Visual Design greatly affects UX concerning the interplay of colors, icons and fonts, good visual design inspires positive emotions, creates pleasure, and increases user retention.

Moreover, according to Aesthetic-usability effect, a visually appealing design is perceived to be easier to use.

• Make sure that the controls are reachable and noticeable.
• Layout should create a good vertical rhythm that supports the communication of the content hierarchy.
• Use color theory to get better interaction of colors. Also, colors can be used intelligently to highlight messages, notifications and errors after a user has interacted with an element.
• Choose your icons carefully as they affect the clarity of your design. Avoid using too many icons.
• Use a legible font with right spacing and kerning. Font color and size should make the content readable.

Digital accessibility is crucial for creating a truly inclusive world for everyone. For people with disabilities, it means equal access to online education, healthcare, employment and ecommerce. In the age of social media, it even means equal access to friendship and social growth.

• Pages have straightforward document structure, readable without a CSS file
• All links and navigation drop-down functionality can be used without a mouse
• ARIA landmarks and other assistive technology indicators are integrated as appropriate
• Proper hierarchy of non-content heading levels
• Alternative text on all non-content images
• Proper table-cell markup on all non-content data tables
• Contrast ratio of 4.5:1 for small text and 3:1 for larger text
• Descriptive link text

At this stage, you should be ready with a high-fidelity prototype.

It is quite close to the final product, with lots of details and functionality. There will be a set of usability problems for which any particular low fidelity prototype will be inadequate.

A high-fidelity prototype should be used to examine usability questions in detail and make strong conclusions about how behavior will relate to use of the final product.

• More faithful to the eventual product.
• Ability to build in rich interactions, smart behaviors, data-driven logic and mobile gestures.
• Effective design communication tool between internal members of the design team, and between design team and external partners.
• Ability to share and test prototypes on different devices, or Cloud them across to stakeholders for comment, helps to cut rework and scope creep.
• Test user reactions to the interface to get an honest picture of how successful your design solution is.

Small details that exist around features, Microinteractions are the contained product moments that do one small task.

They exist around and inside of features, in every app, website, and appliance.

• Microinteractions have four parts: a Trigger, the Rules, Feedback, and Loops/Modes.
• Trigger can be a manual control, such as when a user clicks a button or an icon, or it can be the system trigger that goes off when a set of conditions has been met.
• Feedback lets people know what’s happening.
• Loops determine how long the microinteraction goes on for, if it repeats, and how it changes over time.

Test flow, interactions and overall UX to assess how easy user interfaces are to use. Usability testing employs techniques to collect empirical data while observing representative end users using the product to perform realistic tasks.

It has been observed that the best results come from testing no more than 5 users and running as many small tests as you can afford.

• At this stage, it’s advisable to conduct a validity test. Conducted late in the development cycle, it is intended to measure usability of a product against established benchmarks
• Prior to the test, benchmarks or standards for the tasks of the test are either developed or identified.
• Participants are given tasks to perform with either very little or no inter-action with a test moderator.
• The collection of quantitative data is the central focus

Involve stakeholders, team members and line manager. You should get feedback from stakeholders and your team members for finalizing the product features. This will help in refining your ideas and removing any feature creeps.

At this stage, you can also invite other business elements that can add value and take them through the findings.

Be open to ideas and iterate over various use cases.