Last Updated on December 28, 2021 by scottkandh

This post called 8 Elements to create a great user experience uses two graphics combined together that you can use to develop a great user experience (UX) for your blog’s visitors. 

The graphic below (on the left) is from a post called User Experience: What Is It And Why Should I Care?  It’s a graphical representation showing how all of these areas should be developed around the user to create a great user experience.

I found a similar image (from the History of user experience) to the one above on the left (pictured on the right) that didn’t include the topics of typography and visual design and we’ll cover the 8 elements of a great user experience by combining the elements of these two graphics into one comprehensive list: 

8 Elements to create a great user experience

• Interaction Design
• Information Architecture
• Visual Design
• Functionality
• Usability and Accessibility
• Typography
• User Interface and
• Content Strategy

The first thing that you’re probably wondering is what is user experience?

What do you mean by user experience?

User experience (UX) design is the process design teams use to create products that provide meaningful and relevant experiences to users. This involves the design of the entire process of acquiring and integrating the product, including aspects of branding, design, usability, and function.

Why is user experience important?

User experience is important because it tries to fulfill the user’s needs. It aims to provide positive experiences that keep a user loyal to the product or brand. Additionally, a meaningful user experience allows you to define customer journeys on your product that are most conducive to business success.

How is user experience used in SEO?

“Elements of user experience (UX) have been rolled into SEO best practices. … Think of the partnership of SEO and UX this way: SEO targets search engines, and UX targets your website’s visitors. Both share a common goal of giving users the best experience.”  Google Search

How can you use User experience to your benefit as a blogger? 

Create your website so that it gives:

• exact information you need to your visitors
• in just the right format
• and at just the right time.

Your blog doesn’t have much time to impress your visitors.  When they visit your site, they’re going to quickly access if they want to stay on your site or bounce to another site to find their answers.  This quick impression can easily make the difference to if customers will want to buy a product from you or not based on that impression that they form from their initial visit. 

Why Should You Care About User Experience (UX)?

If you’re running a website, someone’s overall experience with your website could very well make the difference between whether they will buy, or more importantly, whether they will come back to buy again or look elsewhere next time.

I’d like to borrow the slogan that was around a few years ago from Staples around their easy button.  Use this same “Easy” button mentality to develop your blog making it easy for them to navigate your website to quickly find the information that they’re looking for (preferably within 3 clicks or less). 

1. Interaction Design (aka interactive design)

Despite being a large part of user experience, interactivity should remain unperceived by users. By and large, your website’s interactive design was done right only when your users don’t acknowledge meticulously worked-out interactive processes navigating their actions.  The image below from Why You Need Interactive Website Design suggests that this is a very challenging job and that for this task you may want to hire someone to create a web design project. 

2. Information Architecture (IA)

Information architecture is a task often shared by designers, developers, and content strategists. But regardless of who takes on the task, IA is a field of its own, with influences, tools, and resources that are worth investigation.

Here’s a link to the Complete Beginner’s Guide to Information Architecture.

Information architecture (IA) focuses on organizing, structuring, and labeling content in an effective and sustainable way. The goal is to help users find information and complete tasks.

“Information architecture is the creation of a structure for a website, application, or other project, that allows us to understand where we are as users, and where the information we want is in relation to our position. Information architecture results in the creation of site maps, hierarchies, categorizations, navigation, and metadata. When a content strategist begins separating content and dividing it into categories, she is practicing information architecture. When a designer sketches a top level menu to help users understand where they are on a site, he is also practicing information architecture.” 

3. Visual Design

What is the meaning of visual design?

Visual design focuses on the aesthetics of a site and its related materials by strategically implementing images, colors, fonts, and other elements. A successful visual design does not take away from the content on the page or function.  Google Search

For a related post, visit Graphic Designing 101: Keep SEO in Mind While Designing. 

4. Functionality

What is functionality?

Website functionality is defined by the ease of how a user can navigate your site, get the information they are seeking, and/or purchase the product they want.  From What Website Functionality Means in 2020.

5. Usability and Accessibility

Usability is a measure of how easy a system is to use. Accessibility means access to all, regardless of technological and physical means. This ranges from people with screen readers to those with mobile phones, PDAs or slow modems.

What is the difference between accessibility and usability? 

Accessibility refers to the website is available and can be easily accessed by a normal person or even disabled person.

Usability testing focuses on measuring the ease at which website can be used. It is also how user-friendly the website is.

6. User Interface Design

User interface design or user interface engineering is the design of user interfaces for machines and software, such as computers, home appliances, mobile devices, and other electronic devices, with the focus on maximizing usability and the user experience. Wikipedia

7. Typography

What is typography in UX?

Typography helps design to deliver information to people. Font size, font width, font color, and line lengths — all elements of typography work together to create a great user experience.

8. Content Strategy

Content strategy focuses on the planning, creation, delivery, and governance of content. Content not only includes the words on the page but also the images. 

Ensuring that you have useful and usable content, that is well structured, and easily found is vital to improving the user experience of a website.

Related posts:

This post https://shortiedesigns.com/blog/user-experience-ux-the-fast-five/ covers five of the elements discussed in this post that you might want to visit for more information.