Because a Great Visual Design Directly Impacts Usability

As referenced in the video below, research shows that “people tend to believe that things that look attractive will also be easy to use”. Of course, this feeling can quickly wear off if the actually usability of your software is awful – but starting off on the right foot with a great first impression is extremely important.

Beyond creating an aesthetically pleasing design, a truly great visual design can and should be used to further enhance the usability of your software. Whether it’s through the careful use of color, typography, iconography, etc., the visual design can help the user process and understand how to use a screen, find functionality faster, and read text easier.

A brand building opportunity or failure

The look and feel of your software product can have a direct impact on your brand, which can then lead impact a user’s trust in your software product. For example, when a user launches your software, the look and feel of the interface should immediately feel familiar and consistent with every other thing they have ever seen from your company. This will help build or enhance your users’ perception of your brand. However, if they launch your software and it looks and feels like it’s something from a totally different company, they may immediately question if they are even using the correct product and not trust it as much.

What UX Team delivers

Visual Design Prototype

UX Team creates full-color Visual Design prototype (typically in Adobe XD) that depict and define the “look and feel” of your software product. These Visual Design prototypes are fully interactive and demonstrate how specific styles and colors will be applied to specific screen templates and components.

Visual Design Theme

A Visual Design Theme is similar to a Brand Style Guide except that it is specifically designed for elements in your software product, such as:

• Screen Templates
• Responsive Breakpoint Definitions
• Forms Fields and Error Validations
• Messaging, Notifications and Alerts
• Table Listings
• Modal Windows
• WYSIWYG Text Editors
• Typography
• Buttons and Dropdowns
• Color Palette
• Icon Libraries

Depending on the client needs and requirements, UX Team has delivered Visual Design Themes in the form of a document, an Intranet Wiki, or an interactive guide that includes the actual code snippets for each UI element in HTML/CSS or a framework such as Storybook.