Diploma in UX Design
The Foundation
in UX Design
Summary Notes
2
Contents
3 Lesson objectives
3 Introduction
3 The foundation of UX design
5 The UX design process
7 The need for UX design
9 UX design examples
11 Lesson challenge
11 Conclusion
11 References
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Lesson objectives
By the end of this lesson, you should be able to:
• Investigate the foundation of user experience design
• Explore the user experience design process
• Understand the need for user experience design
Introduction
To fully grasp the concept of user experience design, we must understand the needs of our target audience. You may have
the best software, the most efficient data analytics and even the most valuable solution to a customer’s problem, but if it’s
not easy for your customer to navigate and use, it won’t be effective. The customer’s experience must be pleasant, usable
and engaging, otherwise, your customer might not even bother to visit your website or access your app again. This is what
the user experience and the user interface refer to; the ability to create a product, in our case, a mobile application or
website that is easy to navigate and understand by our end-user.
This course will guide you step-by-step to make your website, app or other digital product easy and pleasant to use giving
you that competitive advantage.
The foundation of UX design
Enrolling on this course, you might already have an idea of the concept of user experience and user interface. Before we
can build an effective application, we must first understand the foundation by defining some basic terms that are essential
to your knowledge in this course.
What is usability?
Usability refers to the accessibility of a digital product by its end-user. The digital product can be anything from a website,
mobile application, other software or even a game console. Ask yourself how easy is it to do what your customer hoped to
do, or find the information they search for? Good usability is about successfully using your digital product to achieve your
user’s goal, and ultimately make your user’s life better and easier.
Examples include any software installed on your computer, mobile applications on your smartphone, websites or internet
browsers you can use from any digital device albeit a computer, tablet or smartphone, and even the latest PlayStation or
computer game you so love playing. We refer to these software and applications as digital products. Digital products are
programs that are installed and run on a digital device like a computer, tablet smartphone or even smartwatch.
What is UX?
UX is the abbreviation for User Experience and refers to how the user of a digital product or system interacts with it. How
does the user perceive the quality of this interaction to be? As the name implies, it is the user’s experience of using the
digital product in terms of ease to use, the value they get from using the product, and how quickly they can get what they
want.
In short, we can say that effective UX assists in helping digital users to reach their goals via software as quickly and
effectively as possible.
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Let’s look at an example and whether you think that effective usability has been applied: A user or customer installed an
emergency services application on their mobile device. The aim of this application or app is for the user to access the
desired emergency service as quickly as possible. The user logged into the app and when asked to get in touch with the
relevant emergency contact instead gets a survey form to fill in first. Do you think that effective usability has been applied
here? Absolutely not. If you are in an emergency, you would like to get help as quickly as possible and the last thing that
you will worry about is filling in a survey.
Did you know?
You do not need to be artistic or have great drawing skills to become a product designer. Several branches of UX don’t
focus on drawing or designing interfaces, most notably UX research, UX strategy and evaluation of user interfaces.
Let’s look at what these terms mean and see how they can apply to your ability.
What is UX design?
User experience design or UX design is the activity of designing a website, app, software, or other digital product in such a
manner that usability and value of the interaction to the user are top of mind. It’s the art of crafting a seamless, pleasant,
and valuable experience for the user to make certain that they get what they need, and they get it with minimal effort.
User experience design is about using visual elements on a screen, keypad or other interface and arranging these
elements so that the digital product is intuitive, quick, and pleasant to use. These visual elements can include buttons,
input boxes, scroll bars, links, navigation menus, content, and everything the user sees or can touch.
What is UX research?
User experience research is the task of determining your target market or user groups, what their true needs are, what
their challenges, problems or pain points are and what functionalities they would appreciate most. These insights will
enable you to design a digital product with a strong user focus. Once you develop a product, it needs to be tested with
actual users. This is done to not only determine if this digital product is what the user requires but also to establish the
ease of use related to this product.
Developing a working product can be very time-consuming and expensive, and usually requires the specialist skills of a
developer. For this reason, it is essential to first create mock-ups or prototypes before designing the product. This enables
you to test your product ideas quickly and cost-efficiently before investing time and money into something that users
don’t require or find difficult to use. This process is called prototyping. UX research is essential and without doing proper
research, your final product might not be effective at all, therefore it is crucial that you do the relevant research before
conducting your product design.
What is UX strategy?
User experience strategy is about your vision for your product and its customer experience. It deals with value creation for
the user and for the business that will require this product. The strategy refers to the plan to create products and
experiences that serve a valuable purpose for your user while also making a profitable income for the product owner. It’s
about establishing the current and desired state of the user experience, and how to get from the current to the desired
state. This process is about fitting all the pieces of the user experience along the customer’s journey, and across all
touchpoints with the brand, together to produce a seamless experience consistent with the desired brand values.
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What is UI design?
UI or user interface design focuses on the visual and aesthetic aspects of UX. User interface design relates to creating the
desired look and feel of the product. It is closely related to visual design or visual communication, which includes using
the elements and principles of visual psychology and graphic design to create, arrange or use colours, typefaces, images,
shapes, lines, and perceived textures to create efficient as well as visually appealing user interfaces.
What is product management?
Product management is a career or task dealing with the design, creation, launching, maintenance, and continual
improvement of a digital product. Product managers usually oversee the work done by UX designers, and they need to
have a working knowledge of the field of UX design. UX design is a good place to start for aspirant product managers
because UX knowledge is essential in the product management lifecycle.
The UX design process
The UX design process is a systematic, step-based process and includes the following steps:
• Understand
• Research
• Idea-generation & brainstorming
• Prototyping
• Testing
• Releasing
• Continually analysing
To understand is to empathise with the user, then research takes place to define what the user’s needs or problems may
be. Idea-generation & brainstorming assist in solving the user’s problem. Prototyping takes place to develop a mock-up or
imitation of the desired digital product. Hereafter follows testing where you will test your prototype with users. After you
test and get positive feedback, the developers go ahead and build and release the product. After it has been released you
will continually analyse and improve the product. Let’s look at this in more detail:
Understand
A digital product starts with getting to know your target customers, Understanding is essential to empathise with your
customer. This means that you develop a deep understanding of their needs or problems and view the product outcome
from their perspective. Carefully consider the emotions your customer will experience and empathise with them in this
regard by developing an understanding of basic human psychology. Learn about the different personality traits that make
people unique, and why people react differently in a particular situation. Understand what motivates people, what drives
them to do what they do and ultimately to use your product. All these link to understanding human behaviour and
psychology which we will investigate later in this course.
Research
Research involves defining and evaluating the user’s needs. These needs and challenges of the target market must be
identified and evaluated before moving to the next step. The first two steps can sometimes be overlooked in the app and
software development process, which explains why many digital products fail. Even if conducted informally, steps 1 & 2
are always essential.
You will learn about identifying the needs, motivations and relevant personality and situational factors that are relevant to
your product, service, or industry. Research also entails looking at your customer’s competitors and determining whether
what they are doing effectively or not, then utilising this to improve your product.
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Idea-generation & brainstorming
Idea-generation & brainstorming relates to thinking creatively to find solutions to the user’s problems. You think of ways
how the user’s needs can be improved compared to already available solutions. You think of an app, website, software or
digital product, and the features and functionalities it should have, that can solve your target market’s problems or make
their life easier.
Idea generation is not a solo activity, you usually brainstorm ideas with colleagues. Or better yet, you co-create ideas
together with users or other stakeholders who know the industry. Brainstorming and ideation sessions can be very
informal, or they can take place in a formal ideation or re-imagination session format about which you will learn later in
the course.
Prototyping
After considering your possible solutions, you would like to convert your ideas into something tangible. A prototype is a
representation of the product but not yet the final product. The reason for prototyping before building the digital product
is because it is a lot quicker and more cost-effective. You want to initially start with something quick and cheap because
you first must test the idea and designs.
This can be in the form of simple, rough paper drawings of how the screens should roughly look like, called low fidelity
paper prototypes. This is in fact the best place to start because starting with rough sketches only will make you
subconsciously less committed to the design; therefore, you will be more willing to make changes or even tear up your
design and start over from scratch. If you test your rough paper ideas with potential users, which is important to do, they
will also be more likely to give honest feedback and valuable criticism if they see you did not spend a lot of time on the
ideas yet.
After testing your rough paper prototypes, you can move on to designing higher fidelity prototypes that look like the final
digital product. You can make use of digital prototyping tools like Adobe XD or Figma. For this course, we will learn in later
lessons to use Figma to create beautiful mock-ups of a website and app. We selected Figma because not only is it easy to
use but also very powerful and open source.
Testing
After developing the prototype, you must test your idea. If it resonates well with users, you can move forward by using the
prototype as a type of blueprint to assist in developing the digital product. However, if you found during testing that users
don’t resonate with the idea or might have issues using certain aspects or features, you revert to the research &
brainstorming step in the UX design process. In practice, and to be flexible and agile, the UX design process is not linear.
Rather you will jump between steps, revert where needed, to revisit decisions as more information or ideas flows in.
Initially, you will test your prototype with your team for feedback and further improvements. Once the feedback has been
applied, you will share it with the client to get their input as well. Once all the feedback and improvements have been
applied, you will test your prototype on the actual user. Preferably you should not only ask for feedback but also observe
how the user interacts with the high-fidelity prototype.
How do you share a digital prototype? Figma allows for real-time collaboration, almost like working on Google docs. You
can see in real-time who is working on the prototype and what they are doing. You and your colleagues can work together
simultaneously. Figma and most other digital prototyping tools allow you to copy an internet link to the prototype which
you can share with clients or test-users via email or any other messaging app.
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Continually analysing
Continual analysis of the product after it has been built and released is important for innovation as well as to remain
competitive. Continual improvements can be in the form of minor design changes to completely new versions, but it is
essential to understand that your product is never finalised and will most certainly require a few tweaks at least.
UX designers’ involvement in actual product development is quite limited. After handing the designs over to the developer
team, UX developers will take care of the development, which is a highly specialised task that requires in-depth
knowledge of programming. There are alternative approaches available to enable non-coders to develop simple websites
like Wix and Shopley. Even simple apps can be developed by non-coders or with simple coding skills, such as Microsoft
PowerApps. However, in most professional settings the developer team will take the prototype to existence.
In a very small business, there may not be a developer team, and you as a UX designer may be tasked to develop the
product yourself. This is where those alternative solutions to coding may be handy, or where you may decide to up-skill
your career by learning coding skills, which could be very empowering. Once the developers have built the digital product,
they will take care of the technical testing to ensure compatibility on the various operating systems and devices in a beta-
testing environment. Check out the computer science course to learn programming and coding skills if this is something
you would consider.
Did you know?
User experience design is much more than being tech-savvy and knowing your way around computers and other
technological means. You do not need to be tech-savvy but can instead focus on the human experience side of this
course as well. Even though being tech-savvy will count in your favour, do not fear, as you will learn a great deal
about the digital world in this course. Let’s investigate how understanding UX design can assist you in not only your
work environment but also your personal life.
The need for UX design
Although this course will help you to build a career out of UX, you will soon realise that UX design allows you the
opportunity to utilise this skill in a variety of different roles as well.
This course will not only make you aware of the industry but will also provide you with valuable skills to become more
streetwise and even tech-savvy. Later in this course, we will investigate user psychology, making you aware of think and
reason and understanding the decision-making process. Let’s investigate how UX can be applied in a variety of roles and
skills.
UX as a general skill for the public
Ever fell for a scam or felt sorry for those who did lose their entire life savings at the hands of a fraudster? I am sure we
have all received that email. Hopefully, though, you did not fall for that scam and if you did, this course will delve into the
signs to look out for next time.
The lessons on persuasive UX will make you aware of how people are persuaded or nudged towards certain decisions. This
will help you and those you care about to spot a scammer from a distance. You will immediately recognise manipulative
techniques used in adverts and digital designs called dark patterns.
UX skills will also enable you to use and understand software, apps, or electronic devices much easier. Never will someone
see you as a technologically disadvantaged person. You may even become the tech go-to person in your social circle!
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UX as a handy skill to enhance related careers
Maybe you don’t plan to venture into a UX career but use it as background knowledge to better support your existing or
planned career.
UX skills are very valuable for a variety of other digital and design careers. Developers, marketers, graphic designers,
product managers, corporate, entrepreneurs and even politicians. Anyone who has an interest in ensuring that their
digital product is efficient will benefit from UX knowledge.
UX skills are also essential to modern marketers. If you understand the basics of UX, you will understand why users may
drop off in your sales funnel. You will understand why certain digital marketing techniques work and others do not. You
will be able to advise your marketing team on how to reach customers by allowing them to explore the customer journey.
You will understand how operations can be improved to create an increasingly seamless and pleasant user experience. UX
even has a huge influence on modern supply chains, logistics and operation management.
If you are a front-end or full-stack developer, strong UX skills are essential. The better you understand how users will
interact with your product, the better programming decisions you will make. Even backend developers will benefit greatly
from UX knowledge because they will understand why data and functionalities are required and how it can be integrated
better at the back end to build a better user experience at the front end.
Any business leader, entrepreneur and manager need to understand UX because the new competitive advantage lies in
creating pleasant and connected user experiences. You need to understand how to create value for your customers, how
to prioritise features and the development of new products and customer service enhancements. You need to understand
how the digital economy works. These are all key aspects of UX.
Maybe you are into new technologies and engineering. New technology is only valuable and will only be used if it provides
value to someone. Part of UX is to convert technology into useful products and experiences that people will be willing to
pay for, therefore UX is important for the commercialisation of technology and innovation.
UX freelancing opportunities
UX design doesn't need to be a 9-5 office-based or full-time job. The field lends itself as an ideal remote work, flexible,
part-time, or freelance career.
The tools you need to cooperate is suitable for remote collaboration with colleagues anywhere on the planet where there
is an internet connection.
There are several platforms to find freelancing opportunities such as Upwork, Freelancer as well as Fiverr.
You can also use personal branding and digital marketing techniques to market yourself as a UX freelancer. We will learn
about these opportunities in a later lesson.
UX as a professional career
UX design and related careers such as UX research and UX strategy are in high demand throughout the world, especially in
centres of innovation and in cities where software companies’ agglomerate.
Although there are formal degrees and professional certifications, these are not required to enter the field. All you need is
UX skills and a portfolio to illustrate what you are capable of designing.
This course will help you to get ready for a professional career in UX design. UX is a rewarding profession because it is
versatile and enables you to constantly learn more about people. You will engage a lot with people and will see how the
products you design will improve their lives.
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User Interface design, technology or user analytics are also great options to consider, especially if you see yourself as
being more introverted. UX as a career has a bright future because people and technology interact more as we enter the
increasingly connected economy.
User Interfaces will become increasingly sophisticated and more diverse as the field of the Internet of Things, or IoT is
evolving. Eventually, people will interface somehow with every object around them.
Virtual and Augmented reality and voice interfaces will also become increasingly important. Artificial Intelligence also
requires user-friendly interfaces and interactions with people.
All of these emerging technologies will require sophisticated UX skills. Therefore, the future of UX is expected to be bright
and very exciting!
UX design examples
Before we get to our lesson challenge, I would like to show you examples of where UX design has been applied. The same
message is communicated on both these examples, however the one on the left has successfully applied UX design by
considering layout and hierarchy.
Image source: Adobe UX Ideas
The same can be said about these two examples. Keep your message succinct and to the point. No need to elaborate on a
matter that can be communicated in a simple phrase.
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Image source: Adobe UX Ideas
The order of elements serves a crucial role in effective UX design as can be seen in this example. Make sure when you
design a digital product that the order and flow is natural and intuitive.
Image source: Adobe UX Ideas
We have reached the end of this lesson and I want to leave you with an exciting challenge. I would like you to identify any
application installed on your phone, computer, or tablet. Can you mention 3 features that this application has that make
it easy and effective to use? Mention why you feel these features are effective and how it makes the user’s experience
more convenient and easier to navigate.
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Lesson challenge
I am leaving you with an exciting challenge for this lesson. I would like you to identify any application installed on your
phone, computer, or tablet. Can you mention 3 features that this application has that makes it easy and effective to
use? Mention why you feel these features are effective and how it makes the user’s experience more convenient and
easier to navigate.
You can either get yourself a book or sketchbook, as we will do doing some practical tasks later in the course or you can
share it on your favourite social media platform using the #UXgreatfeatures with a brief description
Conclusion
Fred Beecher, a long-time UX designer, leader and educator quoted the following: How do I explain what I do at a party?
The short version is that I say I humanise technology. If we can summarise the role of a UX designer, it would probably be
to humanise technology. Simple yet effective.
UX is a vibrant, modern career choice on its own or a career-boosting supportive skill to have for related careers. Apart
from career opportunities that will open, UX is also an ideal skill to learn and use for social good, since it will help you to
improve user’s lives and make the world a better place. This will become clear in the lessons about UX strategy where you
will learn to make truly valuable products and persuasive UX where you will learn to nudge users to make better decisions
about their lives and become aware of and manage social, environmental, and personal well-being issues. UX is a fulfilling
career because you have a lot of freedom to express your creativity. With UX design you can create anything you can
dream of. You are only limited by your imagination, but even your imagination can be boosted to new heights by ideation
exercises and techniques that we will cover in later lessons.
Reference
Rae, M. 2020. Eye-Opening Examples of Good & Bad UX Design. Available at: [Link]
design/good-bad-ux-design-examples/
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