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About Me & UX

Who Am I?

I am Head of Design at Capita Government Services and I have been specialising in design for over 7 years, and I have been involved in the Software Engineering industry for over 9 years. I’ve worked for consulting giant Accenture, as well as digital service design and user experience agency Orange Bus, and I also am an active Technical Reviewer for Apress publishing. Prior to beginning my journey to become a UX/UI designer I worked as a Software Developer for a global insurance company fixing bugs and making small changes for over 5 years and spent time learning about UX and how to improve the customer experience. I hold a BSc (hons) Music Software Development (which I was awarded a First) and a MSc Computing (UX Design) in which I was awarded a Distinction. I have a passion for UX design and it sparked my interest as being a field which combines technical knowledge, with creative flair and human psychology, so as soon as I found out that there was a specialism which focused on these areas I knew where my career path was headed.

What is UX?

When I was a Software Developer it was easy to explain to my family that what I did for a living was basically computer programming/website building/writing code/fixing issues with websites (in layman’s terms), however it’s not quite as easy to explain what a UX/UI designer does, or what UX even is. So what is UX?

UX is an acronym for User Experience, but what is User Experience?

In it’s simplest form user experience is the journey a user has to undertake in order to complete a task or goal.

The ideal user experience ironically is the one in which a user can perform a task without even noticing the technology that they are using. So the best outcome for a user experience designer is to create a seamless journey in which the user wont even notice your design, or your efforts to create that perfectly crafted experience, and is able to just perform the task they wish to do without friction.

What Is A Bad User Experience?

A bad user experience is when a user encounters a lot of friction from the tool they are using to complete a task. User experience is applicable to all aspects of everyday activities, not just software or digital experiences. Look at the following examples to illustrate different forms of user experiences;

Scenario 1 – Wanting to visit Glasgow from Newcastle by train

Task the user wishes to complete:

An individual wants to travel from Newcastle to Glasgow. They research what train they will have to take and what time it leaves the station. It is discovered that there is no direct train from Newcastle to Glasgow, but instead they will have to take a train from Newcastle to Edinburgh, change trains at the station, wait 15 mins then take a train from Edinburgh to Glasgow. The individual purchases a First Class ticket as they wish to work on the train while travelling.

Is this user able to complete the task they wish to perform?

Yes

How was the user experience?

Even though the user was able to complete their task, the user experience wasn’t great. Lets look at the elements which caused friction for the user;

  • There was no direct train from Newcastle to Glasgow
  • The user had to wait 15 mins in Edinburgh to wait for a second train to Glasgow
  • The second train was a slower train compared to the first train
  • The first train had First Class facilities which increased comfort and productivity for the user, however the second train did not have a First Class carriage

How could the user experience of this journey be improved?

The following suggestions can be made to improve this user experience;

  • Introduce a second train which had a First Class carriage to make disruption minimal
  • Introduce a direct train from Newcastle to Glasgow so the entire experience was seamless without any disruption

Scenario 2 – Wanting to purchase a new TV (in store)

Task the user wishes to complete:

An individual wants to purchase a new TV for their living room. The TV has to be 50 inches in size and have good audio. The user walks into a popular high street retailer which sells TVs and browses the display TVs. These are not grouped in size order, but by brand so the individual has to look through each of the TVs on display to find the the 50 inch TVs. The display models are also playing shows so it is easy to judge what the sound quality is like. The individual chooses a TV and pays at the till. The store offers to deliver the TV for an additional charge, however the individual refuses this. The individual then puts the TV into their vehicle and drives home to set it up.

Is this user able to complete the task they wish to perform?

Yes

How was the user experience?

Even though the user was able to complete their task and in a very positive way, the user experience still had minimal elements which caused friction for the user;

  • The TV had to fit inside their vehicle in order for it to be brought home free of charge
  • The individual had to browse through many TVs (some of which did not meet their criteria) in order to view the best deal
  • The individual had to ensure they drove home carefully to avoid damaging the TV while in transit

How could the user experience of this journey be improved?

The following suggestions can be made to improve this user experience;

  • The store could introduce free same day delivery
  • The store could group display TVs by size rather than by brand

Scenario 3 – Wanting to purchase a new TV (online)

Task the user wishes to complete:

An individual wants to purchase a new TV for their living room. The TV has to be 50 inches in size and have good audio. The user logs onto a well known online shopping store and searches for a TV with filter options applied to show only 50 inch TVs. Online shopping means that you can only read reviews so it is not easy to judge what the sound quality is like. The individual chooses a TV and pays in the online checkout. The online store offers to deliver the TV to their home for free. The individual waits for the delivery of their item before they can set it up.

Is this user able to complete the task they wish to perform?

Yes

How was the user experience?

Even though the user was able to complete their task and in a very positive way, the user experience still had minimal elements which caused friction for the user;

  • The individual could not get the item immediately and had to wait for delivery
  • The individual had to ensure they were home in order to take delivery of the item
  • The individual was completely reliant on reviews to judge what the sound quality of the item was like in real life

How could the user experience of this journey be improved?

The following suggestions can be made to improve this user experience;

  • The store could have same day delivery options and have timescales reduced to a specific time slot
  • The store could introduce a sound quality section on the product site similar to a wine tasting guide to rate TV sound quality on a scale of 1 to 10.

What Is A Good User Experience?

A good user experience is when the potential friction can be reduced or removed completely from the user’s journey.

In the TV buying scenario above it is clear that it is very difficult to craft the perfect user experience whether in store or online. A possible solution would be a combination of the two experiences, where a user could visit a real life store to test out their product, and then reap the benefits of shopping online after they are confident in which product they will be purchasing.

Being a UX/UI Designer

Crafting a positive user experience is part of the daily challenge of what a UX/UI Designer tries to achieve, combined with other considerations such as;

  • UI design – how the user interface of a product will look (eg TV – what buttons will be present, what labels should be used to indicate their functionality)
  • Visual design – what colour scheme, palette, theme will be used on the product (eg. headphones – what colour range will be introduced, and what version of the logo will be used)
  • UX design – what the user journey will look like, and trying to anticipate how the user will use the product (as well as researching with actual users how they DO use the product)
  • Interaction design – how the user will expect to use the product, and what happens when an action is performed (ensuring feedback is given to indicate something has happened, or something is expected)
  • Accessibility – what considerations need to be made for accessibility, to ensure that the product does not restrict access to everyone (eg telephone – inclusion of braille on keypad buttons)

As you can see from above the umbrella term of UX/UI Designer covers many different aspects of the areas which we look at, so it can be a bit disheartening when we try to explain our roles as “we try and improve products to make them as easy to use as possible” 🙂