Everything you need to know about the UX design process

Learn the essential steps of the UX design process to create user-friendly, effective, and engaging digital products from start to finish.

When it comes to digital media, whether it’s a website on a desktop, an app on a phone, or anything else, user experience (UX) is critical to having a successful product. 

Studies show that 94% of first impressions on a website are design-related, while 38% of people would stop using a website if its content/layout is unattractive. You only have one chance to make an impactful first impression, so you must do your best.

The only way to do that is to dive into your digital user experience to ensure you give your prospects and customers exactly what they need. A successful user experience is the foundation of any successful digital product.

In this article, we’ll look at everything you need to know about user experience in the digital world.

Here’s what we’ll cover:

• What is UX design, and why is it important?
• How to follow the 4 golden rules of UX design.
• What is the UX design process?
• 7 successful websites with a robust user experience.

What is UX design, and why is it important?

UX design is a method for solving genuine human problems with digital products. “UX” stands for user experience, emphasizing the importance of designing with the end user in mind. 

The UX design process leads designers to make decisions based on honest user feedback instead of assumptions based on a designer’s skill, preference, or personal experience.

User experience is the number one way to ensure customers are happy and find what they need, which can make your business successful. Let’s look at the three reasons user experience is important in the design process.

1. It enhances customer satisfaction

The whole point of the UX design process is to meet the end-user’s needs. Customers whose needs are met are happy customers, which generally leads to increased customer loyalty.

As you can see, it’s key that user experience is at the front of every design experience. Design should have functionality at the forefront of every change. In other words, designers must solve real-life problems people face when interacting with digital products, not hypothetical or theoretical ones. 

Want to see what that would look like in action? Take the problem of shopping cart abandonment as a great example. 

Many users abandon shopping carts in e-commerce apps because the checkout is too complex or confusing.

They are probably genuinely interested in the product, but they got fed up with the 937 steps they had to take to finalize the checkout process. 

A UX designer might try to solve this problem by streamlining the checkout process, maybe even creating a one-page checkout or an express payment option. 

Verve Coffee Roasters opted for an express checkout as one way to solve this problem:

Source: Screenshot from Verve Coffee Roasters

Allowing customers the option to check out potentially increased customer satisfaction overall quickly.

As a UX designer, you must deeply understand users’ problems. This means you need to understand their goals for interacting with the product and any obstacles they might encounter throughout their experience. We’ll talk more about empathy in a bit. 

2. It can cause your business to be more successful.

If you have satisfied customers, your chances of having a successful business are pretty high. 

Here’s some food for thought: research shows that, on average, every $1 invested in UX brings $100 in return, which is an impressive 9,900% return on investment.

So, if you’re looking for a proven way to boost your business, look no further than improving your user experience.

3. It can cause your business to gain a competitive edge.

So, here’s the thing: If you want your business to stand out, you need to stand out against your competitors. 

Each industry has different competitors, so always keep an eye on who your competitors are and what they do to curate a robust user experience.

Then, simply build on their ideas and create something even better.

The four golden rules of UX design

Designers often emphasize the four golden rules/pillars of UX design. These principles are essential for any digital product to succeed, and you should ask yourself these four questions before starting any project:

1. Is it equitable?

Your product must be accessible and inclusive, allowing all users—regardless of their abilities or backgrounds—to use it effectively. Design it for as many people as possible and keep diverse groups within your target audience in mind.

Plus, with the recent law passed requiring local state and government websites to make their websites more accessible, chances are that this might also change the rules for other websites in the near future.

Regardless, having a website accessible to all is vital to the user experience and should always be a big part of the design decisions.

2. Is it easy to use?

Make the product easy to use. It is unnecessary to overcomplicate a website, making it beautiful but too complicated to use. Remember that user experience is what matters the most when it comes to the success of your brand and business.

Design your digital platforms with straightforward navigation so users can efficiently and effectively accomplish their tasks. Usability includes providing precise interactions, intuitive design, and minimizing the learning curve so users can quickly understand and operate the product.

#3 Is it helpful?

The product should serve a purpose and meet an actual need. Functionality should always trump design; when they go hand in hand, that’s even better.  

#4 Is it fun to use?

The UX design process isn’t just about practical and functional aspects. Beauty matters, too. 

You should create a product that’s delightful to use and evokes positive emotions. This means creating an aesthetically pleasing interface that users want to use repeatedly.

What is the UX design process?

The UX design process is a structured approach to creating products that provide meaningful and relevant experiences to users.

It involves steps that help designers understand user needs, create and test solutions, and refine them based on feedback. A typical UX design process consists of six unique phases.

1.  Perform UX design research 

The UX design process begins with comprehensive research. You must understand the user’s needs, behaviors, and pain points. 

User research involves several vital methods to understand users and their needs comprehensively. For example, conducting interviews with potential users helps to grasp their needs, goals, and pain points. 

Distributing surveys can help gather quantitative data on user preferences and behaviors. Additionally, observing users as they interact with similar products can reveal usability issues and opportunities.

Ultimately, the purpose of this stage is for the designer to empathize with the user.

Ask yourself, “How would I feel if I were in the customer’s shoes?” Research methods such as user interviews, surveys, and competitor analysis will provide valuable insights to help build empathy. User personas, fictional characters representing different user types, can also be helpful in this phase. Personas can help designers identify with the end-users. 

By mapping out the user’s journey, you’ll recognize touchpoints where the experience can be enhanced or potential issues that need to be addressed.

Market research also complements user research by focusing on the broader landscape. During this research stage, you should check your competitors’ websites for their strengths and weaknesses.

2.  Plan and create a draft of your project

Once the research phase is complete, the next step is to define and plan your project’s scope. Some call this the ideation or visualization stage. You might sketch plans on paper or use a digital UX design tool.

Whatever your method, you’ll start by creating a wireframe. 

Wireframes are simple, black-and-white layouts that outline the structure and functionality of a page. Here’s an example of a wireframe layout for a mobile app project:

Source: Wireframe by Dribbble

Before you move on from the planning stage, you’ll need to communicate your design plans with stakeholders. 

With Slidesgo’s AI presentation maker, you can create and communicate your draft in seconds.  They also have many pre-built UX slideshows you can use or adapt for your project.

3. Create a high-fidelity prototype

The next step in the UX design process is to create a high-fidelity prototype, which is a detailed, realistic representation of the product. 

They incorporate complete visual design elements, like colors, images, typography, and interactive features. Sketch, Figma, or other tools are used to build these prototypes, which provide a near-complete view of how the product will look and function.

Begin with detailed mockups that include all the visual elements. Your mockups serve as a blueprint to help stakeholders visualize the product and give feedback.

Many websites offer a wide range of templates that you can use in the UX design process to visualize your ideas. For example, if you run an online apparel store, Freepik has dozens of mockups to use. Placing a logo on a mockup you could sell allows the customer to visualize the final product.

If creating a mockup of a t-shirt is effective, imagine a website! A robust prototype will help you and your brand understand what is needed and visually analyze the effectiveness of the updated user experience.

Source: Screenshot from Freepik

4.  Test your product

Once the mockup and prototype are created, it’s time to test. 

Testing is a critical component of the UX design process. Usability testing involves observing real users interacting with the product to identify usability issues. It helps validate design decisions and ensures the product meets user expectations.

There are various methods of testing, including:

A/B and multivariate testing

These forms of testing help identify which design variations lead to the best user experience. A/B testing, also known as split testing, compares two versions of a web page, app, or other product to see which performs better regarding user engagement or conversion rates. 

Multivariate testing goes a step further by testing multiple variables simultaneously to understand how different combinations of changes impact user behavior.

Surveys

Surveys are essential because they can help you gather data on user preferences, satisfaction levels, and specific issues they might encounter, providing insights that can inform design improvements. 

Quantitative analysis

In short, quantitative analysis uses numbers and statistics to measure the performance of different design elements. It helps identify patterns, trends, and correlations within user interactions, which can help make evidence-based decisions to enhance the user experience.

Card sorts

This can be used to understand how users categorize and organize information. The results inform information architecture and navigation design, ensuring that the product’s structure aligns with users’ mental models and improves findability.

Usability tests

Usability testing observes real users interacting with a website or mobile app. It helps identify usability issues and gather qualitative insights. 

Users are typically asked to complete specific tasks while their interactions are recorded and analyzed. This testing is excellent for uncovering people’s issues while navigating your website. It can help you understand user behavior and gather feedback to improve the user experience.  

Although these tests may all seem very different, they are all helpful in testing your product and understanding how users interact with the prototype. You’ll use the feedback from these tests to create new product interactions and continually improve your design before launch.

5.  Launch the product and gather feedback

Here’s the big moment! After thorough research, planning, prototyping, and testing, it’s time to launch your product. 

This is a significant milestone you should celebrate. But remember that it’s not the end of your project. You’ve just arrived at the point where all the hard work culminates into a product that users can finally use.

6. Monitor the performance after launching

Now that you have launched your new design, you must closely monitor its performance. 

You can’t neglect this because gathering user feedback is crucial.  Feedback helps identify any issues that users face and provides opportunities for continuous improvement (a central theme so far if you haven’t caught on!). 

To collect this data, methods such as user surveys, feedback forms, and social media monitoring can be used. 

7 successful websites with a strong user experience

One of the best ways to see user experience in action is to examine successful websites and understand why their UX excels. 

Let’s analyze six websites and their meaning when related to user experience.

Source: Screenshot from Apple

1. Apple

Whether you’re on your mobile device or your desktop, you can successfully browse the Apple website. 

From paying attention to the user’s steps to view products to how they check out, Apple has successfully curated a superior user experience for its customers.

Source: Screenshot from Starbucks

2. Starbucks

Starbucks didn’t get to where it is simply because it has good coffee. The brand has steadily invested in its mobile ordering app and online website user experience to ensure its customers can easily order caffeine drinks and snacks while on the go.

Source: Screenshot from Netflix

3. Netflix

Netflix, without a doubt, takes user experience to the next level. When you log into its app, you are immediately greeted with recommendations for what you should view, along with top movies and shows seen in your country that day.

Source: Screenshot from Airbnb

4. Airbnb

The brand has relied on user experience to create a straightforward search for its customers. It knows that users want the answers immediately when they decide to travel.

From making an easy-to-use website to seriously considering what filters one can select (number of rooms, beachfront, pet friendly, etc.), the brand has gone above and beyond to ensure a positive UX experience for all visitors.

Source: Screenshot from Nulab

5. Nulab

Forgive us for mentioning our own website, but we’ve put a lot of thought into what creates a great user experience and implemented the best practices on our website. 

From our easy-to-find product offering to our in-depth and exclusive solutions, we’ve provided visitors with the best user experience possible.

Source: Screenshot from Spotify

6. Spotify

From allowing users to curate special playlists to automatically playing similar songs whenever said playlists end, Spotify’s app knows how to keep its customers returning for more music thanks to the curated user experience.

Final thoughts

As you can see, a successful brand must rely heavily on a successful user experience. The UX design process is more than just showing off your technical expertise. Knowing and empathizing with people is about delivering a pleasing digital experience. 

If you know what your customers genuinely want out of your website or other design experience, you can give them a phenomenal user experience that will make them loyal customers.

Need help with your UX design process? Nulab’s collaboration tools can help you take your UX design to the next level. Get started with a free trial today.

Author bio

Freya Laskowski is the founder and CEO of SERP Maniac. She is a quoted contributor in online publications like Business Insider, Fox Business, Yahoo Finance, and the Huffington Post. She also owns CollectingCents, a personal finance blog that she grew from the ground up.