Imagup General Magazine 2024
If you are working on a new website or app, then you know the importance of user experience (UX). Like all creatives, sometimes designers can face a creative block and need to take a step back to regain inspiration and creativity energy. Sometimes, people can struggle with improving the user experience for their designs, so consider these do’s and don’ts when designing the best user experience and finding inspiration along the design process.
Go on a Walk
Getting outside of your office can help you to consider things from a different perspective. However, if you just walk inside, then you won’t see anything new or come across something different.
Try walking down the street or a nearby park. This will let you clear your mind, get some fresh air, and consider new ideas. A simple change of environment can help someone to re-think and come up with new ideas. Experts agree that movement spurs creativity, and fresh air clears your mind to brainstorm and discover new ideas that were already in your mind, but could not access.
Look at Other UX Designers
You can learn a lot by looking at other designers, and seeing what issues they address, what their designs look like, the different styles they took, or words they used in their messages. Spend some time studying the designs of people in your field or even competitors. Go online and do some research, just start looking up designers. Reddit and Quora are great places to start your research for other UX designers or publications like the Adobe XD Ideas hub, which has tons of information for new and experienced UX and UI designers.
You can figure out what designers had in mind and try to apply those kinds of thoughts into your own design. After all, you want to improve your design’s UX to make it more appealing to others, so see what works and draws people in.
Listen to UX Design Podcasts
Tons of people and companies create podcasts for people to listen to their content, discussions, and ideas. Like with most topics, you can look up UX design podcasts to find one that will help you become more inspired with your own designs. Adobe XD wrote a nice roundup on some of the best UX design podcasts to make your search for inspiration a little easier.
You should listen to different podcasts and see what suggestions they give to people like you. This will allow you to receive inspiration from other UX designers.
Visit an Art Gallery
Going to another creative outlet may affect your thought process. Spend some time exploring an art gallery: these places usually remain quiet and provide you with plenty of opportunities to think.
Look at the different art pieces. Use the new environment, creative pieces around you an atmosphere to think of new ideas. As you enjoy pieces and consider what these pieces provide for people, you could come up with some of your own designs.
Talk with Others
Talking with people and getting their perspective can greatly help you when you want to improve the UX. People have their own ideas, concerns, and issues with different designs, so you can ask them what they want to be changed.
This can go beyond asking about your own designs: ask them what they want from the UX in general. From here, you can consider their ideas and try to implement them into your own designs and features.
Don’t Sit Around
Avoid just sitting around your room or office and trying to think of an idea. Sure, you may want to come up with something, but if your mind feels blocked off from potential ideas and you can’t think of anything, sitting won’t help.
When you sit around, you don’t stimulate your brain. Instead, you should try going somewhere else or doing something so that you don’t focus on your lack of ideas and so that you can clear your mind.
Don’t Force It
You also can’t force ideas out of your brain. If you can’t think of something at that moment and have tried to think of ideas for a while, then trying to force an idea won’t help you come up with anything.
When you try to force an idea, you either end up with a half-baked idea or nothing at all. Trying to apply bad ideas can end up hurting the UX more than it would help. Make sure that you come up with solid ideas without forcing them.
Don’t Get Frustrated
People can easily become frustrated when they can’t come up with anything for their UX designs. However, when you become frustrated or upset, you prevent yourself from doing your best.
If you find yourself getting frustrated when you can’t think of an idea, try to focus on calming yourself down. A frustrated mind can’t perform as well, so calm yourself and then get back to thinking up ideas.
Don’t Procrastinate
If you can’t think of anything for your UX design, you may want to procrastinate and focus on other things. While you should clear your mind when you need to, full-on procrastination will only hurt you in the end.
This causes you to go under pressure and come up with UX ideas at the last minute. This could then cause you to completely fail in your attempt to incorporate UX into your design.
Don’t Ignore UX
You may feel tempted to ignore the UX all together, but doing this will only cause you problems. You need to make sure that your design keeps the user’s in mind, so if you don’t do this, then it will negatively impact your design.
People want to enjoy something and to use it properly. UX allows them to accomplish that. By ignoring it, you alienate the users, and that can cause you to lose credibility in your designs.
Conclusion
You have different things to consider if you want to improve the UX of your designs. If you listen to the do’s and avoid the don’ts mentioned here, then you can help yourself think of ways to improve the UX and to make your designs better.
