User interface design (UI) -
What is UI? While User Experience is a collection of tasks focused on optimisation of a product for effective and enjoyable use; UI is its compliment, the look and feel, the presentation and interactivity of a product. The goal for UI is to make the user experience as simple as possible so that it doesn't over complicate how someone uses an app, website, self checkout or operating system.
"User Interface Design is a multi-faceted and challenging role. It is responsible for the transference of a product’s development, research, content and layout into an attractive, guiding and responsive experience for users. It is also a field that unlike UX, is a strictly digital profession."
User experience design (UX) -
User experience (UX) is how a person feels when interfacing with a system. The system could be a website, a web application or desktop software and, in modern contexts, is generally denoted by some form of human-computer interaction.
People who worked in the Web design industry prior to the codification of user-centered design, usability and Web accessibility would know that we used to make websites differently. Before designers and clients understood the value of user-centered design, designers made decisions based on just two things: what they thought was awesome and what the client wanted to see. Designers built interaction based on what they thought worked — they designed for themselves. The focus was on aesthetics and the brand, with little to no thought of how the people who would use the website would feel about it.
Whats the difference?
“Something that looks great but is difficult to use is exemplary of great UI and poor UX. While Something very usable that looks terrible is exemplary of great UX and poor UI.”
- Helga Moreno
Budgeting/saving websites and apps -
www.momentum.co.uk
"Moneyhub lets you put yourself at the centre of your financial universe by bringing together all your bank accounts, credit cards, investments, savings and borrowing. Seeing exactly what you have and where you're spending it is the first step – you'll quickly see how small changes can make big things happen."
Pros -
Everything in one place - ALL Banks
Categorisation of transactions
Bank-level security
Cons -
The app doesn't flow, very misleading
Doesn't feel secure - even though it is safe to link your bank with
Navigation on the app is difficult
Target audience -
The target audience for this app is very broad, they aren't trying to pin point one type of person they want to reach a large audience. The app does this by having a very flat design that appeals to many people that may think it looks very professional, although the app is actually difficult to use which means the life span of the app is very short and only a small about of people (mainly the younger part of the audience would be able to use frequently).
Loot - A brand new banking experience -
"Life is too short to miss you - That's why we've created a banking experience that shows what you can do, when you can do it and how much it will cost you. We do this through tech. Really smart tech. And we've even figured out how to do this without getting you in debt."
Loot is a new app that’s a bit different in that it’s hooked up to a prepaid VISA card (paid for by you, by the way) so you can monitor everything you spend and where you spend your cash day to day.
Pros -
The pre payed card idea lets the user have a lot of control over where and how the money is being spent as the user can then use the app to figure out how they have spend the money the app also creates categories for the user.
It makes budgeting a lot more fun for the user as the app is focusing on what you can spend rather than what you can't spend.
The user interface looks very cleans and easy to use with simple infographics to display your account and money.
Cons -
You have to sign up for a Loot card, which makes the app more difficult to sign up for as it takes a fair bit of time like it does with any bank card.
Small target audience
Target audience -
The app is very clearly aimed at a younger audience this is reflected through the design and colours typeface choice, everything they have used it meant to attract a style conscious audience that would be put off if it didn't have the same design.
mySupermarket -
"mySupermarket is more than a price comparison site. We are completely independent from the supermarkets, helping shoppers save 30% on average on each grocery shop. Our free to use site aims to help shoppers save money on their grocery shop."
Pros -
Supermarkets are well known for regularly changing their prices making it almost impossible for shoppers to ensure they get the best value on their weekly shop. The differences in price for your favourite products can be huge and can add up to be a big saving. The site is easy to use and has everything categorised so that it makes it easy for the user to find exactly what the are looking for.
The site is always up to date by scanning the web for the best prices.
An iOS and Android app are used for anyone what wants to compare on the go.
Has a number of features that you can use to help you save more money
Cons -
It is only covering supermarket items, they broaden what they are comparing by having other categories that people can compare. But at the same time this could make it difficult for people to use the site.
Target Audience -
Everyone. Around 5 million people visit our site each month – making it the number 3 online grocery retailer in terms of online traffic – after Tesco and Asda. Across the UK, over 200,000 households regularly use mySupermarket to save money on their grocery shop
The interface design is very simple it doesn't do anything that it shouldn't, if they were to over complicate the design it would confuse the older target audience.
Other sites/apps that I use -
Its Nice That
this website is used by a lot of creative there for it has been designed in a way that will appeal to the current trends and styles so that the creatives who use the site find it enjoyable and easy to use. It is a very simple site that allows the user to easier find what they want there is no messing around. It has very current features like "hamburger" drop down menu, which seems to be coming more and more common in responsive websites, but it does allow the site to work at almost any size the user wants as it will easily adjust to the screen size. The layout is also very easy to understand and all the content is in the right place so that it is easy to read, no odd colours that make it harder to read etc.
Amazon
Although a very well used and common website Amazon really isn't the best it could be, yes they have made big improvements with branding and the delivery options but the website is still lacking on what could be a very outstanding site. It does the job but it is still stuck in the past, the site compared to the app is a lot more difficult to navigate and it is not very seamless, in my view a the app and the site should be very much similar and there shouldn't be a lot of differences.
Popular website features -
The hamburger button is a button in a user interface carrying an icon consisting of three parallel horizontal lines. It is often placed in the top left or top right of a user interface and is so called for its resemblance to a hamburger. A hamburger icon can be used so to free up space on the site this can be very useful for when a website is being viewed on a mobile site, this is a very popular feature at in current web design trends so many people understand how to use this sort of feature.
Responsive web design makes your web page look good on all devices (desktops, tablets, and phones). Responsive Web Design is all about using CSS and HTML to resize, hide, shrink, enlarge, or move the content to make it look good on any screen. This is a very key feature in todays web design world as everyone wants to use websites on their mobile devices. This could easily be applied to my website idea as it will allow people to not just use the website at home but it will make it easy for the user to use the website when ever.
Use of colour
As far as design goes, colours are often neglected as a way of drawing attention to the right places. Bold, rich colours are a great way of getting people interested in a site specially if you have a younger target audience. Of course, using bold colours for the sake of it isn’t the right way to go. But using them as part of the design, with user experience and results in mind, can really enhance the performance of the website. Bold accent colours can convey messages, enforce values, and draw the eye to the correct parts of the page,
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