I am a user experience designer
Define user experience (UX)
UX is every piece of every interaction a user has with a system.
The system might be a retail business. In this case, UX provides a framework for every aspect of the customer experience, including:
- Definition of the business vision and voice
- The in-store experience from store layout to receipt design
- The online experience enabling customers to quickly achieve their goals finding, buying, returning, or getting support for a purchased product
The system might be a complex data-entry mechanism. In this case, UX provides the framework and guardrails to enable user efficiency, including:
- Clear input design with intelligent data grouping
- Error-prevention baked into every interaction
- Coherent system feedback with actionable messaging to support seamless workflows
My core principles
First, do no harm
Late one night, I accidentally deleted an entire e-commerce website’s front end in one click. The site management system did not warn me that I was about to take a destructive action. Oops. Interactions should be designed so users can’t go wrong. Preventing user error makes users more confident and keeps businesses humming with valid data.
Design is a service industry
Good design serves the voice of the author. I use the word “author” broadly. The author may be a business or an institution or a human. Regardless, good design facilitates the communication between the author and the user. Good design does not stick its thumbprint in the middle of the picture.
Listen
What is the voice of the author? What are the pain points of the user? Listen, watch, and learn.
Always be able to answer the question, “Why?”
Every design decision should be in support of a goal that can be articulated. For example:
Question: Why did you put the logout button at the top right?
Answer: Typically, users who log in want to stay logged. Putting the logout button at the top right takes it out of a zone where they might click it accidentally and puts it in a position where it is easy to find when they are ready to leave.
Consistency is not the hobgoblin of small minds
Consistency lets users learn to operate based on habit and muscle memory rather than thought. Habit is faster.
Language matters
Clear writing, good grammar, and correct spelling support system credibility.
Appealing visual design works better
This is almost like “first do no harm”. An interface should never be painful to look at. Unless it’s an avant-garde art piece trying to make a point that interfaces shouldn’t be painful to look at.