User Experience Design Services

Simple UX Web Design

Clients who work with Lelander invariably ask us to design a user experience strategy (UX) that is simple and intuitive. It’s a fair request. Except for one thing. Simple is often in the eye of the beholder. Meaning there is no quantifiable, universal standard for it. When asking what makes design simple and intuitive, the answer is that there is no single answer. No easy button. Which makes simple actually kind of hard.

Customizing the User Experience

If you attempt to make software for everyone, the least- and most-experienced users are often left in the dust. Savvy users end up frustrated by the breadcrumbs needed to guide less-sophisticated users along. Bottom line? People bring their own personal background to the user experience. A 65-year-old woman in Sarasota is going to use software differently than a 15-year-old boy in Shanghai. No matter how you slice it, the unique background each user brings to the table ultimately informs the experience we create for them. What is intuitive for one may not be for another.

Hardware throws another wrinkle into things. Keyboards, for example, present a different set of user needs than touch-screens. Place is another factor—as in the place where users happen to be engaging with software. Are they in the quiet confines of a private office (with a nice big hi-def monitor), or are they in line using their iPhoneX to order a Poké bowl? Hardware and the context play major roles in how UX is conceived.

We Do the User Experience Research for You

At Lelander, we come at UX from several angles. We start by doing our homework. Our research tools are informed by anthropology, psychology, ethnography, and toss in a dash of common sense. Why all the ologys? Because that’s the only way to really understand who we’re talking to, what motivates them, and what might confuse them. The more we can think like our users the better we can dial in their experience.

One of our favorite research tools is a persona. Each one we create represents a fictional user or archetype. Rooted in research and data, we begin to flesh each persona out—getting to nuances and character quirks that bring each one to life. We then take the added step of validating our fictional users by interviewing actual people who match their personalities. In the end, the resemblance is scary. Scary good.

The next step is building out scenarios for our new friends to experience. With hardware and place playing key roles, our personas are put on stage where we watch them behave. As the persona heads down the user path we’re building, we can empathize with their struggles, understand their motivations, and make design decisions to help them along.

We then step back into the real world. Usability testing allows us to understand how actual users engage with the solutions we create. Potential snags are ironed out, and good experiences are made better. Once released, we review analytics, make tweaks based on our findings, then build the system for speed. While it’s not necessarily easy, this is what it takes to make something simple. Well, for the intended audience, at least.

UI / UX research and design are not easy tasks, but they are critical to the optimal performance of your website or app. If you are looking for a knowledgeable UX company to design and implement a successful user experience for your project, call our UI / UX consultants (314) 937-7189 for more information.