Top 10 Mind-Blowing UX Techniques That Work

If you work with user-interfaces in any way, this article is for you. We’d discuss what elements make a UX better than the rest and give you that edge in this competitive world. 

The best part is, I’ve kept it simple. Without making a lot of technical or code-based changes, you can amp up your UX and turn your platform into a conversion magnet! 

Let’s get started then.

1. Integrate emotion-invoking elements 

Design doesn’t have to be disconnected from humane feelings and emotions. In fact, when used right it can have quite the positive impact.

There’s no one aspect that automatically creates emotions for your users. Rather, it’s the overall setting of your app/platform or whatever else you’re designing. 

The colour, fonts, images and everything else should create some kind of emotional connection with the user.

You can easily associate green with peace and positivity, red with danger and seriousness and so on. Similarly, fonts evoke emotions too and this leaves a lasting impact. 

2. Include brain triggers (microinteractions) 

Microinteractions are those elements that acknowledge your interaction with the system in some way. They’re the little effects, sounds, change in colour or shape that happen when you click, hover, scroll on the app. 

Some good examples are small celebratory bursts that may happen when a message is successfully sent. It may also be a click/pop/ting sound when you click a button. Some buttons may slightly increase in size or change colour. 

Ask any good trusted NYC web design agency, they’ll tell you the importance of microinteractions. 

On top of the aesthetics, it also tells the user that whatever action they’ve been trying to perform has been successful.  

3. Try minimalism (less is more) 

Sure, you could throw around a dozen buttons and fancy elements, fill up all the white space with banners or something else. However, what if you don’t? What if you leave the white space just be there. And the buttons just be lonely? That’s minimalism. When you only use the very important elements while skipping the rest. 

And minimalism isn’t only about aesthetics. For starters, the less elements on the screen, the less your visitors will get confused. Then, it also deploys less load on your servers. As is natural, more elements = more load time and the vice-versa is true. 

4. Rewards/bonuses and Gamification

The human brain is in constant need of recognition and competition. This emotion is what can be leveraged towards your UX betterment. 

So, you can reward users for the simplest of activities. These rewards do not have to cost you money. Things as simple as badges, loyalty tags, colour-coded usernames and so on work just as well. 

You can offer these rewards literally for anything, it can be as simple as logging in daily! Of course, the exact use-case would depend on the exact app and its features. 

Do note that gamification isn’t something that goes with every single app or platform. Hence, if you don’t see it fitting in, don’t force it. 

5. Keep it as straightforward as possible 

Reduce, or kill the learning curve if you can. What this means is, users should be able to use your app from the second they land on it. If a user has to go through multiple pages/sections before they find what they need, it’s not a good sign. 

The simpler, less page-hop demanding, and more straightforward your app is, the better it is. Your labels should be clear, navigation bars should include all the most frequently used buttons and so on. 

6. Voice User Interface (VUI)

Voice User Interfaces (VUIs) are something every app should leverage if and when possible. It opens up your app for an audience that may not always have its hands free. Moreover, it looks cool, telling your app what to do, eh? 

It also somewhat mutes any UX deficiencies you may have. If users use the app less physically, they’re less prone to encounter whatever problems you may have. 

If your VUI is AI-powered, it’ll also be capable of remembering the users’ choices, habits, likes/dislikes and so much more. This of course makes your app standout from any VUI-deficient rival that may exist out there. 

7. Anticipatory Design

You may not be able to look into the future, but AI and code can, well to some extent. Anticipatory design involves making it possible for your app to predict the users’ next action, click or activity to some extent. It then helps the user by either partially completing the future action or providing relevant hints.

E.g. auto-filled addresses and payment information in shopping carts. Even better, auto-filling OTPs once they’re received on your phone!  These are just some of the examples. Depending on your app, you can ensure that at least the most probable action (e.g. user entering OTP once its sent) is completed automatically. 

8. Card Sorting

This is another technical strategy that you can use to make your UX better. I can explain it simplest by saying it’s a “grouping” technique. Imagine you’ve a product line consisting of a PS5, controllers, PS5 plates, Nintendo Game discs etc. You’ve another product pool consisting of neon lights, gamer door knobs, or other gaming accessories.

You can either categorize all of this under “gaming”  or use categories such as “consoles”, “controllers”, “decor” depending on the product. 

Now, when you utilize card sorting, you give your visitors, testers, and participants a chance to categorize this instead of doing it yourself. If you use open card sorting, your participants will create their own categories to group items. In closed card sorting, you’ll tell them which groups exist and they’ll just fill them up with products.

This strategy basically helps understand your products from a viewer’s point of view. How your products are viewed and understood helps you design a better experience for them. 

9. Mobile-First Design

Okay this one is pretty basic and yet very effective. So, it’s best to start designing primarily for mobile users and then upgrade it to a desktop version rather than the other way round.

The internet is flipping. More and more people now access content with a mobile device rather than a traditional computer. Hence, mobile is what should get priority.

In fact, even search engines prioritise websites that are designed to be mobile friendly as compared to those that aren’t. 

10. Progressive or stepwise disclosure 

As the name suggests, this tactic is when your interface doesn’t disclose or demand all the information at once. Rather, it takes things slow. Only the minimum, or the most important pieces of information are disclosed or demanded. 

A good example is sign up forms. Looking at a long sign up form is boring. Many would quit  the process right there.

However, if you only asked for the name and email, and on the next page asked for additional details, it probably will be more effective.

Similarly, when disclosing information, you may only disclose your privacy policy at one step and if required, depending on the users’ actions, maybe include or skip the privacy policy. I’m sure you’ve got an idea what it is or why it helps, haven’t you? .

Conclusion

I hope whatever UX you design now will be considerably better than what you would have designed if you hadn’t come across this page, would you agree? If the answer is yes, this piece has been a success.  You can also implement personalization if you’d want to, this article by Net Solutions should help you with that. 

If you’re ever confused, simply ensure that your UX has features that are easy to understand, navigate around and can retain customers.