User experience is a wide field. A UX designer should possess skills in different areas. All the useful information cannot be summarized in this article, but it is possible to highlight the most important rules that you should follow as a UX Designer in order to give people a great experience with digital products.
User Interface is a part of User Experience.
Exchanging UX and UI as if the two were the same is a common mistake many designers make. It's important to understand the difference between the two areas. The UI is the space in which the interaction between people and the product takes place, and the user experience is the emotional result after interacting with the product.
Knowing your user.
Naturally, your user is one of the most important factors to consider when designing a product. If you plan to develop a product that users will love, you need to have an idea of what your user really wants and needs. User research should be an integral part of your UX design process. Before you start designing, you should always keep your users up-to-date! This allows you to provide value to the people who will use your product and focus on benefits rather than features.
You are not the user!
As a designer, you often assume that the people who will use your design are similar to themselves. As a result, you should project their actions and reactions onto users. But to think that you are your user is mistaken. In psychology, this effect is called false consensus. That is, the tendency to assume that others share our beliefs and will behave the same way in a situation.
Perhaps the people who will use your product have different backgrounds, different mindsets, different mental models, and different goals. In other words, they are not you.
There is a trick that helps you overcome the false consensus bias of conducting usability testing. If you want to create a product that your users will love, you need to focus on testing. Testing with real-time users can help you learn how to create usable products that are suitable for the people who will use them. It can take a while, but it's the only way to make sure you're heading in the right direction.
Create designs for short attention spans
As a designer, you should be able to simplify interfaces by removing unnecessary elements or content that is not supporting the user's needs. One technique that you can use to achieve this is functional minimalism. At the same time, this does not mean that the experience should be limited. All information must be valuable and up to date.
Keep things simple and consistent
Also, user interfaces should be simple and consistent throughout a project. To make designs more creative and memorable, many designers deliberately add inconsistencies to their style. Different color schemes for different pages of a website often frustrating for users. Therefore, it is always important to keep the design elements familiar, strengthening the most important aspects of the design in all directions. Don't forget to apply this principle to your design.
Don’t be scared of making mistakes
You only learn when you make mistakes. If you are afraid to make mistakes and try to be perfect, you will miss learning. Follow the rules above, but above all else, keep trying new design techniques and approaches to find what works best for you and your users.