Every sort of improvement, in medicine, technology, laws and education is done by the people and for the people. The same is true for design too. The need to keep improving the design of things is to keep improving the quality of human lives. Design of things consists of two aspects, the look and the feel. For design to be useful for humans, it has to look good and feel good to use. A design that fails to qualify for either one of the aspects is bad design. The current blog intends to discuss the feel of the design or the UX that is users’ experience of using the product.
Hello readers, this is Gehna, a UI UX designer and a proud ADMEC Alumni in UI UX design course. Today, I’ll explain that user experience of a product refers to how a person feels after using it. It is a two directional process in which the designer makes the product for the user and then the user provides feedback on the product after using it so that the designer can improve it.
Role of UX Designers in Improving Human Lives
The primary objective of a designer is to make the product easy to use for users. We can include physical object like a sofa or table, electronic appliance like a blender or a washing machine or a digital product like an app or a website in products’ category. The UX designers make human lives more convenient by improving the design of things around us.
Let’s take a closure look at the 6 main ways in which UX design improves human lives.
1. UX Transforms Everyday Tasks
UX designers improve the productivity of individuals and organizations. We use many different products in our day to day lives that are evolved versions of traditional methods. For example, many of us now put an alarm to wake up on our phones instead of a table clock or make a to-do list on our phones instead of a sheet of paper. A UX designer had to recognize the requirement of these features in a phone to make it a one destination tool for basic everyday needs. For organizations, tools like Trello and Slack increase productivity in contrast to the traditional methods.
To-do-List App
Traditional To Do List
Trello Board
2. Real-Life Problems Solving
UX designers deal with the real-life problems of the users and find out solutions keeping in mind the technological, physical and financial constraints. A solution is only good as long as it is financially feasible, desirable by customers and pocket friendly for the business. To come up with the best solution with the available resources is a big task that falls under a UX designer.
Goal Venn Graph
3. Making Online Services Equally Effective
As the world is advancing through time, there is technological advancement in every sphere and after the COVID 19 pandemic the need for digitization is felt more and more in various aspects of life like education, healthcare and commerce. It is the job of a UX designer to make products that make these aspects available to people in a way that is exactly as good as the way they are available offline if not better. Only if the online service is as good as the offline, will people consider the online service.
4. Making Accessible Design for All
When the UX designers are building products, they are not just building them for a small group of “normal” people, they are building products that will be used by people who have visual disabilities, hearing disabilities and mobility issues. These differences can be by birth, a temporary injury or even something that has onset during old age.
Accessibility for All
The UX designer has to keep in mind the experiences of these people too while making the products so that it is convenient for truly everyone.
Accessible Design
5. Meeting Evolving User Demands
As the time goes on, the human needs change so the human expectations change too. We want more and more functions from the products we use. UX designer understands these changing expectations and adds on to the products so that the products stay up to date. For example, what started as a photo sharing app, Instagram now acts as a shopping and even marketing app for any companies and influencers.
Image Source: MSLK
6. Managing Looks with Use
While the focus is on utility, there is no compromise on the aesthetic when the products are concerned. The quality of user experience is what makes the user keep using the product but it is the aesthetics that first attracts the users. The UX designers take both hand in hand in the product and improves the experience with no compromise on the aesthetics of the app or product.
Both Look and Use Matter
Closing words on UX Designers Making Life Better
Conclusively, the constant innovation in design always has a better user experience as one of its end goals. If the improved design does nothing or negative to the user experience aspect of usage of the product then the improvement is of no use. The changes made by a UX designer are not just limited to the scope of the product, they affect a large group of people as they affect their experience of using the product and hence it is their work that helps people for a perspective or image of the product for them.
The success of a product in any field is quite largely, if not entirely, dependent on how the customers feel after interacting with it and the UX designer hold the ability to control the experience that can come from these interactions.
About Author
This blog is written by Gehna Kapoor, who is one of our brilliant UI UX design students. Gehna not only won SOM February 2022 award but also got 1st position in Star of the Year 2022 during his learning period. She is now working successfully as a senior UX Designer.
