UX design has come to stay. The term "user experience" suggests a concept that has existed longer than the name itself. Nature has in many ways given us so many wonderful experiences—we don’t need a technical manual to learn how to breathe, eat, or plant.

If user experience design is still new to you, it will be good to continue reading as I explain in the most basic terms what this widely recognized field of study is really all about.

UX Design — In simple terms

What is UX design? It simply means "to design for the user." In other words, UX design means designing a product that is functional, relevant, and provides a meaningful experience to the user. Usually, these products are digital — Websites, Mobile applications, ERP systems, etc.

What about UI design? We often see the phrase UI/UX. Are they the same thing? Why are they usually together?

UI stands for "user interface." It refers to the steps involved in designing the visuals of a digital product. It’s the part most people see—the wireframes, the prototypes, the mockups, and things like these.

UX stands for "user experience." It involves all the steps involved in designing a product for a user, from understanding the needs of the user to testing the finished design. UI design is part of the UX design process.

Choose a Process but be flexible

Designing for the user involves thinking for the user. Hence the term "design thinking." To think for the user requires that a UX designer follow a number of steps in a process or methodology. Various UX design specialists have created various processes. One commonly used process is what I fondly call EDIPT.

E — Empathize: Research (and talk to) the users to understand their needs and the problem to solve. Try to understand the needs of the business as well.

D — Define: Analyse your findings to define the problem statement

I — Ideate: Brainstorm ideas to resolve the problems.

P — Prototype: Create a visual representation of your solution.

T — Test: Let users interact with the solution and receive feedback.

The beauty of this process is that it is not a fixed process. You have the power to iterate between steps, making changes as you better understand the user. Check out the article, The 5 Stages in the Design Thinking Process, to learn more about this process.

Tools Tools Tools

At various stages in the UX design process, designers work with a number of available tools.

• Figma: I call this the king of UX design tools. Much of your work as a UX designer can be done on Figma, whether you need to draw wireframes, prototypes, user flows, or personas. And there are thousands of free plugins that make designing with Figma even better. Popular alternatives to Figma include Adobe XD and Sketch (for Mac users).
• Whimsical: Just want to draw quick wireframes, then try whimsical. spend less time drawing the sketches you need for your design.
• Pen/Paper: My all-time favourite is the good ol’ pen and paper. I find it most convenient to note ideas and draw sketches before transferring to Figma.

Other common tools include Photoshop, Illustrator, Invision, Miro, etc.

Oh, and Don’t forget these tips!

Now you know the basics of UX design. Are you interested in this role? There are lots of resources on the internet to learn and master UX design. You may even sign up for a course or join a boot camp. Two tips that can help you advance in this craft are:

• Get a mentor — You definitely need one to guide you as you progress in this field.
• Practice and practice even more.

Have more questions about UI/UX? Ask me in the comments.

Have a tip to share for newbies in UX design? Do tell!

UX Design — And what’s what about this field of study! was originally published in Ed-Tech Talks on Medium, where people are continuing the conversation by highlighting and responding to this story.

Learning wordpress is fun and easy, they said. You have spent weeks learning the basics of building a website with wordpress such as how to install and customize a theme, how to configure a plugin to meet the needs of your website, and how to set up an eCommerce store. You are probably learning how to build a wordpress website from scratch — theme and plugin development using HTML, CSS, and Javascript. Somehow, though, there seem to be so many questions left! Is wordpress still relevant today? Do I have to learn to code for WordPress?
How much should I charge for a wordpress website? Come along with me as we journey to find answers to 4 questions often asked about wordpress.

Q1 — Is Wordpress still relevant in 2022?
The answer: Yes
According to Hubspot’s summary of various wordpress statistics, WordPress is used by 43.2% of all websites on the internet in 2022. This is an increase from 39.5% in 2021. This means Wordpress is powering almost half of the websites on the internet, and that number is still growing. True, several web builders and content management systems keep coming up, No-code web builders such as Webflow and Bubble are all the rage due to the popularity of Product design. However, Wordpress takes center stage among these web builders and is not going anywhere soon.

Q2 — How much does it cost to build a wordpress website?
The answer: As low as the Hosting and Domain costs
It’s easy to say that Wordpress is a free Content Management System and it is — the installation and customization of wordpress websites are free. However, we cannot look at a website with such a narrow view. Every website must have a domain name and must sit on a hosting platform. Domain and hosting costs typically range from as low as a few dollars to hundreds of dollars monthly and let’s not forget SSL and other features that may come along with your hosting. Wordpress is then built using free themes and plugins. However, to add more functionality to your website, or if you’d prefer a premium theme, additional costs would come in.

Q3 — Is Coding required for building WordPress Websites?
The answer: No
WordPress is a content management system which means, the coding has been done for you. All you have to do is tailor whatever theme you find to your brand’s style. Almost every functionality you would like to include on your site exists as a free or premium plugin or as a third-party application that can be integrated into your site. However, to have complete control over your website from the design of its front end to the functionalities, you can decide to learn to code. That, in essence, is what makes WordPress a great choice among other website builders.

Q4 — Can I use WordPress for every kind of Website?
The answer: Oh Yes!
Let me explain. Wordpress can be used to build any kind of website for schools, businesses, blogs, social media, and even eCommerce sites. This is due to the existence of plugins such as woo-commerce, LMS, memberpress, etc. That is the point! To build any website on wordpress, you’ll need plugins — free, purchased, or developed specifically for your site.

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What other questions do you have about WordPress? Let me know in the comments.

“Would you do SEO on my website?”

Have you ever asked this question as a business professional or entrepreneur looking to contract a web developer for your website design? You may have heard the many benefits of SEO including how it drives clients to your business, puts you at the top of Google’s search results, and makes you king of the world — well, that’s greatly exaggerated.

First, what is SEO?

Seo stands for Search Engine Optimization. As the name implies, SEO involves optimizing or improving the quality of traffic to your website or webpage from a search engine. If your website has good SEO, it would come up on the first page of search results when someone searches for a term or clause on your site. Factors that affect SEO include user experience, page speed, website security, mobile responsiveness, and very importantly, you must provide valuable content on your website.

Why do you need this checklist?

There are so many articles and courses about SEO on the internet that teaches tech-savvy website owners and professional digital marketers how to improve the SEO of any website. However, these resources can be very bulky with extensive information that is somewhat overwhelming. Also, more than 37% of all websites use wordpress, and carrying out SEO may be a chore if there is no clear guide.

My SEO checklist is a simple and quick guide for both beginners and experts to carry out SEO on any wordpress website. Let’s have a look at them

1. Choose a reliable hosting partner. Hosting with a reliable hosting provider ensures your website speed, uptime and security are top-notch. Wordpress recommends hosting companies like Bluehost and Siteground for your wordpress website.
2. Install an SEO-friendly theme. Not all that glitters is gold they said. True, some themes may have it all but good performance is non-negotiable. So carefully research and select a theme that is optimized for SEO. Try Astra, my favorite theme.
3. Use a free wordpress SEO plugin. There is a good number to choose from such as Yoast SEO and the All-in-one SEO pack. The plugins make it easier to edit the title and meta description for each page or post on your site and prompt you to make page edits that would improve your SEO.
4. Check your website’s usability settings. Go to settings > Reading. Scroll to the bottom of the page and uncheck the box — search engine visibility. This allows search engines to index your site.

5. Use SEO-friendly permalinks. Go to settings > permalinks and choose post name from the list of options.

6. Verify your site with the Google Search Console and submit your XML sitemap. This may require a bit of technical help.

7. Carry out keyword research. And use the keywords around your site. There are a good number of keyword research tools available. Try Google keyword planner.

8. Use optimized Page headings. Remember your H1 tag on every page and use keywords in your headings.

9. Include optimized title tags and meta descriptions. Using SEO plugins can make this a lot easier.

10. Use optimized file names for images. And don’t forget to add alt tags to the image descriptions.

11. Optimize image sizes. Preferably before uploading the images to your website. But if you choose to use an image optimization plugin, the smush plugin is a great option to use.

12. Install a cache plugin. Improve your site speed with a cache plugin and boost your SEO ranking.

Thanks for reading, please leave a comment and follow me if you learned a thing or two.

As a client, why do you need to “What questions should I ask my web designer?”Consider these scenarios.

Building a brand for your business is exciting. As you define your story and work on your identity as a brand, you realize you need assets for your brand — a logo, color palette, and typography; oh, and a website! How do you find a web developer that would help you showcase your brand just the way you want?

Here’s another: Your business is five, maybe, seven years old and counting. You are a professional in your niche, and you want to keep it that way. The problem is that some of your business processes are becoming outdated. Not a problem, all you need to do is shift things around a bit, make some changes, including a complete website Revamp!

Whichever scenario best describes you, keep reading to see the top questions to ask your developer. After a few minutes of discussion about your project, you realize it’s time to ask questions. A few come to mind. You may ask questions like: how long would it take you to complete my website? And how much does it cost?

Those are a few of the most important questions you should ask. However, to help you make sure you are asking the right questions, here’s a list of questions you should ask your web designer before any design project.

1. What kind of research will you do for my website? Research about your business, competitors, or the best theme or platform for your site, are likely answers to this question. Overall, you’d like to know how the level of dedication your designer would put into your website.
2. What additional services do you provide? Branding, Copywriting, SEO, Digital Marketing, Social Media Management?
3. Can you design a website that fits my budget? Despite your designer’s packages, you may be able to build your website according to your budget.
4. What is your design process? Or steps to a completed website. What deliverables should you expect?
5. How long would the design take? Plus the duration of various steps in the design process.
6. What do you need before we start? Logo, content (images, text, videos), initial deposit. Be clear on the answer to this question to avoid delaying your website launch.
7. How many rounds of revisions would I get? In other words, how many times would you make changes to the final product/deliverable?
8. Do you offer training or support? An important question if you are not very tech-savvy. If your developer does offer support, what is included in his/her packages?

As you receive answers to these questions, you can make sure you get the best website for your brand.

What other questions can you think of to ask your developer? Let me know in the comments below!

Asking The Right Questions — As A Web Design Client. was originally published in Ed-Tech Talks on Medium, where people are continuing the conversation by highlighting and responding to this story.

I want to tell you a story about my journey to becoming a designer.

As a beginner WordPress designer, starting a web design project involved two major steps:

1. Gathering requirements and content for the proposed website and
2. Start creating the website

I knew the traditional waterfall (SDLC) steps in software development and have used it in the past for school projects; yet, for a while, I just dived into design for some reason. Could it be the deadlines? Probably. But at that point in my life, I did not call myself a designer. I wasn’t.

There is a saying that ‘Practice makes Progress’. Through the years, I realized that my two-step website design process was counter-productive. Lots of changes to the finished work make development tiring and deadlines were never met. That is beside the extra work hours and money spent correcting design fails in my work. Thus, I set out on a journey to becoming a better designer.

What is design?

I began to research what design involves. For me, it was simply a concept beyond art. Design was a way to pass information beautifully. I was wrong.

Design means different things to different persons in various walks of life and fields of study.

What is design, then? I found that design means different things to different persons in various walks of life and fields of study. Narrowing it down to the tech industry doesn’t help much either for we have systems design, web design, graphic designing, product design, and motion design among others. The meaning of design also varies from company to company.

There is no one definition of design. Design could be a plan for a project that is to be built later as in the case of UI design. It could be a visual representation of information as in graphic design. Or, it could be the design of how users interact with an interface as in the case of interaction design.

The Common Denominator

One thing is common with these forms of design however, Design never starts with the design. Whether you are designing a website or webpage or even a social media post, there is a design process that must be followed. First, some questions need to be answered such as

1. What is the purpose of this design?
2. Who is the target audience?
3. What elements of design should I focus on?

Design Resources are all over the internet

A lot of what I learned about designing websites came from blogs that focus on design. My favorite resources include 99designs.com/blog and creativebloq.com. There are also lots of youtube tutorials to watch and learn how to design.

As I practiced what I learned from these experts in the field, I became a better designer. Coding no longer appealed to me as much as before, and I started to call myself a designer.

Discovering UI/UX

For some years, I built several websites where I applied design concepts such as color psychology, typography, whitespace, e.t.c. Then, I noticed something that always popped up from time to time — UI/UX design. What is this new form of design?

When I first learned about UI/UX, I was amazed at the whole concept of designing for the user: Thus, when you design, you focus not only on the interface or the looks of the project; you are also designing for the experience of the user.

“Your design can be beautiful, but if it has poor user experience then it’s bad design; and, your design can have amazing user experience, but users may dislike the interface.”

Merging UI and UX is incredible, and I wanted to be part of the process, so I sourced articles and started learning UI/UX. At first, I was overwhelmed and stopped for some time.

However, I learned about SideHustle Internship in October last year, and I began a six-week course in UI/UX. I learned more about the various types of designers and their roles. The concepts of design thinking and information architecture. I’ve learned how to design using tools like Figma and adobe xd and conduct user research using surveys and interviews.

My New Design Process

Product Design taught me to start with understanding the priorities of the business and the expectations of the user. Hence, I try to implement the process shown below in my designs…

1. Understand the problem, the business, and the user
2. Make sufficient research — user research, market research, competitor solutions
3. Define the proposed solution
4. Start designing — style guides, wireframes, UI
5. Create Prototypes and test

Remember: This is not a one-way process. You can keep iterating between the steps till you get the final design.

In Conclusion

I’m still learning, for I doubt anyone could cover the concept of UI/UX in its entirety. What’s the point of everything I’ve said so far?

Design is a necessary step in any development process. So if you are interested in learning design, choose a design niche and take a course on Udemy or Coursera. There are a zillion resources on design in blogs and on youtube; you should also take advantage of these.

Soon, you would start calling yourself a designer.

Once upon a time… I used to jump right into design. was originally published in Ed-Tech Talks on Medium, where people are continuing the conversation by highlighting and responding to this story.

Like every other random day, I picked up my phone to check for any WhatsApp messages. I read some, replied to some I think, and then it caught my attention! The ad wasn’t even up to 4 lines long, and it spoke of an internship opportunity. After minutes of investigating what this “side hustle internship” is all about, I made my decision. I’m signing up for it.

For a WordPress developer thinking seriously about transitioning into design, I was faced with quite a difficult choice. What track should I choose for my internship? There were a good number of them, front end and back end technologies, product design and management, digital marketing courses, and data analysis. As a remote developer, I dabbled in almost all of the above tracks; but as the saying goes, I was a master of none. After much deliberation, I chose Product design (UI/UX) and stuck with it.

Weeks later, our internship came to a start. I was ushered into a world I thought I knew with a realization that my knowledge of design was merely the fringes of what I was going to learn in the course. Our mentors Abiodun Omonijo and Jeremiah Folorunsho treated us as complete novices, they helped break down product design concepts and taught us how to design with the user in mind.

After a couple of assignments, six quizzes, and two capstone projects later, I have completed the six-week internship with SideHustle. And here I am sharing my experience in the internship program.

First, I’d like to talk about the classes, held virtually first on telegram and later on Microsoft teams. We learnt about User research and information architecture and design concepts. We also learnt how to design wireframes and sitemaps using tools like Figma, Whimsical, and Adobe xd.

So straightforward they were that I had only a few questions in mind at the end of each class. I never asked, thanks to the chronic introvert that I am. However, my classmates did, and I benefitted from the answers to their questions.

Talking about my classmates, They are fun people who love to help struggling students get on their feet in design. Their feedback-giving skill is top-notch, and I am sure a good number of them are expert designers already.

I’d love to share some designs I worked on during the internship program. They are not amazing, but I feel a deep sense of fulfillment in learning something new.

A word of advice to anyone who needs to hear this: It’s never too late to pick up a new skill, so if you see a great opportunity, don’t let it go.

Thanks for reading.

It’s routine and boring and boring again

Notes to copy at school..

Same data entry tasks at work..

All those chores at home.. Tiring, I know.

So if I say you love monotony..

Would you be surprised?

If I say you can’t live without monotony

You’d begin to wonder if this is so

Well tell me what’s more routine

Than having to drink the same liquid many times a day

Or chewing food and snacks or gum every few times each day

We never get tired of getting a good night sleep

A craving for some developers, it’s true

It’s never monotonous or a bore

To yearn to eat, to drink, to sleep

We aren’t tired of the same company

Of family and friends we truly love

We think all day of a lot of things A

nd start all over the very next day

We learn too everyday

For life’s course outline has no end

Something has just crossed your mind

You say you don’t agree with me

Monotony is never fun

And living life is not a bore

But here’s what I really think

Routine can be fun and sweet

Because it’s a thing of the mind

Tell yourself you are living life

And life sure is enjoyable

Then enjoy your monotonous task

And once the job’s crossed off your list

You’d rejoice that you have finished it

And guess that you’d do after

Same thing you did a while back

Eat or drink or go to sleep!

The fine line between reasons and excuses has always been a puzzle to me.

Ro’s just had a long day at work reviewing articles that would be sent out to print by the end of the week. Though she spent her day sitting, she felt like she had been run over by a truck — that must have been slightly exaggerated, if I may add.

As Ro steps foot in her home after a long terrible road trip that kept her cramped in a crowded bus for some two hours, she finally got the six hours sleep she deserved. Only, that meant waking up a full hour later than she should.

Without adequate time to actually ‘wake up’, Ro begins to prepare for work and despite the rush, arrived at the office to meet a stone-faced supervisor who screams one of the most used phrases in a working environment: “You’re Late!”

The reason? Well, who cares about the series of events and uncontrolled factors that contributed to Ro’s lateness to work that day. Whatever leaves her mouth becomes nothing more than mere excuse. After all, she has ‘No’ reason to be late to work on any day.

Do you find that relatable? I do.

A random google search gave me a few answers to the difference between reasons and excuses — Hence the reason no one knows the right answer.

I have heard people give so called motivational criticism — You are the reason for the way you are and for what you have achieved; you are responsible for yourself and your future; you have no reason to not be where you should be. Your reasons are mere excuses.

The real question is: What if the excuses are good reasons but they don’t matter to you? Another: What if we just want different things as should be for different personalities we are?

You see, even a human is not absolute, he’s relative to himself in a number of ways. The same goes for reasons and excuses.

If we don’t have all the facts, then it is a course of modesty to accept a reason as it is — A reason. Some of the time, however, a person does not know when he’s giving an excuse rather than a reason. That could be pointed out politely.

I told a story, I made a few points but here’s a summary of my thoughts below:

“Reasons and excuses are like certain flavors that may stand alone or combine to form a whole new flavor. In the end, it’s all about being honest with oneself on the one hand; and being patient with someone, on the other hand. What may sound like an excuse might actually be a reason and those reasons you think you have might just as well be excuses.”

Are you an aspiring web developer? I was an ‘aspiring’ web developer for quite some time. Starting a career in any field can be daunting, especially one like web development, but here you are moving up in the learning process!

You have probably completed one or more courses in web design and development. You are familiar with HTML, CSS, Javascript and some front-end or back-end frameworks. Once upon a time, you had all the necessary questions with hardly any satisfying answers — Am I good enough for this path? Would I be able to compete with the numerous experts out there? [Look out for my future posts addressing this matters]

Commendations for coming this far. It’s time to build your first web project. Here’s a checklist to guide you!

1. Research, Research, Research

The first step has an official name: Requirements Gathering. You get to answer questions like: What is the purpose and scope of this website or web app? Who is my target audience? What technologies would I use? Do I need to learn a new language or tool?. A thorough feasibility study is also required at this stage. If this project is for a client (usually a family member or a friend for your first project), you may want to check out what competitors in the field have done on their sites.

Note that this step never ends throughout the development process.

2. Choose your Hosting and Domain

It’s time to research where you want to put your site {I did tell you research would never end.} There are a lot of web hosting companies online. Choose one that fits the needs of your site but are also affordable in the long run. Some hosting companies offer cheap rates for the first year, ensure you find out the normal rates before buying.

3. It’s Time to Design

After setting up your hosting and domain, the time has come to apply all you’ve learnt and practiced in your web development courses. Plan your website content and layout, color theory, typography, etc. If you are using WordPress like me, research for a good theme and plugins that would improve your site. After preparing all you need, laying it all out, you can then develop your site. It’s okay to make changes where necessary. Make sure to write clean code and do fall in love with commenting — saves you a lot of stress in future.

4. Dot your i’s and Cross your t’s

Your website is complete — NOT. Crosscheck everything you’ve done. Check all links and buttons. Test for errors and strive to make your site simple to use and mobile responsive.

5. Congratulations on Completing your Project

Or so you thought. Well, you did complete development of the site and for that, Congratulations! You can throw a party… However, like a completed house, your website/app needs to be maintained. Every once in a while, test to confirm that your site still works well, add updates and remove outdated information, and after a few years, redesign your website!

The saying goes: It’s not over till it’s over. Well this is the end of this article. Hope you enjoyed it, Let me know in the comments!

Originally published at https://laqueenie.com on May 10, 2021.