Despite being a large part of the user experience, interactivity should go unnoticed by users. Generally speaking, interactive site design has only been done properly if users do not recognize the meticulously designed interactive processes that navigate their actions.
As you might expect, designing something so essential but elusive is a difficult task. In this article, I'll help you understand the processes and goals of an interactive designer, as well as give you reasons why you should hire one for your web project.
The interactive designer's processes and goals are not just a matter of the user's choice.
Interactive design vs. user experience design
Interactive design focuses on moments of direct and active user engagement - one that includes tapping, clicking, dragging, typing, etc. - with the site. Meanwhile, user experience (UX) design takes a broader perspective and considers even moments of passive use - such as reading text on a website - as interaction.
Interactive web design is therefore part of UX web design, which aims to encourage and facilitate moments of active user engagement. Some UX professionals prefer to focus on this aspect of UX design and hone their skills in implementing interaction patterns.
Interactive design elements
Interactive design processes divide each interaction moment into 5 elements. Most of these elements apply to all types of interaction, but some may sometimes be optional. It is the job of the user experience specialist to determine what elements are necessary for each instance of interaction to make it natural and seamless.
This is a list of all 5 elements:
.- Text - text or symbol that indicates the possibility of interaction and focuses on the expected results rather than the action itself. Think of the line "Play" or the triangle symbol, which signify the same intention.
- Visual Form - Some interactive elements, such as buttons or text entry boxes, should have clearly visible margins to define the interactive zone. You certainly don't want a potential buyer to go to the trouble of finding the input zone when, for example, filling out the shipping address for their purchase.
- Medium/Platform - Since interactions require different actions on different devices, an interactive design expert should make sure that the choice of actions that trigger the interaction is predictable across all platforms.
- Time - Some interactions require time to process input, and your site should always inform users of the status of the input processing. Otherwise, users may find the site unresponsive and leave without waiting for the result.
- Feedback - To give users a sense of fulfillment, your site should present a clear result of each interaction. For example, show a "Success!" notification after a user shares an article from your site on social networks.
The role of each of these elements seems obvious, and choosing the ones necessary to create a smooth flow of interaction seems like a trivial task. Still, I'm sure that, like me, you've encountered many website designs with broken interaction flows that have intrigued you at one point or another or confused you enough to leave the site. The goal of professional interactive website design is to avoid confusion on the user's side and eliminate any possible risk to your business.
Advantages of high-quality interactive designs
Just as the negative consequences of a bad interactive website design can be severe, the positive effects of a quality interactive design can be impressive. Let's take a look at just a few of them.
Lower support costs and higher quality support
.If users don't experience any problems while interacting with the site, they have less reason to turn to support, which leads to minimized support costs. So, by making sure that every interaction instance on your site is properly designed, you protect your support specialists from such trivial problems and they can focus on complex and unprecedented cases, thus increasing the quality of support.
Reduced rejection rate
.Visitors who experience a confusing interaction are more likely to simply bounce and never return, rather than turn to support. Professionally designed and tested interactive design minimizes the risk of user frustration and prevents high rejection rates.
Higher revenue
.Whether a site's revenue comes from clicks or purchases, it is closely tied to interaction processes. By allowing users to get a satisfying experience from interacting with your site, you motivate them to engage more often, thus bringing in more revenue.
Resulting in higher revenue.
Increased competitiveness and loyalty
.There is a caveat to what I said at the very beginning about good interactive design being so natural that it doesn't draw attention to itself at all. If you draw users' attention to interactive elements by adding some freshness and creativity - for example, in the way the lampywcentrum.pl or smmash.co.uk e-commerce sites we've made do - you can stand out from the competition and make a lasting impression on visitors, reinforcing their desire to do business with you.
There's a caveat.
Enjoy the convenience of users
The user interacting with your site is the customer communicating with your business. Just as you wouldn't want your business communications to look cluttered and unproductive, you shouldn't let these features define your site's interactive design. Whether you want to prevent interactive design problems in your future site or want to fix them in your existing site, don't hesitate to ask for help from the smith.store.
team.