User Experience guide

I. What is User Experience (UX)

User experience is the quality of experience a person has when interacting with a specific product/item. User Experience is the process of taking a set of features and concepts and generating a consistent, predictive and desirable design with the main idea of a service for the user. User experience design has the user at the centre of the service design. Successful UX is the one that meet the exact needs of the user, without fuss or bother, and create something of simplicity and elegance that is a joy to use.

II. Factors for UX

• User needs.
• Technical requirements and Business constraints.
• Engagement through usability.
• Brand Experience through Visual Design.
• Interact and establish relationship through Interaction Design.

III. Goals of UX

1. General

• Shorten the time for users to complete tasks.
• Reduce learning time of an unfamiliar interface.
• Reduce the number of mistakes users make.
• Improve satisfaction with a service.
• Enable new and unique use of a service.

2. Based on specific user need

• Unable users to achieve a task that normally would have been more difficult outside the computer environment.
• Unable user to search for a specific bit of information (Google, Bing, LinkedIn, Spotify, Amazon, customer database) and filtering large data sources (the Internet).
• Unable user to manipulate specific information that relates and enhances a physical environment.
• Being able to complete a puzzle or a challenge, for example: a computer game, diagnostic, LinkedIn profile endorsements, eBay reputations.
• Provide the user with feeling of being social, live, asynchronous, remote, anonymous.

IV. Key principles and aspects

1. General

• Good UX involves a proper balance of needs between the user, the business, and the technology.
• Keep things simple, don’t get in the user’s way, allow them to complete their tasks with ease.
• Don’t short change a good UX by only paying attention to only the most critical parts, the UX is made up of sum of all parts.
• Good UX involves listening to users on both qualitative and quantitative level, without overdoing it.
• UX is should not just be implemented; it should be adopted as a philosophy by the entire organization.

2. Specific

• Obvious menus clearly delineated either across top and/or on the left.
• Home button on every page and on top far left.
• Logo/ identifier top left on every page. The logo/ identifier links to the home page.
• Open search field upright of every page. (If search functionality is required)
• Log in/out in upper right of every page. (If login functionality is required)
• Utility navigation at very bottom of pages and potentially top that is subtly and visually weaker than the main/global navigation (sitemap, contact us, T&Cs, etc).
• Text links outside of main navigation area consistent and differentiated from other navigation.
• Body text line width limited to good readable word lengths (10 to 14 words per line).
• Allow the page to reformat well when accessibility options and tools are used.
• On home page critical content and navigation is ‘above the fold’.
• Content – less is more! Pages are scanned, not read in detail.
• Most important information should be placed at top-left.
• Visitors tend to use “F” shaped eye movement across website.
• Avoid making users scrolling (where possible).
• About 70% of the time is spent on the left half of the page (according to Nielsen).
• Content – write for web and simplify/shorten where possible (ex. “If you need help click on this link” – replaced with icon or just link “Need help?”.
• Keep navigation simple – minimize number of tabs/menus. Tab names should be short and informative.
• Links – keep them short and informative. Most important links should be placed first.
• Consistency is the key. Menu choices, headings, pages structure and elements should be consistent.

3. Aspects

• Navigation - Knowing what users expect and organizing the content accordingly is key to good information architecture and UX design.
• Familiarity - Users' expectations are met when language and visuals are understood and bring a sense of trust. People tend to trust what is familiar to them.
• Consistency - Cohesive experience with the brand the tone of voice and visual language is used consistently across all channels.
• Error prevention - Visual cues and a clear layout should help preventing errors. Yet when a user mistakenly clicks somewhere wrong or forgets something, it should be easy to recognize, diagnose and recover from an error.
• Response on action - A timely manner of response with a user's interaction vastly enhances a site's usability.
• Visual clarity - It creates a sense of attainability for what users may aspire.
• Flexibility & efficiency - The design should be flexible enough to give a feeling of individuality, i.e. through personalization.

4. Accessibility

• The design/product/site must provide equivalent access to auditory and visual content based on user preference.
• The design/product/site must provide compatibility with assistive technologies.
• The website must provide compatibility with keyboards access where possible.
• WebPages must be usable when scripts are turned off or not supported by a user’s browser.

V. UX quotes

• “Web pages are not bank accounts: Full is not better. Cluttered or difficult designs make people less likely to find what they want. Only a person who really needs something on a particular site will grin and bear it through an unpleasant user experience.” - Jakob Nielsen
• “Create solutions by design, not by default.”- Patrick Frick
• “Things we take for granted don't always happen by chance, they happen by design.”
• “The interface should get users to the destination they want quickly, it must not be a challenge it must be almost invisible.”
• “Perfection is achieved, not when there is nothing more to add, but when there is nothing left to take away.” - Antoine De Saint-Exupery
• “The best sentence? The shortest.” - Anatole France
• “You’ve got to start with the customer experience and work backwards to the technology.” - Steve Jobs
• “Think like an expert but communicate the words of your visitors”
• “Making the simple complicated is commonplace; making the complicated simple, awesomely simple, that’s creativity.” - Charles Mingus

// Used materials/ideas from Illumina team-members (many thanks)