The Basics of User Experience Design by Interaction Design Foundation

The Basics of User Experience Design

by the Interaction Design Foundation

Preface

If you're looking to gain an introduction into the world of user experience (UX) design—or maybe even freshen up your knowledge of the field—then this UX design book is the ideal place to start. 

The sheer number of topics covered in UX design is mind-boggling: there’s interaction design (the psychology of motion and feedback), design thinking (an iterative, empathy-based problem-solving process), and usability (how easily a product can be used), just to name a few. That’s what makes the field so fascinating to so many people. Whether you are a business manager working on a new product, or an aspiring designer wanting to learn about user-centered design, the field of UX design has something to teach you.

On top of that, UX design is a booming industry worldwide. Job opportunities are increasing for UX designers like never before—an estimated 13% increase from 2010 to 2020. UX designer pays are also moving up, upwards of $110k in cities such as San Francisco and New York.

That’s why we, at the Interaction Design Foundation, put together this ebook. In nine highly readable chapters, we’ll cover a wide range of topics that everyone starting out in UX design should know. Each chapter acts as a mini crash course, introducing key concepts, best practices, and guidelines. At the end of each chapter, we’ll summarize the key learning points in a section called The Take Away.

If we’ve done a good job, each chapter should pique your interest in a specific topic under the giant umbrella of UX design. I hope you’ll enjoy this short but informative ebook, and that this will be the beginning of a wondrous and never-ending journey of learning.

Mads Soegaard

Founder, Interaction Design Foundation

Table of Contents

Preface

A Brief Introduction to User Experience (UX) Design

About the Interaction Design Foundation

What is Design Thinking and Why Is It So Popular?

The 7 Factors that Influence User Experience

An Introduction to Usability

How to Conduct User Interviews

7 Great, Tried and Tested UX Research Techniques

What is Interaction Design?

Mobile Web UX Design: Some Simple Guidelines

Information Visualization—A Brief Introduction

Learn UX Design From Industry Experts

1. A Brief Introduction to User Experience (UX) Design

Read time: 3 mins

User experience (UX) design can be a complicated and overwhelming field for newcomers, as it encompasses a wide range of topics (from accessibility to wireframing). Some of these topics overlap, while some of them complement one another. Therefore, it's important to come to a common and basic understanding of what the term user experience means in a design context.

Complexity and Perception

User experience design, as its name suggests, is about designing the ideal experience of using a service or product. As such, it can involve all types of products and services—think, for instance, about the design involved in a museum exhibition. However, in the main, the term user experience design is used in relation to websites, web applications and other software applications.

Since the second half of this century’s first decade, technologies have become increasingly complex, and the functionality of applications and websites has become far broader and far more intricate.  Early websites were simple static pages that served up information to feed curious searchers; however, a few decades later, what we can find a wealth of online are sites that are interactive and offer a much richer feel for users.

You can add all the features and functionality that you like to a site or application, but the success of the project rides on a single factor: how the users feel about it.

"Humans have always been emotional and have always reacted to the artifacts in their world emotionally."

—Alan Cooper, President of Cooper

The questions that we as UX designers are concerned with are these:

Does the site or application give the user value?

Does the user find the site or application simple to use and navigate?

Does the user actually enjoy using the site or the application?

A UX designer can say he's or she’s doing a good job when the answer is Yes! to all of the above.

What is User Experience (UX)?

In general, user experience is simply how people feel when they use a product or service. In most cases, that product will be a website or an application of some form. Every instance of human-object interaction has an associated user experience, but, in general, UX practitioners are interested in the relationship between human users and computers and computer-based products, such as websites, applications and systems.

What is a UX Designer?

A UX designer is someone who investigates and analyzes how users feel about the products he or she offers them. UX designers then apply this knowledge to product development in order to ensure that the user has the best possible experience with a product.

UX designers conduct research, analyze their findings, inform other members of the development team of their findings, monitor development projects to ensure those findings are implemented, and do much more.

Why Does UX Matter?

In times gone