UX/UI design

UX/UI design — a comprehensive service that results in the creation of a product or service with a central focus on the user, their tasks, and their experience while interacting with the product.

UX/UI design in a nutshell

Analyze the audience
User experience analysis
UI and graphic design
Increasing user satisfaction
Evaluating improvements
Perfecting the product iteratively
Analyze the target audience

It's not possible to improve user experience without first thoroughly studying the users of the product and their needs. To start things off, we analyze all the data we can put our hands on, such as: web statistics (Google Analytics), user reviews and comments posted to social networks, and customer support cases. The analysis allows us to identify expectations, demands and problems that can arise while interacting with the product. If the product is still in its development phase, we analyze similar products from competitors instead.

User experience analysis

Depending on the project, to describe the existing user experience formally, we use user experience maps, user task maps or user journey maps if interaction with the product involves several interaction channels. While creating these documents, we pay close attention to the following details: which actions take the most time for the users to complete, which actions are most often repeated, whether any particular periods of user activity lasted too long. This information can then be used to determine if any actions can be simplified or automated.

Additionally, we create metrics that allow us to track the improvement of the user experience. For example, in the case of social networks, one of the most important indicators of user experience is user engagement i.e. the time spent interacting with the product and the number of activities (likes, reposts, comments, etc.) per unit of time. While in other cases, in an app for ordering taxis, for example, other metrics may in fact be more important (e.g. the average taxi wait time, the rate of cancellation for orders already confirmed by drivers, the accuracy of trip cost and trip duration estimation).

UI and graphic design

If the project involves the development of a new product, then this phase begins with the creation of the information architecture design: we draft a document with a description of entities and services related to the future product and perform card sorting to compose the menu structure.

Then, taking into account user expectations, demands and barriers identified in previous stages, as well as the user experience map, we begin designing interfaces and their associated graphic design.

Increasing user satisfaction

The phase in UX/UI design that requires the most creativity is that of increasing user satisfaction. The content of this phase can vary considerably from project to project, but the most common steps are:
— product personalization (additional features and settings that do not directly relate to functionality but allow the user to customize the product according to match their personal preferences, such as color themes, background images, sound themes, etc.);
— increasing product value (including in the interface an elaboration on the value of each operation and the product as a whole, adding new features while minimizing user effort);
— improving the accessibility of the product for users with disabilities;
— detailing the onboarding process (which serves to help users get acquainted with the product); — improving user engagement in the product.

Evaluating user experience improvement

To assess improvements in the user experience, we analyze metrics that were set in the second phase of the UX/UI design process. Depending on the product and available budget, this can be done through in-depth user interviews, usability testing in our lab, and/or remote usability testing.

Perfecting the product iteratively

UX/UI design is not a one-shot procedure, but rather an approach that involves creating and then continuously improving a product over the product's lifetime. As in other lines of products, just when the new version of the product is released, the development of the next version begins immediately - be it an operating system, iPhone or SUV.

Customer feedback

Together with User House, we are working on our company's landmark project. We've already completed the prototyping phase, which is surprisingly fast given this type of project - all thanks to the team's depth of knowledge and expertise in this field...

Together with User House, we are working on our company's landmark project. We've already completed the prototyping phase, which is surprisingly fast given this type of project - all thanks to the team's depth of knowledge and expertise in this field.

The graphic design phase, particularly, was a nice surprise. Initially, we planned only to use User House services to render some secondary segments for the project and outsource the job of creating a concept and graphic design for key segments to agencies in the UK. However, the User House team proved to offer design quality that was on par and sometimes superior to that which the British agencies could offer. And so we went with the style and graphic design proposed by the User House team. The product turned out to be very useful and stylish. Thank you guys and keep up the great work!

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Vladimir Dobrynin

User House is a community of professionals who are able to simultaneously and effectively apply both creative and scientific approaches in their method. The scientific approach is applied using statistical methods to measure the usability of the website; meanwhile, the creative approach is utilized during the design and development of the prototypes...

The middle of 2011 was highlighted by an update of the websites of the Forex Club group of companies, making the sites even more convenient and user friendly. This was all thanks to our fruitful collaboration with User House.

User House is a community of professionals who are able to simultaneously and effectively apply both creative and scientific approaches in their method. The scientific approach is applied using statistical methods to measure the usability of the website; meanwhile, the creative approach is utilized during the design and development of the prototypes for the pages and interfaces. Due to this effective combination of approaches, not only do the resulting websites have a remarkably unique design but they are also finely balanced in terms of information interaction.

Before creating prototypes for the pages and interfaces for the Forex Club group of companies, the User House team conducted usability testing and completed an expert review of the interfaces, which ultimately revealed new possibilities for improving the websites' effectiveness. The implementation of these fundamental solutions has significantly reduced both the time needed for an end user to adapt to working with the site and the time needed for them to search and find key information within the site.

Forex Club group of companies: "It was a joy to collaborate with User House and we are very happy with the results of the project. Our new websites received favorable feedback from regular customers, while an improved site layout reduced the load on our call center by affording users easier access to answers and solutions via the company website".

User House: "It is no accident that the Forex Club group of companies is one of the leaders in its market. They are true professionals with whom it is a pleasure to collaborate with and communicate - and the tasks they set are always very specific and complete. We look forward to working with Forex Club again in the future and wish them the utmost success!"

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Denis Ivanov