UX Design Principles and Laws: Why Every Designer Needs to Know Them

In order to really be effective in their job, UX designers need to understand the principles and laws of UX design. This will allow them to design user experiences that are intuitive, seamless and enjoyable. So what exactly are these principles? They’re best explained by Jeff Gothelf of The Lean Startup via an infographic titled The Laws and Principles of UX Design. It’s important to note that this infographic isn’t affiliated with Gothelf at all but simply explains his views on what constitutes great UX design.

The Hierarchy Of User Goals

User goals are a way for UX designers to create user-centered design strategies. It is the process of designing products with the goal of fulfilling users’ needs, wants, or tasks. The hierarchy of user goals helps identify the order in which users want certain tasks completed.
The hierarchy goes from top priority at the top of the pyramid, down through successively lower priorities on each level until it reaches basic physical needs on the bottom. It is important for designers to consider all levels when designing products because users will not be able to achieve their top priority if they do not have any lower level requirements satisfied. 1) Physiological – Food and water
2) Safety – Shelter and security
3) Social – Companionship
4) Esteem – Status, self-respect, respect from others
5) Security – Financial stability; employment
6) Self Actualization – Personal growth, personal realization of one’s full potential

Mapping Out the User Journey

Every day, designers are tasked with solving problems for their clients. However, it’s easy to make mistakes when you’re not aware of the principles that govern UX design. The following principles are crucial for every designer to know about:
1) User Centered Design 2) Affordances 3) Constraints 4) Flow 5) Mapping Out the User Journey 6) Aesthetics 7) Feedback Loops 8) Control 9) Cognitive Load 10) Learning Patterns 11) Interface Fluency 12) Persuasive Design 13) Providing Options 14) Scaffolding 15) Expectation Management 16) Interactivity 17)) Credibility 18)) Clarity 19)) Alignment 20)) Simplicity 21)) Responsive Web Design 22)) Relevance 23)). Consistency 24). Usability 25). Accessibility 26). What does this mean for me? 27). Conclusion 28). Source

How to Use Personas?

Personas are created in order to more accurately represent the user’s needs. They are representations of your ideal customer, so they should be as accurate as possible.
– Create a persona by answering the questions below.

– What is their background? – What kind of devices do they use? – their goals? – How much time do they have to dedicate? – Where do they live? – What languages do they speak? social media sites do they frequent? What mobile apps do they use? What products would they like to see from you? These are all important details that will help you create an accurate representation of who your potential customers could be. Once you’ve answered these questions, fill out their profile with some additional details like age and gender for example. Now that we’ve got our profiles complete, let’s take a look at how we can apply personas in practice.
– Put yourself in the shoes of one of your personas and walk through your website or app from their perspective. Make note of any pain points or points where there might be confusion.

Minimum Viable Product

A Minimum Viable Product (MVP) is a product with just enough features to be useful. The goal of an MVP is not necessarily to have a feature-rich, perfect product but rather make something that has just enough features to work for now. This allows you time for future iterations of your product without having the pressure of releasing something perfect on the first try.
People often make the mistake of thinking that they need all the features or none at all when in reality, it’s much better to release an MVP with just enough features so you can continue iterating on it. It’s important that you keep in mind your end goal when developing your product so you know what features are most important. You may want to create the simplest possible prototype as quickly as possible while others may want more robust features. Both of these approaches are valid because both goals are focused around refining your product by understanding where people struggle most with it and then fixing those issues as quickly as possible.
If you’re new to UX design, then it can be overwhelming at first because there is so much information out there about different approaches, techniques, and strategies that you could use. But if you break down everything into simple frameworks that help simplify things like this post does, then UX design becomes less intimidating and more manageable.

Information Architecture

1. The Hierarchy Principle – This principle establishes that some items are more important than others on your website or within an app, so it’s important these items appear closer to the top of your website or at the beginning of your app.

Prototyping

Prototypes are necessary for designing a product, as they help designers test their ideas before actually releasing them into the world. They allow designers to try out different interactions without needing to invest time in coding or waiting for the project to be completed. Prototypes are also helpful for testing usability, user experience, and workability.

What Is Interaction Design?

The term interaction design refers to the process of creating interactive digital products, systems, environments, services, etc. It is a subset of human-computer interaction (HCI) that involves the study of how people interact with computers or other devices. Interaction designers are responsible for the way people interact with a system—creating menus, buttons, icons, content layout and more.
A designer who specializes in this field is known as an interaction designer.

UI vs. UX – What’s the Difference?

When the term user experience is mentioned, what comes to mind? If you think of a user interface, you’re not alone. However, in reality, UI stands for User Interface whereas UX refers to the User Experience. In fact, UX design is an umbrella term that encompasses both UI and interaction design.

How to Create an Experience Map?

An experience map is a flowchart of your product or service’s process, where the stages in that process are represented as boxes. For example, an experience map for a restaurant might be divided into six steps from the customer’s perspective: ordering food, eating, paying the bill, asking for another drink or dessert, asking to be seated again if they want to stay longer.
A solid understanding of how customers will move through your product or service is key to creating a great user experience. The best way to do that is by creating an experience map. An experience map is a flowchart of your product or service’s process, where the stages in that process are represented as boxes.

How to Do Competitive Analysis in UX/UI Design?

In order to do a competitive analysis, you need to know who your competitors are. There are a few different ways of doing this, but the simplest is by using Google. Simply typing product name competitors into the search engine will give you a list of all the websites that come up when searching for your product. It’s important to note that these are not just sites that sell your product, but also sites with similar products or content about your industry.

Final Note

UX Design is a process that is used in many industries, from product design to marketing. It has been said by many designers that this process can really enhance the user’s experience of the product or service. That is why it is important for everyone who creates products or services – including graphic designers, developers, copywriters, etc. – should have a basic understanding of UX Design principles and laws. One of the most important reasons for this is because it will help you understand how your work impacts the user experience.

Also Read: The Golden Ratio in UX Design – How It Can Benefit Your Brand