Go through this complete guide diligently and by the end of it you’ll get a clear and comprehensive understanding of the following:

• What exactly are UI Design and UX Design?
• Differences between UI and UX.
• How to design a stunning UI & UX.
• 5 Common Mistakes that kill your conversion rate.

UI or User Interface

The UI design is all about the look and feel, the presentation and interactivity. It deals more with the aesthetics and less with the functionality part of a product.
It includes:
1. Typography:
Robert Bringhurst defines typography as the craft of endowing human language with a durable visual form. It has the power to convey emotions, transfer a message and most importantly define content hierarchy. The font family, size, weight, color, the text structure, everything matters. The readability of the text can have a massive impact on how users experience the product.
2. Color:
If we talk about visual arts, color is the soul of an artistic piece. It can say a thousand words without even presenting a single letter. In UI design, it can perform several functions like supporting and carrying the brand recognition, focusing on the critical parts like a call-to-action button, or beautifying the interface, etc.
3. Component style:
A user interface can contain multiple components such as a background, text fields, input fields, buttons, cards, etc. Designing UI requires pre-planning the elements’ style to maintain uniformity throughout the whole product. A designer has to decide the shape, color, size, even the situation where the same component has to change its form.
4. Layout arrangement:
It includes organization, arrangement, and spacing of the things mentioned above. The app screen or web page layout has to be arranged keeping in mind the hierarchy of the content and how to control the eye movement of the end user. Visual weight has to be balanced, and proper spacing should be provided so as not to make the content look cluttered. A designer has to arrange components according to their importance.

UX or User Experience

As humans, we are obsessed with things that look good.

A functional and aesthetically pleasing user interface may turn many heads, but it is not the only thing that is needed to retain users. When a design decision is made based only on how good it should appear, the product is no longer being designed for the users.  That is where UX comes in the spotlight, and to the designers’ rescue.

User experience design is a human-first way of designing a digitally interactive product. This term was first introduced to the Tech industry in the 1990s by Don Norman who was a cognitive scientist and co-founder of the Nielsen Norman Group Design Consultancy and according to whom, “User experience encompasses all aspects of the end user’s interaction with the company, its services, and its products.”

This process is scientific and can be applied to any real-life situations and places such as our room shelves, vehicle experience, movie theaters, etc.
If you want to provide a good user experience, ask yourself the following questions:

• Is the product user flow designed so that the user can achieve their objective quickly?
• Is the usability good enough that the user can use the product easily?
• Are design decisions being driven by reliable data and user research?
• Is the product intuitive enough to guess and present what the user wants?

UX design provides solutions to real-life user problems. By thinking through questions like the ones mentioned above, and finding an acceptable answer to each one of them, a product designer can achieve this goal. It is a relatively new field because companies worldwide are slowly realizing that it is equally important to attract, as well as retain users through their product.

A UX designer’s role includes a myriad of responsibilities, namely:

• Analyzing competitors and customers
  A competitive analysis helps a UX designer to gather useful information about the product landscape, its details, the market share, etc. It is also done to research the user demographics, visual design language, content, and language. This data is then compared to have an understanding of the product’s general competition.
• Deciding product structure and strategy
  While vision gives clarity for the desired goal, strategy defines the journey to achieve it. Even before the design and development begin, a strategy is made to create milestones of what should be done step by step.

  

   

• Wireframing
  Wireframes are like the backbone of designing a product, also called a low fidelity prototype/representation. It contains the elements needed on a screen and the order in which it should come. It is created quicker than the actual design because everything is represented in its purest form (e.g., crossed rectangles for image placeholders). In the wireframing stage, it is easier to do changes after gathering feedbacks.
• Prototyping
  While wireframing provides the visual idea of the planned layout, prototyping gets more close to the actual product. It consists of middle to high fidelity representation. It gives the look and feel of the final product as well as the interactions, which further proves itself helpful in user-testing.
  

So, to sum it up, UI design is how products appear, and UX design is how it functions.

Points to Ponder On

1. Don’t just design transitions, but the whole interaction

Designers go head over heels seeing those fabulous Dribbble designs and fancy transitions. The innovations that have occurred in modern interactive devices such as smartphones, smart-watch, etc. have made it possible to bring in a plethora of effects and inspirations too such as scrolling animations, button transitions and all sort of flashy things. While it is tempting to use these from a predefined library, the goal should not go out of focus. Use whatever is necessary and feasible for development.

2. Think Quality over quantity

Following types of data could emerge from user research:

• Quantitative:
  Survey results, A/B test data and conversion rates – measurable data that indicates numbers – where, when or how much.
• Qualitative:
  Observations of user test participants quote from contextual interviews – data that helps the product designer understand the why.

If being in a dilemma, or being in a situation where only one of them can be chosen, having an understanding of why users do something is more valuable than having numerical measurements that may not even be helpful in the issue involved.
Recommended Read: Top Trends In Design and Web Development

3. Use more research methods

Every research method has its perks as well as drawbacks. That is why using a mix of them can provide more dimensions to the data acquired. Triangulating research can enable UX designers to confirm data accuracy and relevance, helping them to have a more precise view.

4. Use more participation

It is required to have a common showcase arena where the project progress, findings, and planned steps can be exhibited to promote more transparency and participation. Choose the participants strategically and make it easy to access whatever is relevant to them. Users, stakeholders and colleagues, everyone collectively has more ideas, insights, and perspectives than a single UX designer, so take advantage of this great asset. Everyone may not be from the same demographic, but they drive the design to a more user-centric approach, which further promotes relationship building and helps build something astounding by collaboration.

5. Be visual in the first steps

While design documents provide insight into client requirements and user needs, it is preferable to be more visual. You don’t need to worry even if sketching is not one of your skillsets; nobody needs to be an artist while delivering ideas about the user flow and design. One of the most significant benefits is that it provides a broader understanding of the problems a UX designer is trying to solve.

Common Mistakes that are Killing Your Conversion Rate

The facts below provide an overview of the current situation:

• 38% of users leave a website if the content or layout is unattractive.
• 47% users expect a web page to load in two seconds or less.
• 95% of visitors agree that good user experience is the most crucial element of a website.
• 94% of people will close and stop trusting a site if the website design is not engaging.

  

The attention span of users is getting smaller day-by-day. They want results with less effort, less time and patience is barely existent. Getting through many screens to get what they want is a huge turnoff which drives them away, especially in a market where there are many more competitive products and content out there.
Mentioned below are some aspects that might be killing your conversion rate:

• • Confusing and Cluttered Layout
    Putting more and more content in one visible part of the screen order to put it in the users’ glance at first, is a terrible idea.

    If everything is made to draw attention, none of them gets it
    

    A designer should think more precisely and put themselves in users’ shoe to understand – What is the most important thing they may want to know or do. Information should be presented step-by-step according to that importance. There should only one goal that is to be focused – Conversion.

• • Device Unresponsive Design
    More and more users are using digital services on their mobile or tablets, which are easy to carry on-the-go. When they are not able to enjoy the best features on small screens, they leave. Responsive design of a digitally interactive product makes it flexible across all screen resolutions.

• • Unintuitive Navigation
    After de-cluttering the content, the next task at hand is deciding the hierarchy and navigation. What a website or application has to offer should be evident in the heading, and how they can gain from it should be described shortly in subheadings. Do not re-invent the wheel. Put things where users’ expect to find it. Do not make many positions, look or form changes from what they are used to. This might confuse and frustrate them. User-friendly navigation keys are critical, as there is only a second or two to convince a user to stay.

• • Text-Text Everywhere
    Nobody has the time to go through blocks of text. What an end user does is comb through it to get an overview of the subject. Therefore using related, informational, and soothing imagery may take the users out of the monotonous boredom of reading and at the same time feed the knowledge about the text they might not be reading. So try to use less but precise wording wherever applicable.

• • The 404 Dead-End
    There are situations where a user might not be able to find what they need and land on a 404. Consider a use case of an e-commerce application, where the user cannot find the product he/she was looking for. Such situations can be creatively utilized to drive the user to someplace where they could have a new start. The home page or the seasons’ new outfit collection might be a good place to start with. Presenting the users with aesthetically pleasing illustration, or animation of an empty crate is also an excellent way to hold on to them.

Concluding View:

“People ignore designs that ignores people.”

— Frank Chimero, Designer

Over the last decade, hardware has witnessed tremendous transformation. Now products have become much cheaper, efficient and smaller. Therefore making similar softwares proficient of beautiful animations, graphics, and interactions is extremely critical.
Now it is just not enough for designers to create an efficient application. Users are expecting more and more out of their devices; they want impeccable efficiency along with beautiful graphics and tasteful interactions.
This transition is pushing designers to get more creative with their design strategy.
The responsibilities of a designer have unbundled to much more than they used to be. With the influx of so many domains, designers now need to be appropriate ‘specialists’.
That is why designers at EngineerBabu are handpicked from the crowd to create the best possible user experience possible for our customers. We have solid expertise in creating world-class design solutions. With a portfolio of more than 100 exquisitely designed products under our wings, the tremendous hard work our dedicated team puts-in is quite evident from the smile of our satisfied customers.
Check out our creatively designed products, right here.

Recommended Read:

• The Ideal Custom Logo Design Company
• Top Trends in Design and Web Development
• Features of a Successful Mobile Application
• How Much Does Mobile App Development Cost?
• How Much Does Website Development Cost?

The post What is UI and UX? A Designer’s Guide to the Tech Industry appeared first on EngineerBabu Blog.

What is The Importance of Usability?

Before we jump to what usability involves, it is essential to understand as to why it is important. Well, many a time, it happens that a user browses through a particular website but does not proceed with purchasing. The reason for such an action is quite simple; the product is not usable, and hence, the UX is terrible. If the users are unable to attain their goals effectively and are dissatisfied; they will undoubtedly move to the competition to achieve their goals. This is why usability matters.

Any product or business would not want to lose its customers to competitors. Thus, the designers of any product, website or app aim to ensure that their products are usable and are at lesser risk to the abundant alternative solutions in the market. Usability is a result of a user-centric design approach that determines in what way and why a user would accept a product and based on this, evaluates a product for its use.
For a product to be usable, it must have these characteristics:

• Effective- That is when a product supports the user while working. For example, while filling up card details in the payment section; the user is prompted only for a valid debit card. This helps in reduced data entry errors and assists users with correct task completion.
• Efficient- This term might confuse users with effectiveness, but it has a lot to do with the speed of the task performance. Efficiency is how easily a user can navigate through product and find it usable to access. The user can browse through any device, desktop or mobile.
• Engaging- This is solely dependent on how attractive and gratifying a product is for the user. Here, the aesthetics plays a very crucial role. Well-set page layouts, readability, and easy navigation takes user in the right direction; making the product highly interactive and engaging for the users.
• Ease-of-learning – If any business aims to make a product bestselling, the key is to provide a good product learning experience to the user. Almost every product comes with upgrades and newly added features for the comfort of users. The more a user is updated and learned about the product, the more likely he/she is to use it.

Usability of the Payment Process

Mobile devices, high-speed data communication, and online commerce are creating expectations that convenient, secure, real-time payment and banking capabilities should be available whenever and wherever they are needed.

– Jerome Powell

Since we now understand what usability is, it will be convenient to get to the element which assists in enhancing usability. Online payments these days are not a new thing, but the way it is escalating; usability matters a lot. Every user wishes to make payment conveniently, especially when it is through mobile devices or desktop applications, and this is why a simpler and convenient payment solution is required.

Payment usability is a critical element for online businesses. It is difficult to find customers, market them the products and persuade them to the checkout process; but what is more difficult is to keep the user spirit throughout the payment process. It is reported that a non-user friendly payment checkout-page leads to shopping cart abandonment. This shows why it is essential to provide users with an effective and efficient check-out solution. The manner in which a checkout page is designed can significantly impact the customer experience.
Statistics reports that almost 21% of the online users abandon their online shopping due to long and tedious check out process. Also, 24% of the online buyers are reported to get distracted while making payments. This clearly defines that payment and usability are more closely connected than one can think.
If the users find no way to pay, they will have no way to buy.
Hence, it is advisable for online businesses to accept payments through various payment methods be it a credit card, debit card, net banking or UPI for that matter. This ensures that the user can pay through any option they are comfortable with.
Previously, banking institutions were the only secured check-out (offline mode) option but with the technology getting its root in online purchasing & payments; mobile wallets, payment through wearable devices, tokenization, mobile payment apps are some of the secured payment mediums available for the ease of users. To keep up with the interest of users in fast payment, all a business needs is an improved payment experience with a considerably lesser number of transaction steps. This is the reason why one-click payments are trending these days, making payment process effective and efficient.
Providing users with a bunch of payment options might complicate the checkout process. Hence, here we enlist the ways to instantly improve your payment usability:
1. Check-Out Design for Users
Many a time while shopping online, a user is navigated to a third party page for the checkout process which may cause trust and credibility issues. A checkout section that is designed in line with the website theme enriches the transaction experience. The elegant & modern user interface with customer perspective tells that the checkout page belongs to the particular website; thereby building trust and user satisfaction.
2. Single-Click Payment
This is one of the most effective and the very basic of payment usability. Reduced number of steps to the payment process may lead to an instant conversion. These days, the conversion is very much possible with the “one-click payment option”, which is available with the option “remember my card details” for faster checkout. Selecting this option saves customer data and recalls the next time a user makes a payment.
For example, if any user pays through credit card the first time, he/she can choose to save credit card details (credit card number and card expiration details). The next time when the same user makes a purchase, the saved details are loaded and asks for CVV number to authenticate the transaction — this single-click payment option assists in faster conversion and better user experience.
3. Automatic Logo Display
When a user inputs first four digits of his/her card number, the logo corresponding to the card type appears automatically, with security logos. This display of familiar logo ascertains the user that the transaction or payment method is acceptable. This enhances the likeliness of payment completion, saves time and ensures more friendly payments. The security logos or security badges also add to the trust of the user during payment processing.
4. Auto-filled forms
When you ask for too much of information from user every time they visit your site for purchase, you are likely to lose a customer. It is advisable to endow customers with a quick and easy check out process. Elements like pre-fill or auto-fill based on pin code, city, and state, can make the process easy for returning user. Also, auto filling the name field of credit/debit card section also makes it simple for customers to transact. Ask for only the essential information, and you will never drop out a customer.
5. Clear Error Indicators
While check-out, if the user needs to enter information multiple times and only a red outline appears asking to re-enter the field; may cause a user to abandon the checkout and move to competition. Hence, it is recommended to provide explicit error instruction aside the red error box so that the user understands what is wrong with the input. For some errors like wrong password, merchants can also provide a hint that helps to enter the correct information.
6. Always Display Amount
Some e-commerce websites hide the actual payment amount while the user enters payment information at the checkout section. And when the actual payment appears or is deducted, it can annoy the user. Hence, it is always recommended to display the actual amount to be paid by the user, so that there are no surprises for the user.
7. Clear Call-to-Action buttons
A generic call to action such as “Go” and “Ok” does not explain well. Instead, use a call to action that explains the process such as “Pay Now”, “I’m ready to pay”, “Proceed to pay” etc. Such call-to-actions eliminate distractions and helps in faster checkout.

Some Other Aspects of Payment Usability

Mobile Experience

With the rise in mobile phone usability, users now not only purchase from desktops but prefer smartphones for convenience. This user behaviour has connected payments through mobile devices, and here too payment usability is utmost important. With almost every e-commerce merchant supporting mobile channel, users look for simpler mobile payments options. In this case, speed and usability along with less information input are essential to users.
For anyone who is aiming business growth, the best of mobile payments experience for a user is:

• One-click payment
• Minimum inputs
• Less typing in small screen
• Eliminate extra steps
• Mobile friendly design and navigation

Customized Payment Gateway

If you are a business that feels that your payment form is unpleasant, but at the same time you do not wish to spend on redesigning it as it is an expensive affair, a customized payment gateway is your option. A tacky checkout section may reduce conversion and hence, you should look for a payment gateway that is responsive and can be easily integrated with your website. A responsive payment gateway allows the user to pay from any device and can be easily customized to fit your site.The more natural payment process is the likeliness of returning users exponentially improves. While choosing a payment gateway provider, always look for the one that:

• Provides fastest and easiest checkout
• Supports payment form with multiple languages
• Allows to pay on your site instead of redirecting to the third party

The simple checkout for users impacts any business. Payment usability not only concerns user experience but also assist in conversion growth. Many businesses lose their customers at the end of purchase cycle; hence it is mandatory for a business to provide users with a smooth checkout and a better buying experience. For a smooth and flawless payment screen, all a business owner needs to take care of, other than the above-mentioned aspects, is to carry out usability tests for bugs and unexpected crashing of apps.

Applications Offering Smoothest Checkout UX

Many ecommerce websites offer a smooth checkout feature and are considered the finest for payment usability aspect. A convenient checkout allows either one-time registration or allows check out as a guest user, making it easy for the user to pay.
Here goes our list of some of the finest ecommerce checkout sections:

• Amazon – The frequent users of Amazon would agree that the checkout process with a desktop as well as the mobile app is truly convenient. Like all other ecommerce sites, it requires user details such as billing and shipping address, preferred payment method at initial purchase. But once you are registered, it’s just a three-step checkout.
• Myntra– This Indian fashion accessories and online clothing store offers a great UX. It also offers users with a three-step checkout similar to Amazon. However, the difference is Myntra checkout section displays almost all the payment methods available credit/debit cards, net banking, UPI, mobile wallets and even cash on delivery mode. For UPI payments and net banking, it redirects the user to a secured payment gateway which displays theme similar to Myntra theme retaining user trust and credibility.
• Dominos– One of the most technically sound and well-adapted ecommerce application is that of Dominos. The app is timely updated and works well with the changing customer behaviour. The best part of Dominos checkout is that it does not ask for registration, save payment details for returning customers. Along with this, if a user forgets the password, it can still order using email id. The application does not force to reset the password and then continue to order.

The Final Word

Having mentioned all the aspects of payment usability, it is quite evident that your checkout page is the crucial part of your online business. Unless you convert your users into customers, you cannot achieve sales and revenue online. The payment stage is level where trust is essential. A slight distraction or error can have a serious impact on your online store sales. Along with aesthetics, user feedback too plays a vital role in minimizing errors, reduce friction on the page and optimizing checkout section.
The key to better payment usability and the best of user experience is to streamline the checkout page. Ensure that as an online store, you offer all the available payment options to customers endowing them with the smooth user journey throughout the buying cycle- from initial user visit to sales conversion.
Our solutions have helped our customers scale their business to tremendous heights. Our dedicated team ensures that customer’s requirements are addressed at each and every step of the development lifecycle.

Check out our portfolio, right here! 
Leverage our solid domain expertise in developing elegant and simplistic payment gateways for your products and Contact us right away, if you are on the lookout for a tech-partner.

Handpicked Content for You:

• How to Build an Awesome eCommerce App?
• 15 Tips for Designing a Mobile Friendly Ecommerce Website
• How Much Does Mobile App Development Cost?

The post How to Enhance Your Payments Usability- Instantly! appeared first on EngineerBabu Blog.

Imagine a situation when your user is visiting your website, but it becomes difficult for him to understand your business and he is having a terrible experience instead. You will lose him and all of his references forever.  And when it will keep happening, it will cost you 100s of users daily. And mind it that’s a big loss.
You might be thinking, what went wrong SEO is perfect, marketing is perfect, the product is perfect and the team is perfect. Then what’s wrong with the business?
Well, that’s your website. Yes, because your website is global speaker of your business. That’s the first place where your user is interacting with you and when this experience is bad, it doesn’t matter how good is your product and services, you gonna lose that user and ultimately business.

“Good design is good business.” -Thomas J. Watson, Jr. http://t.co/ficddAlW6Q pic.twitter.com/wggTkI7iKL

— IBM (@IBM) March 18, 2014

Here, are few things to consider while designing your website:

Top 10 Website Design ideas for Small Businesses

1.  A Good website design means

For me, a website means ‘Business’. And most of us, good website design is one “which is looking good”. But that’s just a small part of it. A website which is looking good not necessarily helps you in getting good business.
A good website design means, simplicity, visibility (UI), usability and user-friendly (UX). It should have simplicity in terms of color combination and placement of elements, all the important elements need to be easy-to-use, hassle free flow, call-to-action at all necessary places. Avoid all sort of redundancy, whether it’s text, images, characters, colors, it should be balanced.
The most updated version of website design is ‘Material UI’. Most of the website designers and freelancers follow material UI defined principles.
2. UX is the twin brother of UI.
For a website design, both UI and UX are equally important when it comes to a good website design.
The term “UX” is relatively new, the concept of user-friendly design has been there for generations.
UX may cost you some money now, but it definitely gonna pay you back in no time. UX leads to the customer satisfaction in very first interaction with your users.

When your first interaction is so satisfactory, it reduces the cost of customer acquisition, customer support, instead, increases retention. Even if your UI is good but you kept UX secondary, you will get secondary results.
3. Invest now, reap forever
During the first year of Amazon, Jeff Bezos invested much more in user experience (UX) than in advertising the product. Currently, the way Amazon is leading over their competitors we all have witnessed ourselves. That was an investment in the product, not the cost.
Similarly, we have to invest in making our website UX best, later it will itself start making money for making it better by the time. We have multiple examples available, like Facebook, Apple, Google, Airbnb, these company outperformed because of the better user experience even when the similar products were already existing.
Hire website designer who has expertise in UI and UX, and understands your product and users well. Remember it’s an investment.

4. The first impression is the last impression
We all must have heard that phase at some point of time in life. And we know how true it stands. So, same is with your website. Your products website is your first interaction with your users, and it should be able to leave the best impression.
[Tweet “A great design lives beyond time and function-M.Cobanli.”]
The message should be very loud and clear. Your homepage must have all the ingredients to answer all the questions of the user. If any of the answers are missing, and your website design fails to convey the right message, you will lose your potential buyer.
Right from the logo, to tagline, to colors, placement of elements, call to action all counts in when it comes to good website design. The dimension, color, and position of each element should work together and creates a clear path to understand your interface. All these things have a great impact on driving users and sales by way of SEO.
5. Good website design means good business

A good website design, increase the rate of conversion from user to your customer. This is what most important for an entrepreneur or a businessman.
A website should have a very clear message and call to actions placed beautifully where user have maximum tendency to buy your product.
A good website designer, have this expertise but you are the one who should know what to be placed.
If you don’t have the web designer and web developer with you, you can hire freelancers.
A freelancer is a good choice for small business, as they are much more pocket-friendly than having your own team.
6. Give the first preference to users
We often see website good in UI but underperforms business expectation. It happened when the end user is ignored.
We should not forget that we are designing a website for the users not for us. So, we need to anticipate the users choice and habits, not ours.
Users try to stick to the one which is easy for them to use and understand. One needs to do research about customer preferences and choices, and need to invest time in understanding the customers need before moving ahead with the design. The best website design considers all.
7. Website Design, SEO, Business walk hand-in-hand
A good UI and UX is an add-on for the SEO, which ultimately derives business. SEO works on certain principles, it brings users to the website but imagines if user skips the website without making any clicks or going through your product and services.
Then all the hard work and efforts go in vain. While designing website considers the elements required for SEO and place them in a way that it will help users in going through the website and buy your product.
For eg. Call-to-action, it should be at all the places where users have maximum tendency to click.
[Tweet “The Top 10 Reasons Your Small Business Needs Great Website Design.”]
8. Competition? A good design has a winning edge over the competition
Guess what, a good design helps in winning over competitors. Many of the business shy away from trying something good and new, they prefer to take the risk to go with the existing available designs while the one who tries to do something new yet simple and attractive earns the customers attention.
A good UI and UX earns customers loyalty and stickiness, one user finds your website easy to use, they won’t go anywhere for the next time. In fact, they will refer to others about the good aspects of your website.
A good website design turns users into their brand ambassador. Simple changes in the flow can make a website easy to use and the other one too complex to understand. We all want to go with the easy one always.
9. Saves Money
A good website with an easy flow, makes the user understand it quickly which will save your support cost indirectly. A good design doesn’t let the user realize the time consumed in reaching the goal he is looking for.
10. Content is King
Design without a content is like coffee without sugar. A good website needs equally good content. A good content, like the headline, tagline, about us, helps a user in understanding about the product and services in detail. A good content placed rightly adds value to your website.

Content helps in SEO also. So, while designing website consider the content and give it proper place.
As I mentioned earlier your website is your global speaker. It’s a way to communicate with your customer.
When you are in business we all know the customer is king. Then it becomes mandatory to consider customer choices, preferences and ease of using it. Don’t forget, you are making a website for customers, not for yourself. And customers means business.
EngineerBabu holds expertise in making UI, UX friendly websites for you. And we have a large pool of freelancers, website designer, UI & UX experts, who can help you out in launching a perfect website for your business.

The post Top 10 Reasons Your Small Business Needs Great Website Design appeared first on EngineerBabu Blog.