Have you ever visited a website and gotten lost trying to figure out where to go? Has it ever been difficult to find what you're looking for? Websites should be informative, easy to navigate, and provide clear directions or calls to action. The way we capture this is through User Experience or UX Design. User Experience Design is the art of designing a site's functionality with the end user in mind. Similar to a shoe company developing a light up sneaker for kids, we develop websites with the people who will visit.

Not only is it important to think about who will be visiting the site, but also how they will navigate once they get on the site. As customers, we all want to walk away from a stay, trip, errand, or meeting having a good experience; websites are no different. User Experience Design allows us to create themes, layouts, and content that is pleasing to the eyes, ears, and mind. Removing unnecessary clutter, refining content, and creating clear paths of information all help enhance the mood and nature of a users visit.

Aspects of UX Design Include:

1. Visual and Graphic Elements - what the visitor will see and ingest visually (colors, shapes, images, media etc.).
    
2. Information Architecture - the structuring and organizing of major site components to enhance usability and discovery.
    
3. Objects (Object Oriented UX) - separating and defining the real world elements from those that describe them (learning to think mobile-first).
    
4. Interactions - creating intuitive elements, interactive features, and behavioral actions like drag-drop, selections, and hover states.

Like most art, UX design is subjective, but there are important UX features every website needs, regardless of style.  

If you answer YES to any of the questions below, your site may need to update its UX Design.

Take a look at your website through the eyes of a customer/client (as the site visitor). 

• Am I reliant on the menu to navigate the site? 
• Does the experience feel different on your mobile phone? 
• Is finding information complicated? 
• Do I consider this site as "hard to digest" or difficult to understand?

Now, through your own perspective (as the site visitor). 

• Is the site complicated to manage and/or update? 
• Will my users lose engagement within the site? Hint: check site analytics

Answered "Yes"? Learn more about User Experience Design>>
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