Why UI/UX guidelines are powerful

Rohit Behl Designer
UX Collective
Published in
5 min readMay 6, 2020

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A good design system depends on how usable it is for real users. It can motivate a user to engage, play, and transact with the system. A poor interface can confuse the user and ends up with the user’s frustration. Poor architecture, no hierarchy, and no-logics cannot drive a good design system. There are a few thumb rules which can allow an interface to become a user-friendly system. But before going into the theories and rules we should understand the basic difference between the interface and the experience and how both of them rely on each other to make a perfect product for the users!

UX KPIs

These guidelines have been drawn using industry standards and as per the user-centric approach. Implementing these guidelines will help to deliver a successful product. Here are a few key success criteria to follow while implementing these guidelines.

  • Increase the task success rate by 70%
  • Reduce the energy and time of a task by 50%
  • Reduce the user error rate by 80%
  • Customer satisfaction to achieve the desired results 80%
  • Reduce bounce rate by 80%

How this will help the organisation

Using these guidelines along with the reusable components will not only reduce the efforts from the team but also will reduce the cost of the overall product. Here are a few cost and effort saving parameters.

  • Reduce training cost
  • Maintain consistency
  • Reduce to and fro.
  • Reduce usability errors and rework
  • Lower CRS
  • Increase productivity

User interface vs user experience

Source: A comprehensive (and honest) list of UX clichés

The terminology might only convey the basic difference between both of them but if we go deeper, the actual difference between both of them is that they are interlinked with each other and one of them can not engage and motivate the users alone. A rich quality interface with poor user experience can never satisfy its user and ends with the frustration, same as good user experience with the low-quality interface can allow a user to go through the system but can not retain or motivate them to come back. A balance between both can only drive to a user friendly and successful product.

UX theory and strategy

If we compare the two then we can get the role and impact of the UX in a product and to drive this perfectly there are a few theories and strategies which need to be combined on a very initial stage of the product.

Scope

Understanding of the product goals, target audience and its usage in the real world is the first thing to start with. Scoping of the product features, hierarchy and goals have to be defined initially before working on anything else.

Information architecture

Form a skeleton of all the information, navigation and functionality in a structured layout. It reduces the possibility of usability and navigation issues.

User profiles

Target audience profiling is a must understand your users. Actual user profiles are more important than the predictive ones. Interviews with the real audience allow us to build a successful product.

User personas

Same as profiles, user personas play an impactful role in a successful product. User’s behaviour, day to day routine, needs, wants and pain areas help us to focus on the major part of the experience.

User journey

Navigation mapping and journey throughout the app will help us to avoid the circumstances where a user gets stuck and we need to review the whole product to solve the issues.

Use cases

Don’t think like a designer and try to write down all the use cases of each and every functionality and navigation from a user’s perspective.

Competitive case studies

Look for the competitive products in the market to note down the pros and cons and to avoid mistakes which are already in the existing related products.

Wireframes

Draft your idea before initiating with the actual canvas. It helps the stakeholders to go through a basic layout and the navigation of the product before the visual designs.

Style guide

Style guiding helps the designers to work inconsistency and brand-oriented.

UX writing

UX writing plays a significant role in product designing. Real-world terminology and universal writing are more famous amongst the users rather than big heavy words. It allows users to interact and engage with the content.

Defining success metrics without UI/UX is a myth. UI/UX research and design of a product improve customer experience and satisfaction. It ultimately increases the number of customers using your product. Users do not like more steps or energy wastage to achieve the desired action and your product UX doesn’t help them to save their energy while using your product, you won’t be able to retain your users. To maintain a stable and user-friendly product, UI/UX is the key.

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