Using space, or the emptiness between objects, is an essential balancing element for websites and digital interfaces. It may seem as underrated as the silence between musical notes. But these are what bring your UX designs to life.

Interactive design is composed of many elements, such as layout and structure. Often neglected is negative space, which is one of the most vital, nevertheless.

Often in UX design, transparency and feedback affect a users’ experience and how they engage with a system. Periodic feedback and system knowledge help users feel more in control, which supports better decision-making. The visibility of system status relates to communication and transparency, which are critical to user-system interactions.

Given the overarching function of user experience research (UXR) in bringing end-users’ needs to design conversations, a research method based on direct observation of current workflows offers a powerful way of understanding those needs. Contextual inquiry is such a method; it involves direct observations of and conversations about workflows with subject matter experts or other workers who perform the work that a product is designed to improve.

White space, grids, information architecture, principles, and purpose are all good UX design staples. An often-overlooked tool of UX design, however, is that of the subconscious. The human brain has a fascinating ability to observe an image and create a ‘whole’ more significant than the sum of its parts. It is wired to see structure, logic, and patterns that don’t exist but are perceived by the onlooker. That’s why we see children (and adults) often finding patterns and entities in things like abstract designs, trees, nature, etc.

UX design must often include micro-interaction elements and ways for subtle user interactions. These components make the design more communicative and illustrative while improving its usability. However, user designers must know precisely when and where to include an active motion to enhance usability. For example, on Twitter, pulling down the screen would refresh the content. The screen slides down and bounces back, revealing a spinning wheel. This tells the user that some action has been initiated and is happening at the moment.

Many companies focus on innovation and better ways to represent themselves through their product designs to stay relevant and competitive. UX design is the primary ingredient in the secret recipe to exceptional customer service delivery. According to Win the Customer:

UX design provides a gateway of convenient and intuitive interactions between a brand and a customer. A user perceives a brand as a single experience rather than a collection of different interactive channels. This calls for the delivery of consistent brand experiences through design through all the connected channels. As emerging technologies evolve, so do user expectations. Users have become more sophisticated where their benchmark for a good experience is higher than ever before. Nowadays, users need to interact with brands on various devices and prefer multi-channel engagement.

In the world of design, UI and UX are often used interchangeably. However, designers have to merge aesthetics, usability, component placement, layout, spacing, and typography to create meaningful and functional interfaces. All these factors of visual design influence significant interactions and drive conversions for a business. All of this sums up to User Experience (UX), a broader term in design. UX Design is a designing process that supports the user’s behavior and includes usability, desirability, and relevance to improve the interactions with a product.

Don’t Make Me Think: A Commonsense Approach to Web Usability author Steve Krug rightly states that, “If you want a great site, you’ve got to test it.” As a designer, you would know that the excellent execution of a bad idea can be a massive waste of time, money, and other resources. Therefore, to distinguish a good from a bad idea initially, you need to test your designs using prototypes. Prototypes are working models of your final product. They help emulate the functionality, look, and feel of the product you’re designing.

The pandemic has inevitably brought a seismic change to new internet users, including senior citizens and those from less privileged communities who were previously technologically “disconnected. “Around 40 percent of the world’s population now has access to the internet. Interestingly, however, only 36% of those in the low-income communities have access to mobile technology Whereas, there is a startling 40% gender gap in how men and women have access to the internet and other technology devices due to pay gaps and cultural mandates in some of the developing countries.