UX Design Science
A good user experience design is one that gives just enough information to proceed to the next stage. Too much information will likely confuse the user. Keeping it precise and simple is the first principle of good UX design, but that's just the beginning.
People love to be in control. It's comforting for us. When something unexpected pops up, our primitive intuition senses it as danger, since that's how we survived. The moment users sense danger on our app, the trust level goes down and so does our chance of conversion. Automatically playing videos is a prime example of staking control away from the users. Similarly, push notifications can seem like an infringement of privacy. The problem can be solved by allowing users to choose how they would like to be notified. Don't come across as pushy but make it seem like they are making their own choices.
A Nielsen study analyzed more than 200 web users found that most people tend to scan web pages in an F-pattern. They notice the first line of a page before scanning the page vertically, until they find something that catches their interest again to scan horizontally, thus creating an F-pattern. For that reason, the upper-left corner of your web page should have a strong element, since it will definitely get noticed. Most companies use their logo in the upper-left corner. It is also important to break the monotony in order to keep users interested. Placing differently shaped elements after a few rows is one way to do it.
Use recognition over recall. Recognition helps breed familiarity, which ups our chances of conversion. Showing users their past browsing history is the simplest way to promote recognition in interaction design. Use multiple-choice questions over open-ended questions. When users are presented with several cues, they can simply pick the information that matches with your memories.
Hick's Law states that people's response time increases linearly with the number of options available. The more choices users have, the harder it will be for them to reach a decision. Limiting the number of elements in our navigation bar is the simplest way of applying Hick's Law to design. Break the user journey down into phases. In each phase, limit the number of options available to a minimum. For example, when users log on to our website, show them your biggest unique selling point and eliminate the rest. For returning users, we can show a different version of the homepage by personalizing. This version would take into account their browsing habits and show them the most relevant information.
Making the user experience as comfortable as possible is the main goal. For example, for mobile design, we need to consider the position of buttons so that it is easy to browse with the thumb. At the end of the day, good UX design is also about A/B testing to find out what works best with our audience. By applying these three principles and A/B testing to ensure our users are responding to our choices, we can increase conversions and improve the experience users have.