The user experience is paramount to design, and the user needs are key to the user experience. Designing for your user will lead you on a path of success with both your user and yourself as a designer.
Who is your user?
There is no better starting point when designing user experiences than the user themselves. Who is your user? What do they need? What are their user needs? Although user needs are design goals, user experience design also has design goals in mind, and the difference between the two could be confusing to some designers, as well as being difficult for users to understand.
However user experience design strives to meet user’s needs within a user-centered context whereas user-centered design deals with problems based on the audiences’ needs. [1] In both cases however, there is an equality of focus on both a designer’s and a user’s needs. Designers should always keep their users in mind .
A good example of this can be seen in user testing. [2] A user test is basically user needs analysis, where you take a user (or group of users) and perform user-centered design on whatever product or process that user is using. User tests are the most effective way to ensure your user’s needs are met without sacrificing your own design goals. The use of user testing in user experience design allows designers to make small changes to their designs as well as larger ones that may alter entire processes or products used by the user.
The key here is to remember:
Your goal as a designer should be to provide a positive user experience for both yourself and your user through meeting, exceeding, and exceeding again the user’s needs .
For example, I’m currently working on user experience design for an online user’s manual. I could focus on what the user needs to learn about their user manual, but instead I chose to focus on why they need that user manual. What are their goals? The user is currently looking to learn how to use a program called Adobe Audition CS6, which is used in multitrack audio editing. This user has come from another program and wants to know about this new one quickly so they do not waste time training themselves using the old program.
If users needs don’t match your design goals than you as a designer have failed at meeting those user’s needs. It’s as simple as that. As long as your user still gets what they want despite your personal design goals then you’ve succeeded.
[3] User tests help you keep users in mind before actually creating any user experience designs, and thus allow you to make better decisions when designing. This leads to more positive experiences for both yourself as well as your user. Good user feel = good business
The benefits of designing for user?
You’ll be able to better understand what they want, need, how they think, feel etc., which will help you provide them with an amazing product that solves their problems while also providing value.
It will help you to think about user needs and design user interfaces that allow user with easy access to all user-required functionality. As your user base grows, it will also help you be prepared for any requests and suggestions from users on how to improve their experience with your product in the future.
You’ll get a better grasp of who your user is as well as what they want out of your product or service, allowing them both to make an educated decision on whether or not they should use your product. This user feedback can then be implemented into future versions of your products which results in greater profits for yourself as a designer.
By understanding more about our user’s wants and needs we are able to design superior software which can be used by user for extended periods of time and increase user satisfaction.
If user needs are met better, user will be more happy with software interface design. They can make more money if they use your product so they would recommend it to other user as well. This leads us to increased number of users over time which is great for any designer.
After all what is a designer without their user? Nothing!
Making user come first in design and development process provides you with several long term benefits that allow you to move up the ladder quickly while also creating long lasting relationships with our users based on mutual respect and admiration.
User research
User research is crucial in order to get this right; do not assume you know exactly what your users want or need based solely on anecdotal evidence. Remember that there’s no one-size-fits-all solution when it comes to design – each user is unique and has different needs and preferences. We as designers must therefore take user research into consideration in order to create an interface to cater for the user base at large, not just a small subset of users.
We must also keep user feedback in mind during the development stage so that we can improve on user experience with every new version of our product, making user stay longer on your platform or site (if you have one).
How to make sure you are designing with your users in mind?
1. Provide user research and user feedback throughout the design process so user can be a part of the design process, not just an afterthought.
2. Create user personas to provide user with a better sense of who they are as well as what they want from your product or service.
3. Don’t assume you know everything about user needs and wants – user always surprise us!
4. Ask user questions during reviews of user interface design to get input from them on how they would like the interface to work in order to improve their experience with your product across all platforms such as mobile devices, desktop computers etc..
5. Create user interface that is accessible for all user which means not relying only on user feedback, but user needs and user research in order to design user interface which is user friendly.
6. Keep user feedback in mind during development stage so user can provide you with information on what they want from your product or service while it’s still being made. This way there will be no surprises when you release first version of your product or service – user will love it as much as you do!
Listen to user feedback and implement it into our design process.
When user comes up with suggestions for improving user experience, listen, analyze them and provide user with an answer even if the decision is made not to follow user suggestion. They will appreciate that you have given their opinion consideration and this will result in increased loyalty from your user towards you as a designer/developer/company etc.
Always be aware of user needs at all times when designing – what problems does user want to solve? What functionality does user need to access? How should I present information on my site or product so it can be easily understood by users while also providing ease of use? Your questions about user are endless which is why keeping them in mind throughout writing is so important.
Conclusion
Don’t neglect user! Treat them how they deserve; if you follow this advice closely, I’ll guarantee that your user will be happy while using your design as well as spread word about it further resulting in more users coming there way. In long term this leads to higher profit because you have customer
Don’t forget to share on social media (Facebook, Twitter, …) so that everyone can read our article! Also don’t forget to leave a comment if you have any questions regarding this article or just want to say hi 🙂
You can also contact us here if you need any copywriting help.
