Interested in UX Architecture? Here’s What You Should Be Looking For.
UX architecture is a field gaining a lot of interest by the business and technologically minded. Those with an artistic flair or strategic mind are also being drawn to this field, realizing its importance to implementation of functionality and usability. So, are you interested in UX architecture? If you are, then there are some facets that specifically should be paid attention to when observing the architecture of a given user experience. These are the base elements of UX, and what shapes it to be what it is at any given time. Strategists, analysts and designers all work with these elements in a proper harmony to ensure usability in parallel with functionality.
What are these key elements? Well, let’s take a look.
Sociology and psychology balanced with some business science leads into the demographics portion of architecture. Demographics are groups of users categorized based on a significant shared trait. These can be any given thing that defines them all as a unit, despite their many differences in other traits and aspects.
Understanding of this demographic will determine not only presentation but also functionality, determining when capacity is more important than others, ergo more central, and also determining if something is unnecessary and a hindrance.
However, it plays into the design aspects as well, understanding how these groups see an interface, where they would best see everything placed and presented at any given time. This leads to the next aspect, orderly design. Using the understanding of functionality and demographic, design must now implement a logical and pleasing design of interface at any given state of any point in functionality. Understanding the demographic, understanding the functions, UX can now be assembled that allows this functionality to be presented in the optimal possible way to the demographic.
Finally, there is some design slack to be applied, allowing for expanded and unforeseen demographics to use it as compatibly as the target. This will mean reducing the accuracy of main demographic targeting by just a small margin, but will ensure a wider splatter distance for the design’s applicability. This also involves some sociology and psychology, to understand the extended sets of general people who may be reached, in association to the target demographic. It’s a game of people chess, but one a UX specialist is quite good at.
With a good demographic targeting in aesthetic and orderly design that represents the functionality correctly all the way through, and in a way that meets the mindset of said demographic, along with a good outreach range for vaguely related demographics, the goal can be reached. A good UX, with positive experiences for 98% of the target demographic and 40% of the outer rim demographics can be successfully produced. It’s impossible to please all of the people all of the time, or even some of the time, so unpreventable minor slippage should indicate success overall.
If you’re interested in UX architecture, these are the factors to watch. You now see the core components that make up a user experience and the crucible that shapes it. Now, you must apply this knowledge in studying user experiences, and in planning them.