We may not always be consciously aware of it, but even small changes like the positioning of an element can impact product value through the way we interact with products both in the digital space and the real world.

Let’s explore the why’s and how’s of how value & user experience are intwined as one thing!

Looks Good… But what does it do?

“Attractive elements without a usability focus will quickly become unattractive”

When creating products and designing out elements, as designers we must put thought into everything we do, but we often find ourselves designing for beauty over usability. This is incredibly common, especially as humans are visual creatures — even users would at first glance prefer a pretty design to a functional one.

However, the users who first preferred the attractive design would quickly find themselves disillusioned if that element had poor usability, cluttered the view or caused a number of other problematic effects!

Being unable to effectively use a product without having to put too much thought into it, means that we have failed as designers.

We must also question ‘Why are we doing this? Is there a genuine need for it?’, and this doesn’t just come down to design — it also begs the question of the existence of features, are they there to provide value or to bloat?

Where am I, and how do I get where I want to?

“If your product is like a maze to get inside, but easy to leave, know the first choice will be to leave”

All it takes for our users to be finished with your product is a single click of the home button or the X in the top corner of the browser, and unless they’re just finished using it for that session, it usually means they’re finished using it FOREVER.

If you create your product in a way that practically shoves a blindfold on them and says ‘go work it out’, chances are, the only thing they’re going to ‘work out’ is how to get to a competitor!

Proper navigation, architecture and clear guidance passed down from us as designers to our users is a blessing often overlooked, and yet provides so much value to our users ease of experience.

Let me convert!

“Allowing users to convert should be as easy as automatic!”

If it takes our users 5 steps, a captcha, a confirmation, a ‘Do you want to see our newsletter??’ before they can actually pay and make a conversion — You’ve lost them.

Why make it so difficult to make a payment? As soon as they click that pay button, that should be it! I’ve regularly used websites that throw their value proposition for services like marketing emails and the like after I’ve already tried to make a purchase… I then have to decline several more steps JUST to push my payment through! Shut up and take my money!

A Familiar Unfamiliarity…

“Search bar in the footer? That’s… New”

Sometimes a designer will break the mould and revolutionise something minor or major, maybe they’ll find recognition, or go as an unsung hero. More often, a designer will reinvent the wheel, it looks like that because it works, and has been proven again and again to work. Don’t overwork yourself changing things up that have no need to be changed, make it easy on yourself and your users!

Familiarity is incredibly important in user experience design, be it cultural or societal familiarity, it allows us as designers to take pre existing constructs to make our experiences far smoother than they ever could be without them, such as volume buttons being located on the right side of the screen, or the search bar being in the top right, these are all incredibly common and familiar!

Maybe I didn’t need to see that…

“Sometimes obscurity hurts our users, but often saves them from heavy cognitive load”

Maybe putting your sitemap when the user first opens your site isn’t going to provide too much instant value to them, or you. It’s not a theme park, I think they’ll be okay (As long as you haven’t designed like a mad man and ignored the previous principles!).

Obviously this doesn’t apply just to sitemaps, but in general to unwarranted displays of elements that your users just don’t need to see, for example a minor feature such as the total number of rooms in a building when they will only ever use the lobby, and their own. I’m sure you can think of many more (likely much more intelligent than my own ;) ) ideas where this applies to, and how valuable it can be to obscure certain elements and functions from their view, to keep things simple!

The Unconscious Drive of Cognitive Bias

“We’re shaped and ruled by what we know and what we’re surrounded by”

Everything you’ve ever done, and will ever do, has been outside of your idea of free will.

Sorry to get philosophical and dreary, but this is mostly true. Not only are our users tugged around by biases, but so are we. It is incredibly important to understand how we think, what we think, and why we think those things in order to combat the EXACT same processes that our users will undergo.Understand the mind and you gain a superpower unrivalled in power.

In Summary

The quickest cure to bad UX is keeping the User in mind from concept to final design, and to always remember that the product you have spent weeks, months or years creating, more than likely won’t be understood in the same way your target users will!

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