How UX Design Make Technology Work Better for People?

Basically, as a UX designer, we make technology work better for people. But in this article, we will take a deeper look into this topic, exploring the background of UX design and how it functions in reality.

User Experience (UX) design is about understanding the user's needs and ensuring that technology meets those needs in a seamless and intuitive way. It's a multi-faceted field that combines elements of psychology, design, research, and technology. At its core, UX design is all about improving the way people interact with products, services, and interfaces.

Background of UX

During the 1990s and 2000s, there was a significant leap in the world of web development. Web design in the very early 1990s focused primarily on sharing information, often through pure text and blue hyperlinks that turned purple upon clicking. However, as websites became more valuable for business use, their structure grew more complicated and diverse. The advent of smartphones in the early 2000s further shifted attention toward not just websites, but also apps. This evolution culminated in the digital flourishing stage where we find ourselves today.

Initially, web design tasks were handled by Graphic Designers who also created logos, branding, and print materials. However, designers found that focusing solely on visual elements using traditional design principles from sketchbooks led to numerous user problems. Users often took unnecessary steps to find information, sometimes failed to find what they needed, or struggled to read and understand the information they did find. These issues made users feel frustrated and eventually led them to abandon the product or service. Since using a website or app inherently involves understanding user cognition, designing them likewise requires skills to understand and apply user behavior effectively.

This is where UX designers stepped in to bridge this gap for graphic designers, aiming to solve user experience issues in the digital realm. Our role is to ensure that humans dictate technology, rather than the reverse—a principle that forms the foundation of human-centered design. As UX designers, we apply our understanding of human behavior to enhance technology, products, and services, making them better for the people who use them.

How does UX designer bridge the gap between technology and human?

Let’s get more realistic and see how UX designers actually work to connect human with technology. UX designers operate at the intersection of technology and human behavior. To make technology more intuitive and accessible, designers follow a structured yet flexible process. Here are the key steps they typically take:

1. Identify the Problem: The initial step is understanding the challenge at hand. This could be an issue identified by users, stakeholders, or through analytics. For example, if users are abandoning a shopping cart midway, that’s a problem worth investigating.
   

2. Conduct Research: After identifying the problem, UX designers delve into research. This involves user interviews, surveys, and usability tests. The goal is to gain a deep understanding of users’ needs, behaviors, and pain points. Observing users in real environments can offer invaluable insights.

3. Propose a Solution: With research in hand, designers brainstorm and create possible solutions. This stage may include creating personas, user journeys, and wireframes. Prototypes—simple, often low-fidelity models of the final product—are developed to visualize the solution.

4. Test and Iterate: Prototypes are tested with real users to gather feedback. This testing helps identify what works, what doesn’t, and why. Based on this feedback, the design is iterated and refined to better meet user needs.

To illustrate, let’s follow these steps with the example to understand it better. Imagine, there is an app for a travel company that let users to book the holiday on their calendar. Initially, users had trouble with the date selection process for booking holidays. By researching, UX designers discovered users were switching back and forth between the calendar and pricing info. The solution was to integrate price information directly into the date selection interface, making it easier for users to compare options.

After implementing the new design, it was crucial to test its efficacy. This could involve A/B testing to compare the new design against the old one. For example, if the new interface reduces the time spent on the date selection process by 20% and increases booking rates by 8%, it signifies a successful iteration.

Highlights

• We understand human and apply that to design digital products better.

• We are find and solve the problem by doing the research, test and iteration to make digital product easy to use for users.

• We bridge the technology and human, and always advocate the users’ voice.
  

Many of you, like myself, entered into UX Design because we want to do humanity right in the digital frontier. We are a naturally empathetic bunch who care about the needs of others and also love solving problems. Is this inspiring for you to learn more of UX?