What is ux development?
Why are we writing this article?
People hear the phrase ‘UX Development’ bandied around a lot in a number of different industries and, while some people understand what it means and why it’s being used, to others it’s just another technical phrase they can’t get their head around. For all those people, this is going to be a great article for you to read as we’re going to be talking about what UX web design really means in our industry and why we see user experience as an essential ingredient to every new website project we produce. For the purpose of the rest of the article, when mentioning ‘UX', I’m talking about ‘User Experience’.
So what does UX mean in web development
Well, this article will tell you a little about it and give some examples of sites with great UX… We see user experience web design as all about the journey a user is taking as they navigate their way round the site. It’s not necessarily about making the site quirky and different (unless that’s your brand), it’s more about ease of navigation and clarity of information.
UX web development is about taking your website beyond a website that looks nice and functions well, it dives deep into the goals of your website, matching the UX to this to make it more likely that the visitor’s journey results in your goal being achieved. Whether this is the purchase of a product, the booking of an appointment, or even just the sharing of your content, UX takes this into account.
Why is it important?
One of the reasons it’s important to have an experienced UX web designer is because only experience will tell a designer not only what looks good, but just as importantly what’s going to function well web wise. Designing a website that incorporates transitions that will need to use flash technology to develop, for example is much less sensible than designing a site which can be coded up using something such as JavaScript which will be cheaper to develop and is more compatible cross-platform.
UX has taken on a different level of importance in recent years as the number of internet users accessing the internet via a mobile has dramatically increased, as we talk about here. This has had a dramatic impact on UX web design with the challenge being to not only offer a great UX on standard desktops and laptops, but to also translate this UX seamlessly to mobile.
UX on mobile devices is extremely focussed on ease of navigation and clarity of information whilst still maintaining the brand of the rest of the site. What this means is that, whilst websites don’t necessarily have to be built from ‘mobile up’, every new website that’s built has to focus on the goals of the site and the experience of the user no matter what sized device the website is being viewed on. This adds value to the statement that responsive web development and user experience go hand in hand.
How much do you need to worry about UX on your website?
There’s no ‘one-size fits all’ answer to this question, and it may very well be that if you’re a small business with a limited budget and a website that’s working for you, you don’t need to do anything at all to alter your website apart from check to make sure you have relevant calls to action in place. If, however you’re reliant on your website as a main source of generating business, or you sell online then it’s time to look long and hard at how accessible your website is on all devices, and whether it’s making it as easy as possible for users to achieve the core end goals of the site.
