What Is User Experience And User Experience Design?

The user experience (UX) is what a user of a particular product experience when using that product. A UX designer’s job is thus to create a product that provides the best possible user experience. How does that happen?

Well, it starts with a lot of research. You can’t create anything of value to a user unless you understand what kind of problems they want to solve and how you can solve those problems so that the user will want—or better still, need—your solution. You can only get that understanding by interacting with users.

UX designers tend to be concerned with, as you can see attached images below, 3 primary factors: the look of a product, the feel of that product and the usability of that product.

The look of a product is all about creating a product that has visual appeal and which, in particular, harmonizes with a user’s values and captures the spirit of what they expect in that product. In other words, it has to not only look nice but look right too. In doing so, it establishes a bond of trust and credibility between the product and the user.

Next is the feel, which is really about developing products that are “a joy to use”. That is, whether you’re interacting with them or reacting to them, products should provide a pleasurable experience and not just a functional one.

Lastly, usability is the cornerstone of user experience. If a product isn’t usable, the experience of using it can never be good. UX designers want to create products which can, ideally, be tailored to meet a user’s specific needs, but which provides functionality that is predictable.