In today’s technological advancement, business priorities are most likely focused on improving customer approach and generating new revenue streams. These goals are achieved through digital web or mobile applications that do what users need, in easy and intuitive ways. Learning the role of user experience(UX) and user interface(UI) design plays a vital role on this. A delightful user experience is arguably the key to a successful product.

Understanding UI Design

User interface is a feature of an application that allows users to interact on a product. It is important because a well-designed UI anticipates user preferences and making it easier for them to use. A great UI Design focus on different aspects such as aesthetics, responsiveness, efficiency and accessibility. Other hallmarks of good UI are graphics, consistent layout, and ease of use.

Understanding UX Design

User experience is a term referring to the different approach and methods to make sure that your product is tailored for your target market. If a product does not appeal to a certain group of users, it is likely to remain unnoticed. A great UX should be easy-to-use, intuitive and inviting. We want users to have the best experience possible to maintain a good user retention and for them to recommend the product to other users. It is the very core of a product yet, it is something that most people do not quite understand.

Why is UI/UX Important?

1. Attracting  and Engaging Users

With the correct approach on user experience you will be able to understand what could work for the users. When a new user visits the app, the first few steps are very critical. First impression of the app will determine whether they’d continue browsing or simply leave. Engaging the users to the app more is the second most critical one. We should keep them interested in digging into the app more without making it too difficult for them to navigate.

One example of website that gives you a good impression is this newly rebranded mailchimp login. They added a bit of their brand personality through the hand-drawn illustrations. UX-wise, copy is very minimal. It is simple, with clear form states which guide about the users what is happening on the page.

“What’s great about this login page is you can login as you would on any login page but there’s a chance to learn something new: how to build better relationships with your audience—something that many users of Mailchimp presumably want to do.”

2. Ease-of-use

A mix of UI/UX makes the perfect solution to making an app easy to use for a certain target market. Comfort is something most users prioritise, hence the invention of booming apps and devices catered to making your life easier. Users should be able to browse through the app without any obstructions. This could also result to the simplicity of a product which will most likely tell if the app will succeed or not.

Ever wondered why most mobile apps have their menu at the bottom instead of the usual top menu on desktop? This pattern is the most popular for a reason. Based on UX studies it makes the navigation easier as it remain in the same position no matter what page you are viewing. Easier to proceed on what they want to do in a particular screen.

3. User Retention

It is the secret of keeping your users coming back to use the app everyday. Biggest example would be Facebook with 1.52 billion people on average log onto Facebook daily and are considered daily active users (Facebook DAU) for December 2018.  This represents a 9 percent increase year over year. Some important things for user retention which involves UI/UX are feedback loop, continuous tweaks and redesign of features based on data, and maintaining a balanced first impression.

4. User-centric

Develop a user interface with empathy to the user. Empathy in this sense means understanding how a certain group of users will use your product. This is just one example of how UX is applied to keeping a user-centric approach. There are some other key principles to follow in order to achieve a user-centric design. The most important one to remember is to design for the users and their tasks. Usability can be maximized through iterative design, which consistently and gradually improve the overall app design. This will be based on some assessments and data from the early stages of design. This process is a good way to keep your product on the right track towards more improvement.

Best example of a successful brand who value UX design and follows design iteration is Uber.

“Benenson Strategy Group surveyed driver-partners in the U.S. to learn more about how and why drivers use Uber, and found that drivers chose Uber by and large to have more control over their time and their income.”

The reason for this success is Uber fitting around drivers’ lives, and not vice versa. They studied ways to make the app more convenient for the drivers’, which resulted to double the amount of uber driver partners in the US alone.

5. Business Growth

UI/UX focus on the users’ satisfaction and thus it plays an important role in the business’ success. Your product can influence your potential customers’ decision of whether to avail your services/product or not. IT is an innovative industry and ever since it became very competitive, the need for UI/UX design became very important to build a brand value and grab users’ attention. This converts to business growth and revenue and is quite crucial to the reputation of the business.

The goal of most products is to generate simplified solutions for complex problems. UI/UX has played a vital role on product development advancement and has become the hallmark of this purpose. If businesses are able to implement user-centric strategies, it would definitely be converted into an increase in customer satisfaction and retention. Thus, it would generate higher business statistics and convert to more revenue. Alternatively, a user experience that’s not carefully applied can decrease conversions drastically.

Looking forward, UX has the capability to create new business models framework that go on to become a necessary part of our evolving digital landscape.

Hire UI/UX design and development team from Starshot Software and ask them to surprise you with delightful UI/UX designs. We can help in building digital solutions that are quick, efficient, reliable, safe and easy to use from your smartphones and other gadgets.