What you should know about Interaction Design (IxD)
4 Roads Four - What you should know about IxD
Interaction Design creates products that enable your users to achieve their objectives with your products in the best possible way.
That is a broad definition, and you might be thinking to yourself, yes, but this is what we do through UX design. You would be right. The ideas from IxD and UX overlap because UX is all about shaping the user experience of your product. While UX is all-encompassing, based on creating user personas and conditions, Interaction Design is more focused on the interaction between the product and the user; you can only have a great user experience with Interaction Design being part of your thinking.
Interaction Design is crucial to your business. It directly impacts the user experience and satisfaction of your customers. A poorly designed interaction will lead to frustration, user errors, and, if it is bad enough, a full product failure.
Here are 4 Roads four things to focus on in your approach to IxD:
1 - Enhance Usability
We all strive for usability with our products. When we think of our IxD, we need to consider how we can design or improve our products to create the least friction while allowing users to complete their goals.
A Prime example is Amazon. Puns aside, as an e-commerce site, Amazon has designed its customer interaction to be completely frictionless. Find the product you want and simply click ‘Buy Now’. There is no need to add to your cart if this is the only item you want; that one click of a button will take you to an address confirmation. After a few more clicks, your product will be on its way to you.
As a process, it may have only reduced a few clicks, stopping the need for a customer to click ‘Add to Cart’ and then ‘Checkout’ – but this simplified interaction makes a huge difference to the shopper experience.
Amazon knew this Interaction was key for customers. At the time, 18% of customers would abandon their ordering cart because the process was too complex. To change this, Amazon introduced 1-Click in 1997 as a patented technology. By the time the patent expired in 2017, Amazon had already become the dominant force in e-commerce with a 16.22% market share. Today, with a continued focus on Interaction Design, Amazon holds 37.6% of the US e-commerce market share.
Good usability is achieved through intuitive design, clear instructions, logical workflows, and reducing the need for users to take complicated or time-consuming actions wherever possible. Look through your current customer processes and see where to reduce the required steps.
2 - Improve engagement and satisfaction
When your customer or user is engaged, they become actively involved with your product. Engagement and satisfaction tend to go hand in hand; if your users don’t enjoy the experience, they are unlikely to engage with it. Thinking about IxD forces you to create interactions that are more than functional; they are rewarding and a joy to use.
A great way to think about this is to look at the evolution of your interactions with social media. There was a time when you had to click load more to continue scrolling on pages. The content was not fed to you based on personal preferences and interaction history. Those personalised feeds and notifications feed a user’s interest and encourage more frequent interactions. Right now, 62.3% of the world’s population uses social media, and the average daily usage is 2 hours and 23 minutes.
Your product might not be capable of social media engagement, but creating Interaction Design that increases the time spent on your platform will lead to higher or stickier revenues through customers becoming more invested in it.
3 - Trust
In the digital landscape, trust and credibility are vital for success. Users need to feel confident that what they are interacting with is trustworthy and secure. Interaction Design plays a significant role in building this trust by ensuring that the design is clear, transparent and behaves well.
Amazon’s 1-Click buy it now button would be unsuccessful if it didn’t create a site that users felt they could trust through all their interactions. The financial services industry is beginning to fracture as modern; challenger banks focus more on Interaction Design than the older, more traditional banks. Both are trustworthy institutions, but the more modern banks have designed sleek apps that alert and guide customers. Traditional banks tend to have more cumbersome online experiences, often needing more precise feedback after a transaction or with poorly labelled buttons. While they continue to retain customers through their long standing reputations, without improving their user Interaction Design, customers will continue to move to challenger banks.
The tiniest details make a huge difference when building trust in your products. If transactions take too long or items take too long to load, users may fear something has gone wrong or that the site isn’t as it should be. By focusing on building trust and credibility, you enhance user confidence, which leads to higher retention rates and a stronger long-term brand reputation.
4 - Errors and Efficiency
Errors are frustrating. They waste a user’s time and, depending on the error, can have serious consequences.
Interaction Design aims to create interfaces that guide users through tasks seamlessly, minimising any likelihood of a mistake. When an error occurs, rather than simply notifying there is an error, an IxD approach will highlight the error and how it should be fixed.
Online forms are a great example of this approach. A well-thought-out form will immediately highlight an error and explain how to fix it so the user doesn’t have to return to that section after hitting submit.
When error prevention and design are poorly thought out, your users are more likely to abandon their tasks out of frustration.
4 Roads Final Thoughts
Interaction Design is essential for creating products that provide a positive user experience. Applying the right principles of Interaction and thinking beyond the normal to reduce friction and build trust are essential factors in elevating your products above your competitors.
The businesses that thrive focus on Interaction Design as a key aspect of customer experience. When customers discover they can do what has taken five in three clicks, they quickly change and won’t look back again. As technology shifts and improves and customer expectations move along with it, you must always be thinking about how your users will interact, or you will get left behind.
Ready to Elevate Your Product's User Experience with Smart Interaction Design?
At 4 Roads, we specialise in crafting seamless and intuitive interactions that keep users engaged, build trust, and enhance satisfaction. Let us help you create products that not only meet but exceed user expectations.
Contact us today to learn how we can transform your Interaction Design and give your business the competitive edge it deserves!