UI/UX Beyond Design and Animations

From last few i was reading a lot of blogs and articles on User Experience Design so i thought of writing a article on UX for Software Products.

When we design any App/Software our main agenda is to fulfil the goals of that product, but we don't think too much about the end user experience.

Few Days back i Visited a agency of "Hero MotoCorp", and the person siting on sales counter was facing some difficulty with the accounting software so he asked me for help, i went their and seen the software he is using  and for a moment i started thinking this is the condition of software development companies in india, The things i noticed are mentioned below:
1. The UI is super messy.
2. Nothing Self-explanatory in the UX.
3. Taking Much numbers of clicks for single tasks.
4. Improper use of UI Components.
5. No User Manual integrated in the Software for quick assistant.

Although this software is fulfilling all the needs,  but it is also generating a chance of errors.

Here are my views on Developing a Great UX for your Product.

1. Always Think like a End User

While Developing any product always think of all the use cases and all the states, For example when we insert a button we should must define its design for all the state( When is hovered on it or when it is clicked) for event feedback and better understanding of user without any confusion.

2. Always try to make Self Explanatory UI 

In Modern application you may have seen great UI containing Hamburger Menus and Icons Instead of text. These things really gives a super cool and modern looks but if the user is not able to understand what that icon is for without trying it once it means your UI is Good looking but not self explanatory. But we can combine modern UI and Great UX by using helping components like tooltips and helper texts.

3. Minimise  the Number of actions done for Completing a Task.

Every One in this world wants more productivity in less investment and same goes with user of your product if you user needs to click 5 buttons and fill 2 input fields for login, then their is probability that he/she will not login until extremely needed. so as a good ux practice we should always keep  minimum number of steps  required to complete an action.

4. Avoid Confusion 

Which button you will press to Cancel the Download "Cancel or OK", these both are self conflicting and they will create confusion for the user and it may leads the user to take some danger action or the revers of action he/she wants to do. so mind this kind of mistakes.

5. Optimise your Application UI/UX for all screen Sizes.

You may have heard of Responsive and Adaptive Design, You always need to insure that the UX is same across all screen sizes. If Your UI is more Data Intensive then follow ADAPTIVE Design Principal otherwise use Responsive Pattern. Make sure usability of your application does't decreases on Small screen sizes. and keep in mind the typography of different elements.

6. Keep in Mind the Hardware of End user.

Always make sure if your application works fine on your system then it should work same for user regardless of what kind of hardware they are using, anyhow the hardware will impact the perfomance index but always try to minimise the Performance Difference.

7. Keep Network In Mind.

Generally your application uses Networks in many ways either fetching a webpage from a server or getting data from a API. and Application performance varies based on network Speed. but make sure it does not create a lot difference in UX. for that you can use technologies like Service Workers and offline cashing for better performance in slow connection.

7. Always add user manual/help guide.

Many companies develop really complex software products with tons of feature but they don't make effort in writing a user manual, and indirectly it is affecting the usage of your application.

I hope you liked this article, any suggestion/Questions are most welcome.

Keep Creating Awesome Experiences!!!