The ultimate guide to user experience

Rss Bot · January 16, 2018

If you've not heard of the term user experience (UX), the clue's in the title. It's about creating a great experience for the users of your website. And that's less about making it look aesthetically pleasing and more about making it easy to use.

The secret to a good UX is not to make users have to think about what they're doing: it should come naturally to them to find what they're looking for and interact with your site. In a web design agency, user experience may be the responsibility of the team as a whole or a specific UX designer. There are even entire firms that specialise in user experience consultancy.

In this post we've grouped together the best articles, interviews and tips featured on Creative Bloq on the subject of user experience. Whatever your level of expertise, you're bound to find something to help your understanding and improve your technique. And we'll keep coming back to this post and updating it, so make sure you keep it bookmarked.

Opening illustration: Neil Stevens

Introduction to UX

01. 5 UX lessons you can learn in the toilet

Toilet

Fundamental UX advice for fundamental experiences

Bear with us for a second. If you're looking to get started in UX design, you can learn some fundamental lessons by focusing on... ahem... basic functions. In this amusing but super-useful article, Chris How runs through the UX lessons you can learn from public bathrooms.

02. Essential TED talks for UX designers

Do you know what TED stands for? Technology, education, design. As such, there have been plenty of talks exploring the intersection of technology and design over the years. Here we've rounded up the best – starting with Tom Wujec's 'Got a wicked problem? First, tell me how you make toast'.

03. The 5 biggest UX design trends for 2018

Voice-first interfaces are changing the game in UX

Technological advances and consumer trends have had a big impact on the shape of user experience. This article explores the big themes that UX designers need to focus their efforts on in 2018, from invisible interfaces to the rise of VR. You can also take a look at what went down in UX in 2017.

04. UX tips for creating a flawless website

This is a great infographic to pin or save for later

If you're in a hurry and are after a quick rundown of the fundamentals of user experience, look here. This infographic lays out 10 essential UX principles in a snappy fashion.

UX tips and advice

05. Unified UX

In this talk from the Generate New York 2016 conference, Cameron Moll takes on the challenge presented by the increasing numbers of devices and connected objects in the digital landscape. He offers advice for how to create an experience that flows seamlessly between different devices as the user moves from one to another.

06. Tips for better mobile UX design

Hand tapping a 'go' button

Tailor your mobile experiences to keep your users happy

It's no secret that mobile browsing is on the up. It's no good designing an experience that works perfectly on desktop but falls apart on mobile. So with that in mind, this tutorial rounds up advice for keeping your mobile users happy.

07. The UX of typography explained

Screenshot of a calendar app

Good typography has a big impact on UX

Getting your typography right can have a big impact on the usability of your website or app. In this short article, Sam Kapila takes a look at the principles you need to follow to ensure your type doesn't frustrate users, and presents some best practice examples.

08. Building device-agnostic UX systems

Users increasingly switch between different devices to complete the same task, depending on what's convenient for them at the time. This means our UX strategy now has to transcend devices – offering a consistent experience no matter where the user is coming from. This Generate talk from Anna Dahlström will help you get started.

09. Four tenets of UX strategy

In this in-depth long read, Jaime Levy breaks down four key elements you need to understand in order to develop a cohesive and effective UX strategy. The extract is taken from Levy's book UX Strategy, which focuses on advice for how to devise innovative digital products that people want. You can read more of the book on her website, where you'll also find useful links to her talks.

10. The theory of UX

This long-read takes a closer look at the scientific theory behind user experience. It explores the type of data you can collect and how to find the right meaning in this data to inform the user experiences you design.

11. Designing for a crisis

Nobody wants to think about the worst-case scenario, but it's in cases like these that the right design can have the most impact. In this moving talk from Generate London, Eric Meyer draws on personal experience to make a case for building extreme use cases into your UX design. You can also read the article on Medium here.

12. Conflict is the key to great UX

Many people would argue that good UX is about creating smooth, snag-free experiences, but in his Generate talk, Steve Fisher presents the idea that conflict is an essential ingredient.

Next page: The role of UX and case studies

The role of UX

13. Why UX designers have the best job in the world

The job of UX designer may seem a little woolly. This article by Yael Levy explores exactly what the role entails and what makes a great UX designer. If you're thinking of getting involved, here's a good place to see what UX is all about.

14. UX tools to try this year

This UX project checklist contains essential advice

As part of a general boom in design tools, we've also seen plenty of new UX tools surfacing in recent months. This post gathers together the best ones to explore, and explains what each one of them does so you can pick what suits your needs.

15. The UX designer's survival guide

In this Generate talk, Media Temple's Lissa Aguilar presents a survival guide for current or prospective UI designers. It includes how to set up your compass, get a lay of the land, and the Swiss Army Knife of tools you'll need.

16. Essential tools for freelance UX designers

These tools will help if you're thinking of going freelance

If you're thinking of going it alone as a freelance UX designer, take a look at this list of essential tools. There are tools dedicated to analytics and user testing, but also ones to help you with your business, including accounting and proposal tools.

17. Why web design needs UX experts

Many people would argue that ensuring a good user experience is everyone's responsibility. This article by Andy Budd asks if that is the case, do we really need UX experts? The answer, he argues, is a resounding yes.

18. UX portfolios done right

Advice for showing off your UX skills

Every type of designer needs a cracking portfolio to promote themselves... but UX design doesn't lend itself too well to traditional portfolio approaches. This article explores how to best showcase your work, and presents a selection of great UX portfolio sites to look through.

Case studies

19. Discover Google's UX design secrets

Headshot of Rachel Inman

Rachel Inman helps shape Google's user experince

UX design lead Rachel Inman works at Google. In this interview from net magazine, she explains her personal approach to UX design, and how that scales to a search giant like Google.

20. How Jaime Levy became a UX strategy guru

Jaime Levy's book on UX Strategy has been published in six different languages, and is regarded as one of the definitive works on UX. In this interview, the American author, university professor, interface designer and UX strategist shares the journey to becoming one of the world's foremost UX experts.

21. How UX strategy can change the world

In this talk from the Generate London conference, Jaime Levy explains how she put together a UX strategy for a futuristic international transportation system called Hyperloop. The scheme used a unified network of digital touchpoints where shared big data and app interfaces are seamlessly connected across various different transport systems (such as bikes, tuk-tuks and buses).

22. The best UX/UI Instagram accounts to follow

Instragram users such as Jürgen Leckie have plenty to teach you about UX

Instagram is a great social media platform to use to integrate UX inspiration and tips into your daily life. In this post we run down the best accounts to follow, to spark ideas and perhaps even some collaborations.

Liked this? Read this:

View the full article

Sign In