agile, while the lean UX process is suitable for any startup or organization.

The Lean UX Process

It’s important to note that the lean UX process still involves all of the traditional UX design thinking phases, just in a different protocol.

The five stages of the design thinking process include:

1. Empathize: Discover what your users need
2. Define: Determine the problem you want to solve
3. Ideate: Develop possible solutions to users’ problems
4. Prototype: Create prototypes
5. Test: Test your prototypes with users & stakeholders

While lean UX breaks the process into three stages:

1. Think: Outcomes, assumptions, user research, ideate, mental models, sketches, storyboards
2. Make: Wireframes, prototypes (minimum viable products), value propositions, hypotheses
3. Check: Analyze data & analytics, usability testing, stakeholder and user feedback

As you can see, both processes include the same elements; only the methodology differs.

Lean UX Principles

In an informative article, Ben Ralph outlines 15 core lean UX principles:

1. Cross-functional teams—build teams with members from several departments working on the same project.
2. Small, dedicated, co-located—keep teams small (5-9), focused on a single problem, and in the same workspace (or the same timezone for remote teams).
3. Progress = outcomes, not output—achieving business goals are outcomes, features and services are output.
4. Problem-focused teams—teams must focus on solving problems, not designing new features.
5. Removing waste—remove work and processes that don’t get you to your business goals. Does your team attend meetings or generate reports without explicit reasoning?
6. Small batch size—teams must focus on completing one task or objective at a time.
7. Continuous discovery—engage with customers, end-users, and stakeholders regularly.
8. Get out of the building (GOOB)—don’t debate assumptions internally. Test ideas with real users.
9. Shared understanding—collaborate and share ideas so that the entire team learns and grows together.
10. Anti-pattern rockstars, gurus, and ninjas—every team member is valued the same. 
11. Externalizing your work—create an environment where people are free to share ideas. There are no right or wrong ideas!
12. Making over analysis—don’t waste time debating whether something will work. Try it and learn from the experience.
13. Learning over growth—make the right thing first, then scale.
14. Permission to fail—experiment and take risks! As Mark Zuckerberg famously said, “move fast and break things.” Prioritize speed to market over perfection.
15. Getting out of the deliverables business—keep UX documentation to a minimum. Prioritize the outcome.

There are two common themes across all of these 15 lean UX principles:

1. Take action—turn ideas into minimum viable products and prototypes. Test, and test again!
2. Teamwork—share, communicate, collaborate.

Benefits of Lean UX

Traditional UX design processes involve time-wasting roadblocks like oversight meetings, unnecessary documentation and deliverables, department/team silos, and poor communication.

Lean UX optimizes the UX workflow by encouraging inter-departmental collaboration and avoiding protocols that don’t add business value. 

Lean UX’s outcomes-based means that UX designers focus intensely on solving user problems and testing ideas rather than meeting to discuss the color of the CTA button.

Building cross-functional teams with representatives from multiple departments means that designers can draw from diverse ideas, experiences, and perspectives. With this wealth of knowledge, teams can build better MVPs and test more ideas faster. 

We can summarize Lean UX benefits in five bullet points:

• Eliminates waste
• Fosters collaboration
• Fast
• Efficient
• User-centered

The Lean UX Methodology

There are three main principles central to the lean UX methodology:

• Assumptions
• Hypotheses
• Minimum viable products (MVP)

Assumptions

Assumptions are just ideas. But the beauty of an assumption is that you’re allowed to be wrong—which complements the lean UX philosophy of experimenting and taking risks.

To make an assumption, you must have the research knowledge and a problem statement you acquire during the think phase. With this knowledge, you can make assumptions about:

• Business outcomes—what is a successful outcome?
• Users—be specific about the people you’re helping (user personas).
• User outcomes—what is a user pain point, and how can your product solve it?
• Product features—product improvements required to solve the problem.

Armed with a set of assumptions, you can begin making hypotheses for solving your problems.

Hypothesis

A UX hypothesis is a testable assumption with three variables:

1. What you’re going to do
2. To solve a problem for (users)
3. To achieve a desired outcome

You can write a hypothesis statement as follows:

We believe [doing this] for [these users] will achieve [this outcome].

A theory must be tested, not debated. Team members must avoid getting into debates over opinions on how a hypothesis will turn out. Let the test results determine what to do next!

Minimum Viable Product (MVP)

Instead of designing an entire product, teams create the bare minimum (MVP) to test their hypothesis. 

If your hypothesis works, you have a small functional product to expand on. If the hypothesis is incorrect, you can ditch the idea and move on with minimal time wasted.

Designers can build an MVP using wireframes, mockups, and prototypes to test anything and everything. Teams may even create a paper MVP during early testing to flush out many ideas quickly before committing to a slower digital design process.

The MVP must be able to test the hypothesis. For example, if you want to test a button interaction, a paper prototype will not give you a meaningful result. It would be better to use a high-fidelity prototype with color and content to test the interaction in the context of the digital product.

Conversely, you don’t need to spend hours or days building a fully functioning high-fidelity product prototype to test a signup form. A simple wireframe will get the job done faster.

Minimum Viable Products in UXPin

With UXPin’s built-in design libraries, designers can drag-and-drop components to build minimal viable products quickly. You can also add advanced interactions, so prototypes look and feel like the final product.

Need more fidelity for better accuracy during testing?

Take your MVPs to the next level with UXPin Merge—a technology that bridges the gap between design and development. Sync UXPin’s design editor to your company’s design system via a repository (Git and Storybook integrations available) so designers can build prototypes using fully functioning code components.

A fantastic case study of how Merge optimizes the lean UX process was PayPal’s experiment when they first adopted the technology. A designer made two one-page prototypes (or MVPs)—the first with a traditional design tool and the second using UXPin Merge. Using the traditional design tool, the designer created an MVP in a little over an hour. With UXPin Merge: eight minutes. And, the Merge prototype had higher fidelity and functionality.

Read more about UXPin Merge and how it solves DesignOps challenges with sophisticated code-based design technology.

Once you designers complete building a minimum viable product, it’s time for testing!

Testing

Finally, teams get to test their hypothesis and MVP. Testing prototypes don’t only help validate ideas, but researchers can also gather valuable insights from observing user behavior and how they interact with a prototype.

Usability testing can also expose usability issues and business opportunities, which designers can add to the next iteration.

With test results, lean design teams can return to the think stage with new insights to start the process again.

Summary

The Lean UX process reorganizes a traditional design process to optimize workflows and enhance collaboration. Your teams don’t have to learn new skills, but rather the organization needs a mindset shift to a new methodology of designing products.

As we’ve highlighted throughout this article, UXPin can help foster lean UX tenets and workflows. Using comments, teams can communicate, assign tasks and mark them as resolved once completed.

With built-in design libraries, designers can skip low-fidelity prototyping and go straight to high-fidelity minimum viable products that deliver meaningful, actionable feedback from usability participants and stakeholders.

Best of all, UXPin also minimizes deliverables with built-in documentation so designers can annotate and create instructions on user interfaces for developers during design handoffs.

Ready to try UXPin to optimize your lean UX process? Experience the power of the world’s most advanced code-based design tool. Sign up for a 14-day free trial.

The post Lean UX: Expert Tips to Maximize Efficiency in UX appeared first on Studio by UXPin.

Two digital product design roles that often confuse people are product designer vs. UX designer. Essentially, both of these roles focus on product development, and both use the design thinking process for problem-solving.

So, what’s the difference between a product designer and a UX designer? Which position are you better suited for? And does your company need to fulfill both roles?

Key takeaways:

• UX designer is responsible for building a user experience of a digital product while product designer is tasked with creating and scaling UX and UI design of a product.
• UX design is a process of creating product’s user experience while product design is a process of creating product’s design which includes other design areas, like user interface and design systems.
• A lot of tasks of a UX designer and product designer overlap. They are both following a user-centered design process and create prototypes at work. Product design, tough, may involve running workshops, doing usability test, and testing the product’s UX after its release.

UXPin is a design tool built to enhance collaboration between UX and product teams. UX designers and product designers can use UXPin to comment, assign tasks, and communicate throughout the design process. Sign up for a free trial.

Build advanced prototypes

Design better products with States, Variables, Auto Layout and more.

Try UXPin

Who is a UX Designer?

UX designers focus on solving usability issues and ensuring products follow a logical flow. They are heavily involved in early user and market research to identify and understand user problems and develop design solutions to fix them. If it’s a new product or feature, a UX designer is responsible for turning a concept into a working prototype, including designing UI elements and components.

User experience designers study cognitive psychology and how this impacts design and interaction to make digital products more enjoyable for customers while identifying business value opportunities. Sometimes UX designers are also tasked with designing user interface (UI design) which examines how customers interact with individual elements and components.

UX Designer Job Description & Responsibilities

• Conduct early user, market, and competitor research
• Create user personas, empathy maps, journey maps
• User experience design, interaction design, visual design, user interface design
• Designing information architecture
• Designing and optimizing user flows and navigation
• UX writing (sometimes)
• Usability testing
• Designing wireframes and mockups
• Prototyping—low-fidelity and high-fidelity
• Design system governance
• Working with product teams to develop new products and features
• Creating documentation and assets for design handoffs

UX Designer Skill Set

• Creative and critical thinking
• Problem-solving
• Graphic design
• High competency with a range of design tools
• Communication and collaboration
• Project management
• The ability to empathize
• Public speaking—for interviews and presentations
• Technically proficient
• Research

Average UX Designer Salary in the United States

According to Glassdoor, in 2021, UX designers earn an average of $95,944 per annum in the United States.

Who is a Product Designer?

Product designers generally work with existing digital products. They perform many of the same tasks as UX designers but focus more on developing an existing product, designing new features, and maintenance.

Product designers also work closely with sales and marketing teams to find business value opportunities through competitor, market, and user research. They play a significant role in ensuring a digital product stays relevant and competitive, evolving with market trends and customer demands.

Rather than designing new elements and components, product designers usually build user interfaces using an existing design system using a drag-and-drop style design tool. A general understanding of HTML, CSS, and JS may come in handy in the job of a product designer.

PayPal’s product team uses UXPin Merge to build product interfaces. By syncing UXPin’s design editor to a company repo, product designers use fully functioning code components to design new products and features.

PayPal’s product designers now use the power of Merge technology to build one-page, fully functioning prototypes in less than 10 minutes! That’s eight times faster than an experienced UX designer using a popular vector-based design tool! Learn more about UXPin Merge and how you can sign up to request access for your company.

Product Designer Job Description & Responsibilities

• Product management
• Regular user, market, competitor research
• Using research to identify business opportunities that align with user needs
• Ensure products stay relevant and up-to-date
• Define and manage product roadmaps
• Create and execute product strategies
• Ensure product design and development meets budget constraints
• Identify ways the product can increase market share, revenue, and attract new users
• Understand the design and development process and the relevant constraints for product design
• Working with sales and marketing teams to 
• User experience design, visual design
• Presenting ideas and specifications to UX designers, developers, and other stakeholders
• Collaborating with UX designers to design customer experiences
• Usability testing
• Designing prototypes—mostly high-fidelity

Product Designer Skill Set

• Product design
• Problem-solving
• Project management
• The ability to empathize
• Public speaking—for interviews and presentations
• General understanding of HTML, CSS, Javascript
• Creative and critical thinking
• Long-term planning and strategy
• Technically proficient
• Business acumen
• Data science
• Research

Average Product Designer Salary in the United States

According to Glassdoor, in 2021, product designers earn an average of $105,448 per annum in the United States.

Learn how to become a product designer in our separate guide.

Product Design vs UX Design

There are a lot more similarities than there are differences between UX and product designers.

The most significant difference between UX designers and product designers is their design roles rather than any specific tasks in a product lifecycle—development, introduction, growth, maturity, saturation, decline.

UX designers develop products and features before entering the market (during a product lifecycle development stage). In contrast, product designers manage, refine and evolve the product for the remainder of its lifespan.

UX designers often return to a project when the design system needs updating or when product designers have usability issues they’re struggling to fix.

Design Approach

• Both designers apply the design thinking process with a human-centered approach. They design products based on users’ needs.
• People often mistakenly assume that UX designers focus on the user and product designers focus on business needs. While each might lean in those directions, UX and product designers always consider both the user and business during research and design.
• UX and product designers often work in cross-functional teams, and therefore must have good communication skills.

Research

• UX designers and product designers conduct similar research, but UX dives deeper into users and behavior, whereas product designers lean towards market and competitor analysis.
• UX designers drive early research and user testing before a product’s release.
• Product designers conduct tests on existing products when implementing new features, solving user issues, or looking for business opportunities.

Tools

• UX designers primarily use prototyping and testing tools.
• In contrast, product designers are generalists and often work with various tools for design, data analysis, design systems, and more.

Prototyping

• UX designers create a range of prototypes throughout the design process, including paper and digital.
• Product designers are less likely to use paper or other low-fidelity prototypes and mostly build high-fidelity prototypes utilizing the product’s design system.

Testing

• UX designers conduct usability testing before a product or feature launch to meet user experience requirements.
• Product designers test existing products to identify usability issues and business opportunities. They also test new products and interfaces they design.

Summary

While there is a lot of overlap between the two design roles, product designers and UX designers both offer significant value to an organization. UX designers complete a product’s initial design work before handing the baton to product designers—who essentially become the product’s caretakers.

During the early stages of product design, UX designers must focus heavily on users and their needs to find design solutions. These solutions must align with the organization’s vision and business goals.

Product designers also focus on users, but they generally inherit a product where UX designers have identified and fixed most usability issues. So, the product designers focus more on business value and keeping the product attractive and relevant.

You could argue that product designers are generalists (design, marketing, data analysis, coding, user behavior) while UX designers are user experience specialists.

Design Collaboration With UXPin

UXPin enhances design collaboration between UX and product teams with features like built-in documentation, design systems, comments (including tagging and assigning), and Preview and Share for prototypes.

Merge is another powerful feature that bridges the gap between design and development, making it easier for non-designers (like product teams) to build fully functioning high-fidelity prototypes.

By syncing the design editor with code components from a repository, UXPin Merge allows the entire organization to work with the same design system components, thus providing a single source of truth. 

Any changes engineers make to the repository updates the design system for the entire organization. DesignOps no longer has to worry about updating individual departmental design libraries and systems because everyone uses the same version!

Find out more about UXPin Merge and how you can sync the design editor with your preferred technology through a Git or Storybook integration.

Getting Started With UXPin

Ready to find out how code-based design can improve prototyping and testing for UX designers and product designers?

Four powerful UXPin features to enhance prototype fidelity and functionality:

• Design different States and properties for any element or component based on user and canvas actions.
• Use Variables to capture and store user data, and update elements based on that information.
• Set Conditional interactions or rules that trigger secondary interactions or animations.
• Expressions let you create Javascript-like functions for your prototypes—like updating shopping carts or validating user inputs.

Try UXPin with your team today! Sign up for a free trial to improve designer collaboration and enhance prototypes with code-based technology from UXPin.

The post Product Designer vs. UX Designer – A Comparative Analysis appeared first on Studio by UXPin.

Designing happy paths is every designer’s priority. Happy paths create positive user experiences, increasing product adoption and retention.

Key takeaways:

• Happy path is optimized series of steps that a user takes to complete their goal.
• The opposite to a happy path are edge cases and error states.
• To design a perfect happy path use clear visual cues, contextual helpers, simplify your design, provide feedback and test your prototype before handing it over to engineers.

Design digital product experiences users love with UXPin, an advanced prototyping tool. Sign up for a free trial.

Build advanced prototypes

Design better products with States, Variables, Auto Layout and more.

Try UXPin

What is a Happy Path in UX Design?

A happy path in software development describes a frictionless, error-free user flow. The user completes their task as intended without problems resulting in a “happy user experience.” The intent is not to make users feel happy. Instead, designers must create an efficient, intuitive user flow that meets the user’s expectations.

For example, a first-time user wants to create an account for a new mobile app.

1. The user opens the app and is immediately presented with a signup screen.
2. The user can enter their name and email address or use a social login for faster onboarding.
3. They enter their name and email and click a large signup button.
4. The user immediately receives an email to verify their account.
5. They open the email and click the verification link, redirecting them to the application where they can begin using the product.

There are actually two happy paths in this example. The user could use a social login, ending the process at step two. Both use cases provide a smooth, frictionless user experience where users can signup.

Another name for a happy path is happy flow.

Why is a happy path important?

Happy paths are crucial for digital product design because they create positive user experiences. Products that serve users by delivering what they need with optimal efficiency increase usage, engagement, and retention.

So, what is a golden path, then?

A golden path is a term coined by Spotify to describe the optimal workflow and environment for backend engineers. Organizations have copied this concept with their own variations, notably Paved Road (Netflix) and Silver Path. These concepts are not related to UX or happy path.

Edge Cases and Error states – The Opposite of Happy Paths

You’d expect the opposite of a happy path to be a sad path, a bad path, or an unhappy path–but these are not terms design teams use. Instead, designers use edge cases and error states to describe problematic user flows.

Edge cases

Edge cases are scenarios outside of the expected behavior of users or technology. These anomalies are often tricky to solve during the design process as designers don’t think to expect them.

For example, a digital product’s iOS app may render an animation differently from the Android and Web versions, creating an unexpected usability issue.

When Apple released its new M1 chips in 2021, the laptops were incompatible with many apps and services. Developers had to release patches or compatible versions to accommodate Apple’s new chips.

Other edge cases include:

• A specific screen reader unable to navigate a user interface
• Slow internet connections
• The combination of a browser, device, and application causes a digital product to crash

Error states

Error states prevent users from completing a specific task due to a system failure, incorrect user input/action, or other issues. Unlike edge cases, designers can usually anticipate error states and provide users with steps to fix the problem.

A typical example of an error state is the red error messages on form fields. If the user doesn’t complete the field correctly, an error message appears to help them–i.e., “Password must be at least 8 characters long.”

10 Best Practices for Creating Happy Paths

Design simple user interfaces

Design simplicity is the key to creating happy paths and positive user experiences. Designers provide users only the UI elements and features needed to make decisions and complete tasks.

Use clear visual cues

Visual cues like arrows, icons, color, typography, visual hierarchy, and other UI elements guide users, making it obvious what to do next. When users don’t have to overthink their actions, they move through user flows efficiently to complete tasks.

Offer shortcuts and offramps

Shortcuts allow users to complete tasks as quickly as possible. These shortcuts allow people to skip less important steps in a user flow or pre-filling forms with data from someone’s account. For example, allowing users to save delivery or credit card details means they don’t need to enter them for future purchases.

Offramps make it easy for users to back out or save a task to complete later. For example, include a back button to a user flow or a “save for later” option.

Helpful error messages

Designers must test error states to ensure messages help users fix issues. Error messages must provide clear instructions for resolving a problem so users can continue on the happy path as quickly as possible.

Contextual helpers

Tooltips, popups, and other contextual helpers streamline onboarding while educating users about elements and features. Contextual help enables users to solve problems without referencing documentation or contacting support.

Progress indicators

Progress indicators manage expectations by telling users where they are and what they still need to do to complete a task. This feedback keeps users engaged and motivated as they move through your happy path.

Personalization

Personalization is an excellent way to keep users engaged and provide a happy user experience. For example, apps like YouTube, Instagram, and TikTok use personalization in algorithms to suggest content based on viewing history.

Make it easy to ask for help

Many organizations intentionally make customer support difficult to access–adding to the frustration of being stuck. Providing help when people need it is crucial for creating happy paths to completing tasks. Apps like Intercom and Zendesk provide users instant access to FAQs, documentation, and customer support to solve problems in-task.

Feedback and microinteractions

Microinteractions provide feedback to confirm user actions and display status. For example, if you click a button to submit a form, a spinning loading icon tells the user the system is processing their action. These helpful microinteractions give users confidence the app is working correctly while navigating them through tasks and problems efficiently.

Test, test, and test again

Lastly, the best method for designing happy paths is engaging with users through testing. User testing confirms that your happy paths solve user needs while identifying better ways to create UIs.

When UX designer Kai Wong and his team tested their prototype with a visually impaired user, they discovered that the screen reader confirmed the user’s social security number out loud–meaning anyone nearby would hear it. This test revealed that the team’s happy path created a security vulnerability for screen readers–not a happy path for some!

Happy Path Testing With UXPin

Design tools often don’t provide a happy path for designers during user testing. These image-based tools lack the fidelity and functionality to test user flows and interactions effectively.

With UXPin, designers can create exact replicas of digital product experiences with code-like fidelity and interactivity. These fully interactive prototypes enable teams to conduct high-quality tests, identify more usability issues, and get meaningful feedback to optimize happy paths during the design process.

Advanced prototyping features

• States: Create multiple state variants, each with different properties and interactions for a single component.
• Variables: Capture user input data and use it to create personalized, dynamic user experiences.
• Expressions: Javascript-like functions to create complex components and advanced functionality–like password validation for forms or a fully functioning checkout flow.
• Conditional Interactions: set conditions to create multiple dynamic, happy path scenarios based on user interactions, accurately replicating the final product experience.

Interactive prototyping

These features enable designers to design prototypes with code-like functionality and fidelity. UXPin’s Calming App is an example of these four features in action with smooth transitions, animations, and microinteractions, providing an immersive, intuitive user experience.

The “Relax” feature includes real audio clips embedded in the prototype–impossible to create using traditional image-based design tools. Designers also have access to real data and APIs to develop prototypes indistinguishable from the final product with just a few clicks.

Software testing error states

These advanced features allow designers to test error states with helper text, alerts, snackbars, and other UI elements. The example below demonstrates how designers can combine UXPin’s States, Variables, Expressions, and Conditional Interactions to display form field error messages for many possible scenarios.

Better stakeholder feedback and smoother design handoffs

Interactive prototypes don’t only benefit users with exceptional experiences; they also receive better feedback from stakeholders. Designers don’t have to explain designs to stakeholders because UXPin’s prototypes function like the final product.

Design handoffs are smoother, with less friction, because UXPin prototypes require less interpretation and documentation. Engineers can use UXPin’s Spec Mode to inspect properties, measure distances, copy starter CSS, and view the product’s style guide–everything required for development in one place.

Solve more problems and design immersive happy paths with UXPin’s advanced prototyping features. Sign up for a free trial.

The post What is Happy Path in UX Design? appeared first on Studio by UXPin.

Prototyping is one of the most critical steps in the design process, yet prototypes still confuse some designers and project teams.

A common misconception is that some designers refer to mockups as prototypes—which can confuse those who know otherwise! Prototypes are also not a series of sketches or a functional replica of the end-product.

Key takeaways:

• A prototype is a representation of the end-product that is used in order to see if the product teams are building the right solution for their desired users.
• There are several types of prototypes: a paper prototype that’s basically a sketch of a product, digital wireframe, functional prototype, and more.
• Prototypes differ in terms of their fidelity to the final product. Low fidelity means prototype doesn’t include many details while high-fidelity prototype can be fully functional and behave like a real product.
• There are a couple of ways of creating a prototype depending on the level of fidelity you want to achieve. You can start with a paper or build a prototype in code. Let’s discuss what that means.

Build a living example of your product with components that come from your design library stored in Git, Storybook or as an npm package. Simplify design handoff and make sure that teams are sharing a single source of truth between design and code. Discover UXPin Merge.

Reach a new level of prototyping

Design with interactive components coming from your team’s design system.

Discover UXPin Merge

What is a Prototype?

A prototype is a simulation of a final product which product teams use for testing before committing resources to building the actual thing.

The goal of a prototype is to test and validate ideas before sharing them with stakeholders and eventually passing the final designs to engineering teams for the development process.

Prototypes are essential for identifying and solving user pain points with participants during usability testing. Testing prototypes with end-users enables UX teams to visualize and optimize the user experience during the design process.

Engineering is expensive, and making changes to a final product is often not as straightforward as teams anticipate. So, finding and fixing errors during the design process is critical.

Prototypes have four main qualities:

• Representation — The prototype itself, i.e., paper and mobile, or HTML and desktop.
• Precision — The fidelity of the prototype, meaning its level of detail—low-fidelity or high-fidelity.
• Interactivity — The functionality available to the user during the testing phase, e.g., fully functional, partially functional, or view-only.
• Evolution — The lifecycle of the prototype. Some are built quickly, tested, thrown away, and then replaced with an improved version (known as “rapid prototyping”). Others may be created and improved upon, ultimately evolving into the final product.

Another common misconception about prototyping is that it only needs to be done once or twice at the end of the design process—not true. 

One of our mottos that we believe at UXPin is “test early and test often.”

According to Elementor’s Director of UX, the website building platform’s designers’ – average four to five prototyping sessions, depending on the complexity of a given design.

You should prototype every possible iteration of your design—even your early basic ideas for solving a user need. Prototyping shouldn’t be reserved only for beta tests of the final version; you should test any and every version of your product!

If testing a prototype produces new insights about how end-users will interact with your product, then it’s worth taking the time to gather user feedback and iterate—whether that’s paper, low-fidelity or high-fidelity.

Types of Prototypes

We’re going to explore prototypes in three types of prototypes: paper, digital, and HTML.

Paper Prototypes

A paper prototype is a prototype that is drawn on a paper or a digital whitebaord. Such a prototype is used during the early design stages, like a design thinking workshop while designers still brainstorm ideas.

Paper prototyping works best during early design stages where design teams collaborate to explore many concepts fast. Team members sketch ideas by hand using simple lines, shapes, and text. The emphasis is on lots of ideas and speed, not aesthetics.

UX Teams lay paper screens on the floor, table, or pinned to a board to simulate user flows. A common practice for testing these prototypes is to have one person play “the product,” switching the sketches according to how the real user behaves.

A low visual/low functional paper prototype.

Advantages of Paper Prototypes

• Fast — You can sketch a prototype in minutes, which is why paper works so well for testing lots of ideas. You can draw a prototype quickly (even during a brainstorming meeting), so you haven’t wasted more than a few minutes if an idea falls flat. 
• Inexpensive — You only need a maker pen and paper to create prototypes, making the process cheap and accessible.
• Team-building — Paper prototyping is a collaborative effort, and often teams have fun coming up with fresh ideas. It’s a fantastic team-building exercise, and these free-thinking sessions often inspire creativity.
• Documentation — Team members can keep physical copies of paper prototypes, notes, and todos for quick reference during future iterations. 

Disadvantages

• Unrealistic — No matter how skilled the art or craftsmanship, paper prototypes will never be more than hand-drawn representations of a digital product. So, while they’re quick to draw, paper prototypes produce little or no results when doing user testing.
• False positives — Sometimes, paper prototypes don’t validate ideas properly. What seems like a good idea on paper might not work effectively in a digital wireframe.
• No gut reactions — Paper prototypes rely on the user’s imagination, adding a break between seeing the stimulus and responding to it. That “gut” reaction is crucial for a successful UX.

Considering these advantages and disadvantages, we recommend paper prototyping only during early-stage design. Once you move from paper to digital, there shouldn’t be any reason to revisit hand-sketched prototypes for the same designs or user flows.

For more information on paper prototyping, check out these helpful resources:

• Paper Prototyping as a Usability Testing Technique by Justin Mifsud
• Better Use of Paper in UX Design by Marcin Treder
• iPhone User Interface Design, Paper Prototype Design (video)
• Printable Paper Prototyping Templates courtesy of Tripwire Magazine

Digital Prototyping

Digital prototyping is an exciting part of the design process. Prototypes start to resemble the final product allowing teams to test and validate ideas.

There are two types of digital prototypes:

• Low-fidelity prototypes: a user flow using wireframes
• High-fidelity prototypes: a user flow using mockups

Low-fidelity prototypes allow research teams to outline basic user flows and information architecture. High-fidelity prototypes go into more detail, testing user interfaces, interactions, and how usability participants interact with a product.

Designers build prototypes using design tools like Figma, Adobe XD, and others. Sometimes non-designers, from product teams use Powerpoint or Google Slides to simulate user flows.

UXPin is unique because it allows designers to create prototypes that look and function exactly like the final product—something you cannot achieve with other popular design tools!

Advantages of Digital Prototyping

• Realistic interactions — Testing with high-fidelity digital prototypes lets UX teams see how users interact with the final product, thus effectively iron out any usability issues.
• Flexibility — Test early and test often! You can start with lo-fi prototypes that become progressively more advanced as the product design process moves forward.
• Speed — While paper prototypes might be the fastest way to test ideas, digital prototypes are the quickest way to test usability issues. Once a product gets to the engineering stage, changes cost significantly more time and money.

Disadvantages

• Learning curve — Before you can build a prototype, you’ll need to learn and understand the software—which is why product teams often use Powerpoint instead of a specialized design tool. The good news is that most design software incorporates the same tools, so it’s relatively easy to switch between them.
• Cost — As you move from low-fidelity to high-fidelity prototyping, time and labor costs increase.

A prototype’s success depends on teams outlining clear objectives and KPIs for each usability study. Without a proper plan, designers can get side-tracked, adding unnecessary features and interactions!

Here are some helpful resources for creating digital prototypes:

• A 10-Minute Rapid Prototyping Lesson by Marek Bowers

HTML & JavaScript Prototyping

On rare occasions, teams might build HTML & JavaScript prototypes to get more accurate results. The downside to this approach is that coding comes with considerable time and technical costs.

But with UXPin Merge, that isn’t the case!

Product designers (and non-designers) can create code-based high-fidelity prototypes that look and function like the final product.

For example, with UXPin’s Merge technology, teams can use React components pulled from a Git repository or Storybook components to create fully functional high-fidelity prototypes. With UXPin Merge, participants never have to “imagine” what a button or dropdown will do because the prototype functions like the final product!

Low Visual/High Functional Prototype built-in HTML. (Image credit: Mike Hill)

Advantages

• Final product functionality — HTML prototypes provide participants with an accurate model of the final product.
• The technical foundation for the final product — Building an HTML prototype provides researchers with a valuable research tool and provides developers with the foundations for building the final product.
• Platform agnostic — You can test your prototype on virtually any operating system or device, and the user won’t need to run outside software.

Disadvantages

• Dependent on designer skill level — Your HTML prototype is only as good as your ability to code. Poorly coded prototypes could introduce usability issues that don’t have anything to do with UX design!
• Inhibits creativity — Coding takes time and focus to build a usable prototype. Designers might not achieve the same level of innovation or creativity as using a familiar design tool.

Here are some helpful resources on HTML prototyping:

• Designing with Code by Andy Fitzgerald
• The Advantage of Rapid Prototyping by ZURB
• UXPin Merge for interactive prototyping by Robert Kirkman

The Prototyping Process

There’s no single best process for prototyping; it all depends on the product and application. Below are the three most effective prototyping processes, each intended for different scenarios.

(Note: We advise that you ALWAYS test the prototype when going from lo-fi to hi-fi.)

Paper => Lo-fi Digital => Hi-fi Digital => Code

Most designers follow the paper => lo-fi digital => hi-fi digital => code process for prototyping—it’s how we designed UXPin :).

Teams collaborate to develop lots of ideas, sketching wireframes on paper and creating user flows before committing to digital. Here, UX teams will use common brainstorming methods like crazy eights or asking “how might we” questions to get into an end-user mindset.

A lo-fi digital prototype (wireframe) tests crucial elements like navigation and information architecture early in the design process. Teams can use feedback to make quick adjustments to wireframes before committing to mockups.

Once teams complete navigation and information architecture, designers build mockups resembling the final product—adding color, content, interactions, and animations.

When researchers have exhausted testing, UX teams hand over designs to engineers to develop the final product.

Paper => Lo-fi Digital => Code

Going from Lo-fi prototyping to code is an old approach that few teams ever use these days. While lo-fi prototyping is cheap, it doesn’t catch many of the usability issues high-fidelity prototypes expose.

Product developers without design skills might use the paper => lo-fi digital => code method because it’s quicker for them to code than learn how to use a design tool.

The process is exactly like the example above, except that teams will skip the hi-fi digital step.

Low fidelity prototype created during a Yelp redesign exercise. 

High fidelity prototype created during a Yelp redesign exercise.

HTML Prototyping => Code

Solo developers might skip any early prototyping methods and go straight to code. With no one to bounce ideas with, it can make sense for a developer to jump straight in.

Essentially, the prototype creates a foundation and evolves into the final product. This prototyping method is only effective for skilled product developers with efficient workflows.

Even designers with excellent design skills might want to avoid this method of prototyping. Low-fidelity and high-fidelity prototyping are significantly faster than building and editing code.

Paper =>UXPin Merge – Hi-fi Prototyping => Code

With UXPin Merge, you can accelerate the UX process through rapid prototyping. Create fully-functioning high-fidelity prototypes using UI code components to provide participants with a life-like model of the final product.

UX teams follow the standard paper prototyping processes as outlined above. Next, designers build high-fidelity prototypes using UXPin Merge just by dragging and dropping ready interactive UI blocks on the canvas.

The outcome: no more “imagining!” Your prototype will work just as the final product. Prototyping in a code-based design tool like UXPin Merge means engineers can build the final product significantly quicker than working with vector-based designs. Discover UXPin Merge.

The post What is a Prototype? A Guide to Functional UX appeared first on Studio by UXPin.

According to IDEO, a truly innovative product must have desirability, viability, and feasibility for sustainable long-term growth and success.

The design thinking process involves research, or a design review, to determine what product and features will serve your customers the best. A successful design review identifies a problem your competitors aren’t solving that will benefit both your end-users and the business.

But, where do you start? How do you find this competitive edge? And how do you know if it’s a viable business model that serves users and the organization?

This article explores research during the conceptualization phase of design thinking and how to identify an idea that meets three key criteria:

• Desirability – is a need that the user have to use a product.
• Viability – is a commercial value of releasing a product.
• Feasibility – is practical and technical constraints of creating a product.

Does your design tool provide you with features to take a product from concept to design handoff? UXPin is an advanced end-to-end design tool that makes it easy to create prototypes with live React, Storybook or npm components. Check why this approach to prototyping can help you. Discover UXPin Merge.

Reach a new level of prototyping

Design with interactive components coming from your team’s design system.

Discover UXPin Merge

What are Desirability, Viability, and Feasibility in Design?

Desirability, viability, and feasibility is a design thinking methodology to test ideas, concepts, and hypotheses to determine if you have a unique value proposition (aka unique selling point) and whether it’s worth pursuing.

Without checking all three boxes, you increase the risks, costs, and potential for failure. You could say desirability, viability, and feasibility are a risk analysis methodology for ideas – a toolkit to find that innovation sweet spot.

By applying this methodology, you can pinpoint the weak points in your design concepts, do further research or scrap the idea and move on.

Where Does this Methodology Originate?

IDEO, a global design company, conceptualized the desirability, viability, and feasibility design thinking methodology in the early 2000s as a way to test ideas.

IDEO recognized that the best ideas succeed when they fulfill this trifecta. Conversely, “great ideas” often fail when they miss one or more of these three criteria.

Let’s look through these three lenses to understand how this trifecta fits together.

Desirability

The first box designers must check is desirability. If your product idea has no market value and people don’t want or need it, it won’t sell. 

Researching desirability will also tell you whether your product is a want or a need. For example:

• You need to get to work which you can do by walking, taking public transport, driving, carpooling, etc.
• You want a car to get to work because it offers convenience, and maybe more luxury than public transport.

A need is something your customers cannot live without, while a want is often a more desirable option to fulfilling that need. Both check the box for desirability, but a product that fulfills someone’s need is far more valuable than something someone wants or is “nice to have.”

To find a desirable product, you must research your customers and identify pain points (wants and needs) that you can fulfill. 

• Does your product solve someone’s problem?
• Do your competitors offer a solution? 
• Do you have a better idea? 
• What makes your idea unique, and why would someone choose yours over the competition?
• How will your product make end-users feel?
• Is your product so desirable that people will tell their friends?
• Will your product be something that once people try it, they won’t want to live without it?

When researching desirability, the intention is to stress-test your idea to find the gaps that need fixing. The more gaps you fill, the stronger your product and the better it will stand up against rigorous stakeholder questioning and customer satisfaction.

Viability

Viability tells you whether or not your product makes business sense. Even if you have the most desirable product in the world, if it’s too expensive or isn’t profitable, then it’s not a good business model.

A truly viable product idea makes business sense in the short-term and into the future. The quicker and longer it can deliver a positive return on investment, the higher the viability of your design idea.

A fantastic example of viability is how Coca-Cola designed a beverage formula in 1886 that’s still one of the most consumed drinks in the world today! That initial investment created massive wealth for its inventors and still delivers incredible returns for shareholders more than 135 years later.

Viability is also about societal and environmental impact—the ethical aspect of your design. Will your digital product provide a positive gain for society? In 2021, Facebook whistleblower Frances Haugen released documents showing that the social media giant’s internal research showed that Instagram creates anxiety, depression, and suicidal thoughts among teenage girls.

Instagram might deliver high financial returns in the short term, but is this harm to teenagers sustainable long-term? And what will governments do to regulate Facebook and Instagram?

Facebook is a massive company with the resources to overcome societal controversy, fines, and lawsuits. But, a smaller company or startup will mostly like fold when confronted with similar pressures. 

So, when we look at viability, it must provide value for the business, customers, and society. Some questions you might want to consider include:

• What has to be true for this design to work?
• What will it cost to turn your design into a functioning product?
• Do you have the capital investment to build the new product or feature?
• What is the pricing model? And, can the business make a profit?
• How long will it take to see a positive return on investment?
• Is the product sustainable?
• How does the product impact society?

Like desirability, viability requires you to research, analyze, and stress-test ideas to ensure they’re viable and sustainable.

Feasibility

Feasibility looks at your current resources to determine if you’re capable of developing the product in the foreseeable future. Designers must consider how the product will impact the business.

Some feasibility factors include:

• Technical constraints
• Financial constraints
• Product’s impact on branding, marketing, customer support, and other areas of the business
• Estimated time-to-market
• Operational capabilities

Ideally, you want to design a new product or feature within the company’s current capabilities using available resources. When you have to build infrastructure to support a new product, you increase the risks and costs.

Here are some feasibility questions you might want to consider when designing a new product or feature:

• Does the current design system have the components to develop the new product?
• How long will it take to design and develop the product?
• Do you have enough product designers, UX designers, and engineers to build and scale the new product?
• Can our technical constraints support the new design?
• Will the organization need to hire new talent?
• If you have to extend the organization’s capabilities, how can this benefit future products?
• What impact will the product have on the brand?
• Will the product’s release impact other areas of the organization, like marketing, sales, and customer support? And do these departments have the capacity for more work?

Using Desirability, Viability, and Feasibility in a Design Review

Organizations conduct a design review during the early stages of a product design to evaluate the design against specific criteria. The goal is to identify any problems with the design or prototype before developing it–which carries the costs of infrastructure, marketing, sales, customer support, and more.

Essentially, the organization wants to know the product design’s desirability, viability, and feasibility.

A UX Design Review Template

Applying the desirability, viability, and feasibility design thinking methodology will give you the insights and data to present a comprehensive and objective design review to stakeholders. 

Below is a structure or template you can use to present your design review so that it’s easy for stakeholders to read and digest.

The problem: State the problem succinctly. The design and business teams will build a shared understanding from this foundation.

The system (current state): Show how the current system works (if it’s an existing product) to help put the problem in context. Later, you can show how the system could work with your proposed experience.

The Jobs To Be Done (JBTD): A shared understanding of what motivates your customers is crucial for a design review. As Tony Ulwick defines JBTD: “a lens through which you can observe markets, customers, user needs, competitors, and customer segments differently, and by doing so, make innovation far more predictable and profitable.” This lens helps stakeholders understand how customers decide whether to “hire” or “fire” your solution.

The business objective: State the business value and ROI for solving this customer problem.

The metrics that matter: You can’t improve what you don’t measure. These metrics should enable you to quantify the business and customer value you’ll create through your new product design.

The proposed experience: Summarize the proposal in a sentence. Make it clear and understandable. The people in the room need to understand how this proposal relates to the problem you’ve previously articulated.

The implications of your proposal: How will your proposal impact other parts of the business? Maybe you don’t know. Understanding this early in the product design process is critical to achieving balance in desirability, viability, and feasibility.

Basic experience design: Present your wireframes, mockups, prototypes, or minimum viable product (MVP) so that stakeholders can visualize how a customer might find the product desirable.

Insights informing the design: What led you to choose this design? What were the insights, hypotheses, etc.? Show your depth of thought in a few bullet points.

Hypotheses about the new design: 

• What are your hypotheses about the new design? 
• How did you arrive at this hypothesis? 
• How can you align these hypotheses to the metrics you believe matter?

These should be clear and testable. By conducting tests with clear pass/fail metrics, these hypotheses should also give you a strong foundation for measuring the incremental progress you’re making.

The team’s collaborative focus: Why are you all in the room? What input do you need from stakeholders? This section of the design review template helps set a clear context and focus for the stakeholders responsible for the product’s success.

With UXPin Merge, you can use built-in component libraries to quickly assemble high-fidelity prototypes and MVPs and present these to stakeholders during the design review. This will definitely speed up your time to market, and make you release quality products faster. Discover UXPin Merge.

The post What is Desirability, Viability, and Feasibility? [+ Design Review Template] appeared first on Studio by UXPin.

Mobile-first design is an approach to designing UIs that prioritizes small-screen experience.

Given that different devices need different layouts based on their screen size and orientation, it makes sense to design multiple arrangements for your users. This article will show you how to create a mobile-first prototype of a product and transform it into tablet and desktop screens.

Make your own responsive or adaptive variations right in UXPin. Create a mobile-first design and scale it up for tablet and desktop views in UXPin – an advanced prototyping tool. Go ahead and create a free trial and follow along below.

Build advanced prototypes

Design better products with States, Variables, Auto Layout and more.

Try UXPin

What is Mobile-First Approach?

The mobile-first approach is exactly as it sounds: designing for the smallest screen and working your way up. It is one of the best strategies to create either a responsive or adaptive design.

• The mobile-first approach is a tenet of progressive enhancement. It is the ideology that mobile design, as the hardest, should be done first. Once the mobile design questions are answered, designing for other devices will be easier. What it boils down to is that, the smallest of the designs will have only the essential features, so right away you have designed the heart of your UX.
• The opposite approach is graceful degradation. This incorporates all of the complexities right from the start, then strips them away later for smaller devices. The problem with graceful degradation is that when you build the all-inclusive design right from the start, the core and supplementary elements merge and become harder to distinguish and separate. The entire philosophy runs the risk of treating mobile design as more of an afterthought since you’re “cutting down” the experience.

We, along with others, strongly recommend progressive enhancement with a mobile-first approach. In this post, we’ll explain tips & techniques, then finish off with a hands-on lesson in which we build a hypothetical website with the mobile-first workflow.

Mobile-First = Content-First

If your site is good on a mobile device, it translates better to all devices. More important, though, is that a mobile-first approach is also a content-first approach. Mobile has the most limitations, screen size, and bandwidth to name a few, and so designing within these parameters forces you to prioritize content ruthlessly.

The mobile-first approach organically leads to a design that’s more content-focused, and therefore user-focused. The heart of the site is content — that’s what the users are there for.

One caveat, though, is that mobile users sometimes require different content than desktop users. Device-specific content can be gauged by considering context — what, in a given situation and a given environment, will your user appreciate more. The best way to plan ahead for these is by creating user scenarios.

Another advantage to the mobile-first approach is that the small-screen breakpoints can better fit around the content. Again, the alternative is worse: having to squeeze an already plump design into a tiny framework. But with the mobile-first approach, the breakpoints develop naturally around content, so you don’t need any awkward edits.

The Mobile-First Design Process

We’ll describe a process that helps our designers at UXPin.

As usual, wireframing is a recommended early step to most efficiently structure your layout. When wireframing or prototyping, we use the responsive breakpoint menu to streamline the process of moving to different screen sizes, starting with the smallest.

These presets layout the proper screen size for you, so you can wireframe keeping only the content in mind.

Our procedure follows these steps:
1. Content Inventory — This is a spreadsheet or equivalent document containing all the elements you want to include. Learn more about doing an inventory of content.

Source: Maadmob

2. Visual Hierarchy — Prioritize the elements in the content inventory and determine how to display the most important elements prominently. Learn more about visual hierarchy.

3. Design with the smallest breakpoints and then scale up — Build the mobile wireframe first, then use that as the model for larger breakpoints. Expand the screen until there’s too much negative space.

4. Enlarge touch targets — Fingers are much wider than pixel-precise mouse cursors, and so need larger elements on which to tap. At the time of this writing, Apple recommends 44 pixels square for touch targets (read about mobile design for iOS and Android). Give hyperlinks plenty of space, and slightly enlarge buttons, and make sure that there’s enough space around all the interactive elements.

5. Don’t count on hovers — It almost goes without saying, but designers often rely on hover and mouseover effects in their interactive work. If you’re thinking mobile-friendly, don’t do that.

6. Think “app” — Mobile users are accustomed to the motion and a modicum of control in their experience. Think about off-canvas navigation, expandible widgets, AJAX calls, or other elements on the screen with which users can interact without refreshing the page.

7. Avoid large graphics — Landscape photos and complex graphics don’t display well when your screen is only a few inches across. Cater to mobile users with images that are readable on handheld screens.

8. Test it in a real device — Nothing beats discovering for yourself how usable a website is (or isn’t). Step away from your desktop/laptop computer and load up your product on a real phone or tablet. Tap through pages. Is the site easy to navigate? Does it load in a timely fashion? Are the text and graphics easy to read?

This is just a basic outline. For the complete guide to our process, download the free Content Wireframing for Responsive Design.

A Mobile-First Design Tutorial

Set your content priorities

A “mobile-first approach” differs from “desktop-first” in that we add information to each progressively larger layout rather than cut away as we design smaller. Thinking mobile doesn’t mean eliminating information. It means sorting information into primary, secondary, and tertiary content.

In this example, we know that the home page should have certain elements, like the company’s name and links to products. A blog post wouldn’t hurt either. But like we said, not everything will fit into a smartphone view, so we set priorities based on what will achieve the site’s goal: selling bikes.

1. The newest model bike

2. The best-selling bike

3. “Find your perfect ride” CTA

4. Company name and hero image

5. Navigation

6. Search

7. The second-best-selling bike

8. Gift certificates

9. A testimonial

10. The latest blog post

Based on that ordered list, we can create with the confidence that our work will solve a design problem of getting sales.

Smartphone View

How much do users need?

Thinking mobile-first forces us to think about what’s really important. In this smartphone view, the top-selling bike and newest model will lead directly to sales, so can we leave other items — such as gift certificates, a less-popular model, the latest news — for inside pages. The final call to action is especially prominent and easy to hit with a single tap of the finger.

Tablet View

As we design for a tablet-sized view, we’re better able to add secondary information like additional products (e.g. “The Capacitor”). We can also expand the navigation at the top of the page and add content that encourages sales without actually leading to them — namely, the testimonial.

Because more options are available, this can be surprisingly more difficult than deciding what to include in a smartphone UI. The difference between secondary and tertiary elements is a blurry line, and temptation is strong to include everything.

Resist the urge. Use the ordered content list. Like smartphones, space is still limited.

Desktop View

Finally, the desktop view can support as much information as you decide is important. This is where the home page can accommodate all of the information you see fit, whether or not it fits. Notice some of the additional content we’ve included:

• Gift certificates
• Customer testimonials
• Blog post exploring the newest Lightning Bolt bike

Design device-appropriate layouts yourself

If you’re using UXPin, it’s fairly easy to create different layouts for these views.

1. Open a UXPin prototype.
2. Tap “Add new adaptive version” at the bottom right of the UXPin editor
3. Choose a preset size or enter your own dimensions.
   
4. You don’t have to recreate everything from scratch. Choose a size from which to copy your design’s elements.
   

And that’s it. Switch between breakpoints by tapping the different sizes above your canvas, and adjust each to suit your needs. If you’d like to try prototyping mobile-first yourself, go ahead. Start a free trial in UXPin.

The post A Hands-On Guide to Mobile-First Responsive Design appeared first on Studio by UXPin.

User errors can cause frustration, confusion, and decreased user satisfaction, leading to many undesirable outcomes, including product abandonment. Identifying, understanding, and addressing user errors is crucial for designing user-centered experiences and optimizing product performance.

Solve more usability issues and identify more business opportunities during the design process with fully interactive prototypes from UXPin. Sign up for a free trial.

Build advanced prototypes

Design better products with States, Variables, Auto Layout and more.

Try UXPin

What are User Errors?

User errors are actions or decisions that lead to unintended or undesired outcomes when interacting with a product, system, or interface. Product teams typically classify these into three types of errors:

• Slips occur when users make unintentional errors due to inattention, distraction, or muscle memory. 
• Mistakes involve cognitive errors in decision-making or problem-solving processes.
• Violations occur when users intentionally deviate from the expected behavior or rules.

What is an Example of a User Error?

Here are four examples of human errors:

1. Data entry error: When filling out a form, a user accidentally types the wrong email address, resulting in failed communication or an inability to access important information sent to that email.
2. Navigation error: While browsing an eCommerce website, a user clicks on the wrong product image due to unclear labeling or misleading visuals, leading to frustration and potential loss of sales for the business.
3. Misinterpretation error: In a mobile app, a user misinterprets the meaning of an icon and taps on it, expecting one action, but it performs something else. This misunderstanding can lead to unintended consequences and a negative user experience.
4. Configuration error: When setting up a software application, a user incorrectly configures the privacy settings, unintentionally sharing personal information publicly or granting excessive permissions, compromising their privacy and potentially exposing sensitive data.

These examples demonstrate how user error consequences can be banal, like clicking the wrong button, to extremely problematic when accidentally sharing sensitive information.

6 Factors Contributing to User Errors

Here are some common factors which contribute to user errors:

1. A high cognitive load, such as information overload or complex decision-making requirements, can increase the likelihood of user errors.
2. Design complexity, convoluted workflows, or confusing navigation can contribute to user errors by overwhelming or confusing users.
3. Lack of feedback, including error messages, notifications, or visual cues, can prevent users from recognizing and rectifying mistakes promptly.
4. When users are under time constraints or facing tight deadlines, they may rush through tasks, leading to more frequent errors.
5. External distractions or interruptions can divert users’ attention, impairing their ability to focus on tasks and increasing the likelihood of mistakes.
6. Insufficient user onboarding, familiarity with the system or interface, or inadequate onboarding can contribute to user errors.

Detecting User Errors

Error logging and analytics

Product teams use error-monitoring tools to gather data on user errors and analyze user behavior and error patterns. These tools capture error data, including error messages, error codes, and contextual information, such as the user’s actions leading up to the error. This data allows UX design teams to identify root causes for mistakes and implement corrective redesigns.

User feedback and support channels

Organizations typically create dedicated feedback channels, such as online forms, feedback buttons (i.e., thumbs up or down), or support email addresses, where users can easily report errors and provide valuable feedback about their experiences.

11 Ways of Preventing User Errors

Clear and intuitive interface design

Don Norman’s concepts of affordances, signifiers, and mapping from The Design of Everyday Things help designers create intuitive interfaces that guide users toward correct interactions and minimize the risk of errors.

For example, using recognizable icons and labels for actions, such as a trash can icon for deleting, helps users quickly identify and execute the intended action without making errors.

Effective onboarding

Effective onboarding provides clear instructions and interactive tutorials, so users can familiarize themselves with the product and understand how to use it properly. 

For example, a mobile banking app onboarding process might explain how to set up an account and transact or highlight key security features to prevent user errors.

Thoughtful information architecture

Information architecture organizes content logically and hierarchically, enabling users to navigate a digital product easily. For example, an eCommerce website might categorize products into clear and distinct categories, so someone looking for kid’s clothing doesn’t end up in the men’s section accidentally.

Error prevention mechanisms

Safety nets such as validation checks, error messages, troubleshooting, and confirmations alert users to double-check and correct mistakes before they cause issues.

For example, when a user tries to submit a form with missing required fields, an error message highlights them for the user to complete.

Consistent and familiar pattern and interaction design

Consistent design patterns and interactions help users build familiarity, reduce cognitive load, and minimize user errors. Designers follow established conventions so users can rely on knowledge, mental models, and habits to interact with the product.

For example, consistent navigation menu placement across different website sections ensures users can navigate effortlessly, reducing the likelihood of errors.

User-friendly form design

Optimizing form fields, providing clear labels and instructions, and implementing input validation enable users to enter information accurately. For example, using input masks or providing real-time feedback on the validity of the entered data (such as password strength indicators) can prevent errors and guide users to provide accurate information.

Clear instructions and tooltips

Clear instructions and tooltips provide users with contextual guidance using tooltips and dialogs, helping them understand how to complete tasks or use features. 

For example, Google Docs uses tooltips to clarify each icon in the toolbar and provides keyboard shortcuts to educate users on how to use the product more efficiently.

Progressive disclosure

Progressive disclosure is a technique to present information gradually based on user context, preventing overwhelming users with too much information at once. By revealing information progressively, users can focus on what is relevant and avoid errors caused by information overload. 

For example, a complex software application might hide advanced settings by default, only revealing them when users request to see or modify them, reducing errors due to overwhelming complexity.

User testing and feedback 

User testing and feedback allow designers to solve usability issues during the design process. Design teams collect user feedback to identify potential pain points, uncover usability issues, and make improvements to prevent errors. 

For example, conducting usability testing sessions and observing how users engage with an interactive prototype can reveal areas where users struggle or make errors, allowing the design team to refine the interface and minimize those issues.

Smart defaults 

Smart defaults can prevent user errors by preselecting sensible options or settings. Designers use smart defaults to anticipate preferences and behavior to provide a more seamless user experience while reducing errors. It’s crucial that product teams don’t abuse smart defaults for profits, as this could lead to mistrust and possible abandonment.

For example, a calendar app might set the default time zone to the user’s location, eliminating the need for user input and possible errors caused by incorrect time zone settings.

Limit user options

Limiting options can help prevent user errors by simplifying decision-making and reducing cognitive load. When users have manageable options, it’s easier to choose without being overwhelmed.

For example, a booking platform might limit payment options to the most popular ones and use progressive disclosure to reveal additional options if the user chooses.

Reduce Errors With UXPin’s Interactive Prototypes

Due to prototyping constraints from image-based design tools, designers often struggle to identify usability issues or design decisions that cause user errors. Design teams either have to rely on devs to build better prototypes or release products and add any problems captured during QA to the backlog–both options increase costs and front-end debt.

With UXPin’s interactive prototyping features, designers can build replicas indistinguishable from the final product, complete with code-like interactions and functionality. 

Usability participants and stakeholders can interact with UXPin prototypes like they would the final product, giving design teams meaningful feedback to iterate and improve.

Build fully functioning components

Designers can build fully functioning user interfaces and components in UXPin to enhance testing. For example, this signup form example demonstrates how designers can create field error messages to help users complete forms correctly–accurately replicating the final product experience.

This prototype uses a single frame, with Conditional Interactions hiding and revealing error messages. This simplicity means designers can make changes on the fly and retest to maximize costly testing time.

To achieve comparable results in an image-based design tool, design teams would need to create multiple frames which don’t have the same smoothness or intuitiveness. Making quick changes and iterating fast with a frame-based design canvas is also tricky.

Ready to experience how code-based product design can enhance your prototyping scope to solve more usability issues during the design process? Sign up for a free trial.

The post User Error — All About Preventing, Detecting, and Managing Errors appeared first on Studio by UXPin.

Where basic search displays a list of results, advanced search enables users to refine their search queries for highly targeted results using filters, facet selection, and other parameters. This filtering lets users find specific information faster than sifting through queries–especially when there is vast content.

Advanced search is crucial for user experience because it gives users more control while increasing efficiency. A well-implemented advanced search can dramatically improve the usability of a website or application, leading to increased user retention and conversion rates.

Design advanced search prototypes that look and feel like the final product. Sign up for a free trial to explore UXPin’s interactive prototyping features. 

Build advanced prototypes

Design better products with States, Variables, Auto Layout and more.

Try UXPin

What is Advanced Search?

Advanced search is a feature of websites or apps that allows users to narrow down the content they’re seeing by using specific filters. It is widely used in eCommerce to help users find items that have specific colors, fabric, ingredients, and other factors they may look for.

The Impact of Advanced Search UX on User Behavior

Advanced search plays a major role in user experience, as it directly influences how users interact with a website or application. Users want to locate information and complete tasks quickly.

Advanced search UX facilitates this efficiency by enabling users to locate information faster, keeping them engaged, and increasing overall user satisfaction.

According to a study by the Nielsen Norman Group, users who successfully apply advanced search filters are more likely to find what they’re looking for and feel satisfied with their experience.

“That’s always helpful, the information on the side, the filters. I appreciate that when I shop, especially when I know what I’m looking for.” Usability-test participant from a 2018 NN Group study.

In short, good advanced search UX streamlines the search process while boosting user satisfaction by providing a sense of control and efficiency.

Key Elements of Advanced Search UI

Search bar design and placement

The UI design and placement of the search input field are fundamental to an effective advanced search UX. The field must be large enough to accommodate typical queries and located prominently in the user interface–typically at the top of the screen. 

This prominent location ensures users can quickly find the search feature functionality and start searching.

Predictive search and auto-complete

Predictive search and auto-complete (auto-suggest) are significant components of advanced search UX. As users type into the search input field, these features provide real-time suggestions based on initial input, accelerating the search process. 

Some sophisticated predictive search technologies can even identify spelling mistakes and other inaccuracies and suggest corrective actions or results, reducing errors while increasing efficiency.

Use of filters and faceted search

While filters and facets help refine search results, they do so in slightly different ways. Filters typically apply broader categorizations, like date ranges or content types. Conversely, facets are more granular and often used in contexts where items possess multiple attributes, such as eCommerce sites where products may have various sizes, colors, and brands.

Filters and facets are critical tools in an advanced search system. They enable users to refine search results based on specific criteria, such as product attributes, content types, or date ranges. Narrowing results empowers users to find precisely what they want with minimal effort.

Handling of ‘No Results’ scenarios

Even with a comprehensive search system, there will be times when a user’s query yields no results. In these situations, providing a friendly, helpful response that encourages further exploration rather than frustration is crucial for effective UX design. Designers can design an empty state for no results, including alternative search suggestions, a prompt to revise the query, or links to popular or related content.

Using data from a user’s device

Using data from a user’s device, such as location and language settings, can significantly enhance relevance and personalization. Tailoring search results to a user’s context increases the likelihood of meeting their needs and expectations, fostering a more satisfying and efficient search experience.

The Role of AI and Machine Learning in Advanced Search UX

We couldn’t write an article on advanced search user experience in 2023 and not mention AI. AI and Machine Learning are revolutionizing advanced search UX, bringing in a new level of intelligence and personalization.

These technologies analyze past user behavior and search patterns, use natural language processing to understand intent and provide more accurate, context-aware results.

For instance, Google’s search engine uses AI and Machine Learning for features like autocomplete, spell check, and understanding synonyms. Amazon employs machine learning technology for its search and offers an AWS enterprise search product called Amazon Kendra.

AI and Machine Learning enhance advanced search by making it more user-friendly, responsive, intelligent, and efficient, ultimately elevating the overall user experience.

Common Advanced Search Pitfalls and How to Avoid Them

• Overcomplicated interface: Providing too many options can overwhelm users. Stick to essential filters and options relevant to your audience. Conduct user testing to streamline your advanced search features.
• Hidden advanced search: Users may not use advanced search features if they can’t find them. Ensure the advanced search option is easy to locate and intuitive.
• Poor auto-complete suggestions: These can lead to irrelevant search results. Improve this by utilizing user data and machine learning to offer more accurate, personalized recommendations.
• Not catering to natural language search queries: This can cause frustration when users use conversational phrases. Implement natural language processing to handle conversational queries effectively.
• Ineffective ‘No Results’ empty state: Inadequate empty states can lead to user abandonment. Enhance your ‘No Results’ page by providing helpful suggestions or alternatives when a search yields no results.
• Lack of guidance: Users can struggle using advanced search without explicit instructions. Provide tooltips, help text, or a brief tutorial to guide users.
• Ignoring mobile experience: The search experience should be seamless across all devices. Design your search with mobile responsiveness in mind, ensuring the same functionality is available on all platforms.

5 Examples of Excellent Advanced Search UX

Airbnb

Shifting through millions of listings to find your ideal stay would be excruciating without Airbnb’s advanced search. Airbnb’s advanced search has many filtering options to refine results. Even with all these options, the design team has done an excellent job making the UI user-friendly and intuitive.

Airbnb’s advanced search uses various UI elements, including checkboxes, dropdowns, text, graphics, icons, and a price range slider. Users can modify results to find a listing in seconds.

Instagram

Instagram’s advanced search offers predictive search, displaying personalized results, including prominent accounts. If the predictive search doesn’t render the desired result, Instagram displays five tabs:

• For you: personalized content recommendations
• Accounts: list of Instagram accounts
• Audio: audio clips associated with the keyword
• Tags: relevant hashtags
• Places: locations where people have posted content

These categories enable users to navigate the results and find relevant content quickly.

GitHub

GitHub’s advanced search will appear confusing and technical to non-developers. The repository platform has a sophisticated search syntax enabling engineers to locate specific code, repos, issues, languages, etc. The user interface also provides a sidebar with multiple filters and facets to achieve similar results.

Zalando

Efficiency is crucial for eCommerce stores to capitalize on a shopper’s “buyer intent state.” If shoppers can’t find something fast, they will likely abandon the process and spend their money elsewhere.

eCommerce giant Zalando uses predictive search and multiple filters to help shoppers narrow results, including size, brand, color, price, and material, to name a few.

Amazon

Amazon’s advanced search adapts to the shopper’s query, providing highly relevant filters. For example, this search for ‘brown boots’ displays typical eCommerce filters, like brand, price, department, etc., but Amazon provides additional filters relevant to the keyword. For our ‘brown boots’ query, these filters include:

• Boot style
• Boot shaft height
• Heel type
• Heel height
• Boots special features
• Shoe outer material

If you search for a TV or toolkit, Amazon won’t show you heel height or boot style. Instead, they’ll present options relevant to those products. This personalized, adaptive, and highly relevant filtering enables shoppers to get super granular in the ocean of products available on Amazon.

Advanced Search Design and User Testing in UXPin

User testing is essential when designing advanced search features. It provides valuable insights into how real users interact with your search functions, what works well for them, and what doesn’t. You can use these insights to refine your design, ensuring it meets user needs and expectations.

Importance of interactive prototyping

Interactive prototyping is a vital step in the design process. It allows you to test and refine your design before development, saving time and resources. Interactive prototypes can provide a realistic representation of your final product’s appearance and function, enabling you to identify and address usability issues early.

Interactive prototypes are essential for testing UI components like search and other user inputs, but traditional design tools cannot perform this type of testing.

UXPin is powered by code, giving designers the tools and features to build realistic prototypes indistinguishable from the final product. Designers can even mimic interactions like predictive search or connect APIs to create dynamic prototype experiences using real data.

Enhance your prototyping scope with interactive prototyping from UXPin. Sign up for a free trial to explore UXPin’s advanced features.

The post ​​Advanced Search UX Done Right — Powerful Examples and Tips appeared first on Studio by UXPin.