People think it’s this veneer – that the designers are handed this box and told, ‘Make it look good!’ That’s not what we think design is. It’s not just what it looks like and feels like. Design is how it works.
- Steve Jobs

What is user experience?

User Experience (UX) is about designing technology so that it meets the needs of users. It ensures products are efficient, easy to learn and satisfying to use. UX is a way of thinking about technology – which is what I’d like to discuss in this post – and also a set of tools for putting its principles into practice, some of which I’ll introduce in future articles.

Good and bad experiences

As users, we have all experienced poorly designed software, just as we’ve experienced good and bad customer service. My most recent example (from last week) was fighting with PowerPoint during a presentation. I ended up fumbling embarrassingly with video display settings, eliciting both pity and annoyance from my audience.

To the user, a good experience is often invisible. It’s the product that ‘just works’. For a content-based site it’s an interface that gets out the way, and lets the content do the talking. You go to the website and can find what you’re looking for without needing to think about it.

Create products for people

As marketers, we find ourselves increasingly involved in designing digital products – websites or mobile apps that help users achieve a task. I’ve been recently involved in a tool to help novices learn about whisky, another to help car prospects calculate the best finance deal for them, and one that encourages kids to be more active.

Taking a user-centred view of these products means putting yourself in the shoes of the customer. Why have they come to this site? What do they want to achieve? How can we make that as simple and satisfying an experience for them as we can? Why will they love it? Imagine you are the target audience – would you use it?

“1. Focus on the user and all else will follow” – Our Philosophy – Ten things we know to be true, Google

Focus on user needs

People come to websites to achieve tasks. Here are some examples: To buy a book, to watch a funny video, to read the news, to see what their friends have been up to. It’s not too hard to think of websites that satisfy these needs, and that’s because websites like YouTube or Facebook have a clear understanding of what their users want to do, and translate that understanding into good, clear, focused design.

I worked on the design of BBC iPlayer leading up to and after its launch during Christmas in 2007, which resulted in increasing unique daily users from 35,000 to 500,000. One of the reasons for its success was its focus on one user need – to watch/listen to BBC TV and radio programmes. The design included only things that help users carry out this goal as easily as possible. It could have cross-promoted other BBC websites much more strongly by carrying programme or channel branding, or it could have become an IMDB-like programme encyclopaedia for the BBC. It could also have hosted other types of programme-related content such as games or articles. But these would have complicated the interface making it more difficult and frustrating for users to do what they wanted – to catch on yesterday’s Eastenders, Doctor Who or Top Gear. Instead, ensuring the site aimed to satisfy this one user need resulted in a simple, easy to use and satisfying interface.

In summary, getting in to a user-centred frame of mind and focusing on users’ needs is a good starting point for creating digital products. But UX is also about tools and techniques that help us evaluate and design products. In my next post, I’ll introduce a key technique in any UX practitioner’s handbook, usability testing, and I’ll reveal its big secret that most usability agencies won’t want you to know.

Adam Hutchinson is Lead User Experience Architect at EHS 4D Digital
adam.hutchinson@ehs4ddigital.com