User experience design, or UX design, is the painstaking analysis, creation, and optimization of user experiences. User interaction is a very complex topic because it includes all the experiences (thoughts, emotions, needs, etc.) that a user has when interacting with a digital product.

The goal of UX designers is to improve user interaction, UX design services provide real effective opportunities to present a complex system and get the user to where he wants to go as quickly as possible.

Good products require great UX design. We’ve all encountered confusing websites and overly complex web platforms. There are many examples of bad UX design. On the other hand, effective user experience is not particularly noticeable. Because the more complex the user experience, the less attention we pay to it. However, the importance of UX design should not be underestimated.

The financial success of digital products is highly dependent on a solid UX strategy.

The difference between UI and UX design

Many people wonder how the visual design of a product differs from the user experience. A UX designer mainly deals with the specific needs of the user, while a UI designer focuses on aesthetics. The results can be dire when developing digital products.

Consumers are lazy and don’t pay enough attention to detail. Companies lose potential customers. User interface design and user interaction design are often confused, but they are fundamentally different.

Simply put, interface designers want digital products to look good. A UX designer ensures that the product is easy to use. The biggest difference between the two types of designs is probably the method of using the different conditions.

While UI designers try to creatively and artistically communicate marketing ideas to users, UX designers mostly rely only on analytical research methods and strive to scientifically justify every design decision. Understanding user psychology is fundamental to the design process, but aesthetics are more detailed.

What does the professional UX agency Cieden do?

The work of a UX agency can be compared to the work of an architectural office. The company wants to build a new headquarters, and the CEO knows exactly what the requirements are, actively consulting with an architectural firm. Finally, a construction plan will be drawn up and executed by the construction company.

The process of creating a digital product is similar. Cieden offers actionable ideas for digital products, clients actively consult with Cieden’s UX agency on specific requirements. Then, Cieden’s experienced professionals use all your research and user experience to develop a custom UX strategy for their clients. Based on this strategy, they create the design that customers want for digital products and implement it through user interface design.

UX design is often about analyzing and optimizing the user experience. User experience includes what a user feels when using a product. This experience should be as useful and intuitive as possible. The concept of a product in the digital sphere is very different from the traditional concept of a physical product.

By digital product, we primarily mean a website or app. If you look at the most famous and successful websites like Amazon and Netflix, this is obvious. A service is a product and cannot be physically perceived. User experience design, or UX design for short, exists to make products easier to work with.

Customer lifecycle and user roles

However, the user experience should be as useful and intuitive as possible, rather than simply using the product. Customer experience also includes emotional touch points. However, emotional touchpoints are not only related to the time of use but also to pre- and post-use emotions. The customer life cycle should be considered as a unit. Because potential customers are interested in your product long before they buy it or use its functionality. For example, you can learn about processes and production. Optimizing the entire customer lifecycle creates a positive experience throughout the process, resulting in satisfied customers who remain loyal to your company and products for the long term.

UX techniques and innovations

In the term user experience design, all key tasks are focused on the user and his future needs. Stakeholder models can be used to play out different scenarios. These scenarios can be represented by prototypes. User behavior can be visualized using design wireframes. Iterative optimization is the central concept of all UX methods used by Cieden employees.

All considerations from preliminary analysis and visualization are transferred to various design cycles until the concept becomes convincing to the user and corresponds to the overall corporate image of the business environment for which the design is created. Cieden UX designers also use many other key techniques, such as user-centered design thinking, user journey mapping, storytelling, and business model design.

User interface design

When you want to talk more about user interface design, you can say that the user interface is what the user sees and clicks. Thus, the term user interface describes the user interface where the contact between a person and a software platform takes place. A key goal of user interface design is to make that interface meaningful to the user so that they can make decisions more easily and intuitively. Surface analysis is either a graphical user interface (GUI for short) or a less visual interface such as sound or motion controls.

For the user, the user interface is a very important factor and can inspire the most trust. With a visual presentation, you can transfer the character of your brand to your software product and encourage customers to interact more actively with your website.

UX design: it is important to look at the digital product holistically

Knowing product design alone is not enough to bring new products to market and win over customers and consumers. Experience in digital product design is no longer enough to bring new products and services to market and attract customers and consumers. Nowadays, customer experience has become the overall picture of the life cycle. This means that the expected benefits of a product or service are considered long before a customer makes a purchase or creates a customer account.

They want to know what they spend their money on and where they spend their time. They ask about the properties of the product, the production conditions of the material, friends and colleagues who already use the system, and finally about the ownership of the product or membership in the relevant network. You’ve never tried your product or service, so it has nothing to do with usability. However, all these aspects significantly contribute to the user experience of your digital product or service.

Prototyping: understanding the possibilities for users

The work of a UX designer at Cieden is always focused on the user, especially on the future user, and determines the current needs and current desires of the user, through observation and research. Personas represent potential users as examples of future design and development processes.

These user models actively use scenarios to quickly and iteratively introduce the use of a new product or service. For this, large-scale prototypes, and wireframes are made that can help you visualize and understand the behavior of the future system and test it on future visitors. User interaction includes the user’s perceptions and reactions while using the product or service, as well as the user’s expectations of the application itself.

The data obtained are carefully transferred to subsequent design cycles until the concept becomes convincing in a professional context. These steps are just a few of the steps in the Cieden UX designer’s toolkit, including Design-Driven Design Thinking, User Journey (Experience) Mapping, Multimedia Storytelling, and Business Model Design.

These techniques allow UX designers to get a complete picture of users and how they use digital products and services. Consistency between different channels, platforms, and user interfaces is one of the key aspects of UX design, so this is the only way to create a good and coherent offer. Whether you’re developing innovative online services or generating startup ideas to ensure the long-term success of your business, you need a holistic approach that covers all aspects of your customer experience.

This includes not only branding, true flagship store potential, and social media presence, but also interactive elements such as navigation, gesture controls, animations, audio, chatbots, web design, and more. In this way, Cieden UX designers create a solid framework for digital products and services that contribute to a positive user experience for their customers, increase trust in their brands and convert potential users into regular customers of your business.