While successful web design is a combination of art and science, it is imperative to first define “successful” in order to apply the science and the art. A website should intuitively lead a user to take prescribed actions that are motivated by a positive emotional experience. Provoking the right emotion within your user can dramatically increase the user experience (UX) of your website, so it is important to design accordingly. The question then becomes, what is UX and why is it more than pretty pictures, graphics and templates?

UX, or user experience, is the process of enhancing customer satisfaction and loyalty by improving the usability, ease of use, and pleasure provided in the interaction between the customer and the website. User interface design (UID) on the other hand, is a process of visually guiding the user through a product’s interface via interactive elements and across all sizes/platforms.

Although it goes hand in hand with the user interface (UI), they are not the same thing. The UI Design is about the look & feel of the front-end design. The UX is far more emotionally visceral rather than just tactile and intuitive, so the experiential part of UX helps to connect the user to the brand behind the website. Consequently, UX does not end when the user leaves the website.

One of the more challenging aspects of UX design is to put the user in your place and refrain from putting yourself in the place of the user. Having an understanding of the needs and desires of the website’s end users on a UX level is far from a one-dimensional process. This is because users do not always know what they want.

This is where the UI aspects of web design help to inform UX through the surface design, skeleton, structure, scope, strategy, and content architecture phases of the design process. These phases are more commonly defined as:

Within this process, prototyping is a key aspect of UX design in order to show all of the interaction flaws. As was stated earlier, users do not always know what they want, so user testing provides a forum for fine tuning that puts user centered testing at the heart of refinement rather than just gut feeling. Analytics play an important part in revealing patterns in facts and figures that enable refinement of the UX design.

The design and behavior of the website are priorities if you want to improve UX. Carefully executed SEO will bring people to the website, but a poor UX will send them away as quickly as they arrive.

The intersection of art and science in UX design makes it a monumental challenge for most businesses without having deep and varied experience in website design to guide them. Consequently, they often miss the mark and don’t know why or where. Splendor’s skilled and seasoned website design team can create a website that connects with your users on an emotional level that leads to a desired action or end goal.