First and foremost, what is the UX Honeycomb?
The UX Honeycomb is a visualisation tool created by Peter Morville back in 2004. It is typically used as a teaching tool, to explain the basics of UX (User Experience), but it can also be used as a checklist for designers.
It concentrates on 7 important UX factors:
- Useful
- Usable
- Findable
- Credible
- Desirable
- Accessible
- Valuable
Diagram of UX Honeycomb
In 2018, Katerina Karagianni optimised the UX honeycomb diagram. Although it covered all facets of UX, there seemed to be no connection between the 7 elements.
Diagram of UX Honeycomb Optimised by Katerina Karagianni
How Was the UX Honeycomb Improved?
Katerina Karagianni grouped the 7 facets based on how the user interacts with a product (use, think, feel). She then re-arranged them within the honeycomb so that the relationship between the factors is highlighted, and added colour coding and labels to make the groupings clear.
Analysing a Site With the UX Honeycomb
The 7 factors from the UX Honeycomb can be used to analyse a site’s UX. Here’s how:
- Useful – What if you create a product that has no use in real life? No one will ever use it, right? Try solving real life problems to fulfil the needs of your users. Don’t make a copy of something that already exists!
- Credible – To make your site credible, you will need to provide a consistent and coherent service that your audience can trust. Let’s use a burger shop as an example. If your customer comes in and orders the same burger, but it tastes different every time, they will lose trust in you. You need to ensure they get the same tasty burger every time.
- Desirable – Your product, system or service must be desirable to your users. While developing a product, you must think about your users’ emotions. How are they going to be attracted to the product?
- Usable – Imagine if you went to an ecommerce site and it forced you to go through a load of unnecessary steps such as filling out laborious forms and creating your own account. Would you use it again? Users demand simplicity, why not give that to them?
- Findable – Imagine you have a burger shop (again) and customers love your burgers. However, they can’t find your burger shop because it moves around every day, is closed randomly and has a different name each time. Making it harder for your customers to find you will, in fact, lose potential business.
- Accessible – Better experience means better access, and obviously access for everyone. The content on your site needs to be accessible to everyone, including people with disabilities.
- Valuable – Your product, system or service must create value to the user. Think about your usual day, and items you use daily, all those items have value. A user would not use your product if they did not find any value in it.
If you need expert advice on how to improve the UX of your site, contact the EHD team today.
