How to Design Desirable User Experience
Desirable Interactions are always an end result of an event where brands don’t sacrifice usability in the name of innovativeness or enjoyment.
There’s a fine line between the usability and the thrill that you give to your users. A line which decides if you are able to empower your users to accomplish their goals or are they leaving unsatisfied.
Desirable user experience is that X-Factor, which keeps people coming back. Stefan Klocek calls it Passive magic where everything feels so intuitive and effortless. The magic which invokes users’ emotional responses mind frame. When you compare logical and emotional responses, emotional are the ones that determine the decisions that users take.
Don Norman explains that when users are enjoying themselves, they’re more relaxed, and when the brain is relaxed, it functions, better overall. This means it learns new concepts, recalls past data fluidly.
So how do you achieve the stage where your users are feeling both — empowered and enjoyed?
The first step is knowing your users as you would know your very close friends.
A desirable design is much more than something that looks pretty. And for that, you must know your user like a close friend.
Let’s compare these two websites to elaborate on the difference that it makes in the UX when you understand your users’ different buying intent.
Amazon being a big shopping brand knows the art of blending Sales with the overall web design. The website doesn’t scream SALE.
Limiting the typical Sales element to — Today’s deals, Recommend for you, the brand invites an experience where the users find the movement desirable as they get the chance to browse through without many distractions — making it ideal for informed, non-spontaneous buyers.
On the other hand, when you compare Amazon’s design with the Millers homepage, you will find the latter screaming SALE on every corner of their web page.
As you scroll down in the page you will see they have added the word Sale on every product categories, making it very lucrative for users looking for typical discount based purchases. For a middle-class person who focuses more on the price than on the overall flow, Millers come as a pleasant experience.
You must have a better understanding of your users to create desirable and meaning product.
Levels of Desirable Design
- Surface Delight
- Meaningful Delight
Surface delight includes visual designs, consistency and overall look and feel of a website. While a meaningful delight makes a user stay.
While surface delight is important for grabbing attention, meaningful delight is what ultimately offers better UX to the users.
The less the design draws attention to itself, the more magical the user experience will be.
