One way to think about interface design versus user experience design is the tangible visual part versus a feeling of it. In practical terms, interface design services encompass the choice of fonts and typography, color palette, a variety of buttons, iconography, visual effects, micro-interactions, animations, gestures such as tap, swipe, and voice commands. User experience is whether it is to understand what is what, how it feels navigating through the interface, what emotions it evokes, and whether it is responsive enough.
The value of design can be measured directly and indirectly. In fact, the performance of design-led companies was measured against industry-average represented by S&P companies. Companies centered on design outperformed by 228%. However, when it comes to user-centric digital companies, the impact has more indirect impacts rather than financial performance alone. Examples are Etsy, Amazon, Airbnb and other user-centric digital companies that prioritize user-centric design.
Interestingly, according to the XM Institute 2020 report, 89% of User-Centric companies have higher revenues and profitability while the biggest struggle is technology. Interface design services are truly pushing the boundaries of what is possible especially when it comes to interfaces meeting AI capabilities.
The Impact of User-Centered Design on Digital Presence
User interface (UI) is a specialized subset of user experience (UX) design that is responsible for the visual, voice, and gesture interface of your app the user interacts with. UI is the layout, defining meaningful groups with spacing, using icons. UI and UX are intertwined in the concept of user experience design as they are central to usability and achieving tasks by users. While UX focuses on Personas, user journeys, and wireframes; interface design services deliver mockups, high-fidelity layouts, and prototypes.
User-centered design that combines user interface design services with UX defines your business’s digital presence and lays the foundation for strategic advantage. However, every business will have different ways to achieve it through the design. Below is the framework for establishing user-centered design as a business advantage for your digital presence.
As an example, here is a table below that links concrete business outcomes with the design to define digital presence with clear metrics.
| Steps / Example | Amazon | Strava |
| Step 1 – Business goals | The strategy is to become the most convenient marketplace with fast delivery and great customer experience. The business outcomes can be measured with delivery time, Prime subscriptions, and customer satisfaction rating. | Strava’s strategy is expanding the user base for performance tracking and building the community around it. The business metrics can be measured with numbers of active users and the number of workouts while the community can be measured with the number of social interactions on the app. |
| Step 2 – Design contribution to business goals | UI UX design services make shopping on Amazon a convenient and effortless experience on every device. In addition, information architecture and quality of the visuals build trust and credibility for shoppers. | UX/UI design services allow users to track their performance on the workouts seamlessly while more engagement is supported with analytics and social functionality |
| Step 3 – Trackable design activities | A/B testing for different information organization and layouts;Optimizing the checkout flow;UX bug resolution. | Tracking onboarding flow;Discoverability of features, including paid functionality;Engagement in goal-setting. |
| Step 4 – Feasible metrics to track | Task completion rate;Task completion time;Net Promoter Score (NPS). | Onboarding completion rate;Feature CTR;Recurring Goal Re-entries. |
| Step 5 – Ways of tracking design metrics | Session recordings;Analytics tools, like Google Analytics or Matomo;NPS survey. | In-app feedback forms;Analytics tools, like Mixpanel or Amplitude;Event logging. |
For Amazon, design has a direct impact on business metrics. For instance, by measuring task completion rate which is ordering something, Amazon will directly improve the number of purchases. With tracking task completion rate, Amazon’s design effort can directly speed up the checkout, meaning more purchases per time period. With being fast in finding and fixing design bugs, Amazon can ensure the cart abandonment and dropout rates are lower, which again translates to more customers completing their purchases with Amazon.
With Strava, the impact is both direct and indirect. Improving engagement leads to more conversions to paid functionality. In terms of hooking users to social interaction, Strava increases time spent on the app. Since Strava also engages in brand and data partnerships, the more users it has and the longer they interact with the app, the more branded ads and data points it can monetize.
Benefits of a user-centric interface
Investing in user-centric interfaces pays off by an increase in customer-related metrics, such as loyalty, satisfaction and retention. In addition, intuitive user interfaces as a part of UX design services generate:
- Savings on customer support,
- Increased brand loyalty,
- Greater pay-off for marketing effort,
- More loyal user base,
- Enables growth and scaling.
UI/UX design trends to follow
According to this year’s Forbes article, effective utilization of AI capabilities for user experience design services and interfaces can be ground-breaking. The trends to follow are:
- Generative real-time interfaces. Imagine having a Gen Z and a Millennial using your app. For the first group, a menu might be placed at the bottom with funny emojis instead of labels. For the second, a menu might be a standard burger style or navigation drawer menu. The same goes for color schemes, typography and so on.
- Intuitive workflow support. Imagine registering hectic clicks on your app. Surely, a user is trying to achieve something. What if your interface could ‘sense’ it and supply prompts or hints?
- Improved accessibility. With the world going more and more digital, the digital space gets more regulated and should serve everyone equally. With advances in technology, UX services become more proficient at making interfaces and experiences accessible to everyone. Joydeb Mandal from Accenture said: “Ensuring a website is usable for people with a wide range of abilities and across devices is crucial.” Accessibility is a solid trend that will matter for years to come.
