Foundations of User Experience — Explained
Tags: Design Thinking, User Experience Design, User Research, Design, Designer

The foundations of UX are many and varied, and while some UX professionals focus on usability, others are also concerned with the user’s mental state. Thus, user experience is an all-encompassing term covering almost every facet of the interaction between a user and a website or an app.

As a UX consultant, your job will depend on what you want to specialize in. For example, if you’re interested in usability, that’s a whole different ball game than if you want to specialize in online marketing and conversion rate optimization (CRO).

User research and usability testing involve conducting studies or tests with real users to evaluate their preferences and opinions about what works best for them. This is essential information for business owners and designers when developing strategic plans for websites or apps.

User research can be conducted at the client’s office or remotely by a consultant (you). Although not every company has the budget to hire a full-time researcher, usually several people will be involved in the process, such as a usability specialist, project manager, or product manager. This person is in charge of setting up and managing the study, maintaining communication, and coordinating with stakeholders.

It would be best if you learn how to do user research and usability testing from scratch.

This article will teach you how to gather information about users’ backgrounds, opinions on design choices, and what concerns they have before initiating any projects.

1) — Find your Target Audience

Completing a user research questionnaire helps you determine who your target audience is. This is the first objective of any form of UX research.

2) — Identify What they Need

Once you know who the target audience is, your next step is to figure out what will lead them to purchase something or take some action. The simplest way to do this is to figure out what they’re looking for in a product or service and what they don’t find appealing in the products or services that are available now.

A good idea would be to try asking users these questions as concisely as possible via a user test survey created for this purpose. In the beginning, you may not have a physical product or service to examine to make changes, but you still need to get the basic gist of what makes users tick. Ask them about their goals and interests. What products are they looking for, and at what times do they normally use certain services? This is where user surveys can help you talk to your target audience and keep track of their behaviour. Ask questions that are specifically tailored to your project, and that won’t lead them in any particular direction so that the answers will be more genuine and correct. Just remember that asking too many questions might discourage the user, so try to keep it short and sweet. — Asking the right questions is only part of the equation.

3) — Interpretation is Important

You have to know how to interpret each response. With this data, you can better understand why and how they respond in a certain way to each question. This will help you refine your questions and deliver better results with every subsequent survey or test session. It is good practice to conduct usability tests at least once a month or whenever you get a new idea for a design element or feature.