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Design UI Design UX Design

Modern Vintage Graphic Designs Are Back In Trend!

Vintage Designs

Whenever we talk about material goods, “vintage” refers to any contemporary designs that is more than 20 years old but less than 100 years – to be considered antique. The term can be used more freely in design, although it still refers to an earlier style created during previous times. Now and again, we see a revival of classic designs in a variety of sectors. The majority of them evoke memories of decades – or perhaps centuries ago.

When appropriately used, vintage elements and marketing strategies attract high-value consumers. It compels people to participate in your old storyline and maintains their loyalty. What is it about them that make them so enticing to the audience? What makes them popular? Let us investigate!

How Is Vintage Designs Defined?

By definition, the term “vintage” refers to a period when anything of value was created or to a high-quality product, idea, or philosophy developed in the past. At the moment, the term “vintage” refers to anything that evokes memories of a bygone era or fashion style. Vintage designs use features, colors, and items that reflect popular styles of a particular age.

Distinguishing Retro From Vintage Designs

Many individuals do not take some time to grasp the distinctions between these phrases properly, and as a result, the terms are commonly misinterpreted. Retro is a term that refers to something relatively modern (a commodity, a style) that emulates something from the past. Retro is not original but is influenced by the original to seem authentic. Vintage denotes something unique, original, and has a lifespan of between 20 and 100 years. It is scarcer and hence more valuable than its retro cousin.

What Are Modern Vintage Designs?

Modern Vintage Designs incorporate aspects from the past and present, as well as a touch of futurism. This technique may help modern audiences connect with antique designs or perhaps serve as a center point for older and younger generations.

Modern Vintage Graphic Designs enable us to create and make use of the best of all worlds. We can approach current and antique eras from a variety of angles. This creates limitless opportunities for creativity to develop. For instance, we may reproduce old images from the 1980s or 1990s in contemporary surroundings and give Gen Z the same vibe.

Why is Vintage Design Becoming So Popular?

Individual Appearance – There are several explanations behind vintage popularity. One of them is that customers think conventional fashion has lost its individuality and supermarket fashion has become too generic. Vintage has an inherent quality that elevates it above things picked for their fitting, authenticity, and design value.

Trends That Never Fade – Consumers recognize that antique clothing may be adapted to current trends while still serving as timeless classics that can become wardrobe mainstays. It’s one of the primary reasons vintage has gained popularity.

Personality and Expression – Being unique is a critical component of looking trendy. It reveals a great deal about your character and lifestyle. Vintage clothes enable individuals to express themselves while also aiming to create a fashion contradiction.

Soul and History – Vintage clothing encompasses much more than simply worn-out garments. They are historically and artistically significant, and they are brimming with the tales and experiences of those who came before us and wore them. Possessing and wearing antique clothes help preserve those individuals, their heritage, and their talent alive.

Conclusion

Vintage clothing never fades away. Retro styles are constantly resurfacing. Whether your firm is in fashion, information technology, travel, education, or another area, you will occasionally need to adapt to modern vintage graphics. Contact Us today to know more.

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UI Design Web Design

Try These 5 Web Design Principles To improve Your Conversion Rate

Web Design Principles

Every business wants to grow and increase its sales. Companies put a lot of time, effort and money into devising marketing strategies to boost their revenues. A website is one way to market their offerings to the people using the internet (which, by the way, is huge in number). A lot of marketers boast the importance of SEO, social media, creating lead magnets that convert, etc. Yet, creating a brilliant website is the first and most important step. 

Stanford University’s research stated that 46.1% of people say a website’s design is the top criteria for deciding a company’s credibility. Therefore, it’s highly critical that your design looks professional. This article will share five web design principles that will boost your conversion rate, thereby creating more revenue for our business.

1. The 8-Second Rule

Studies have suggested that you only have 8 seconds, on average, to get a visitor’s attention. The human attention span on the internet is too short. There’s a very tiny window of opportunity for you to engage a user once they land on your website; every second count. Here’s what you can do:

  • Use a crisp, benefit-driven, pin-pointed headline in large font
  • Include multimedia such as audio, video or other interactive content.
  • Use eye-catching, attention-drawing imagery to convey the prime purpose of your page
  • Use the imagery as a guide to the call-to-action button
  • Make signup buttons large, simple and straightforward.
  • Write powerful copy to entice and engage users.
  • Use hover effects on your buttons 
  • Use animated exit popups to re-engage visitors who are on the verge of bouncing off

2. The Rule of Thirds

One of the key web design principles is to follow the famous photography principle – The Rule of Thirds. To apply this rule, you’re supposed to visually divide an image (in this case, your website page) into thirds, both vertically and horizontally, giving you nine equal squares. The rule says, the four middle intersections are key, strategic places of interest. It creates the most impressive image or design when objects are placed at these points.

Remember that you don’t need to design your entire website strictly by the rule of thirds. Only use it as a tool to help you perfectly place crucial elements. Take a screenshot of your website, only above the fold part or just your header section; divide it into nine equal squares. Analyze it according to the principle and take a call if you want to make any changes or not.

3. The Hick’s Law

Hick’s Law is a famous theory cited by many individuals for various purposes; it is also frequently referenced in web designing. The law is named after a British psychologist, William Edmund Hick. The law states that the time it takes for an individual to decide is directly proportionate to the possible choices they have. In other words, by decreasing the number of choices, the decision time is also decreased and vice-versa.

Using this principle in web design, you can boost conversions by restricting the number of choices users have. And, where do you offer the most number of choices on your website? In the navigation bar. Don’t offer too many links to the users; it makes it challenging for them to choose. The user will lose interest in them altogether. 

4.The KISS Rule

This one is a common rule, being applied in several fields. It means Keep It Short And Simple and applies to web designing too. Simplicity is super essential when it comes to improving conversions. pThe moment you create a page, ask yourself whether you can make it more simple or the simplest. The results are more aesthetically pleasing, and conversions are increased.

It is similar to the earlier discussed Hick’s Law. However, simplicity is more than just limiting the options. The aim is to create a clean overall design that is uncluttered and minimizes distractions. Like Hick’s Law, people can only handle a limited amount of information at one time. Visually stuffing the website will overwhelm and bother users. Creating a great user experience on your website requires you to eliminate everything that unnecessary to the design.

Apple is one of the most significant examples of simplicity in web design. Countless other brands have followed their style for its effectiveness.

5. Negative Space

Whitespace is often referred to as negative space in web design. Positive space includes all the elements on your site, while negative space is the empty space in between. Don’t go by the name. Negative space is actually a good thing in web design; without negative space your website would be unusable and unreadable.

Negative space doesn’t just refer to the space between your page’s larger elements, such as the space between your header and your content or space between your sidebar and your content. It also refers to the space between all the more minor elements on your page – the space between lines of text, the space between paragraphs, and even the space between letters. Pay attention to the negative space on your site, in all forms, to keep everything legible, scannable and easy on the eyes. All of this leads to increased conversions.

Conclusion

Now that you understand these five web design principles, put them to good use by taking a hard look at your existing design. A thorough evaluation of your website will let you know the strengths, shortcomings, and areas of improvement. Need an expert opinion? Talk to our team.

READ MORE: Here are 5 pro tips that will come in handy while designing a visually stunning and user-friendly website

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Brand & Identity Design UI Design Web Design

Web Designing For Accessibility: Tips And Guidelines To Follow

Web Designing

The world is evolving faster than ever, and humans are becoming more and more dependent on technology. The Internet has changed the world, and today all of us depend on the internet for almost everything. Be it searching for a job, ordering a pizza, booking a dentist appointment, learning, and whatnot? The internet may be an ever-present resource for most people, but connectivity to the resource is a challenge for people living with disabilities. Although there are programs and devices, like screen readers, that make it possible for people with disabilities to access websites, web designing for accessibility is still a practice less followed.

According to data from 2012, almost one in five Americans live with a disability of some kind. Close to one billion people in the world, or 15 percent of the world’s population, lives with a disability. Out of all kinds of disabilities, conditions like visual impairment, autism, difficulty grasping objects, and deafness, just to name a few, can severely limit an individual’s ability to use a computer or smartphone without assistance and support.

There’s a myth that web designing for accessibility is difficult and expensive; it’s not true. Making your website more accessible doesn’t mean adding extra features or content; therefore there shouldn’t be an additional cost and effort.

Here are a few tips that will help you in web designing for accessibility in accordance with the AA level of the Web Content Accessibility Guidelines (WCAG 2.0), and will allow your website to work on the most commonly used assistive technologies — including screen readers, screen magnifiers, and speech recognition tools.

Maintain a Proper Contrast Ratio

Color contrast is an important aspect of web designing. But, it is often neglected as a web accessibility problem. People with low vision could find it difficult to read text from a background color if it has low contrast, whether on a plain background or text embedded within an image. A movie with subtitles is a good example. The text often appears without anticipating the background. It happens when white text appears in a brightly lit scene. It is unreadable, and the audience is left not knowing the dialogue.

It is critical to consider the sufficient contrast between text and background. According to the W3C, the contrast ratio between text and its background should be at least 4.5 to 1 (conformance level AA.) The ratios become more forgiving with larger and heavier fonts since they’re easier to read at lower contrast. If your type is at least 18 pt or 14 pt bold, the minimum contrast ratio drops to 3 to 1. You can use tools like Contrast Checker to see how your planned font and background colors work together.

Don’t Just Rely On Colors 

When you’re communicating something important, showing an action, or prompting a response, don’t use color as the only visual cue. People with low visual acuity or color blindness will have a hard time understanding your content. Try to use an indicator other than colors such as text labels or patterns.

Elements with more complex information like charts and graphs can be especially hard to read when you only use color to distinguish the data. Use other visual aspects to communicate information like shape, labels, and size. A good trick is to print your graph in black and white and see if you can still understand everything in it.

Keep Your Navigation Predictable

The navigation system your website uses should be consistent across its pages. This includes the icons you use and the way visitors get to different pages within the site. if your homepage has a top header bar with drop-down menus, each of your other pages should have this arrangement, too. Similarly, the icons you use across your website need to be consistent.

You should also stay away from any kind of automatic navigation and auto-playing music and videos. not only are they annoying, but it’s also difficult for a user with a screen reader to determine how to pause them. And when a slideshow or carousel scrolls through content at a rapid rate, users can become confused and frustrated.

Support Keyboard-Only Navigation

Web designing for accessibility is not restricted to the elements on the screen. Keyboard accessibility is one of the most critical aspects of web accessibility. Especially for the ones who are blind and rely on screen readers. Also, for people who don’t have precise muscle control; they can’t grasp a mouse or keep their hand steady on a laptop’s touchpad. These users rely on their keyboards to navigate websites. 

These users typically use the Tab key on the keyboard to navigate through interactive elements on a web page – links, buttons, or input fields. The order of the interactive elements is essential, and the navigation must be logical and intuitive. The tab order should follow the visual flow of the page – left to right, top to bottom.

Add Appropriate Alt-Tags To Images

Alt tags are brief descriptions of the images you use that get buried in the site’s HTML. Most users never see these descriptions, but site visitors using screen readers rely on them since they “hear” the content. These tools convert text to speech so that the person can hear the words on a site. Alternative text, or alt tags, can be presented in two ways –  within the <alt> attribute of the image element, or within the context or surroundings of the image itself. 

Alt tags aren’t just useful for your visually impaired audience; they’re for your benefit too. Well-crafted alt tags improve your site’s SEO, drawing more relevant site traffic and improving conversions.

Use Labels Or Instructions With Form Fields And Inputs 

Using placeholder text as labels are one of the biggest mistakes when designing a form. Placeholder text is usually gray and has low contrast, so it’s hard to read. People who use screen readers usually navigate through a form using the Tab key to jump through the form controls. The <label> elements are read for each form control. Any non-label text, as placeholder text, is usually skipped over.

Always help people understand what they should do and write in a form. It’s best if labels don’t go away, even when the person is filling an input. When designers hide descriptions or directions in their forms, they’re sacrificing usability to attain simplicity. That said, we don’t want you to clutter your design with unnecessary information, just make sure to provide essential cues.

Web designing for accessibility is a new and growing trend. While these tips will certainly help you in creating websites that are much more accessible for people with disabilities, there is still a lot of scope in terms of improving the user experience for this set of audience. As designers, we all need to grow and master the art of accessibility since technology is usable for all – regardless of their abilities. Looking to improve your web design? Talk to our experts.

Looking for 2020 Design Trends? Click Here to Know More

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SEO UI Design Web Design

The Importance of Content in Web Designing

Content Web Designing

Designers around the globe may argue that the most essential aspect of a web design’s success is its visual appeal, and that content is secondary. But, the truth of the matter is that no matter how good and appealing your website may be, it will not be able to achieve success unless it is designed and developed based on solid, useful content in web designing. Great content is what sets your website apart from the masses and delivers the right message to your audience. 

The success of your website is determined primarily by its content. All other components of your website (design, visuals, videos, etc.) provide a secondary support role. The key to a successful website is having clear, relevant, and keyword-rich content that delivers the right message with power and conviction. The content for web designing should target your audience, engage them, and persuade them to take action.

Before you get started with the web design process, make sure that you have the content ready with you. The reason being, your website needs to be built around the content, not the other way round. Here are a few reasons why content is more important than it looks.

SEO

One of the benefits of publishing good content is that it will increase the number of people who find your website through search engines. Search engines love content, especially frequently updated content. Content is the most significant catalyst when it comes to boosting your SEO. Google checks the content quality of a website to determine its ranking. It reviews the relevancy and authenticity of the content to the subject topic. 

There are so many websites on the internet that have amazingly beautiful homepages, but no relevant content at all. In most of the cases, the homepage is the most frequently visited page of a website and therefore it should contain information about what you do, who you are and what you offer. This is one of the main reasons why scrolling websites have become so popular in recent times. If your site contains less information and content, it will be difficult for Google to identify what your website is about, and it will impact your ranking in search results. Visitor traffic, business visibility, and sales will all increase with higher search engine rankings, which is only possible by creating and offering high-quality content while web designing.

User Experience

High-quality website content enhances usability. Usability can range from the navigation of your site to the ease of use for visitors, to the accessibility of your content and to the interconnection between relevant pieces of content. When relevant and useful content is easy to locate, it results in better user experience and more satisfied visitors. If visitors don’t find your website easy to use, then they are more likely to bounce off and visit competitors’ sites instead. A high bounce rate means a loss to the business.

No matter how good the design and functionality of a website is, if the content is poor, the overall user experience will be disappointing. Visitors come to your website for information; to seek answers to their queries. They also want to find out about you, your services, and/or products. They want to know how are your offerings are unique and different from your competitors. They want to know your contact details, your business hours, the experience of clients using your products/services, and a lot more. This is all content and must be available for visitors. Importantly, the content must be available at convenient locations, where people expect it to be. If they have to search rigorously on your website to seek their answers, that’s negative user experience.

Sales generation

Building trust is a vital part of sales generation for any business. One of the important ways of creating that trust is by establishing yourself as an industry thought leader and authority, through the content you produce. In terms of sales generation, good content can be especially useful if you know how to drill down on your targeted demographics and guide them to the purchase.

An estimated 77% of consumers read online content before making a purchase decision. Publishing product-specific content such as FAQs, product reviews, and instructional videos or blog posts can help reassure potential customers and lead to sales. Add screenshots to reviews and include videos where possible. Videos create a next-level impact. Always use a conversational tone while writing and create blog posts on trending, relevant topics. Provide links between the content which can lead the reader to the related product or service. It is an effective way of generating sales.

Competitive Edge

The sole purpose of a website is to showcase a business and its offerings. We all want to attract customers and words play a vital role in enticing potential buyers or clients. People buy from people, and you are more likely to stand out over your competitors by making a connection with your customers by offering them the right content.

As a business, you would have to do things differently and bring your personality at the forefront to attract customers; do this through your website copy. Use your website content to highlight what makes you different, and why a potential client should choose you over someone else in your industry. Make valuable connections with your website visitors to gain a competitive advantage.

Content Is More Than Just Text

Content doesn’t always come in the form of text. Visuals, especially videos, on websites are changing the way important messages are communicated. Visitors expect to get the information they need effortlessly. Custom videos provide a great way to engage audiences and drive essential messaging in a format that requires less effort than reading large amounts of text. Additionally, illustrations, infographics, diagrams, and interactive presentations are often used to explain difficult concepts and help users in taking decisions.

Market Your Content

Even great content will not be able to become effective content, if not marketed properly. Content Marketing involves the creation and sharing of media and publishing content to acquire customers. This information can be presented in a variety of formats, including blog posts, news, videos, white papers, infographics, case studies, how-to guides, photos, etc. Content Marketing is one of the best methodologies for marketing your website and your business. Posting relevant, valuable, and frequently updated information on your website will also boost your search ranking and will allow you to build long-lasting relationships with your audience.

Conclusion

Good quality content while web designing is pivotal to the success of your website. It helps in achieving better Google search rankings, enhanced user experience, and leads to more sales. An aesthetical appeal is also important, but the content is the base of any website. Just like web designing, copywriting also requires expertise. Therefore, you must consider hiring a professional copywriter to create your content. Talk to our team of experts now!

Read more about how to design a content-heavy website

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Design UI Design UX Design Web Design

Top Web Design Trends For 2020

Web Design Trends

As we bid goodbye to another rocking year, we are all set to embrace new web design trends in 2020. The last few years have been quite fascinating in terms of the progress of the way websites are designed. With an increased focus on UX and UI, designers have moved their focus on improving the user experience from merely designing visually appealing designs. So what does 2020 hold for web designers? Let’s checkout the latest web design trends that will rule the charts in 2020.

1. Impressive animations

A lot of people believe that complex animation is heavily dependent on the hardware and that it is useless to produce it for the mass, using slow processors. However, there are many competent animation products that can work very well on slow hardware. Companies nowadays are producing plugins and dev tools for interactive animation, suitable for the mass systems. They optimize the process of implementing interactive projects to work on nearly any device – efficiently and as smooth as you can think. Motions are always better storytellers than words. It’s all about putting a substance into the animation.

2. Asymmetrical layouts and split screens

Looking at the present scenario, we predict that asymmetry is bound to make a strong comeback in 2020. This is one such web design trends that we feel is a safe bet. The block layout has been in the trend for ages but still holds its charm. It portrays an easily digestible flow of information, especially when the concepts have defined boundaries. It helps in adding to the completeness of the design making the design structure less complex. Blocks mean symmetry. However, there’s an asymmetrical trend that is always there but never makes it to the mainstream. Especially with today’s wide desktop screens.

Split-screen was originally used to display two different sets of information on one single screen. However, that has changed and now split screens are simply used to display any sort of information.

3. Low-key gradients

Technology is moving towards automation at a rapid pace. AI delegation, less is more and other things are slowly creeping in. The visual elements attributed to that kind of design is making its way into what is still a heavily-human job. Subtlety in colors, along with simplification, minimization and reduction is gaining popularity. The idea that something is smart and automated rings many bells. The blue and purple gradients were very popular in 2018, and even in 2019, the softer versions of blue and purple were amongst popular web design trends. We foresight the continuation of low-key gradients in 2020 and the years to come.

4. Writing for humans

The responsibilities of writers have increased over the last three to four years with an increased focus on writing for a better user experience UX writing is one such web design trends that have elevated the standard of so many designs in terms of delivering delightful user experience. Text is no longer merely an aid to the design, it is a vital part of the design. Human writing allows the reader to judge, choose, and relate to the product.

5. Designing – Developing

A lot of times designers are made to deliver projects within a very strict timeline. In such conditions designers do a lot of jobs which are beyond their usual scope, to deliver something which is almost impossible to implement within a specific timeline or budget, or team. In the process, some designers learn to code. They know what they are doing to an extent, but don’t have a mastery over it, or in simple words, they aren’t at par to the actual developers. This creates a difference of opinion.

This difference of opinions has to end in 2020. With tools like Webflow, the gap between designing and developing should narrow down. Basically, it’s a visual tool that allows you to design whatever you want as long as it can be done in HTML and CSS. Every pixel move is a code change, which makes this approach a perfect way for designers to start coding.

When everything is gearing towards interaction-based design, it gets harder to explain how the interaction should work and look. The importance and the need for a visual tool like that are hard to overstate.

6. Increasing use of white space

When the web pages are stuffed with elements, it becomes very difficult for any of them to grab attention. They all fight for attention, but none of them is successful in achieving it. On the other hand, when there is too much attention on one element, it gets all the attention and rest everything gets overshadowed. Depending on the message the UI is delivering, it’s important to provide some breathing space to elements to let that message sink.

There are micro and macro empty spaces, text and paragraph spaces, they can be active and passive, and all of them scale. It’s much more sensible if we process and consume condensed information for long and with less comprehension. Surrounding the core idea with an ample amount of empty space is a great way to make the idea stand out. That said, ensure that the idea which you are placing under the spotlight is worth it.

Read more about the importance of white spacings here

7. Varying user experience

Your users have different personas and online behaviors. Since ages, we identify and cater to a specific segment of the audience, which we consider to be our average users, in an average context, with an average engagement level. But we must understand that there is a big possibility of changing the experience for an infinite number of people based on their behavior on sight. Modern analytics allows us to determine who you are dealing with. It can be a casually browsing wanderer, a not-so-sure lead, or a potential buyer. Depending on the amount of time they spend on a screen or the scroll speed, a website behaves differently.

It will take an aggressive stance on user research and might not be an option for service design but brand designers will have the experiences tailored. That means understanding the scene, the mood, and the repercussions of the actions a user is taking.
Some trends are low-key and prevail for a small time. On the other hand, some trends are in for the very long term. Identifying future trends help in formulating a long term strategy. It also ensures that you remain up-to-date and don’t fade out. Want to discuss more about emerging web design trends? Talk to our experts now!

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Brand & Identity Design Mobile Apps Technology UX

Differentiating Between Wireframes, Mockups, And Prototypes

wireframes

If you have ever worked with a developer, you would have heard the above-mentioned statements, or something similar to it. I have seen people scratching their heads and looking puzzled encountering these typically used project status terms, while an app is under development. A lot of engineers, marketers, and even senior managers use different design deliverables synonymously, as they don’t know when to use ‘wireframes’ or when to go with ‘prototype’? They assume that a wireframe, prototype, and mockup are exactly the same thing. It’s no more than a greyish, boxy sketch representative of an ingenious idea, which is definitely not the case.

“The wireframe is ready.”

“We are working on the mockup.”

All the design deliverables are different from each other as they are used to communicate different functions and aspects of the design. They do represent the final product, but the depictions are different.

Process of designing an app

Below-mentioned is a typical development journey. It is essential to follow these steps each time you create a new product.

Sketches > Wireframes > Mockups > Prototype

Start with a simple sketch on a blank piece of paper. Then, make a wireframe that organizes the content and features of your app. For mockup, add colors, icons, pictures, and logos to your wireframes. Add interactive elements into the mockups to inject life in it and come up with the prototype.

1. Sketch

It’s basically just a raw freehand drawing on a piece of paper, that gives you a low-fidelity representation of your app. It is the fastest way to represent your idea and getting ready for brainstorming. Believe me, even a simple sketch can describe your idea better than words. Go freestyle – work on different ideas, change details, visualize what you have on your mind; it’s all up to your imagination. This step is essential for getting to the wireframe stage. The best way to go about it is on a pen and paper.

2. Wireframes

A wireframe is equivalent to the skeleton or simple structure of your website/app. It should clearly show the main group of contents and the placement/structure of the information. It describes the functionality of a product, as in, what will happen when you click a certain button? The decisions on what and where on the website or app (in terms of content/features) are usually made during this stage. Remember, This step does not cover the product’s design.

Wireframes are not just meaningless sets of grey boxes, though they may look exactly like that. They are literally the backbone of your design. It’s a fact that you don’t need to deep dive into too many details, but you need to create a solid representation of the final design that won’t miss out any important piece of it. With a wireframe, you’re designing a roadmap for the whole project and all the stakeholders — developers, copywriters, project managers, etc. A well-created wireframe communicates the design in an easy, clear way and sets a path for the whole team.

Wireframes are typically used as the documentation of the project. Since they are static and simplistic, you could include short notes to explain the interaction, or maybe even technical documentation.

3. Mockup

A mockup is a middle to high fidelity, static, design representation. Very often a mockup is a visual design draft or even the actual visual design. It’s a good practice to never start development before mockups are completed. Add colors, fonts, dummy text, images, logos and anything else that will shape your wireframe. Your result is a static map of the app.

A well-crafted mockup helps you to finalize the product’s color schemes, visual style, typography, etc. A mockup is a playground where you can play with various visual aspects to see what looks best.

Mockups are particularly useful if you want to get early buy-in from stakeholders. Due to their visual nature, mockups don’t have the resistance of the low fidelity deliverables and can be created much quicker than prototypes. They are a good feedback-gatherer which smoothens the development journey.

4. Prototype

A prototype, often confused with a wireframe, is a middle to high fidelity representation of the final product, which simulates user interface interaction. It’s like a mockup enriched with UX pieces, interactions, animation and anything else you’d like to experience when clicking buttons. It should allow the user to experience content and interactions with the interface and test the main interactions in a way similar to the final product.

Prototypes are very useful when performing user testing. It allows you to check the usability of the interface before the development begins. This substantially reduces the development costs until the UI is approved. Once the prototype is tested, the team can start coding. The only thing missing in a prototype is functionality. It can give you a feeling of using a real app, but they are only images connected with each other.

You might find this article useful for creating a better UX Design

Why is it important to know the difference between Wireframes, Mockups and Prototypes?

These design deliverables help you define your expectations, save money on developers and describe clearly what you need to get built. You can confidently pitch to investors, first customers, and co-founders using the appropriate design deliverables. Before you choose a means of communication in the design process you need to consider your product and team; think about what works best for all of you. To know more, have a quick chat with our design experts.

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Brand & Identity Design UX Web Design

Web Designing While Accounting Human Errors

Web Designing
Web Designing

We often hear the phrase ‘To err is human’, and it can’t be truer in every aspect of our lives. We all make mistakes. Users on your websites are no different. Sure, you can’t stop them from making mistakes, but, can you follow some aspects of web designing while designing your website in a way that it leaves a scope of making mistakes?

Even the most careful and diligent users are bound to make mistakes at some point in time; others will make more mistakes. Therefore, it is critical to consider this fact while designing your website. The errors in web designing can be as simple as mistyping a URL, providing incorrect information in a sign-up form, adding info in wrong fields, etc. The mistakes could even be as disastrous as accidentally sending thousands of dollars to the wrong person via PayPal. So, here are a few tips that you can follow to account for human error while designing your websites. 

1. Provide Straightforward Instructions

A lot of times, we assume that the users are by default aware of the most basic instructions. Thus, we don’t feel it necessary to provide these basic instructions to them. Moreover, people often see basic directions as a bit snooty. It’s human to assume you know everything you need to know for a simple-seeming task. This causes errors.

Don’t assume they know what you mean. An imperative when delivering clear instructions is not to assume the recipient knows what you mean. This can be for anything from commonly used acronyms to simple navigation instructions.  Mixed messages, assumptions and multiple options mean that the message received might differ from what we actually meant.

2. Give Clear Warnings During

Just like the instructions, users must get a clear understanding of the consequences of actions taken on the website. And, sometimes they need to be informed and explained the implications, that too in detail. Still, there would be users who would keep ignoring your warnings, but there’s not much you can do for them in any case.

There’s also a second web designing approach which you can proceed with. A majority of people will leave your site when they face a warning message which they don’t fully understand. Else, they may look for help to understand the warning, which again may lead them to bounce off. You’ll have to decide whether you would rather deal with potential inaction from some customers, or more errors. Both approaches have their pros and cons.

3. Always Confirm Actions While

You may think that all users are completely sure of what they are doing on the website, or they may get annoyed with questions asking them to confirm their actions. A confirmation dialog may seem like an irritating and useless extra step; however, the truth of the matter is a quick “Are you sure you want to do that?” message can be invaluable. The user may be taking action for the first time, or the tenth time, it’s irrespective. A confirmation will only increase chances that the user takes the correct, intended action.

4. Validate Forms

Form validation may not be a full-proof solution, but a potent tool, and a great way to gently guide the user in the right direction. While proper form design can help keep users from simply putting the wrong text in the wrong form, form validation is excellent for double-checking information and catching typos and forgotten fields.

Improper validation of form data is one of the leading causes of security vulnerabilities. It exposes your website to attacks such as header injections, cross-site scripting, and SQL injections. It is important to note that client-side validation is beneficial, but it is not enough. If you’re going to implement client-side validation, it would be good to have some of the server-side too, just to be safe.

5. Use Appropriate Form Labels

In our last article, we listed out some essential tips for selecting the right button labels. The labels on the forms are equally important and can lead users to commit an error, if not used properly. There are tonnes of websites on the Internet with so many vaguely-labeled forms. Worse are the forms that use industry jargons on a client-facing website. In some of the sites, the labels and input fields are even misaligned. That’s just a strict NO-NO!

6. Improve Usability Through Color and Contrast

The colors and contrast are often used on a website most simplistically. People only go as far as using red and its shades to portray bad, and green and its shades to show good. But that’s not enough. It doesn’t necessarily help differently-abled users. A website should be usable by everyone, so various disabilities should be kept in mind. Disabilities can include but are not limited to, the inability to use a mouse or see the screen.

When someone has low visual acuity, specific color palettes on websites may make it difficult for that person to see and understand the website content fully. You must find a way to add contrast to your elements, in such a way, that they’re clearly and easily distinguished from each other. Pay special attention to this if two options use similar text, but do radically different things.

7. Provide ‘Undo’ Option Where Possible

We all know how handy the ‘Ctrl+Z’ option comes in every day while performing various tasks. The ability to undo an action is such a boon to everyone. We wish we had an undo button for our lives. Coming back to reality though, if you’re building a web app, you might seriously consider implementing some sort of “Undo” function for just about every action with permanent consequences.

You cannot ensure error-free browsing on your website; neither can you take a generic call on the abilities of your users. But, considering human errors while web designing, will increase the chances of good user experience and fewer errors. Speak to our experts to discuss more on it.

Categories
Brand & Identity UX Web Design

Some Tips to Get Rid of the UX Debt

UX Debt
UX Debt

A lot of times you will find yourself facing a situation wherein your product will show an inconsistent behavior or performance. This occurs due to the long-term sacrifices you have made over time for short-term gains, or what we call ‘UX debt’. In our previous article, we discussed Design Debt. We covered what it really means, its identification, impact and common causes. In this article, we will cover the ways through which you can erase UX debt most effectively and efficiently. It’s very common for a company to release a bunch of features in one go to gain market share as they focus on quick user acquisition. As a result, the cleanup work gets delayed and is pushed back for later sprints.

Getting rid of the UX debt takes time, and cannot be completed in one go. If you think that you can get rid of the UX debt in your next release, then you probably need to re-think. It’s best to create a plan and follow it meticulously to eliminate your debt. Follow the below-mentioned points to erase your UX debt:

Make a UX Debt Inventory

The first step towards erasing UX debt is to understand the debt. Whether you are a new hire or an existing team member, you must be aware of what you’re up against. This starts with creating an inventory.

For this, you need to roll up your sleeves and get your hands dirty. Use the product yourself and highlight anything you find unintuitive or confusing. Keep noting down your comments as you use the product. Another great way of performing this activity is by maintaining a spreadsheet within your team’s cloud folder and evaluating the heuristics together. The team can review the system based on some important criteria including findability, accessibility, clarity of communication, usefulness, credibility, learnability, overall aesthetics, persuasive design etc.

Evaluation process

You can create a clear picture of UX gaps by involving the whole team. The evaluation process may last a couple of weeks. Once the evaluation process is over, make sure you keep a realistic and manageable target date to slowly fill up the UX gaps.

This exercise is highly informative, however, you’re not the intended user. After conducting a UX debt inventory, you need to validate your findings by observing actual users and subject matter experts. This will help you better prioritize the work with product managers for the payback sprints or the backlog.

Prioritize Your Work

Once the UX debt inventory is ready, you must prioritize the tasks in order to address them in realistic stages.

The selection must consider a few factors:

1. How severe is the issue?

The severity of an issue must be the first factor to be considered as it may create a huge impact. How critical and big is the issue? Is it stopping users from doing their work? Is there a safety or security risk? If the issue is causing a potential customer to turn around and look to a competitor’s product, then you know that it is super critical. These kinds of issues must be right at the top of the to-do list.

Now, look at the flip side. It’s not necessary that only problems and roadblocks should be considered on high priority. If some improvements save hours of time in the course of a month, reduce errors and substantially add to the user experience, they must also be considered on high priority.

2. How long is it going to take to fix?

If all you have to do is tweak the CSS, you might slip it into the next build. On the other hand, if it’s going to require a significant amount of development or will have to be thoroughly regression tested, it may make sense to hold off until it can be resolved with other issues requiring similar treatment.

3. Who will be tasked with addressing the issue?

If the task has to be done by the UX team, and they have the bandwidth, it may be given a high priority. If it requires the attention of a specific developer who is already assigned to other high-priority work, then it will have to wait.

Make And Follow a Schedule

After prioritizing your debt, the next step is to work with product management to get it into your release schedule. Agile is the most popular approach to software development these days.

If You Aren’t Using Agile –

If you’re not using Agile, your work is most likely planned basis a release cycle. The management of your organization takes a call on what will go in the next release. They consider various factors like development effort, need of the feature, selling points, what bugs exist and how bad they are, etc.

It is recommended that UX debt issues must be handled as bugs. The real benefit of this approach is that the debt items can be entered and tracked using the same tools and business processes as bugs. This ensures timely review and treatment. Ideally, a representative from the UX team should work closely with product management when releases are scheduled.

If You Are Using Agile –

Companies that employ a healthy Agile process to prioritize debt and other types of works find it easy to manage everything. They don’t face any problems in prioritizing debt with other types of work, assigning it story points, and fitting it into sprints.

UX debt should be understood as the responsibility of the entire organization and not just the UX group. There must be a great synergy between all the teams. That said, the best way to eliminate UX debt is always avoiding it in the first place. Our UX designers will be happy to discuss your UX, UI and other design requirements; talk to them now!

Categories
Web Design

Should It Be Content Or Design First?

Content Or Design First?

Designing a website is an entire process and needs proper planning. The key element during planning is to decide the course of events and order of events. Amongst these decisions, the most critical and tricky one is to decide whether the content should be written first and the design should follow it or vice versa.

With advancements in technology and evolution of new design trends, a lot of new design elements have surfaced. Swirly animations, smooth java, embedded flash plug-ins, parallax scrolling, white space usage, customized fonts and shades, there’s a lot on the plate of a designer to beautify a website. That said, even the most alluring websites will not succeed if an equally enticing content doesn’t compliment it. There are quite a few challenges in creating content based on a ready design. The question ‘whether design should be decided first or the content?’ is a tricky one. Although, we feel that deciding content first and framing a design based on that is a better practice because of the following reasons:

Content Will Go Heywire With A Pre-Decided Design

A lot of designers start browsing through umpteen web design templates right from the word go and select a template which looks the most attractive. However, this poses a big challenge for content developers as they need to frame and twist the content according to the template and its categories. This is a bad practice and will result in negative business consequences.

Content First Speeds Up Production

Deciding a copy for a website is a tedious process and takes substantial time. Moreover, there’s hardly a chance that the initial copy will turn into a final copy. The designer will have his own inputs about the type and amount of content in certain sections plus the use of specific words, which means a lot of revisions. The production and launch will be delayed if the design is finalized before the content due to the revisions until the best copy is created. Now imagine, what if the content is worked on before the design? The launch process will speed up as finalizing a design based on the approved content will comparatively take lesser time.

SpinningThe Design Based On The Content Is Much Easier

It really becomes difficult for designers to visualize and implement a design with no content available. If the designers have a copy available, they can start developing design templates to fit to the tone of the content. Furthermore, there’s every reason for the content team to take a headstart. Moulding the design based on content will be easier and appealing as compared to go the other way round.

Design Is Expensive

It’s not a great idea to start designing without content in your hand. It can cost you a fortune. The initial design might look all fancy and attractive. But, if you analyse the costing for it, it won’t come out frugal. It’s possible that your’s is a content-heavy website and there might not be room for already implemented fancy filters or distractions. Alternatively, your content might be very simple and was depending on the design to uplift it. But, the final design may be as minimalistic as the content, making it very ordinary.

Content Hooks a Visitor

Surely the design may be important to attract viewers during the initial phase but it’s the content that hooks them. The design will elevate the overall user experience if it’s framed on the basis of the content. That’s because both will be speaking the same language and tone. This will result in more on-page time and a lower bounce rate.

These points highlight the importance of a content-first approach and how it’s beneficial to the success of a website. However, there are a lot of theories which favour the opposite approach. You can contact and discuss this at length with our design experts for a better understanding.