UNIT III Foundations OF UX Design

Dr. P. Anandraj / CSE (anandraj@egspec.org)

 UNIT III FOUNDATIONS OF UX DESIGN
Introduction to User Experience - Why You Should Care about User Experience - Understanding
User Experience - Defining the UX Design Process and its Methodology - Research in User
Experience Design - Tools and Method used for Research - User Needs and its Goals – Know about
Business Goals

Introduction to User Experience

User Experience (UX) is the process of creating products that provide meaningful and relevant
experiences to users. This involves the design of the entire process of acquiring and integrating the
product, including aspects of branding, design, usability, and function.

UX encompasses a wide range of factors, including:

Usability: UX ensures that a product or service is easy to use, making it accessible to a broad
audience.

User-Centered Design: It involves designing products or services with the needs, preferences, and
behaviors of users in mind. This approach often includes user research and testing.

Information Architecture: Organizing information and content in a logical and user-friendly manner
to facilitate easy navigation.

Visual Design: Creating visually appealing and coherent interfaces that align with the brand and
resonate with users.

Interaction Design: Focusing on how users interact with a product, including the design of buttons,
forms, and other interactive elements.

Accessibility: Ensuring that the product can be used by people with disabilities, making it inclusive
and compliant with accessibility standards.

Performance: Optimizing the speed and responsiveness of a product to prevent frustration and
delays.

Emotional Design: Recognizing that users form emotional connections with products, and designing
experiences that evoke positive emotions.

User Feedback and Testing: Continuously gathering feedback from users and conducting usability
testing to identify and address issues.

Why You Should Care about User Experience

Good UX drives user satisfaction, which directly impacts the success of a product or service. A
positive user experience can lead to higher engagement, increased loyalty, and more word-of-
mouth referrals. Conversely, a poor user experience can lead to frustration and loss of users.
Businesses that invest in UX can see a significant return on investment (ROI) through improved user
retention and conversion rates.

Enhances Product Quality: Emphasizing UX in design and development leads to products and
services that are of higher quality. A positive UX can make the difference between a successful and
unsuccessful product.

Dr. P. Anandraj / CSE (anandraj@egspec.org)

Meets User Expectations: In the digital age, users have high expectations for usability and
functionality. Teaching UX helps students design products that meet or exceed these expectations.

Boosts User Satisfaction: Products and services that prioritize UX are more likely to satisfy users,
leading to increased customer loyalty and positive word-of-mouth recommendations.

Reduces Costs: Identifying and fixing usability issues early in the design process is more cost-
effective than addressing them after a product is launched. UX can save time and resources in the
long run.

Drives Innovation: UX encourages innovative thinking by challenging students to find creative

solutions to user problems and needs.

Increases Accessibility: Teaching UX includes considerations for accessibility, making technology

more inclusive for people with disabilities, which is not only ethical but also often legally required.

Fosters Empathy: UX design requires students to understand and empathize with users, teaching
them valuable soft skills such as empathy, communication, and teamwork.

Supports Business Goals: Good UX can lead to increased sales, conversions, and user engagement,
which align with the goals of many businesses and organizations.

Adapts to Evolving Technology: UX principles are adaptable to various technologies and platforms,
ensuring that students can apply their knowledge to a wide range of projects.

Prepares for Industry Demand: Many tech companies and startups actively seek professionals with
UX expertise. Teaching UX prepares your students for in-demand careers.

Ethical Considerations: UX design also includes ethical considerations, such as data privacy and user
consent. Teaching these principles ensures responsible use of technology.

Global Reach: In an interconnected world, technology often serves a global audience. UX design
helps students create products that resonate with diverse user groups.

Understanding User Experience

Understanding UX involves grasping the holistic experience of a user when interacting with a
product or service. This not only includes the user's emotional response but also the ease of use,
efficiency in performing tasks, and overall satisfaction with the interaction.

Defining the UX Design Process and its Methodology

The UX design process is iterative, meaning it cycles through stages of design, testing, and
evaluation to refine the product. UX design process

Dr. P. Anandraj / CSE (anandraj@egspec.org)

Step 1 : Understand

Getting understanding about two elements is crucial 1. User 2. Brand

Understanding these Key elements would help you create a Design Strategy that would align the
goals and objectives of User and business

There can be multiple ways to do this

1. If you working for an agency then ask your clients

2. Working for an organization then ask the stakeholders
3. Ask for previous research conducted (User research, competitor analysis, etc.)
4. Speak to the Product Managers as well
5. Analyze requirements to understand and clarify them

Step 2 Research

Research helps us to get a clear picture of about users, but also answers key questions like what
users think and why they do what they do. And in order to do so you need to ‘walk their shoes’.
Additionally, It also helps us identify and prove or disprove our assumptions. In Bigger organization,
research is conducted by a UX Researcher. Include Qualitative and Quantitative research.

Step 3. Analyse

After you have detailed information of the wants, needs, and pain-points, you can synthesize the
information into an actionable problem statement.

“If I had an hour to solve a problem, I’d spend 55 minutes thinking about the problem and 5 minutes
thinking about solutions.”– Albert Einstein

1. Creating User Personas User Persona is a fictional yet realistic representation of Target user of
the product. helps you to identify what the user requirements by understanding their needs,
experiences, behaviors and goals

2. Affinity Mapping is about finding the user needs from the observations gathered

3. Empathy Map is another method to synthesize the observations to uncover unexpected insights
around user needs. Moreover, it can be drawn on a board, paper or table and has four quadrants
representing the four key user traits

Based on the information we go ahead and depict paths a user would take to solve the identified
problem. Creating these paths help us understand what user will be going through when using
product or service. We use user flow and user journey map

4, User flow is Visual representation of specific routes that a user might take while navigating a
website or app in order to achieve a goal.

Dr. P. Anandraj / CSE (anandraj@egspec.org)

Step 4. Sketch Designs
Define how the content on each page should be organized in a way that for user finds that the
design is intuitive and easy to navigate. Prototyping on paper is a quick and cost in the early stages
of Product development. Draw different sketches of the user interface on different piece of paper
and simulate interactivity by linking and moving series of paper on table

Step 5 Wireframes and Prototype

A wireframe is a blueprint of the initial product concept however, prototype is a working model of
an app or a webpage. Creating Wireframes gives Designers the flexibility to play around and do lot of
Experimentation.

Prototyping helps to review and refine it with the help of User Feedback to turn it into a Polished
version that can be Developed to an End Product.

Step 6 Test

Test the Design with end users and gather as much critical feedback on it. Additionally, it saves time,
effort and money by catching bugs, usability issues, that you might not have anticipated

1. Usability Testing: Usability refers to the ease with which a user can use a product to achieve his
goal. Use guideline from ISO 9241 Ergonomics of Human System interaction

2. Concept testing: When you have a big idea, it becomes important to check and evaluate whether

Dr. P. Anandraj / CSE (anandraj@egspec.org)

 or not it would be accepted by people when launched in the market

3. First Click Testing: analyze where the User clicks on the screen when the website or app is shown
to them

4. Tree Testing: is a usability technique for evaluating the ease with which information can be found
in a website

5. Beta Testing: Before Launching the product in the market, you test a near-complete
product/software/application with end users (called Beta Testers) to test the functionalities and
reporting bugs

Research in User Experience Design

UX research aims to understand user behaviors, needs, and motivations through observation
techniques, task analysis, and other feedback methodologies. It is crucial for informing design
decisions and ensuring the product meets user expectations.

Tools and Methods Used for Research

These tools and methods can be categorized into two main types: qualitative and quantitative.
Qualitative research focuses on understanding the 'why' behind user behaviors, while quantitative
research focuses on measuring and analyzing user behaviors and attitudes.

a) Qualitative Research Tools and Methods

1. Interviews: One-on-one interviews allow researchers to dive deep into a user's thoughts,
experiences, and motivations.
An unstructured interview is the most similar to a normal conversation in which the interviewee
is free to answer the open ended questions in narrative form
A structured interview, on the other hand, is the most controlled type because the goal is to
offer each interviewee the same set of possible responses. Mostly closed-ended questions
where the interviewee must choose from the options provided
Semi-structured interviews, with a mix of predetermined questions and open-ended discussion,
are particularly effective for uncovering detailed insights.

It is difficult for people to remember long or multiple-part questions. Hence make it short
Avoid double-barrelled questions that address more than one issue at a time.
Avoid imprecise words like “rarely,” “sometimes,” “usually,” “few,” “some,” and
“most.”Individuals can interpret these terms in different ways, affecting their answers and
your
interpretation of the results
Double negatives: insert two negatives into the sentence, making it difficult for the
interviewee to understand the true meaning of the question
Avoid bias in questions eg “Most of our users prefer the new look and feel of our app over the
old one. How do you feel?”
Begin the interviews by informing participants that there are no right or wrong answers—if they
do not have an opinion or experience with something, they should feel free to state that
telescoping: if events that happened in the last six months are asked, people may unintentionally
include events that happened in the last nine months.
Personal questions about age, race, and salary should be asked only if absolutely necessary

Dr. P. Anandraj / CSE (anandraj@egspec.org)

2. Focus Groups: Bringing together a small group of users to discuss their experiences and
opinions can provide a wealth of qualitative data. However, the group dynamic can
influence individual responses, which is a factor researchers need to manage.
➢ Participants are given tasks to complete with prototypes of the product so they may
have a better frame of reference from which to speak
➢ Focus groups are best suited for idea generation
➢ Discover problems, challenges, frustrations, likes, and dislikes among users
3. Ethnographic Field Studies: Observing users in their natural environment (such as their
home or workplace) offers invaluable context that can't be captured or replicated in a lab
setting. This method is time-consuming but provides a rich understanding of user behavior
and challenges.
4. Usability Testing: Although it can be quantitative, usability testing often yields qualitative
insights. Watching users interact with a product and asking them to think aloud reveals not
just what problems they encounter but why those problems are significant.
5. Diary Studies: Participants are asked to record their activities, thoughts, and frustrations
over a period of time. This method provides insight into user behavior and experiences over
time, which is particularly useful for understanding how habits and perceptions evolve.
Diaries can be on paper or electronic and can be structured or unstructured. Both
quantitative and qualitative data may be collected. There are many additional options
available, each with their own risks and benefits.
• Paper: The materials include a small booklet of forms to complete. The overhead of
mailing back the booklet is high. Handwriting can be terribly difficult to read and interpret.
researcher must wait for several days until the study is over before he can begin any analysis
• E-mail: Everything is typed so no need to decipher someone’s handwriting. There is a
chance of miss out on participants who do not use e-mail. Not all user types access their e-
mail throughout the day so they may wait to reply until the end of the day, or worse, the
following morning, risking memory degradation
• Voice: These do not work well if the background is noisy or if the participant’s dialect is
difficult for the system to interpret. Voice mail services like Google Voice will provide
transcripts
• Video diary study: Videos provide rich audio and visual data, making it excellent for
getting stakeholders to empathize with the user. Easy to detect emotion than from voice
alone. Not all situations allow participants to record and submit videos at the moment (e.g.,
in a meeting, no Internet connection). Unless participants keep the instructions in front of
them when creating the video entries, it is possible they may forget to answer all of the
questions
• SMS: Depending on the participant’s mobile plan, this can cost participants money to
participate. Typing on a mobile phone may discourage lengthy explanations. Photos send via
MMS. especially appealing to younger users who prefer texting
• Social Media: easy to include photos, videos, and links with their submissions. If
participants are not sharing their entries privately they may constrain what they tell even
more than via other formats because of what their followers may think
• Mobile Apps: Notifications automatically remind participants when to submit their entries.
b) Quantitative Research Tools and Methods
1. Surveys and Questionnaires: These are widely used to gather large volumes of data from
many users.

Dr. P. Anandraj / CSE (anandraj@egspec.org)

 ➢ Surveys can include a range of question types, from multiple-choice to Likert scales,
and can be used to quantify attitudes, opinions, and self-reported behavior.
➢ Surveys ask every user the same questions in a structured manner.
➢ Participants can complete them in their own time and from the comfort of their
home or work
➢ Since they can be distributed to a large number of users, typically collect much larger
sample sizes than with interviews or focus groups
➢ response rates can vary from 1% (charity surveys) to 95% (census surveys).
2. Analytics: Tools like Google Analytics, Adobe Analytics, allow researchers to collect data on
how users interact with digital products. This can include pages visited, time spent on site,
conversion rates, and much more. Analytics provide a high-level overview of user behavior
and can identify trends and problem areas.
3. A/B Testing: This method involves comparing two versions of a webpage or app to see
which one performs better on specific metrics, such as conversion rates or click-through
rates. A/B testing is a powerful tool for making data-driven design decisions.
4. Heatmaps: Tools like Hotjar or Crazy Egg provide visual representations of where users
click, move, and scroll on a page. Heatmaps can quickly reveal what elements are attracting
attention and which are being ignored.
5. Card Sorting: This is used to understand how users categorize information, which can
inform information architecture and navigation design. While it can be conducted as a
qualitative exercise, it often generates quantitative data when done with larger groups or
through online tools.
Sort cards describing objects or concepts in a product into meaningful groups

The choice of tools and methods depends on several factors, including the research goals, the stage of
the product development process, resource availability (time, budget, and participants), and the
nature of the product itself. Often, a combination of qualitative and quantitative methods is used to
gain a comprehensive understanding of user experience. This mixed-methods approach ensures that
the insights are both deep and statistically valid, guiding the design process toward creating more
user-centered products.

User Needs and Its Goals

Identifying user needs is fundamental to creating a successful product. These needs can be functional
(completing a task), emotional (feeling secure), or social (connecting with others). Understanding
these needs allows designers to create products that are not only useful but also resonate on a
deeper level with users.

Primary and Secondary Goals: Identify primary goals that are essential for users and secondary goals
that enhance the user experience

Alignment with Business Goals: Ensure that user goals align with the business goals of the product or
service

Task Flows: Remove unnecessary steps and obstacles in the user journey

Measuring Success: Establish key performance indicators (KPIs) to measure the success of user goals.
Common metrics include conversion rates, completion times, and user satisfaction scores

Feedback Loops: Implement feedback mechanisms to allow users to express their satisfaction or
dissatisfaction with goal achievement

Dr. P. Anandraj / CSE (anandraj@egspec.org)

Iterative Design: UX designers iterate on their designs to better align with user goals

Accessibility: Ensure that the design caters to users with various abilities and

disabilities User-Centered Design: prioritize user goals over aesthetic or technical

considerations Adaptability: Design with flexibility to accommodate evolving user

needs and goals

Communication: Use intuitive navigation, labels, and visual cues to guide them to achieve goals

Know about Business Goals

While user needs are paramount, a product must also align with the business goals to be viable.
These goals can include increasing sales, reducing customer service calls, or improving brand
perception. A successful UX strategy finds the balance between user satisfaction and business
objectives, ensuring a product is desirable to users while also delivering value to the company.

Business Objectives: UX designers must have a clear understanding of the objectives of the business
such as increased revenue, market expansion, or customer retention.

Alignment with User Goals: Successful UX design finds a balance between business goal and user
goals

Target Audience: UX designers should know the preferences of their primary customers

Value Proposition: Understand the unique Selling proposition of the product or service. How it
differentiate from competitors

Key Performance Indicators (KPIs): Define the KPIs that will measure the success of the project like
conversion rates, user engagement metrics, or customer satisfaction scores

ROI Considerations: UX design decisions should take into account the potential return on
investment

Market Research: Stay informed about market trends, competitive landscape, and user preferences

Product Roadmap: Understand the product or service roadmap, including upcoming features

Usability and Efficiency: UX design should also prioritize usability and efficiency

Iterative Improvement: UX design is an ongoing process. Continuously collect user feedback and use
it to refine the design

Communication and Collaboration: Effective communication and collaboration with stakeholders,

including marketing, product management, and development teams

Risk Assessment: Evaluate potential risks and Develop strategies to mitigate these risks.

Adaptability: Be prepared to adapt the UX design strategy if business goals or market conditions
change

Ethical Considerations: Avoid practices that could harm users or damage the reputation of the
business

In summary, the foundation of user experience is about understanding both the users and the
business, and carefully balancing their needs through a structured, iterative design process. This
approach not only enhances user satisfaction but also drives business success.

Dr. P. Anandraj / CSE (anandraj@egspec.org)