What the Heck Is Design?

What is UI/UX design?

UI (User Interface) and UX (User Experience) Design is a broad field of work concerning the processes designers use to build interfaces in software or products. UI Design is about using typography, images, and other visual design elements to enhance a basic interface’s usability and create an emotional connection between the end-user and a product. UX ideally composes many user interfaces in a seamless flow to form a product that provides users with meaningful and relevant experiences. It concerns the overall user-friendliness and accessibility of the entire customer journey. Ultimately, the end goal is to create the best interaction a human user can have with the product.

The UIUX design process is constructed by a variety of steps, including research, wireframes, mockups, and responsive designs. This involves the entire process of acquiring and integrating the product, including aspects of branding, usability and function.

Why do user research?

As the name suggests, UX is subjective- the experience that each individual goes through while using a product. Thus, it’s necessary to understand the needs and goals of potential users, their tasks, and the unique context for the project.

Open

User research is the investigative foundation of any UIUX design strategy and covers a wide range of methods. It could look like anything from a paper survey to an ethnographic interview with your target group. It helps with problem identification and gives the team data to back their strategy and design decisions. User research helps the team discover people who can provide valuable contextual feedback on your product at any point in your project timeline.

Why is it important that planning goes into the designs before they reach developers?

The addition of UIUX design planning before jumping into development ensures everything in the project reaches its desired effect, is easy to use, and reduces the risk of changes down the road. A solid UIUX design project is key to designing a great user experience and improving the success rate of your product. Additionally, it categorizes the work into separate teams to lessen the workload and increase the efficiency of the whole project. This area of design implements critical analysis and logic with technical development in mind.

Once a design is complete, how does the handoff process work?

The design-to-development stage can have lots of friction based on the simple fact that designers and developers perform fundamentally different tasks when creating a product. Good collaboration is vital for the success of the handoff, and communication must be reliable and transparent. The design team will hand off the project, including their final completed wireframes or prototype, along with the trust that the developers will finish the rest of the product as intended. Ideally, developers are brought into the design process early, participating in regular discussions and adding their own ideas. Feedback must flow freely between the teams as they exchange technical expertise and overcome spontaneous problems. Reducing the knowledge gaps between the parties by using tools that both sides are familiar with, and handing over all useful assets will greatly smoothen out the process.

Reference Links/Additional Information:

https://www.toptal.com/designers/user-research/the-value-of-ux-user-research https://maze.co/blog/ui-vs-ux/#what-is-ui-design