There is a lot to talk about with UX Design, UX design is everything that comes with the design of an user experience, like a website, app, or even themeparks.
UX Design stands for User Experience Design.
This article is written in english, but it will sometimes have dutch defenitions / translations / synonyms in () so that it’d me easier for me to search.
This article..
I will keep on updating these notes whenever Avans teaches me something new, or when I stumble upon something.
If it feels like I have a grudge towards UX design when you read this, that might be a little bit true :3
Concepts
There are a lot of UX conepts that you should probably know when designing a website.
Usability Heuristics
Jakob Nielsen made a set of 10 guidelines that you should keep in mind when designing something, these are called The Usability Heuristics. They are no hard rules, but instead more like guidelines.
The 10 Usability Heuristics
- Visibility of system status – The system should always keep users informed about what is going on.
- Match between system and the real world – Use concepts and language familiar to users.
- User control and freedom – Users need clear exits and undo options to recover from mistakes.
- Consistency and standards – Follow platform and industry conventions so users don’t have to guess.
- Error prevention – Design in ways that prevent errors before they happen.
- Recognition rather than recall – Minimize memory load by making options and actions visible.
- Flexibility and efficiency of use – Allow shortcuts for experienced users while still being easy for beginners.
- Aesthetic and minimalist design – Interfaces should not contain irrelevant or rarely used information.
- Help users recognize, diagnose, and recover from errors – Error messages should be clear and constructive.
- Help and documentation – Provide easy-to-find, focused help when needed.
There are of course different way that these Heuristics are described, but whatever your source is, they all try to say the same thing. Like this image.
Gestalt Theory
Gestalt theory comes from psychology, it describes how people observe and structure visual information. It helps us design things like websites that feel logical to us.
Important Gestalt Principles
- Proximity (Nabijheid) – Elements that are close together are perceived as a group.
- Similarity (Gelijkheid) – Visually similar elements are perceived as related.
- Closure (Geslotenheid) – People fill in missing information to see a complete whole.
- Continuity (Continuïteit) – Users follow visual lines and patterns.