What's UX? It's everything
If you don’t know what user experience means, don’t feel bad. It’s very often overlooked, but simultaneously, incredibly powerful. User experience is simply, the way a process, action or design makes us feel.
A perfect example:
When the UX designers for the original Apple iPhone were designing long, scrolling screens and lists, users seemed annoyed by the lack of feedback to indicate they had reached the bottom. It simply seemed to stop, almost as if it were frozen. This interaction seemed clumsy and unappealing. UX designers created what is now referred to as “rubberbanding” the push, pull and snap back all phones have employed.
Another example is the award winning, template driven website creation company Squarespace, using a simple UX idea to entertain customers. On most templates, when a user clicks the heart icon to “like” a blog post, little hearts appear and float out, then fade quickly away. This achieves two requirements. It lets the user know the click was recorded, and it’s fun. It evokes emotion.
UX simply makes interactions and activities, more pleasant, logical and hopefully, delighted. After all, screens cannot dictate or impart emotions, only we can.
“Usability answers the question, “Can the user accomplish their goal?”