User Experience's Role in Usability and Design
Introduction to User Experience (UX) and Usability
From reading this blog, you will understand the importance of user experience when it comes to the usability and design of websites and how it plays a role in user satisfaction and loyalty. You will also learn that there are similarities between the usability and User Experience, but they are not the same. This blog will also go over what user experience is, the difference between User experience and User Interface and how to apply it to web design.
Defining User Experience and its comparison to Usability
When discussing User Experience depending on the author, they will consider User Experience to be an extension of Usability while others will consider them to be the same thing. For this article, we will consider User Experience to be an extension of usability.
User Experience can be defined as “the experience of someone using a product, system, or service, for example whether they find it enjoyable and easy to use” it considers how a user perceives a website before during and after using it.
Usability in web design is how a website can be used by its users efficiently, effectively, satisfyingly and to achieve the goal that the user wants it to do. Usability a concept that was first founded by researchers and focus groups in the 1970s, while it started off only focusing on how operable something was, it now also focuses on the experience that the user has.
Difference between user interface and user experience
User experience is the overall satisfaction that a user will have when using a website whereas a user interface is more specific to elements on a page and how they work together to make a website usable.
User Experience in Web Design
Important factors of the usability of web pages are how well the website functions and by the web designer considering what the user needs from the site. The usability of a website is an important factor of user experience for multiple reasons, including: the likelihood for the user to recommend the website to another based off their experience through the usability of the website. The visual design of the website is also very important and can be portrayed through various ways including the colours, font or fonts used on the website elements should also have clarity and have legibility The users experience will also affect the chance in which they will use the website again in the future and the user’s perception of how valuable the website is.
Problems faced with creating a good User Experience
If a company has a system (in this case a website) they may not want to redesign the website because redesigning a system with user experience in mind may be expensive and may believe that users will have to relearn how to use the site if they were to do a redesign even if it may be considered easier to use. Another problem when developing a UX focused on usability is that you are not the user and should focus on what will make the UX more usable to the end user should be top priority.
Conclusion
In conclusion, Usability and User experience have a close relation to each other with User Experience focusing on the overall perception that the user has. While the usability would play a part in the users’ overall experience of the website because if the website isn’t usable, they will likely have a bad experience. Although usability is a part in having a good user experience, other areas should be considered including the aesthetic and design of the website.