User Ratings represent a visual representation of the user’s feedback. This way, users can express their thoughts and experiences regarding a product, service, design, or app through the rating UI element.
As clients, we often rely on product comments represented by previous experiences that other people have had with the product. By nature, the quantitative (and reliable) information that user rating offers is one of the standing points of our purchasing decisions. According to the Baymard Institute, 95% of users relied on UX reviews to learn about other products.
Types of Rating Design
When it comes to creating the rating UI element, UI UX designers can implement different ways in which their users can provide product comments:
The binary method
This is the most common rating system for social media platforms, as it is represented by the “like” and “dislike” buttons (and other similar alternatives). This type of UX review allows users to offer their opinion regarding a specific subject quickly. This is a fast and easy method to gather data and encourages recommendation and virality.
Textual review
Compared to other types of rating scale systems, textual reviews allow the user to express their experience and share their opinion without any place of interpretation. At the same time, users are encouraged to add any photos.
Close-ended questions
This type of rating design can be used when describing a problem or when asking for a quick opinion regarding the product. For example, Google Maps uses close-ended questions after visiting a location or after using public transportation to improve the experience for the next user.
Scale or range
This is usually the most common type of rating in UI design. It is often illustrated through the star rating system, and it can be found in retail industries as it provides a fast and easy way for users to give feedback on a 1-5 star rating UI system. The star rating system can also be perfect for customers who want to see the rating distribution summary for more product information. The user can use these to rate the degree of certain services and products. These types of ratings require minimal effort and time spent by the user completing them.
Scale and close-ended questions
Those ratings combine a scale and a close-ended question to deliver a more accurate review. At the same time, it offsets the user's ability to choose whether or not to enter more specific information.A great example of combining these two types of rating scale systems is Airbnb, as it allows users to rate specific elements regarding their stay while also adding more information about potential issues. For this reason, we can use this rating UI method when users evaluate the product with a lower score.
When to Use Ratings in Your Design?
The rating UI elements should be required only after the user has tested or tried the product or the service. Every designer should avoid asking their users for their feedback before interacting with the product, app, or service.
The UI UX reviews need to be placed only after the users interact with the product and avoid it as much as possible interpreting the user. Asking for feedback while the users are experiencing the app can feel overwhelming and trigger a bad user experience.
Ask for the users’ feedback only when needed. Requiring multiple times the users' feedback can feel like a burden and influence a lower response rate followed by more negative feedback.
As users, we want to know as much as possible about the product we’re about to purchase, relying heavily on the distribution summary of user ratings. For this reason, the review UI design element should display the total number of user ratings for each score and the average score. These illustrate the relation between low-score reviews and high-score reviews and provide a better understanding of other people’s experiences.Pro Tip: Make sure to show the decimal rating, regardless of the types of rating scale – for example, 4.2 out of 5.
Structure the Review UI Design by Product Attributes
Users may need a more detailed version of the distribution summary. Our users might be interested in learning more about the product’s ease of use or value for money. So, instead of reading through the product comments, the UI UX design would illustrate the average scores of all attributes.Pro Tip: Creating a compare and contrast section of the product’s UX reviews might be necessary.
Use Multiple Types of Rating Scale
As we all know, the more, the merrier. Although we should keep it simple, using multiple types of rating scales would be more useful for users when making a decision. For example, Adidas allows users to give feedback through star rating UI elements to evaluate the overall experience and by scale to rate specific product qualities.
Add an Intuitive Prompt for User Ratings
When creating a rating UI element, it’s necessary to ensure users can leave feedback in the post-purchase stage. For this reason, UI UX designers must add a call to action phrase, such as “Rate Product”. However, mobile app designs automatically redirect us to the rating page to encourage us to leave feedback. Lately, web designs have been following suit as well.Pro Tip: We all know that a picture is worth a thousand words. So, make sure you also encourage users to upload photos.
Use the Rating UI Element in Your UI/UX Design With uinkits
Our uinkits system is a Figma Design System and UI Kits that include UI components that allow you, as a UI UX designer, to create your design products as quickly as pressing a button. You can find ratings and everything you need to create the perfect product design in Figma – all in just a few clicks. All you have to do is take the UI design component you need, and you’re ready to use it in your designs!
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