The User-Experience Directs the Design

Talking to my clients and outlining the user-experience is part of a successful website build. This affords me some valuable time with my clients in just talking about the kind of customer, or audience, that the client is trying to attract.

Plus, I get to drink coffee and meet new people.

User-experience helps organizations get the most from their website and internet marketing by viewing the world from the perspective of their customers. Methodologies for discovering and defining the user-experience (UX) include user-testing, usability and customer journey planning, A-B testing, web accessibility, and integrated online marketing.

In practical terms, my providing the “answers” to questions like “So, what do you think of my website?” usually leads me to a mundane answer: I am not the user, and the most important opinion is ultimately the user. When it comes to website design, it is a good strategy to incorporate industry standards and best practices, and then add a little something more to help make your website stand out. So, first, let’s talk about your customer, not about your website.

There are several things you should consider when designing for UX: design trends and patterns, the language the user speaks, the hardware quality and internet access you client is using, which devices they most frequently access your site with, (desktop, mobile, tablet, etc) the level of internet expertise that the user has, their socio-economic demographics, and so on.

So, therefore, when someone asks: “So, what do you think of my website?” I usually ask the client to put the hat on of their client, and look at the site through the client’s eyes, and then answer the question from there.