UI UX interface and user experience design for excellence within the Saudi market
Introduction
With the continuous increase in the number of applications, online stores, and innovative services, competition has become highly dependent on the smoothness of the user experience, user satisfaction, and interaction within your site, which significantly affects conversion rates and improves customer loyalty to the brand.
According to a report by a research study published at the Australian Information Systems Conference, site usability was one of the most prominent factors influencing Saudi users’ acceptance of e-government services. The study, which was based on the UTAUT model, showed that website quality outweighed the impact of social factors, which underscores the importance of designing the interface and user experience professionally and effectively.
How can a carefully designed user experience change your business results from mere visits to actual custome?
Table of Contents
- What is User Interface and Experience (UX UI)? What is the difference between them?
- How important is user interface and experience (UX UI) design for your business?
- Key components of user interface and experience design (UI/UX)
- Recent trends in designing an AI-powered user experience
- How to improve user experience and metrics that track its performance
- Practical steps to improve user experience:
- You can track user experience performance metrics for your website.
- Frequently asked questions about interface design and user experience.
What is User Interface and Experience (UX UI)? What is the difference between them?
These two areas work together to ensure that the site looks more professional in terms of visual branding and ease of use. Design a digital product that translates your vision into a unique and smooth experience for the visitor, so that your store is the first choice when making every purchase intent.
User Experience Design (UX): It revolves around the extent to which visitors or users respond to the website or application. This process aims to enhance their satisfaction by improving ease of use, accessibility, and efficiency. This design includes conducting user research, testing, and improvements to ensure that the user experience is as smooth and satisfactory as possible.
User interface design (UI): It is the user interface of a website that includes colours, fonts, icons, and the general appearance of the website or application interface. It works to integrate all of these aesthetic elements to work in harmony and smoothness for website visitors or application users, ensuring ease of interaction and making the browsing experience enjoyable and clear for the visitor.
Although the goals of UI and UX are the same, each has a distinct role and function.
How important is user interface and experience (UX UI) design for your business?
With the rise in customer expectations and the development of their digital behaviour, website design in Saudi Arabia needs to improve the user experience, not only improving the appearance of the website but also directly affecting the website’s performance and contributing to achieving business goals effectively.
1. Boost loyalty and increase brand trust
When the site experience is easy, clear, and fast, the customer feels comfortable. This feeling is reflected in the customer’s behaviour, making him more likely to return, and he may even recommend the site to others. Therefore, good design is not just visual improvement, but rather a strategic tool that raises the value of the brand and distinguishes it from others in a competitive market, such as the Saudi market.
2. Increase conversion rates and reduce losses
A site that considers the customer’s needs and provides an easy experience achieves higher conversion and sales results. Every simple improvement in the user experience, such as faster page load times or a more streamlined checkout process, can lead to better outcomes.
Previous experiences in projects within the local market indicate that simplifying the payment interface and reducing the complexity of user flows had a noticeable impact on reducing the rate of abandonment of purchases within online stores.
3. Support site visibility in search results (SEO)
Improving the user experience contributes to raising the site’s ranking in search engines, because fast and easy-to-use sites are considered of higher quality from Google’s point of view, and this means more organic visits and a lower marketing cost in the long run.
4. Cost Optimisation and technical support
The more straightforward the user interface and smoother the experience, the fewer questions and inquiries from visitors, which relieves pressure on technical support teams, and technical updates to the site become easier, which significantly improves cost optimisation.
Key components of user interface and experience design (UI/UX)
Create a great UI/UX design that’s not just about assembling a few visual elements.
Instead, it is an integrated and thoughtful process that requires taking into account other elements such as:
1. User search:
Design without knowing who your audience is! It’s like walking blindfolded in a maze. User research is the cornerstone of your design by identifying your target audience’s needs, weaknesses, and behaviours. This process usually takes place during:
- Questionnaires: This process involves collecting real data about the audience to avoid making assumptions when designing, ensuring the design meets the actual needs of users.
- Interviews: For example, knowing and understanding the reasons why users complete purchases or, conversely, the reasons why they do not complete a purchase.
- Usability testing: Through an interactive, clickable form, ask users to perform specific tasks such as searching for a form
2- Wireframes and prototypes:
It is a simple initial drawing in grayscale, showing the locations of elements such as buttons, menus, and images, as it helps organise the placement of elements before the actual design process begins, such as drawing an architectural map of a building.Prototypes are interactive simulations that help represent the user experience within a website or application.
Examples of tools used for each:
- Wireframes Chart Tools: Balsamiq’s excellent tool for making preliminary design drawings is a drawing tool to present the idea to business owners quickly.
- Prototyping Tools: Product designers use tools like Figma or Adobe XD, which allow them to turn those prototypes into their interaction models to test the user experience before starting the actual design process.
- A working interactive model of interfaces that applied UI/UX principles specific to the Saudi market can be seen in this project.
3- Information structure:
It is an engineering process that aims to organise information into specialised groups that make it easier for users to access it, such as the process of collecting similar items into clear categories. For example, if we assume an online store that sells smart devices, there will be categories dedicated to phones, screens, and smart watches. etc
4- Interaction design:
It is an essential part of the user experience (UX), as it is concerned with the interactions that the user makes within the site or application, such as swiping the screen right or left. The elements move in response to user actions, such as pressing a button (e.g., submit or buy now), and all of these interactions fall within the interaction design.
5- Visual design:
The ultimate goal of digital design is to incorporate creative elements, presenting the design in an attractive, comfortable, and enjoyable manner to the user. This involves considering ease of use and effectively conveying the message through the design to the audience, thereby reflecting your brand identity.
Recent trends in designing an AI-powered user experience
With design technologies and tools evolving faster than ever before, companies must keep up with the latest UI/UX trends to analyse user behaviour and responses, and provide an optimal UI/UX interface and user experience, ultimately increasing customer satisfaction. Among the most critical modern trends that must be taken into consideration:
1-Multi-platform design
It involves adapting the user experience to suit various devices such as computers and mobile phones, ensuring a smooth and unified experience regardless of the device used.
2- Comprehensive design
It focuses on meeting the needs of diverse categories of users, including people with disabilities, by designing flexible, clear, and easy-to-use interfaces.
In a recent study published on Think With Google, researchers indicated that users’ expectations towards the browsing experience have become more accurate, especially in the Arab region, which reflects the role of comprehensive design in the user experience.
How to improve user experience and metrics that track its performance
Improving user experience requires carefully monitoring visitors’ behaviour within your website and analysing their interaction patterns to develop the interface and user experience in line with their actual needs and changing expectations.
Analysing user behaviour via tools like Hotjar or Google Analytics often reveals invisible friction points in the browsing experience, such as a slight delay in uploading an image or difficulty navigating, which are small details but make a big difference.
Practical steps to improve user experience:
First: define your goals to identify areas for improvement in the user experience, such as enhancing customer loyalty, boosting conversion rates, and adjusting email engagement.
Second: Monitor the behaviour of your site users and analyse their activity to determine what needs to be improved.
Third: Analyse competitors’ websites to identify their weaknesses and strengths, so that you can enhance the strengths and address the shortcomings of your website.
Fourth: Analyse the results of A/B testing to determine the success of your strategy for improving your website.
Fifth: Regularly follow the latest developments, trends, and changes in user behaviour to provide a good user experience continuously.
You can track user experience performance metrics for your website.
Through:
- Determine the time spent on the page and what it means for the user.
- Increase or decrease in the conversion rate.
- The number of pages a user visits indicates an attractive and good user experience.
- Good customer reviews and opinions through surveys.
- Track user experience through eye movement and heat maps.
Frequently asked questions about interface design and user experience.
1-What is the difference between interface and user experience?
User interface is about appearance, while user experience is the user’s feeling and the whole interaction with the platform.
2-Does user experience affect SEO?
Yes, user experience directly affects search engine optimisation (SEO). It has even become one of the primary factors that Google relies on to evaluate the quality of sites and their ranking in search results.
3-Does UI UX affect profits?
Yes, good UI UX increases conversions and satisfaction, and reduces technical support costs.
4-Is UI UX design an ongoing process?
Exactly, the experience should constantly be improved based on user feedback and evolving consumer trends.
5-What is the importance of testing in UI UX?
Tests detect errors that do not appear during design and help you improve the product based on facts.
Because building trust with your target customers and strengthening your brand’s position in the market starts with understanding their expectations, if you are looking for a digital experience that suits your audience and supports your brand’s growth in the Saudi market, focusing on ui ux has become a necessity, not a choice.
All examples and points mentioned in this article are based on real observations and analyses of user behaviour in various digital environments, taking into account the specificity of the Saudi market.
You can also view our services in improving the user interface and experience here UI UX
