{"id":8336,"date":"2011-11-22T15:51:28","date_gmt":"2011-11-22T20:51:28","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.delvinia.com\/?p=8336"},"modified":"2020-01-23T18:45:02","modified_gmt":"2020-01-23T23:45:02","slug":"user-experience-just-because-its-pretty-doesnt-mean-it-works","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.delvinia.com\/user-experience-just-because-its-pretty-doesnt-mean-it-works\/","title":{"rendered":"User Experience: Just Because it\u2019s Pretty Doesn\u2019t Mean it Works"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"\"<\/a>We talk a lot about creating digital customer experiences here at Delvinia. It\u2019s what we do. Understanding the customer is the first step in any project. And, once we\u2019ve collected those insights, we have to apply that knowledge through the design process.<\/p>\n

That\u2019s Andrea Reck\u2019s job. She\u2019s our Senior User Experience Lead. I recently sat down with her to chat about what that means and what she views as essential elements in user experience design. Here\u2019s what she had to say.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s like a puzzle,\u201d\u00a0 Andrea says. \u201cI take all of the pieces and organize them on the page where it makes sense. I always try to take a step back as if I was going to the site for the first time. I ask myself; why am I here, what do I want to do and how do I want to get there?\u201d<\/p>\n

Is your website working for you?<\/strong><\/p>\n

Although Andrea says there is no cookie cutter approach to user experience design, she follows certain principles in her work. Here are a few:<\/p>\n

The process needs to be intuitive. You have to design a site so it takes the thinking out of it and empowers the user to let them know they\u2019re on the right path.<\/p>\n

When it comes to the home page, I\u2019m a minimalist. Don\u2019t put everything and the kitchen sink on there. The home page is a gateway that should lead users to relevant areas of the site.<\/p>\n

The site navigation is very important. Depending how deep the site is, I look for breadcrumbs; it\u2019s just one more way to make the user\u2019s life easier. You don\u2019t want a user to rely on the back button. If that\u2019s the only way for a user to recover, that\u2019s wrong. Give them multiple options. Know where you are, where you came from and how to get back there.<\/p>\n

Don\u2019t put your user in a dead end. Always give them a place to go. If they scroll down, give them a way to get back to the top of the page. Give them a call to action. Keep them moving.<\/p>\n

Keep it simple<\/strong><\/p>\n

Don\u2019t overwhelm your users. Too much animation and interaction can be overwhelming.<\/p>\n

Make sure each page has its purpose and its place.<\/p>\n

Users scan. They don\u2019t read. Avoid large blocks of text. Use bullet points. Make the information easy to digest.<\/p>\n

Anything important shouldn\u2019t be more than a few clicks away. For example, a user shouldn\u2019t have to go five pages deep to make a transaction. If it\u2019s important, either keep it global (on every page) or have a minimum amount of clicks.<\/p>\n

As much as each page is its own beast, consistency matters. Within a few clicks users should get a sense and feel of how the site works.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

We talk a lot about creating digital customer experiences here at Delvinia. It\u2019s what we do. Understanding the customer is the first step in any project. And, once we\u2019ve collected those insights, we have to apply that knowledge through the design process. That\u2019s Andrea Reck\u2019s job. She\u2019s our Senior User Experience Lead. I recently sat […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":5,"featured_media":18515,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[786,947],"tags":[466,416,467,773,38],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.delvinia.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/8336"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.delvinia.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.delvinia.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.delvinia.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/5"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.delvinia.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=8336"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/www.delvinia.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/8336\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":16053,"href":"https:\/\/www.delvinia.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/8336\/revisions\/16053"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.delvinia.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/18515"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.delvinia.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=8336"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.delvinia.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=8336"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.delvinia.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=8336"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}