User Experience 101 – a guide for publishers

History of UX design

Throughout the centuries, inventors took into consideration the people who would eventually use their products. Back in Ancient Rome, architects were certainly driven by the comfort of the inhabitants when they first designed a “hypocaust” – a floor heating system.

The same idea of design revolving around the user’s experience guided the modern inventors in the 1980s – this time concerning electronic products, mostly home computers (which, from year to year, became more and more popular). During that era, specialists in the field were trying to figure out, among others, the most optimal number of buttons in a computer mouse, discussing the concept of usability and the problem of human-computer interaction.

However, it was not until 1993 when the term User Experience was coined by Don Norman, back then working at Apple Computer Inc. (now Apple Inc.). Since then, the popularity of UX is only increasing. With hundreds of books and articles across the internet about User Experience and UX laws (with 10 Usability Heuristics at the forefront), it’s hard to underestimate its importance. However, to understand it better, we need to dive deeper into details and explain how UX differs from another similar term – UI!

User Experience design vs User Interface design

User Experience is the process of designing products and services that revolve around it (like a company’s customer service). It takes into account the needs and potential problems of the user. The term User Experience most often refers to the creation of digital products, such as websites, streaming platforms, and apps. UX is all about things that lead to creating a product or a better version of one; it also examines the whole experience of the user, from the minute of entering a website or app. The scope of User Experience is very wide, as the processes include UX research, which collects information about the user; UX writing, in which an approachable and understandable language for users is created and, on top of that, designing. However, if we try to put it in simple words, UX design aims at creating a digital environment in which your audience can comfortably interact with your content.

User Interface, on the other hand, deals with how the product looks. UI is all about the graphic side of a website or an app. It tackles the selection of colors, the distances between individual elements, or typography; so in other words, the purpose of UI design is to make your content visually pleasant. The most used software programs for creating mock-ups (visualization of the product) and prototypes (final version before implementation) are Figma and Adobe XD. When designing interfaces, most designers turn to Material Design – Google’s design system, available to everyone, which is now a standard in the whole industry (and, of course, in Google services). If you want to know, for instance, when to use a “checkbox” or how to direct your user’s attention – this is a solution to turn to.

UX design process

One of the most commonly applied approaches to the UX design process is Design Thinking. No wonder so many design teams use it – its principles are simple, and the results benefit both the user and the publisher. Here are four steps of Design Thinking:

1. Research and define. It’s the begging of the whole process; in order to proceed further, you need to gather relevant information. Firstly, try to understand what you are designing and who your potential user is. In order to picture it, try to sketch a persona – what is their age, occupation, and why are they in need of your service? Why would they want to use your product instead of competition? It’s also a good idea to look at your rivals’ solutions! Think big, and don’t be afraid to ask questions. In fact, you can try to set up some questionnaires for people who might in future use your product. After that, try to define the problem precisely – gather all your information and formulate some concrete key statements. Write them down in a place that is easily accessible and visible, so that you’ll have it in sight when moving to the next step;
2. Ideate. The second phase point is to find ideas and solutions to what you’ve established during the first stage of the process. One way to do it is to write down as many ideas as possible in a strictly defined short timespan, like in 5 minutes – this way, you’ll let your gut feeling speak. And as we all know, the first ideas, being the most intuitive, tend to be the best! Whatever methods you use during this phase, keep in mind who your target audience is, and what they’d like to see on your website or in your app. The more ideas, the better – there’ll be more solutions to choose from;
3. Prototype and test. The next move is to prototype the best ideas forged in the previous step. Importantly, you don’t have to know the final version of the web pages within your website or your app’s screens – a model, like a paper prototype, will do just as well at this stage. Once you have an idea outlined, it’s time to test it. One of the most frequently used approaches is performing A/B tests. This way, you can verify solutions you’re not entirely sure about (like, for instance, you can examine which CTA has a higher click rate). Such tests can be performed by simply providing your users with two versions of your web page, or app, or even showing the testing group its paper prototype;
4. Implement… and start all over! Why? In fact, the UX process may never really end. The ideal one consists of researching the problem, finding the solution, implementing it, testing it, and adjusting it. However, in the ever-changing online world, our users’ needs are constantly evolving. Within the ocean of content available nowadays, people tend to let the overall “feeling” of a website or an app decide whether they’ll stay or leave. This inevitably means that after you test and change applied UX solutions, you might need to test and change it, and then test and change it again! As strange as it sounds, it is proven to be a very interesting and beneficial approach to design because it assumes continuous development. But don’t let it overwhelm you. Implement one improvement at a time – baby steps are the key!

Accessibility in UX design

When designing in line with UX, it’s crucial to prioritize the audience. Such an approach also includes considering accessibility. This means making digital products accessible to every single user, including those with disabilities or temporary problems with proper content reception. Among others, a good practice for all digital content creators is to provide text alternatives for images. That way, screen readers can interpret and deliver them to visually impaired or blind people in the form of voice messages or even braille text. It can be useful also to users who can’t scroll through the text content in a given moment – for instance, while cooking when their hands are dirty, and they’d enjoy having the recipe read to them automatically.

Accessibility should be considered for all users in various situations. For instance, video content publishers should always think about adding subtitles to videos in order to accommodate not only individuals with auditory problems but also people who want to watch videos without headphones (in a noisy environment, like on a bus or while their baby is sleeping). Such improvements highly enhance digital products’ availability and improve their User Experience. Accessibility also regards UI! Buttons in your app shouldn’t be too small in order for people with bigger hands to easily click them; or the contrast ratio on your website should be high enough, for everyone to read content easily (without tiring their eyes).

Users come first

This is a simple rule that underlies a good User Experience. In the end, it’s the users you craft your digital content for, right? All online publishers, no matter what industry they create for, can greatly benefit from introducing UX principles. Therefore, always try to communicate in the language of your users and gain a deep understanding of their needs. This way, you’ll be able to greatly enhance the quality of your digital products, from mobile apps to websites.

The application of UX principles should extend to the realm of digital advertising as well. We acknowledge that advertisements should complement the publisher’s content rather than overshadow it, as failure to do so may result in unfavorable consequences for the user-publisher relationship (which may even lead to a reduction in ad inventory’s attractiveness, and eventually drops in your income). To prevent such a dark scenario, you can consider applying products designed for ad implementation which will not disturb your users. Our monetization tools, Ad Mapper and Revenue Booster, are designed to create or modify the ad layout while prioritizing the User Experience. Take good care of your users and make their experience of displaying ads as good as it can be!