Most websites are built with user experience and user interface embedded into the overall design. By understanding how the two principles relate and overlap you’ll be able to create a better experience for your users. Without knowledge of the two you run the risk of creating a site that’s off-putting to your visitors, or is confusing to use.
In this post we’re going to look at the basic principles of user experience (UX) and user interface (UI) and how the two work together to create a better online experience.
What Is User Experience?
User experience is the entire experience a user has from interacting with your website. You can think of this as the overall felt experience of your user. The job of your website is to induce a certain emotion when a user lands on your website.
Since emotion is at the core of almost every purchasing decision you’d be smart to make emotion a focus of your entire website. If you don’t reach your user on this level your design will fall flat and leave your users feeling ambivalent, which does not inspire emotion.
What Is User Interface?
User interface is every interactive element of your website. From how it’s displayed, to how the buttons look, to the position of your navigation bar.
Think of UI as the tools, while UX is the blueprint and the overall feeling you’re trying to go for. With poor UI and great UX you’ll end up with something that might look nice, but not function.
While a site that has great UI, with poor UI will look bad, but will function very smoothly.
What It Means For Your Website
By bringing both of these elements together you can ensure that you have a site that cater’s to your visitor and provides them with an easy to use experience they’ll never forget.
The following principles will help you to build a website that satisfies both of these requirements.
1. Always Design for Feeling
The common elements that play together to produce an emotional design, include: text and font choice, logo, page and site layout, color scheme, and any other interactive elements.
2. Know How People Use Your Website
People read on the web much more differently than they do in print. The moment a user lands on your website you can bet they’re going to be scrolling to find the information they need. Make your site intuitive and easy to read.
3. Keep Your Design Simple
You only have a few seconds to capture your visitor’s attention and for them to form an opinion about your website. This is why visitors don’t generally enjoy a complex website, and will click the back button the moment they land on your page.
By adhering to common design principles you’ll also stay in line with the users general web expectations. Including common navigation bar placement and presentation of links.
If you’re looking for a customized strategy to improve your Jacksonville website or mobile app, then get in touch with our team as soon as possible.
by Calvin Bryant
Digital Marketing Geek
