The term ‘user experience’ (UX) gets thrown about a lot. Many businesses are still puzzled about what it is and how vital it is to success. This is why is always great to get a web design usability consultancy from user centred design experts. Here is a handy guide to dismiss some myths surrounding UX design:

•    It’s not the same as user interface design
It’s not uncommon to confuse ‘user experience’ with ‘user interface’, as it’s a large component of what users interact with while experiencing digital goods and services. But user interface is merely one part of a much larger picture. User Interface is on facet of user centered design; however, there is much more too it than this. Design isn’t just about the asthetics and presentation. It’s holistic and everyone who is involved, it should be there concern too, not just the sole care of the creative types. It’s typical for design to be mistaken for being exclusively about decoration or styling. It is important for designers to care about strategy because UX is more than just the facade.

•   It’s not all about technology
User experience isn’t even about technology. It’s about how we live and everything we do, much broader than most think. User centered designers use technology to aid users in achieving their aims. The the most important goal is to help people, not produce something technolgoically impressive. User centred design isn’t confined to technological interactions that involve computers only, it concerns any engagement with anything, including services, products or systems.

•    It’s not just about web design usability
Making things easy and intuitive is far from the only goal. To get people to change their actions, ux designers must produce stuff they would want to use also. Whilst usablitiy is imperative, its centre on compentence and efficiency seems to haze other important issues in user centred design, including behavoural and emotional reactions to services and products we encounter. Not everything has to be really simple if it can be easily learned, and it’s critical that the thing be appealing or people might never interact with it in the first place. In addition to usable, user experience design recognizes desirable, accessible, credible, findable, and ultimately valuable as essential facets. It is not simply all centred around the end users either. There will be a list of company objectives that need to be completed and user experienced designers have to be conscious of these; it can’t always be about the users needs. Finding a balance between business objectives and the user’s wants and needs in addition to keeping the design relevant to the brand, is the key to success.

•    It shouldn’t be the role of one person or department

It isn’t a separate step or a single discipline. It is a process. To help produce an excellent experience for users it becomes about not just producing something people would like to user, there is also a need to keep ammending this and listening to make relevant changes. It doesn’t have to be a set process, but it does need to exist. Although, this does not mean user centred design is a straight forward job position. Although designers are aware how to produce some notable and helpful work processes and the clients are familiar with their company, should not imply that this process is simple one. Cutting corners on some important steps is a recipe for disaster. It’s a common awareness, a thread that should tie together people from different disciplines who care about good design. In addition, within the UX field, different people specialize in different parts of the process. Some user centred professionals centre on particular techniques, challenges or a specific activity, for example usability consultancy and testing. Don’t assume one UXprofessional can achieve everything you require.

•    It’s not as costly as you might assume
No one wants to think that what they are offering is of shoddy quality or deficient, as bad design is never an aim. However, it’s a risk as poor designs and experiences happen. All projects demand a tailored approach that considers the businesses capabilities, fiance and any other constrictions. But that doesn’t always mean that it needs to be expensive or take a long time. It’s about adopting a streamlined, smart and valuable practice. Functionality is not enough anymore as there has been advancements in technology in which the user expects so much more than this. How we chose to represent our engagement with people, how we respect and value their custom, seperates excellent work from average.