User Experience

User Experience or UX is one of those buzzwords you hear every once in a while. There are a lot of ambiguities and blurry definitions of what UX is (and isn’t).

Here’s the most inclusive and exclusive definition I could come up with:

User Experience (UX) is the experience a user has while interacting with a product.

Yours truly
User
A person who uses a product
Product
A good, service, system, feature, or thing

More UX Terms

Sweet Spot

A great product is desirable, feasible, and viable.

Desirable

Solves a user’s problem

Viable

Financially beneficial for the business

Feasible

Technically possible to build

Here’s another way to look at it. UX is where technology, business and user needs come together.

User

Who are the users, and what are they trying to accomplish?

What needs do users have that aren’t being met?

What problems are users experiencing?

Business

What makes money, and what doesn’t?

Where is the business going, and how is it changing?

What insights do stakeholders have?

Technology

What is a big, what is a small addition?

What constraints does / will the system have?

What is going to change in the near future?

Areas

UX is a wide field which encapsulates numerous areas. Here’s an overview of the main categories.

User Research

Users, their behaviours, goals, motivations, and needs


Information Architecture

Making information findable and understandable


User Interface Design

How it looks and how humans and machines interact


Accessibility

Making sure all users are able to use the product


Usability

Measuring how effective, efficient, and satisfactory a user can use a product

Goals

User Experience Design is not about solving problems we assume users want solved. It’s about solving problems the users actually want solved.

In fact, in most of the cases, the user is very much unlike you.

Make sure you put the user front and center.

Usable

ls the product easy to use?


Equitable

ls the product equitable?


Enjoyable

Does the product delight the user?


Useful

Does the product solve the user’s problem?


Frequently Asked Questions

Simply said, User Experience Design is the conscious process of working on and making the experience of users better.

Without saying much:

UI

How it looks

UX

How it works and feels

This article is neither painting a complete picture of the topic nor is it trying to. It serves as a mnemonic and notebook for Marvin.

If you found a mistake, want to add something or found the article helpful, please get in touch.