Fundamental Design Principles:
While there are specializations within the field of user experience, here’s my attempt at identifying somekey fundamental principles of UX design:
Be contextual:
It’s often easy to think of a user journey like a storybook. If you open most books to any given page and select a word, you’ll be met with an abundance of context on the page. You’ll usually see the title of the book, the chapter, the page number, and the word will appear contextually within a sentence, paragraph, and page. Ensure that users are contextually aware of where they are within their journey.
Be human:
Be approachable, trustworthy, and transparent. Provide human interactions over machine-like interactions.
Be findable:
Establish a strong information scent. Provide wayfinding signs.
Be easy:
Reduce the user’s cognitive workload whenever possible. Be consistent and clear, and establish a strong visual hierarchy.
Be simple:
Establish a strong signal-to-noise ratio. Avoid distractions, jargon, and long loading times.
World-class UX design rests on and is synonymous with world-class system design—as long the system spans both the foundation technology and the people who benefit from it.
Focus on user needs and make them the focal point of your design process. From a practical viewpoint, designers should understand that each user’s point of view is unique, so we must be empathetic and step outside our box to understand others’ points of view as much as possible.
