A user flow is also known as a UX flow or flow chart. This can be done either digitally using the appropriate software or physically by drawing it out on a piece of paper. It essentially involves a series of individual actions that make up the entire process. For instance, the user flow for an app registration process might look like this when represented in text:

Entry → Welcome Page → Fill Form → Validate and Submit Form → Verification Email → Authentication → Success Message

That might be oversimplifying it. However, it gives you a good idea of what a user flow is and how it should be rendered.

Why Do We Need User Flows?

Creating user flows when designing a website or an app allows the designer to visualize the user’s path when interacting with the product. Again, since there are multiple interactions possible, there will be multiple user flows. Once the designer understands this ‘map’ of user actions, they can effectively implement the design elements required to execute those actions. There are several other reasons why user flows are essential to superior UX design:

• User flows optimize the number of steps required to complete an action
• They help create intuitive interactions to help users get “in the zone” quickly
• Used to evaluate the effectiveness of UIs or user interfaces so modifications can be made
• Help enhance and optimize user experience, which is the goal of UX design
• They can also be used to help clients and other stakeholders understand how processes are work and how they can be made more efficient
• Define and outline the functional and visual elements of a digital product, so the designer knows exactly what to do

From a high-level view, the biggest reason why user flows are important is that they help stakeholders visualize how an app or site will work from a navigational point of view. The esthetics are deliberately kept out of the picture, as in the case of wireframe prototypes. They show various user flows and logical sequences rather than the actual design and look. That part is considered during the UX design stage in tandem with user flows.

So, we’ve defined user flows and looked at the value they bring to the app or website design process. Next, let’s understand the mechanics of creating a user flow or UX flow chart, after which we’ll look at some of the best tools to create a user flow chart.

How to Create a User Flow Chart

There are some pre-defined steps to follow to create a relevant and useful user flow chart. They are as follows:

1. Define the purpose of the task – What is the intent of the actions? What does the user want to accomplish or gain? What do you want the user to accomplish from a business viewpoint?
2. Determine the source and point of entry – A user coming in from an email link might have different requirements to one coming in from a search engine results page. Understanding these differences allows you to customize the experience to a greater degree.
3. Find out what information the user requires at each point of the interaction. Ensure the information is made available at the right time and on the right step of the process. For example, in an eCommerce site, you may want to tell the customer upfront whether or not you ship to their destination. Making that information available early on will help avoid any frustration when they browse, select a product, fill in their billing information, and finally get to the shipping part to realize that you don’t ship to their ZIP code!
4. Map each user flow separately and then use a design tool to create the user flow chart. This will help you create an accurate high-fidelity interactive prototype and mimics the actual end product before it goes into the expensive development stage.
5. Test the user flow chart, collect feedback, analyze the results, and tweak the flow until it fits multiple user personas. Validating your user flows is critical to the success of your website or app. Do this thoroughly, or you will end up making expensive changes later on, not to mention putting your customers through hell with a bad UX.

Three Best User Flow Tools for UX Flow Design

There are tons of UX design platforms out there, but here are three of the best applications for user flow design. They provide you with all the necessary tools to create accurate and concise user flows so you can quickly validate them through testing and other methods.

Wondershare Mockitt

This amazing design and prototyping tool come with a comprehensive toolkit to create stunning designs and create high-fidelity interactive prototypes in minutes. There’s an entire section dedicated to different types of flow charts. You can use them to get a head start on your user flows. You will have access to a full set of design components, the ability to create your own Bezier and Boolean-based vector designs, and a convenient way to link various elements to show complex user flows along with page designs. This will give the project’s stakeholders an accurate view of user flows and the opportunity to create realistic prototypes to show them how the app or site will look.

Key Features and Benefits of Wondeshare Mockitt

• Cloud-based utility – works inside any browser on a connected device
• A comprehensive collection of asset libraries, templates, UI kits, design systems, and flow chart elements
• Rapid prototyping with fast linking and link editing adds gestures, transitions, effects, animations, etc.
• Import Sketch files and prototypes them in Mockitt
• Collaborative commenting and reviews in real-time
• Easy code inspection, asset downloads, and overall frictionless developer handoffs
• Convenient and secure sharing of flow charts, designs, and prototypes
• Affordable for small and large teams
• Free-forever plan for individual and trial use
• New features include a design tool and the flow chart module

From a user experience perspective, Mockitt is as good as it gets. The clean and intuitive UI, clear navigation, impressive libraries of components, and attractive pricing combine to create a compelling choice for any design team. Make better UX flows, designs, and prototypes with Wondershare Mockitt and see the difference for yourself.

Lucidchart

Lucidchart is a viral flowchart tool that you can use to create complex or simple user flows. One major advantage is that you can preselect groups of icons specifically for creating user flows and other types of flowcharts. Rather than access a separate module like Wondershare Mockitt, Lucidchart lets you choose the icon sets you want to use for each diagram. The toolbar layout is very similar to most Microsoft applications, which makes it easy to start using. There are also several tutorials and help guides to start right.

Key Features and Benefits of Lucidchart

• A vast library of icons for flowcharting and user flow creation
• Microsoft app-like interface provides a gentle learning curve
• Create swimlane containers to define ownership for multiple user flows
• Link shapes to external documents for additional context
• Commenting feature to collaborate easily with multiple stakeholders

Lucidchart is also relatively expensive and offers great value for individuals as well as teams. The only downside is that it is purely a charting tool for user flows. You can create mockups, or wireframe-like process flows that can be prototypes. But unlike Wondershare Mockitt, you can’t design a website or an app directly on Lucidchart. Nevertheless, as a top-rated tool used by many of the world’s largest companies, it deserves special mention.

Figma

Figma is very similar to Wondershare Mockitt and Lucidchart in that it is also an online service that you can access through any modern browser on a connected device. In addition, Figma has a massive repository of free and paid third-party resources such as plugins, design systems, UI kits, and much more. The only downside here is that it is quite expensive, which makes it prohibitive for smaller companies with limited budgets.

Key Features and Benefits of Figma

• Impressive component libraries with access to third-party collections
• Easy design and prototyping tool, but it does require some training
• User flows can be translated into interactive prototypes to show functionality
• Import designs from Sketch and Adobe XD and prototype them in Figma

Figma has an extensive user base, but the interface is a little complicated if you’re a first-time user. The price tag is also a concern, as we said. However, it is undoubtedly a robust platform with rich resources if that’s what your project requires.

User Flow Makes UX Design Better – Conclusion

There’s no contest here in terms of value for money – Wondershare Mockitt wins the bet hands down every time. It is also constantly in a state of development, which means you’ll see new features periodically. A great example is the new design tool and user flow (flowchart) module in the platform. More such features will keep being added to the platform. All your user interface design company needs to do to get the latest update is to have the application open on your computer. The cloud-based service will take care of the rest. Try Mockitt today and create the right user flows to make your UX designs even better.

The post User Flow Makes your UX Design Better appeared first on DesignWebKit.

Customer service should be at the heart of every business. If you take good care of your customers, the revenue will naturally flow. And ever since technology became vital in the retail industry, many solutions have surfaced to help businesses handle customer service operations.

One of them is HappyFox. It’s software that helps businesses streamline customer support processes to provide the best customer service. There are also HappyFox alternatives that offer the same features. It’s up to you to find one that best matches your specific needs.

Hubspot notes that 90% of customers evaluate a company primarily on the basis of its customer service, and 93% are ready to make a re-order with a company that succeeds in providing communication satisfying them. Impressive, isn’t it? Growing customer requirements should result in modern solutions for providing high-quality customer service. One case of negative experience will be enough for the customer to refuse services. The current level of fierce competition in all niches allows finding an alternative at any time.

Thus, we suggest you familiarize yourself with effective recommendations, the implementation of which in your work will assure your customers that you are a king of customer service. What to pay attention to and which way HelpCrunch can come in handy let’s figure it out now.

How to Provide The Best Customer Service – Know Your Product

To help the customer with the product, the customer support manager should, first of all, understand the product. This is an axiom. It is not enough to learn the answers to the most common questions and articulate them by telephone or write in a letter/chat with outright boredom customers will immediately feel the falsity.

Make sure that the responsible employees not only know all the subtleties of the product but also can put themselves in the shoes of the customer. Then, during communication, managers will be able to best demonstrate the most useful features of the product for customers and show them how to deal with the issue in an optimal way.

A team member who can confidently discuss the features and benefits of a product can be a great ambassador for the brand. This gives customers the impression that the company takes pride in what they offer and might even be using them personally, which is why they can talk about the product so well. Many companies do that—they allow their employees to try their offerings so they can give their honest take on them.

How To Provide The Best Customer Service – Build Strong Culture

Given that most of the communication is happening online now, it’s very easy to fall prey to the misinterpretation of your intentions towards the customer. The inability to use voice and facial expressions can turn correspondence with a customer into a cold and distant conversation. And it becomes completely impossible to determine if a person or a bot is talking to you.

This is why defining your brand voice from the get-go is essential. It refers to your brand communication’s unique personality and tone, which will be highly reliant on your target market. For example, if your target market is young and hip moms, you can use a warm and bright brand voice.

On the other hand, if your market is CEOs or industry leaders, then a professional and serious brand voice is more apt. More importantly, all your team members must know how this is delivered, so appropriate training is crucial to be rolled out.

That is why it is important to initially outline the methods of contacting your customers, what words and phrases to use, whether to allow humor and emoji in written conversations or not. The randomness and lack of system in communication with customers lead to a misunderstanding from the side of existing customers and a spoiled first impression from the new ones. You will not have a second chance to make a first impression, so always be prepared for this moment.

If customers feel more comfortable in a telephone conversation, give them an opportunity to express themselves by switching from a chat to a telephone line. Your customer support team should be empathic, because customers are not just people who pay money, but, first of all, people who need your help. Demonstrate your authority and they will want to contact you again. Your relationship with customers is mirrored you get what you give.

Use Top-Notch Customer Service Software

Having dealt with the human factor, the characteristic features of your brand communication, and complete immersion in the product, we can move on to the technical side of the issue. Of course, you can write emails in an old-fashioned way, but in this case, do not expect to stay in the 2020 trend, at the height of live chat technology.

So how to provide the best customer service? To keep up with the times, you need to enter the world of customer service software, and not just any, but the one that provides an all-in-one solution for customer support. A striking representative of the modern customer communication software is HelpCrunch. This is a unified multifunctional platform where you can respond to your incoming customers’ questions via chat, email and offer 24/7 self-service support with a help center.

Respond as Quickly as Possible

It is the speed of response that is now one of the decisive factors in customer retention. Therefore, the importance of effective and functional live chat is growing every year. At the same time, live chat, which is not integrated into the general customer support system, is an extra effort and a lot of additional work to manage requests.

HelpCrunch rethought the concept of a live chat and strengthened it as a structural unit in the customer support system. Thanks to this live chat work to the fullest of its functionality and lets you provide customer support in an effective connection with other tools.

With HelpCrunch, live chat features are greatly expanded: you can respond to customer requests from anywhere using a mobile application. This will significantly reduce the response time and save your customers from having to wait for your appearance online. During off-hours, you can redirect your customers to the knowledge base, where they are free to find the information they need.

Know Your Customers

We have already said that customers love personalization. Now let’s expand this topic: imagine how pleasant it will be for customers if during repeated communication you will remember not only their names but also previous problems and questions, on the basis of which the first contact with you arose.

Structured user profiles, the history, and specifics of their requests, along with the smallest details of your previous conversations, are an amazing feature of the smart helpdesk, which provides easy and quick access to the necessary data. Get closer to your customers, show them your indifference, become their trustee concerning your product, and not just a nameless manager. Do you know that 86% of customers are easily willing to pay more if only they feel high-quality personalized customer support from you? No? True story.

Be Proactive

Proactive chat is a double-edged sword. On the one hand, a poorly designed chat of this kind can provoke a reaction opposite to what you want: annoying, monotonous messages that inappropriately pop up and interfere with website research are unlikely to be a good solution. On the other hand, a properly configured chat with proactive messages can be a real find in terms of sales and increased customer satisfaction.

Therefore, the advice can be slightly corrected be thoughtfully proactive. Choose chat invitations based on different types of targeting and previously collected information about the customer.

Remember, a personalized message like: “Hello (username), welcome again! Do you have any questions about (product name)? I am ready to answer them!” will work much better than just: “Hello, how can I help you?”, which annoyingly appears on every page during the entire browsing session.

Analyze Your Performance and Improve It

Do you know how well you work? And what do your customers think about your work? Tracking the success of your team is extremely important: moving at random, you lose valuable time and customer trust. You don’t want to seem like a bull in a china shop, do you?

In light of this, you should pay attention to feedback from customers. Many say that they value the opinions of customers very much, but in reality, less than half do relevant surveys and questionnaires. The paradox is that many companies do not want to use one of the most powerful tools for their development, which is granted to them for free. Customers are ready to speak, but you need to be able to hear and analyze what they say.

High-quality analytics of the collected feedback helps determine the directions of future improvements, point out weaknesses and specific measures for implementing the planned changes. HelpCrunch functionality includes a convenient tool that collects data on the performance of each manager and customer ratings. Visualization of data for a specific period in the form of a graph allows to instantly assess the situation. One can take measures to optimize customer service and find new solutions to see how to provide great customer service.

Having a specific tool for evaluating work efficiency, the team is motivated to work even better, the owner always has the necessary data at hand, and customers can be sure that their opinion has not been left out. Perfect business balance.

Go the Extra Mile

Predicting customer requirements is not an obsession at all, but an urgent need in the modern competitive environment. Your customers may not be aware yet that their current question inevitably attracts another. But you know it so tell them about it. Being one step ahead of their requirements, you not only present yourself to the customer in an authoritative light but also instantly move to a new level of trust.

Knowing the specifics of your customer’s business, you can notify them of a certain advantageous offer. You can also give them a discount or a promotional code, or simply provide them with additional advice, about the beneficial effect of which the customer does not know yet.

For example, the Spotify online music platform uses a study of customer preferences as a business model. After that, it provides them with additional customer services for setting up playlists. Moreover, customers who ask questions to the company on Twitter receive in response playlists tailored to answer their question.

Do you think this is a miracle? Not at all, just an excellent customer service example. Positive experience acts like the spotlight, in the center of which your company falls. Exceeding customer expectations in a positive sense is the aerobatics of modern customer service.

Conclusion – How To Provide The Best Customer Service

Each company chooses its own way of developing exceptional customer service. However, its essence does not change from this. To understand how to provide the best customer service experience, you must remember one thing. First of all, it is the help and support of your customers.

People do not want to be a faceless mass. On the basis of that, the company builds endless graphs at the end of the month. People seek an elementary understanding. They vividly respond to it and thank for it their sincere trust and long-term loyalty. Make them happy and they will become the mainstay of your business. That’s right!

The post How to Provide the Best Customer Service With HelpCrunch appeared first on DesignWebKit.

• The new architecture of the Magento 2 upgrade is more open and flexible than any of its predecessors.
• More advanced quality and quantity of new themes for Magento 2.0.
• Speed will soon become a synonym of Magento web development, as Magento 2.0 will offer 50% faster page loading.
• Easier upgrades and maintenance are the two best Magento 2 features added to Magento development services, and Magento 2.0 is also following this.
• Magento 2.0 ensures high security for its admin and users with built-in payment gateways.
• Migration is made easy from Magento 1.0 to Magento 2.0 with an inbuilt migration tool.
• Magento 2.0 has a built-in framework testing tool.
• Magento 2.0 includes HTML5, CSS3, Full page caching, PSR Compliance, RequireJS.

Let me show you the big guns if you are still not impressed with these Magento 2 features. I’ll waste no more time on simple praises. So, let’s get straight to the point; what are the newest Magento 2 features?

User-Friendly Experience

Many of the Magento development service users are not professional web coders. So, having a tool that can help non-technical personnel to build their own eCommerce websites is the biggest achievement for Magento, and with Magento 2.0, this functionality has raised several steps. Magento website development has never been so easy with 2.0.

For Magento 2 version, the Magento’s old version was stripped down to bare functionality and then built the whole thing anew from scratch. With the new addition of HTML5 and CSS pre-processor technology, Magento web development has risen to a completely new level.

The Magento UI library is more customizable and easy to maintain. So a Magento web development user can customize almost every element like;

• Any button visible
• Dropdowns
• Forms and Icons
• Actions Toolbar
• Page layouts
• Navigation
• Popups, Ratings, Messages
• Tables, Tabs
• Typography

These are just a few major regions included for customization.

Security

Magento 2.0 is a lot different from its ancestors. The only similarity could be just the famous orange of its logo. Magento 2 upgrade offers a new Admin panel with increased admin security. There are some skeptical views over this Magento 2 feature. However, I’ll let you decide for yourself whether it is a curse or a boon. Only one person can log in to the admin panel at any given time using one admin account. Some may consider this Magento 2 feature a pesky hindrance, but this feature is a real lifesaver for companies that have earlier faced hacking attacks and lost valuable data. There is a simple solution for all users who are skeptical about this feature. Just create new admin accounts for every admin user to let them all log in simultaneously.

Accessibility

Magento 2 upgrade has taken the ease of access to a new level. By providing drag-and-drop layout editing, users can build and edit their eCommerce store in a matter of minutes. The backend dashboard for administrators is touch-enabled, so all the changes can be done on a tablet or a Smartphone. This is a fantastic feature for Magento development service users if their business has them always traveling. Having complete access to your eCommerce admin panel on the go can save time and money.

Improved Performance

The speed of handling queries is significantly increased because the Magento system transforms merchant data like data, price, catalog, etc., into an index table where data fetch is done quickly. With frequent updates, this query performance is improving day by day. The users can create a test environment to test the code and apply changes according to preference by using a new set of test scripts. Magento 2.0 has a Varnish Cache integration. It helps to reduce server load, which in turn speeds up the page load. Varnish Cache is a leading HTTP accelerator technology responsible for caching common requests. This is one of the Magento 2 features that are becoming a favorite for all the developers who aim for speed and functionality.

Magento Marketplace

In the older Magento 2 version, third-party extensions were a great feature to add functionality to the eCommerce stores. Still, many times these extensions can cause some conflict with parts of the website because of the poorly built add-ons. But with Magento 2.0, there is a new Magento Marketplace where Magento does a strict review before adding the extensions to its market. There is a slight downfall as Magento 2.0 is still new to this review process, so additions of new extensions are delayed. But on the upside, the users will get the best extensions in the market, such as Magento 2 shop by brand or Magento 2 custom checkout fields.

Conclusion

Magento website development has always been pioneering technology for the eCommerce industry. With Magento 2 features, other platforms have raised the bar very high. Until other platforms catch up, Magento 2 will be the industry standard, and their team has already been planning for Magento 3. But until then, let us enjoy the sweet fruits of v2.0. As an eCommerce enterprise, you will need an excellent Magento development company to help you shift to Magento 2.0 and give you the most out of Magento web development.

The post Magento 2 Features: Get Familiar With New Possibilities appeared first on DesignWebKit.

One effective way to advance your business and marketing through high-quality website designs is by focusing on the psychological influences of the users while developing them. Like in every other field of life, the attention and interaction in using websites are also based on the psychological drives of human beings. No matter how advanced the technological world is today, the customer retorts are still triggered by their psychological experiences. So, you should better focus on learning the basic psychological stimuli you can create among users to attract them for performing your desired steps related to your website. You can hire a tuition teacher who can help you understand the basic human psychology and their psychological behavior important to respond to your products and websites.

Here are some psychology-based design tips that you can adopt while developing an ecommerce website to invite consumers and generate sales. Have a look:

Balance or Symmetry

Human psychology tends to notice the event and similar patterns quickly. In many of the usual things and interfaces, people are attracted to an equilibrium and arrangement, and are more likely to get attracted to ordered arrays and displays, and so is the case with the websites.

So, the website developers should focus on designing simplified and attractive symmetrical designs to draw more consumers and low diversion. Because people are usually averted from disorders in their interactions and such people will quickly follow the material presented in a symmetrical or balanced style.

For example, The Sims, a video game, applied this concept to the application and designed a proportioned website prototype, after trying multiple orderly schemes. As a result of which the website claimed to witness a 128 percent increase in the rate of changes from the response by the consumers.

Colours of Designs to improve website user experience

Psychologists associate different shades of colors to evoke certain types of emotions in humans, like red is said to provoke anger or rage, while shades of yellow are referred to stimulate joy and ecstasy, according to Robert Plutchik. So, along with symmetry, it is a good idea to include an impressive color scheme that can create an appealing impact on customers at the first sight.

To develop an impressive colorful design, you need to ponder on the partialities of your targeted audience, because the inclinations towards colors differ based on gender, culture, and ethnicity. Like pink color is loved by girls more in comparison to boys. Also, the color scheme of your website design or logo should correspond with the brand that you are marketing to draw the greater audience.

For example, the logo of Coca-Cola is red which articulates the audacious and vigorous brand notion of the company and their products.

Past Experiences

According to Psychology, the incidents of the past certainly affect the present and future behaviors of a person. And so is the case with the higher consumer responses to your website, because it is also sometimes based on the past experiences. They respond to your website or product based on that which they have faced with the similar kind of product before.

If the customers have had a good experience with similar products like yours, they are more likely to react to your websites and buy the products. However, it is difficult to find out every customer’s past background, for which you can conduct a user-testing experience to deduce a result based on majority opinion.

Loading Speed

Human nature is psychologically more impatient and so, people do not like to incline towards the products and services that are slow in delivery and action respectively. Even if it is an online purchasing, people tend to prefer companies which deliver your products within less time.

Similarly, the web pages that take longer time while loading is expected to be discarded by the users after a minute maximum. The website designers should, therefore, opt for developing websites that are easily comprehended and have a good, fast loading speed.

Contrasting Effect to increase website user experience

The way the human brain is enticed towards the order or balance in any interaction and layout, it is attracted towards the contrasts or differences in a display in a similar manner. If you want the users to focus on any desired feature of the website, you can create the contrasting effect or design around it.

For example, if there is a black dot on a white chart paper, people are more likely to notice and focus on the black dot instead of the whole white field. You open the Google webpage several times a day, but not for once even you are drawn to the white field around the colorful alphabets of the word Google. This will not only improve website user experience but also give a new astonishing look to your site.

If you are determined to achieve success through web designing and online businesses, you should consider these psychological factors while developing your websites and to improve the website user experience with your websites, and consequently, for driving more customers and sales to your web pages. So, either help yourselves or look for a good tuition teacher to enhance your knowledge about human psychology to grow your business by being user-friendly. We hope that our article will help in having a basic understanding of the psychology-based design ideas for your projects.

The post 5 Psychology-Based Design Tips to Improve Website User Experience appeared first on DesignWebKit.

1. Personalized Experiences

One of the most popular UX design trends for 2017 was personalized experiences, and it will continue to be a trend in 2018 as well. Whether you’re sending out a personalized email based on the users’ interactions with your website, or even text messages that are sent out to users in a specific location, this UX trend is here to stay. It’s futuristic and makes interaction with brands easy and fun. Not to mention the biggest player in this field surround the use of app and web products, whether shopping or getting involved on social media, the personalized experience will continue to grow into 2018 just as much as it has in 2017, if not more.

Many brands have embraced everything it takes to introduce UX design into their websites as well. When you have a great design that seems to personally connect with the user and correct audience you’ll stand out from all other competition. If you want to review the rules of design when it comes to creating a beautiful and UX friendly blog, look no further.

2. Quicker Solutions

Many people have an attention span that’s less than only 8 seconds. This means that UX design trends 2018 needs to up their usability for those who are constantly clicking on the easy and simple content with the most information. One of the biggest trends that will make a difference will be time-saving design features.

Keeping your design simple and easy to navigate should be the first order of business. There should also be a small pop up suggestions for people just in case they get a bit lost. Lastly, you should always create a linear design experience, with a start, middle, and end that will allow users to easily navigate through every step of the way without confusion.

3. Voice Activation

Voice activation is another element you can expect to see more of. Whether you’re requesting that your Google Home tells you the weather or you want to have your Amazon Echo tell you the steps of a recipe. This kind of innovation will be here to stay in 2018.

4. More Security

There will be tons of options when it comes to making sure that your personal information and identity are safe. By taking extra steps to secure your accounts you’ll be safer than ever in 2018. There are many brands that are coming up with more ways to prove that you are the owner of the specific account. Talk about needed!

5. Humanizing Experiences

When a user plans on interacting with a brand’s website or app, it’s important the UX designer delivers when it comes to making a difference. When a brand provides a humanizing digital experience, this usually focuses on how the interaction then makes a great impact in the community on a long-term basis. Whether that means transparency from the brand or even posting a review on a website to better other individuals experiences. The trends of 2017  did not exactly focus on this until later in the year, but the rise of humanizing experiences will be one of the main UX design trends 2018.

Humanizing digital experiences can also mean allowing the user more fun ways to experiment and communicate with other users. Such as using emojis, gifs, or even something as simple as video chatting.

6. Biometric Authentication

While Biometrics was a huge turning point in 2017, the way biometrics is headed in 2018 means it will be more and more accessible. This is an element of UX design trends 2018 that will help improve authentication and also boost security for both the user and the brand the user is using. This kind of technology is seriously important, especially since more and more people are using the internet in a way that could be dangerous if their information is leaked, unwanted people. This includes facial recognition, fingerprints, voice recognition and iris scan.

7. Virtual Reality

Virtual reality has been a UX design feature for a few years now, but by taking the virtual reality experience in games to the next level and integrating them into a wide variety of new ways for brands and companies, you’ll find yourself in different worlds more than you might expect.

UX Design Trends 2018 Conclusion

There are so many exciting trends that have been showing more and more promise for the year of 2018. While 2017 has been a great experience when it comes to innovative UX designs, there seems to have been not enough development of specific ideas until right now.

In 2018 you can expect to see even greater designs, better interaction opportunities, and a huge connection to brands you love.

What are you looking forward to the most when it comes to UX design trends for 2018?

The post 7 UX design trends 2018 for the Best User Experience appeared first on DesignWebKit.

So, the logical conclusion would be to avoid anything that can ruin this experience. In this post is a list of UX design mistakes that may be compromising it:

Too much content overwhelms visitors

In the book “The Paradox of Choice”, psychologist Barry Shwatrz argues that having more choices actually increases anxiety. It’s why we take so long to, for example, choose a brand of cereal from the several options available in the grocery store. Instead of being a convenience, the experience becomes a burden.

Unfortunately, a lot of designers make the same mistake on their web projects — presenting visitors with an overwhelming amount of information when they land on a page.

To avoid bad UX in this case, keep the content of your pages limited and relevant to what you want them to know at the moment. To illustrate, consider this landing page from a business that sells non-alcoholic beverages. It tells audiences what to expect from it right off the bat.

Source: Seedlip

Ignoring mobile UX means ignoring mobile audiences

Imagine using your smartphone to look for the nearest bus stop in a foreign country. But the website that you visit isn’t optimized for mobile. The buttons are too small to tap with your thumb, the contact information isn’t linked and the pages take ages to load.

Fact is, people are using their mobile devices to search for information more now than ever before. If your website isn’t optimized for mobile, you lose out on a large user base.

A website that is optimized for mobile should have most, if not every, features that don’t compromise its user experience on hand-held devices. For example, It should load fast, it should be easy for a user’s to fill form fields with one hand and have legible text that doesn’t require them to pinch to zoom to make it out.

To illustrate, consider this web page which has large buttons that are spaced out and linked images that are easy to access for on-the-go mobile users.

Source: hiddenvalley

Poor Choice and Presentation of Typography

Typography plays an important role in setting your website’s theme, tone and message. Even the slightest error sticks out and messes up the look you are trying to portray.

For example, too many different fonts might make the design feel disjointed while using a single font throughout a page might not be as impactful. The type of font you choose also has a part to play. A typeface that loses readability when a web page is scaled to multiple sizes, for example. is a poor choice for a web page.

Keep in mind, your content’s presentation, therefore, is as important as the web page’s design. It should, therefore, be consistent, clean and useful. It should complement the design, rather than oppose it.

You can avoid this bad UX mistake by optimizing your typography for readability and graphical balance. To illustrate, consider how this web page uses different sized fonts to divide the content into readable chunks.

Source: ditto

Unclear Call to Action is a Sign of Bad UX      

The basic goal of any website is to produce leads. Call to actions (CTAs) like an “Add to Cart” button or “Sign up” links ensure that you actually make some money from your website. However, placing them inappropriately, not as much or not making them visible enough kills conversions.

A CTA should be placed where your audience can see it. It should suit the design but not blend in. For example, it shouldn’t be invisible to someone looking for a quick way to purchase what you have to offer.

As a solution, consider how this web page that uses a bright pink hue to draw a visitor’s eyes. The message on the CTA buttons also shows them the steps they will take next.

Source: lyft

Ignoring Analytics for Navigation

How do you know if your site’s navigation needs work if you don’t track what visitors do on it? You don’t. If you aren’t getting enough visitors on your pages, it might be that your layout is too confusing or doesn’t have clear paths to where they need to go. But you will never know that if you don’t use analytics tools.

Resources like Google Webmaster Tools show you where visitors are navigating away from your website. This can help you figure out why they are doing so. For example, heat maps may show visitors falling short viewing your entire web page and looking at other things you have to offer as they scroll down. To keep navigation less boring, maybe a fixed navigation menu that moves as visitors scroll through your content would be a better option.

Source: 20.ctpboston

Wrapping Up about Bad UX

To recap, avoid overwhelming visitors with too much information by keeping your content minimal.  Optimize your website for mobile to take advantage of a mobile audience. Keep in mind that typographical elements have a huge role to play in your design. Improve your navigation by tracking how visitors generally move through your website. Keep call to actions clear to improve chances for conversions

The post How Bad UX Kills Your Business – Top 5 Mistakes to Avoid appeared first on DesignWebKit.

With an overpopulated mobile app market to cope with, one has few seconds to grab the attention of their end users. The following post emphasizes on putting function ahead of beauty (using UX Design Principles) especially when it comes to developing a successful mobile app.

As I transitioned from academia to industry, I learned the technology being discussed wasn’t from the same board frame of reference that I was taught in my research-based institution. Though, the recent mobile UX conversations have undoubtedly benefitted from the ongoing smart phone revolution. Still, I find them unnecessarily driven by tactical adoration and lacking a conscious consensus especially in regards to the fundamental principles of the mobile-user experience.

If the internet has put the world at our fingertips, mobile apps have put it beneath our thumbs, do you agree? I am sure you do! The following post explores some of the time-tested mobile app UX design principles to trigger positive reactions of the end users. Well, I do not presume these principles to be all-inclusive or authoritative but they’re a pretty good place to start.

1 of 4 UX Design Principles – Understand the relationship between a user and their mobile devices

Though the concept may seem like a given, however, the depth of that relationship goes way deeper than you realize. I would rather say, the relationship exceeds a physical level which even includes the exchange of bodily fluids. For example, if someone asks to borrow your phone to make a call. And you hand it over. Imagine that level of trust! How many of you would lend your mobile device without hesitation? A very few, I guess! From a gooey physical level to a level of data privacy and security, there is an intimate bond between an individual and the mobile device respectively. “I am my phone. My phone is I.”

>Henceforth, a UX design company requires assuming a semi-guarded state of primary users. After all, it’s their responsibility to protect the end users. The increasing trend of embedding ourselves into our mobile devices allows companies to realize what might happen if they lose themselves.    

2 of 4 UX Design Principles – Figure Out the user’s state on the basis of the screen size  

Have you ever been looking forward to seeing a particular movie since the day it was green lit, and now it’s about to release? You finally booked the seat on the largest IMAX screen in the tri-state area and all of a sudden you realize that the person sitting next to you has a very annoying laugh. Are there any chances of walking out? Probably fairly slim to none.

Now, what if the movie was played out in a college dorm on a 22-inch desktop? And a guy sitting next to you is having an annoying laugh. As a result, you might abandon the experience right away. Similar concept works on mobile devices. Undoubtedly, mobile devices are the smallest screens, and therefore, the design must accommodate the user’s varying commitment and distributed attention.

No matter how conditions will change depending on experience type — game, banking application, or the like — but the underlying impetus remains the same.

3 of 4 UX Design Principles – Unlike other interfaces, mobile interfaces are supposed to be truncated  

One of the dreaded task for the end user is the act of transferring the data from the old device to the new. Although, a few notable attempts were made earlier to ease this burden. For example, GSM service providers pushed device manufacturers to save all user data to the devices SIM card by default, but its limited storage capacity offered a poor user experience. Later on, the practice of syncing was introduced to improve mobile user experience.

The concept involved the pairing of truncated mobile interface with a full-sized desktop interface, enabling the user to enter the address book via a QUERTY keyboard. And it may quite interest you to know that this isn’t limited to smartphones, it has even been incorporated into a wide swatch of consumer-grade devices.

4 of 4 UX Design Principles – Design for the real mobile platforms

It is very easy for anyone to get caught up in the moment of the latest tech demo, press release, or rumor and end up creating unnecessary segmentation across an already complex landscape. It’s all about focusing on the mobile platforms (the real ones) that have emerged constantly over time, i.e. voice, messaging, the internet, and applications.

Final Thoughts about UX Design Principles

I hope I have successfully illustrated the UX designing principles and my findings could spark and contribute to the larger conversation and consensus-building process. As mobile UX designers, we have both opportunity and choice. The opportunity is to establish the foundation UX design principles, which are still emerging, experiential space. While the choice lies between getting caught up in the excitement of the buzzword or asking ourselves the difficult question of what foundational principles I am following.    

The post 4 Crucial Mobile UX Design Principles for Your Next App appeared first on DesignWebKit.