‘UX vs UI’ and ‘UX hiring’ maybe the top discussions you witness on social media. However, that is not actually quite why UX is the new buzzword and a hot skill. UX matters beyond building desirable products and profitable businesses. UX helps your users / customers, to:
Ever since the majority of consumer purchases have moved online, customers feel spoilt for choice and thus highly selective. The business leaders and product teams which picked up this significant change in headwinds are striving to build better experiences, realizing that adopting agile project management and software development alone is not enough. The importance of engaging the user for usability feedback throughout the product development life cycle is not optional.
Multidisciplinary teams are responsible for business success. UX awareness and application of methods and techniques have become a must for all teams.
UX for business leaders
Not long ago, Chief Design Officer (CDO or CXO) became a role in forward looking customer centric organizations. Even if an organization doesn’t have a dedicated UX role in the c-suite, the ROI of UX must be recognized by the leadership team. Led by tech unicorns, the leadership in user-centric enterprises understands that UX creates more value than delivering aesthetically pleasing products. Great experiences not only help differentiate a Brand, they are instrumental to build trust and loyalty in the customer base.
The UX researchers and designers need to convince the business leaders using language of usability metrics and showing the impact of those on the bottomline and business goals.
UX for product development teams
Product development teams are under constant pressure to deliver better and faster. The acute talent crunch due to “The Great Resignation” wave across the world has added to difficulty in meeting market expectations.
To deliver a superior product experience, product teams need a fast way to iteratively validate whatever they are building. The user validation includes having people who represent the target audience to use the product and give usage feedback via usability testing. User research platforms are used by teams to improve collaboration, recruit users and conduct user research at scale.
In our experience, most product teams have switched to some form of remote user research despite the myths surrounding usability testing. The engagement of users during development is not limited to UX designers and researchers, product managers and engineers are increasingly taking an active role in user research. New roles like UX Copywriters are taking the front seat because users experience a brand and it’s personality via the product interface and the language used on it.
UX for marketing teams
It turns out that sub-standard UX design negates marketing budgets and potentially render the marketing efforts ineffective. A significant portion of leads that marketing campaigns generate go down the drain due to inconsistent visual design and messaging. Users are unable to associate with a brand due to such marketing oversights. Users who visit the website via these campaigns most likely go elsewhere, to the competition, seeking a better experience.
The impact of UX Design doesn’t stop at design of marketing campaigns. If a website or product checks all the boxes to create a delightful experience, the marketing spend shall see lower bounce rates, users will interact with the product longer, buy more and will most likely keep coming back.
UX for users and customers
Oblivious of costs and constraints in the product creation process, users and customers are always looking for better products and services.
As the adoption of digital products grows, accessibility and ethical design are gaining in significance. With advertising noise all around, it’s important that users receive the experience inline with what they have been promised. Users do care about the inclusive approach a brand takes in it’s product design.
User research and product design plays an important part to ensure that users’ needs are met and they are able to connect to the brand emotionally.
The experiences of interactions last in people’s memory quite long. With limited opportunities to put your product in front of your target audience, the product must make a positive impact. While every product need not be a breakthrough innovation like the iPhone, it must be designed to create advocacy.
In the increasingly competitive world, the product is likely to get only one shot with the customer, therefore organizations need to successfully build and execute a UX strategy to deliver exceptional experiences and create a loyal customer base. With digitisation of most services and digital transformation happening at almost light speed, UX is set to take the center stage in the business world – whether UX will become an industry on its own, chances are!
