Define how people use your interfaceīefore you design your interface, you need to define how people will use it. The insights you'll uncover from analyzing data and speaking with users will inform every decision you make, from how people use your interface to what types of content you’ll highlight within that interface. If you can address a user's deep-seated need, you'll address their wants while also fulfilling more fundamental requirements. After all, desires are just outgrowths of needs.

What are their goals? What stands in the way of them achieving those goals? How can a website help them overcome or work around those challenges?ĭon't stop at knowing what your users want. It means speaking with them face to face, watching them use your product (and maybe others), and asking them questions that go deeper than, 'What do you think of this design?' It requires getting to know the people who use your website. Getting to that level of empathy requires more than careful analysis of stats. But more importantly, it means knowing what they need, and what stands in the way of them achieving their goals. That means knowing all the demographic data your analytics app(s) can pull, yes. Know your usersĪbove all else, you have to know who your users are-inside and out.

Interface design, which focuses on the layout of functionality of interfaces, is a subset of user experience design, which focuses on the bigger picture: that is, the whole experience, not just the interface. And these 9 handy guidelines straight from HCI research will help you focus on your users when going through the design process. Thankfully, while web design is a relatively new discipline, it owes a lot to the scientific study of human-computer interaction (HCI). And the key to that is to think about your user first, foremost, and always.

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