This week I delved deeper into UX design, focusing on its key components and how they contribute to creating an effective user interface design. The UX process encompasses various stages including research, user personas, and user flow. Integrating these components into the UX process helps foster a deep understanding of the user’s needs and preferences that allows for an intuitive and user-friendly interface. In this post I will take a deep dive into these key components and the steps that my team and I took to achieve a better interface for our users looking to purchase cupcakes on sprinkles.com.
Research is an important part of UX design because it provides insight into understanding how users think, what they enjoy, and the issues they come across. Through methods like interviews, heuristic evaluations, comparative analysis, and usability testing, designers gain valuable information to create solutions and improvements. Interviews are a crucial part of research because designers get insight into problems or design choices that could be improved. For instance, when I conducted an interview to better improve the Sprinkles website, I found that the pick-up feature was an important part of the website to my interviewee, as she has dietary restrictions and is particular about the integrity of the product. Moreover, through the use of heuristic evaluation and user testing, I was able to identify pain points with the pick-up/delivery feature that needed further improvement.
User personas are fictional representations of users based on real research. After my teammates and I conducted our research we created a user persona that represented a typical customer of Sprinkles. Our persona was Dianne, a 52-year-old event planner who loves her job, technology, and her grandkids. We thought Dianne was a great representation because as an event planner, she likely organizes various events which often include catering from bakeries. Next, being a grandmother indicates a close connection with her family. Moreover, as an event planner, she may take it upon herself to host family gatherings or family parties where sweet treats are a staple. Lastly, grandmothers usually spoil their grandkids, and this is no exception for Dianne because she loves her grandchildren. Her pain points were work-life balance, physical demands, and client demands. We chose these pain points because they further demonstrate the need for pick-up and delivery options that are easy to navigate.
User flow is an important part of UX design because it maps out the steps the designer will take to get from point A to B. After conducting research and brainstorming ideas for creating solutions the designer will then create medium/high fidelity wireframes which will later become prototypes for testing. The three problems we focused on are as follows: making ingredients more visible, smoother transition from pick-up to delivery, and a better checkout experience. Once we created our user flow we were able to identify any roadblocks and create a better experience for our users.
In conclusion, when the designer understands what the user needs and how they navigate the interface it becomes easier to create solutions that are tailored to fit their needs. When users feel like they are understood and catered to they are more likely to stick around. At the end of the day, UX is not about how aesthetic your designs are, but rather it’s about building relationships with your users and creating experiences they’ll want to come back and use again and again.