Blog Post #10- User Experience

    Every day online users surf the web and look at multiple websites. Whether to buy products, play games, read, learn, or book a service people look for easy-to-use websites. That is why the user experience is fundamental to consider when building a website. A user experience "user experience is how a user interacts with and experiences a product, system, or service. It includes a person's perceptions of utility, ease of use, and efficiency." When a consumer is looking at a website they are unaware of the tools in the website code to make their experience simple, efficient, and attractive.

    Heuristics are what make a user experience appealing. A heuristic on a website is "is a fast and practical way to solve problems or make decisions. In user experience (UX) design, professional evaluators use heuristic evaluation to systematically determine a design’s/product’s usability. As experts, they go through a checklist of criteria to find flaws which design teams overlooked." In my class presentation, I learned the ten heuristics to look for when evaluating a website. The ten heuristics include; Visibility of system status, match between system and the real world; user control and freedom, consistency, and standards, error prevention, recognition rather than recall, flexibility and efficiency of use, aesthetic and minimalist design; helping users recognize, diagnose, and recover from errors, and help and documentation.

    The most important piece of advice I learned when it comes to connecting the user experience with marketing is learning your audience. Being empathetic in the process to put yourself in your target audience's shoes and seeing what could make their experience easier. Websites have different target audiences and that is why they are not all created the same. Knowing how to use the heuristics to appeal to your target audience is important to keep them on the website and keep them coming back.