What UX Means to Mobile Jazz

Often associated with apps, websites and technology, it’s important to understand that user experience actually extends far beyond that, to infact, every product, system and service you’ll ever interact with.

What is User Experience (UX)?

Although there is no single accepted or correct definition, user experience can be summarised as the instance of a person interacting with something. UX should be measured from an emotional response, indicating the users encounter.

When people refer to UX, they’re talking about good UX, and creating a good user experience is an ongoing process of reviewing and refining. As technology advances, it will forever change the way we interact with things.

There are many principles to follow and dimensions to consider when designing for UX. These are (and by no means limited to) visual design, interactions, usability and continual testing.

Here at Mobile Jazz, we take a human focused path, taking the time to obtain a deep understanding of our client’s users. We have a few basic principles we like to follow, which we will proceed to talk about.

Our Principles

A Human Touch

We believe our websites and apps should welcome users. We like our creations to use everyday language, include colloquialisms, emoticons and icons that can be instantly recognised and help generate positive emotions for the user.

Visually Pleasing

Websites usually have a few seconds to present useful, clear information to captivate the user. It’s unfortunate, but too often we judge a book by it’s cover.

At Mobile Jazz, we invest a huge amount of time into designing our apps to be honest, clear and easy to understand. Our websites offer a high level of simplicity and sophistication that users trust and keep returning to.

We make it easy for users to understand our apps by using sensible hierarchy and useful user feedback when interacting. It’s these finishing touches that make an app feel luxury.

Usability and Interactions

When designing apps, we follow OS design constraints to keep our creations feeling native. This ensures the user will simply ‘get it’, be able understand the app’s flow and won’t have to spend any time trying to figure what’s happening.

Our clients rely on us to create simple solutions to complex problems, to fill their users with confidence and joy. It begins by studying their customer needs and turning that information into a quality, well-thought-out website or app where every interaction is useful, meaningful and intended.

Real Life Testing

One challenging aspect of UX design is testing. As the authors of designing and developing a website or app, trying to approach it from a new perspective can be difficult. We love to test our creations on different teams within the company, which always provide a fresh set of eyes. Another one of our most trusted method is to test on real devices, and while this may seem obvious, some rely only on virtual devices to emulate equipment. It’s a lot easier to see things from a user perspective when actually handling the device.

We also use Bugfender, our in-house developed tool for logging mobile app interactions and errors.

Our Methods and Tools

So we can provide an effective UX strategy, we always begin by talking with our clients. We like to get a full understanding of their business, their clients, problems and solutions.

Initially, we like to use tools such as Balsamiq to create a series of wireframes which provide rough guidelines for the website or app. Next, using new tools like Sketch or good old fashioned pen and paper, it’s important to create a storyboard to demonstrate the flow of the app, to help minimise screens and simplify interactions.

InVision is another favourite of ours to build fully functioning prototypes, great with surveys on focus groups for real user feedback.

Throughout development and after release, we continue to log usage statistics, studying just how people are interacting with the website or app. This provides vital feedback, enabling us to review and deploy changes to enhance the experience even further.

Why Your Company May Need a UX Refresh

If key information on your website or app is being missed, leads are not being generated or sales are dwindling, then you should consider refreshing your UX. A poor user experience can be detrimental to your success. As IBM vice president Thomas J. Watson once said “Good design is good business”. So if you’re looking for advice, get in touch and we’ll be happy to help.

Here at Mobile Jazz, we have UX and UI specialists to help take your website or app to the next level. We take the time to understand your users and their needs, and aim to improve your conversion rates by increasing customer satisfaction and loyalty.