A website design must be useful and visually appealing. The following questions then naturally arise:
- When a visitor visits your site, can he find the information he is looking for immediately?
- Are the menus functional?
- If it’s an e-commerce site, can customers add the product/service to the cart and easily access the checkout page?
- Are the menus, sub-menus and texts readable and easily accessible?
- Are they also suitable for an elderly or visually impaired visitor?
UI and UX design are the most trendy terms in recent years, but what are they hiding behind? What are the differences between them?
UI design
This is the abbreviation of the term “user interface” in English. User interface design prioritizes the visual comfort of the end user and aims to make the website aesthetically useful. A website designed with UI is functional, efficient and pleasant to navigate. The way to success is to research the tastes of the target audience and think about them, without forgetting to benchmark. For a UI designer, among the most important aspects, we can mention colors, graphics, typography and layout.
For this topic you can also read: “Color marketing: What about web design?”
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UX Design
UX is abbreviation of the term “user experience”. When we talk about “user experience”, we are referring to the way users interact with a product. While a visitor arrives on your website, he interacts with the shapes, the texts and the colors used.
When consumers use a product, they generally evaluate their experiences based on some criteria. This experience is mainly based on four pillars that we can associate with the acronym VFUE: Value, Functionality, Usability, Enjoyment (Source : Nick Babich, What You Should Know About User Experience Design. )
The first component is the “value” of the product or service. For example, if we buy a digital camera, we expect to take better pictures than a camera built into a mobile phone. The second component is functionality, which tells us whether the product is worthwhile. We bought the camera, when we press the shutter button, we expect it to work. The third component, usability, tells us how easy it is to use the product or service. Do we have to go through 80 hours of training to use our newly purchased camera? The last one is enjoyment, which doesn’t require much explanation.
UX design therefore involves empathy with the end user, design, imagination, working on prototypes and testing them. (Source : interaction-design.org)
For a UX designer, the entire end-user journey to the site is also very important. Not only must the site be visually pleasing and satisfying, but it must also have good SEO to attract visitors.
The UX designer conducts end-user surveys, collects comprehensive data, creates user profiles, determines functional wireframes and prototypes based on client needs. He/she tests user satisfaction and makes changes if necessary.
UX design is a broader field that also includes UI design.
Properly define your goals:
- Make sure you know who your target audience is and design your products around what they want.
- Do extensive research.
- Validate your design components by testing as often as possible.
- Listen to your audience and use the feedback to improve your site.
To get inspiration...
Curiosity is as important as creativity. Every great web design project is the result of a good research. So where do you look for inspiration? Some useful addresses for web design inspiration:
Dribbble – This is a perfect address where you can learn about website design trends on a daily basis. You can get inspiration from the pages and other components.
behance- It is a rich source of inspiration that belongs to Adobe Systems, where you can find the works of artists and designers. The platform has a detailed filtering system such as Adobe product used in production, color, geography of the designer and school.
Webdesign-Inspiration – The creators describe their site as a “web design gallery”. In the Inspiration tab, you can view carefully selected sites based on type, color, industry and style.
Awwwards.com – A meeting point for designers, as announced on their website. They evaluate each other’s sites in terms of design, usability, content and creativity, and become an important source of inspiration.
bestwebsite.gallery– This website, created by a digital designer and software developer named David Hellmann, is a source of inspiration for many web designers. You can filter the designs by colors and CMS used.
Muz.li – An ocean of inspiration for designers, thanks to extensions for browsers like Chrome and Safari. By adding muz.li to your browser, you can access the sites mentioned above and many other useful sites for designers. This is a great opportunity to see a new design every time you open a browser.
