Preface

User Experience (UX) is one of the most important factors to keep in mind when creating a digital product. With a highly competitive world where brands fight for the user’s attention, loyalty, and money, the usability and enjoyment of a product play a fundamental role in its success. It sounds simple enough to create a product that’s loved by millions of users, but there’s a lot more to UX than creating an easy-to-use, aesthetically pleasing user interface. UX is a broad discipline with an intricate set of interlinked components that contribute to the overall experience a user will have with a digital product; however, the core focus is usability. Usability is one of the key components that drives an enjoyable user experience.

This book will introduce you to the core UX principles and practical methods for creating websites that are not only beautiful, but easy to use and fully accessible. Understanding the core principles of UX will enable a true understanding of the user, their behavior and needs, as well as how to effectively satisfy these needs. This understanding will help enhance your brand by creating a golden thread from your product to the user and establishing a trust relationship. Following practical UX methodologies will enable you to apply this understanding to product research, design, and development and testing so that you create an effective and user-friendly web product. UX research methods provide clear direction and guidelines for conducting research on a concept or product. This can then be tested and improved to increase user retention. By bringing your UX strategy to life with task flows, wireframes, and prototypes, it’s easy to find holes in user journeys that can potentially sabotage the relationship. Implementing conventional web accessibility technical standards will ensure that the product complies with usability requirements and is accessible for all users, including users with special needs.