What is UI/UX design and why you need it
From startups to multinational corporations, UX design plays a vital role in all kinds of businesses. As a freelance UX designer myself, I can tell you that we do a lot more than provide clients with aesthetic layouts.
My job as a freelance UX designer is to offer the best possible experience for users by designing effective systems. This process is complex though, so I want to take this opportunity to explain what UI/UX design is and the benefits of hiring a UX designer.
What is UI/UX design?
UI refers to User Interaction and UI design focuses on how users navigate through digital products. User interaction design is a UX function — UX meaning User Experience — which is why UI and UX design are used interchangeably.
UX designers focus on every aspect of product development. So, not just design, but also function, usability, and sometimes even marketing and branding.
In my role as a UX designer, I study the end-to-end journey your users take to identify strengths and weaknesses. This allows me to craft a better, more engaging experience for customers.
We try to solve very complicated problems without letting people know how complicated the problem was.
- Jony Ive, former Chief Design Officer at Apple
Why you need UX designers
Good user experience is good for business.
For example, 80% of online shoppers are less likely to return to a website if they had a bad user experience¹.
Even the smallest investment in UX design can lead to massive financial returns. On average, every $1 invested in UX brings $100 in return. That’s an ROI of an impressive 9,900%².
You need to do your best to attract, engage, and retain customers. UX design is a big part of that.
The responsibilities of a UX designer
Number one for product design: minimise the gap between what your product is and why it exists.
- Luke Wroblewski (Product Director at Google)
To help you understand what I can do for you as a freelance UX designer, you need some insight into our day-to-day responsibilities. Here’s a short overview of each:
User Research
UX design is nothing without market, product, and user research. This is essential because it allows me to understand the person behind the user and their needs to identify opportunities and create solutions.
Persona Development
Based on research and our interpretation, UX designers create a representative persona. This is based on any patterns or common points we find. We do this to identify a potential user’s demographic, needs, motivations, behaviours and goals. It provides you with a clear picture of who you’re making the product for.
Information Architecture
This refers to how the information is navigated and it allows us to have a map to optimise the way users find and interact with a product or website. It allows us to create prototypes and wireframes.
Wireframes and Prototyping
Wireframes are low-fidelity sketches that represent the stages of the product in the user journey. Prototypes, on the other hand, are high-fidelity product designs that can be used for user testing and other purposes.
User Testing
This is the most common product testing method. It’s exactly what it sounds like; we get users to interact with prototypes to get insight into how accessible, usable, and intuitive the product is.
Don’t find customers for your products, find products for your customers.
As a freelance UX designer, I am extremely passionate about every stage of the process because I understand how it can make or break a business. Companies which invest in UX see a lower cost of customer acquisition, lower support costs, increased customer retention and increased market share3. Come have a chat if you’re looking for a freelance UX/UI designer in Singapore.
Sources
Originally published at https://melvinlim.design on May 23, 2022.
