Understand the experiences you’ve never had

A one-day workshop proved to be an eye-opener to the potential of addressing the user experience first, rather than the look and feel, when designing a website from the ground up.

Nowadays, you cannot justify unnecessary spending. Therefore, when it comes to your website, a comprehensive approach to its design is essential; and a clear idea of how to materialise your finished product from the very beginning is crucial.

Now, more than ever, the Interactive Designer must constantly expand their skills and update their repertoire.

With that in mind, I recently attended a one-day workshop on how to prototype (or ‘working – wireframe’) websites. Prototyping gives you a working draft of the website before the actual site is built. This shows how the final product will work, without the aesthetic qualities. At this stage you can usability test your prototype on potential users of the site. This means many flaws or problems which may otherwise be remedied later on in the construction of the site are recognised and overcome earlier – giving you confidence that the website will work for your users.

First things first

In simple terms, a prototype is effectively the layout design of the elements that will be included on the page, such as the logo, navigation and contact forms, represented by outlined boxes, a ‘working blueprint’, if you will. This prototype allows you to experience it just as you would the final website.

One valid point raised at the workshop was that clients might not want to accept this unorthodox approach to design. Everyone has heard the phrase that ‘if it aint broke don’t fix it’ and it’s understandable that we always want to see the end result first. At first I probably would have agreed. However, after weighing up the pros and cons it seems more logical to get core elements working before concentrating on what the finished article will look like. After all, you wouldn’t decorate a house without the foundations put in place first. The visual aesthetics are important and integral to the final website design; however an understanding of the users’ route to the relevant information should always be the major concern.

So if you need a few reasons why you might benefit from this process, here are just a few:

• You get a feel of the website earlier on (see it working without the style)
• If you fix problems early (before the visual design) they will be easier to fix
• Reduces project risk – usability testing is great for exposing problems
• Increases conversion rates

Put yourself in their shoes

So, before thinking about the final aesthetics, put yourself in the place of your website’s users: imagine them trying to use your site to find information. There’s a saying that ‘nothing is easier than believing we understand experiences we’ve never had’, so it makes sense to test the experience before your website is complete.