11 Principles of UX Design From A Startup Perspective

When we hear the word design, we think of creativity or some creative role, in which an individual crafts and designs something beautiful. But, there is a thing with UX design that makes us understand that only aesthetically good designs won’t make for a usable interface. A good user designer makes great user research. When a design is combined with essential rules and principles, then a better user experience and brand trust is the end result.

There is an ample amount of proliferation of digital products in the current world, especially for start-ups or new organizations. There is a huge focus on providing the end-users the best ‘Experience’ which is why there is a focus on web or mobile UI UX design principle and best practices now. Also lately there is focus and comparison between Android vs iOS app UI design.

Below are a few stats which show the importance of having an effective UI UX design. the stats also play as a reason why it is adopted by businesses especially startups:

1. According to a report by Forrester Research, a great and effective UI can increase the conversion rate by 200%. But on the same side, a great UX can increase it by 400%.
   
2. The research done by forrester in some reports claims that the factor of ‘Usability’ plays a very important role such that – it increases the customer’s willingness to pay by almost 14.4%, reduces the chances of customers switching to other brands by 15.8%, and also boosts the chances of them recommending the product to their friends and family by 16.6%.
   
3. Another report by Userzoom and their ‘State of UX in The Entreprise’ states that almost 70% of enterprise CEOs view the User Experience and Customer experience as a competitive differentiator. You can refer to the below image for more clarity.

What Are UX Rules?

When we think of user experience we generally think convenience and usability. Nowadays UX is a broad church with a greater number of perspectives to consider than clear convenience. Just like web design tools, UX rules and best practices continue developing for better developer and user experience both. On the off chance if you’ve been adhering to a same UX design process for the past years then, at that point they require an update.

According to Peter Eckert, implementing a focus on customers’ experience increases their willingness to pay by 14.4%, reduces their reluctance to switch brands by 15.8%, and boosts their likelihood to recommend your product by 16.6%.

What Is A UX Principle?

User experience aims on understanding users, their requirements, their value for product, and their limitations. Designing beautiful elements using UX takes into account the business goals and objectives. The best practices of UX principles and design systems promote user interaction quality and perceptions of your product and any related services.

In simple terms UX principles offer a sound basis for devising innovative solutions through new interaction models, design patterns, and the evolving standards.

Principles of UX Design

Meet the user needs 

When you have a startup or are thinking of having one, then the first thing that comes to mind is to make sure that the user needs are met. One of the essential principles of UX Design strategy is to focus on their users throughout the web or mobile app design process. The user experience makes it quite clear if your design needs improvement or not. Hence, one needs to learn what their users are looking for and create content accordingly. It might be possible that a design that looks appealing to the company doesn’t seem likable to the users.  

Know your status in the design process 

If you have a new UI UX designer then the design process seems overwhelming. You must know what role you play in the design process. During each phase make sure that the designers use different tools and know the UX design process. This helps to solve queries and also be more creative with the tasks. For instance, there is no use in testing the color of a button if the team is still unclear about its placement in the design. 

Consistency is the key

The users are likely to expect products that share some common interest and are often used. It makes it easy for users to get familiar with the new merchandise without spending the extra money to learn it. This might sound contradicting, but the more familiar the users are to your design, the more easily they can grasp it and enhance the user experience too. Thus, for startups and even big businesses, consistency is the key which makes the UX design process simple for designers as they don’t need to create any new wheel every time they are likely to start a new project.

Understand the accessibility 

One of the essential rules of UI UX designs is that you need to keep design and accessibility at the back of your mind. To quote, the designer’s responsibility is to ensure that the maximum number of people possible uses the design. Additionally, it means that the UI UX design should be used by people featuring some disabilities too. To make this work, as a designer, one needs to ensure that there are no obstacles.

Have a clear hierarchy 

The principles of UX design ensures implementation of smooth navigation through hierarchy in the design. The primary hierarchy is the one that organizes content or information throughout the design. On the flip side, the secondary hierarchy lets you hover into sub-category of content, taking you deep into the app or site.

An example of primary and secondary hierarchy is shown below.

The key to success is context 

When you have started your business, there must have been some context and aim. Same is the case in designing, the users need to consider the context. Generally, location is an understood contextual factor, but several other elements cannot be ignored, like the time available with the user, their emotional state, and the device they are likely to use. All these factors are likely to determine the user’s behaviour once the designer understands that they can make a design that can maximize the user experience.

Allow content to regain supreme 

The designer needs to develop the content before diving deep into designing to give their website a better meaning and right direction. The designers don’t need to underestimate the power of storytelling and its ability to connect with the target audience. They can implement this mobile ux design principle in no time if they design with real content germane to the company. 

Balance consistency and discoverability 

Your business is new thus, you don’t have room for experiments. Here comes, one of the important UX principles that is consistency. Users like the products that are somewhat similar to their other used products. This makes it easy for them to use the product with ease as it is already familiar to them. This also proves easy for designers to get creative with similar products. One example can be shopping sites. We can see the big images and a small description below the image. This type of content is mostly used by ecommerce websites, as it is easy to use and present to the users.

Be playful with animation 

Animations are the way to your eyes. It has been noticed that interactive web experiences and animations are likely to add movement to any site and make it come to life for the target audience. When done perfectly, it can help the target audience learn about how a website works. Also, the target audience is likely to remember even the smallest of details. Hence playful pleasures work unexpectedly, so the animation cannot be skipped.

Exercise progressive disclosure 

To quote, the most vital information should be found easily. Once any user has been oriented to the site, more technical data and the latest features are seen. There is a process where designing minimal apps is a trend. Thus, the designers should strive to be as minimal as possible and show only essential things on the web page. Ideally, the homepage is likely to comprise a white background with a brief value proposition telling the brand’s story in brief. The site visitors can find it in a simple top-line navigation tab.  

Establish trust and credibility 

The importance of trust and credibility is not likely to be overstated ever. No matter where you are working, you have to always follow the web or mobile ui ux design principles. A designer must reinforce the legitimacy of the brand besides its website. Once the user finds a brand to be trustworthy and credible, they are likely to bring brand loyalty.

Why is UX Important For Business?

Especially for modern-day businesses, having a robust UI UX design principle and best practices holds primary importance. Although whoever is into this business will understand the importance of UX design strategy for business, but to make it easier and more obvious, here are a few points that state its importance:

1. Increased conversions

There is cut-throat competition in the market. For the same product, there are plenty of websites out in the market. Hence, businesses will have to look for ways to differentiate themselves from the competitors, which is where UX plays an enhanced role. Customers always go for websites, which gives them a great experience. With the increased number of customers on the website, more chances of conversion rates going up. 

2. Lower support cost 

When businesses give their users an enhanced user experience, they get overly satisfied. A business spends a huge sum of money just trying to amend their mistakes by giving additional support to their customers, which increases their cost and leads to time wastage. However, in one go, if the customers end up getting a good experience, the other problems will not arise themselves. 

3. Insured brand loyalty 

In current times, brand loyalty has become the primary importance of UX design, which primarily means the customer repeatedly buying from your brand and not switching after a few purchases. When the customer gets a satisfied experience of the website, then there are less chances for the customers to shift to the other brands.

Conclusion

There are many mobile UX design principles that apply from a micro level to a large scale level design. We have attempted to focus on main principles of design and how I can help the entrepreneurs or startups in their business endeavours.

Focusing on genuine users, defining and accomplishing business objectives, planning data design, adapting up to the steadily evolving technology, approving designs by different strategies, looking after consistency, considering users requirement prior to designing will bring about making the end users perform their tasks. This will guarantee a consistent User Experience.

If you are looking to grow your business with all the latest technologies of the current time, make sure your design strategy is up to date and you are partnering with ui/ux design and development company that is well-adept with the changing market needs, or you can opt for ui ux designers in your area. But make sure you choose the best to get quality results. We at appinventiv are one of the top UI UX design company in USA with award winning results.

THE AUTHOR

Pooja Chawla

UI/UX Developer