Daniel Williamson
User Experience (UX) in Design
• A user experience can not actually be designed; instead you must design for an experience
• Colours, shapes, formats and text are some of the ingredients that you can use to trigger emotions and create a certain kind of experience for the user
• With such an overwhelming amount of information on the internet, the aim for designers is to make their websites as simple as possible
• However, you mustn’t forget any important information and the site must still engage the user
Introduction
• A large picture that takes up a lot of the screen not only makes a bold statement, but also leaves an embedded image in the user’s mind
• These images draw the users into the site; if not for the content then just for the visual aspect
• Users don’t need to click through, they just have to scroll down to see information
• There is room to explore this technique by taking advantage of higher resolution and wider screens
Large Pictures
• Typography is the eye-catching text that designers use to draw visitors into the site
• Fonts are meant to be explored, twisted and moulded to fit the designer’s aim of providing a clean and clear message
• They can also be more visually compelling than imagery
• Typography sometimes uses images to support the text as nothing can get across an organisations message clearer than simply saying it
Typography
• Modal boxes are very quickly becoming the must have for any new website
• To describe them simply, they are like a pop-up which appears when you hover over a certain part of the page, but much more sophisticated and useful
• These boxes are perfect for designers troubled about usability as they allow the user to interact with the site, without actually steering away from the page that they are on
• Modal boxes are likely to contain things such as login details, forms of media, and navigation to other areas of the site as seen on the example of our website above
Hover/Modal boxes
• Sliders are a great way to make the UX very attractive visually and easy to use
• They are a great navigational tool that allows users to access a lot of information from the main pages of a site
• They provide an easy website path for the user
Sliders
• A lot of designers are too scared to put their own pen to paper to create a design for websites
• Sketch drawings have always been admired for their unique style and personality, which is why it is always at the front of new design trends
• Unfortunately however, some designers have the ‘I’m not that good of a drawer’ attitude which stops them from actually using this type of design
• In fact it is often the rough and ready drawings, that are by no means masterpieces, that can really give the site a burst of character and personality
Sketching
• A website’s footer in the past wasn’t seen as something a design team would take into consideration
• Recently it has become more popular to have an oversized footer that contains information that some users may find useful such as various social media feeds from twitter or LinkedIn
Oversized Footers
• One page sites are on the agenda for designers in the future, as they deliver a message that is straight to the point
• One page websites are like business cards on the web, because they only contain the necessary information that the visitors will require
• However, when you integrate other design techniques like hover/modal boxes or sliders it helps expand the content without actually drifting away from the one page
One Page Sites
Top Related