Have you ever wondered why your hand can’t stop scrolling when you shop on e-commerce sites like Shopee, Lazada or Tiki? You keep pressing from one product to another, even though you don’t intend to buy them. This is generated by the magical hands of UI/UX Designers. They design an online shopping space with a convenient and seamless experience, making customers keep shopping and adding products to carts. So, who is UI/UX Designer and what do they do? Might this be an option for your future career? Let’s find out with ENOUVO!
What is UI/UX Design?
UI/UX Design is a term used for digital products in particular and for designing products to enhance user experience in general. From an iPhone design with screen size, buttons’ positions, and keyboard sensitivity; to a sofa design with a number of seats, seat width and back height; all designs must bring the best experience for customers. In this blog, we will only mention the UI/UX Design of digital products such as websites, mobile applications, etc. since they currently get much attention from young people.
1) UI design
UI Design is short for User Interface Design which refers to the use of design to influence the right hemisphere of the human brain which processes visual, colour, and emotional information. UI Design on a website or mobile application is shown through the arrangement and motion of icons, text, images, and videos, as well as the colour combination, to convey information clearly.
In addition, good UI Design is also reflected by the way it helps the website or app display well on different devices such as phones, tablets, laptops, etc. UI Design is the face of a website or application, the first touchpoint on the customer journey. Therefore, businesses need an impressive UI design for their website (or app) to get the attention of customers.
2) UX Design
UX Design is short for User Experience Design which affects the left hemisphere of the brain – logical thinking. UX Design focuses on customer psychology and behaviour, for instance, customer persona analysis or customer’s buying decision process, etc. With these data, designers are able to build a website or application with the most comfort and enjoyment for users.
Let’s take a look at an example so that you can imagine more clearly the role of UI Design and UX Design in a digital product!
3) An example of UI/UX Design
Everyone has their own music taste. Listening to a playlist with all your favourite songs is a wonderful experience, isn’t it? Spotify has succeeded in creating a personalized experience for customers.
Regarding UX design, Spotify recommends Wrapped, daily mixes, and personal release radars based on each user’s behaviour. It also proposes new songs matching their music taste. In terms of UI design, Spotify uses a dark interface with quality button design, visual hierarchy and consistent design language, which helps users easily interact with the app. Their UI design is also optimized on varied devices, including desktop, mobile, tablet and car view.
4) UI/UX Designer
From the two concepts of UI and UX designs above, it can be concluded that UI/UX Designer is the person in charge of designing the user interface and user experience for a website or application so as to
- Optimize the appearance of a digital product
- Improve user-friendliness
- Increase customer interaction
- Enhance customer journey
UI/UX Design process
Next, let’s learn the workflow of a UI/UX Designer in a project.
The first stage is to identify the problem. This is the most important step when a team starts building a product. In this step, you need to understand why the product was created. Team UI/UX Design will discuss with stakeholders about
- What is the business objective of the product?
- Key aspects and value positioning of the product such as: What is this product? Who will use the product? Why do they need to use it?
From there, the team will come up with a few outlines of the future product.
The second stage is to collect and research information after identifying the product idea. Team Product will gather information about target customers, and market research. The research phase can be seen as the most transformative phase in the product development process. It depends on product complexity, development time, available resources, and many other factors. Thoroughly studying right from the beginning will make product design easier and save a lot of time and money for businesses.
The third stage is brainstorming and analysis. Its main objective is to turn the information obtained in the research phase like what the customer want or what they think and need, into why the customer want it and why they think about and need it. At this stage, designers need to confirm assumptions and analyses about the product.
Once the customer’s wants and needs for the product have been clarified, the UI/UX Designers will move to the designing stage. This stage often includes:
- Sketching: Sketch helps the whole team understand the idea of the product.
- Wireframing: Wireframe is considered the skeleton of the product. It helps designers to visualize the structure of the product and how components in the product connect to each other. Designers also use wireframes as a foundation from which they can create mockups and prototypes.
- Prototyping: Whilst wireframes focus on the structure and arrangement of images (the interface of the product), prototypes concentrate on interaction with customers (the experience).
The fifth stage is to test and evaluate the sample product. This stage is highly important in the product development process since it helps to know whether the product works well for users. At this stage, the development team will cooperate with stakeholders and end-users of the product. After receiving feedback from evaluation and testing, the design team will continue to improve and develop a better product.
During optimizing the product, new problems will arise, requiring re-evaluating the product’s compatibility with current user needs. The stages above will be repeated from the beginning, which creates a closed product development process.
Characteristics needed to become a UI/UX Designer
We have already known who UI/UX designers are and what they do. So, coming to the final question, let’s find out the qualities and skills required to become a good UI/UX Designer.
Capture customer insight: As the name implies, UI/UX is the process of optimizing the customer experience. Therefore, it requires designers to put themselves in customers’ shoes to get the most insightful evaluation. Once you can grasp their psyche, it will seem easier to get their attention.
Have a good aesthetic taste: This factor is especially important for UI Designers since they are in charge of the visual part of a website or application. A good and acute aesthetic taste helps you optimize the arrangement of website or app layout, as well as beautify them.
Be sensitive to new trends: In a technology age, everything changes rapidly, following the arise of new trends. To keep your designs modern, it is necessary to research and apply new trends. This helps the website or app maintain its impression in the customer’s mind.
Master a certain design tool: Mastering at least one design tool, such as Figma, Adobe Illustrator, Adobe Photoshop, etc. makes it easier to get used to the work of a Designer. And surely this is your plus point in the eye of employers.
We hope our sharing has given you an overview of UI/UX Design. If you are interested in other positions in a development project, check out more blogs here!
