Users are drunk
Well drunk-ish. They don’t have full awareness when they navigate through your site or apps. Some of them feel intimidated at first sight, before they’ve even tried to use it. Which is the main reason why we don’t get enough clients. It is important that we design like the user is in fact drunk. Despite the blurry vision and short attention span, they can still use our products like a pro and keep themselves interested.
Design for humans
Our most common mistake in designing is self design. We anticipate user’s behaviors, needs, and wants. Sometimes we go on and pack our product full of features to impress other designers, and we tend to forget that it’s already too complicated to use.
Guide users
We should guide our users in using our product. The key is emphasis. But we can’t emphasise everything. Don’t make elements compete with each other. Establish a hierarchy. Place the most important / most used elements above the fold. Another is to place elements where they are commonly seen.
some examples include:
- Main message or action button on the hero section.
- Navigation on top or right side.
- Settings button - usually placed on the right most part of your navigation.
- Search or help area on top.
You can also use jQuery tools that guide users through the basics of your app.
Have it tested
There are lots of tools can help you test your site user-experience wise.
The User is Drunk
Like literally drunk! You pay Richard (the person behind the website) to get drunk and critique your website. Sending you in return documented experience on what you need to improve. Sounds fun right? We should give this a try!
What Users Do
“Videos of real people speaking their thoughts using your website, app or prototypes.” They give insights that will help you know what captivates users or what makes them leave.
User Testing
Just like the one mentioned earlier. You get videos of users reacting as they use your product. These videos may help you increase user conversion and retention.
Conclusion
Stop designing features and start designing flows. Because we can’t totally design user experience. Each of them has their own.