Website user experience is the overall impression and satisfaction a user has when visiting a website. It defines a sequence of user interactions and system responses that meet user goals and tasks while satisfying business objectives. This may sound like corporate-speak, but its true.
User experience design is integrated into website development in order to inform feature requirements and interaction plans based upon the user's goals. The benefits associated to integrating these design principles include:
- Reducing excessive features which miss the needs of the user
- Improving the overall usability of the system
- Expediting design and development through detailed guidelines
- Incorporating business and marketing goals while catering to the user
The following areas of expertise form part of user-centred design:
- Information architecture
- User interface design
- Usability
- Visual design
Typical outputs include:
- Wireframes (screen blueprints or storyboards)
- Written specifications that describe the design
