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Working with a slow, cluttered and unoptimised digital system or customer experience is bad for everyone. User satisfaction suffers, the product is not intuitive to use and productivity takes a hit. UX is about preventing those problems — and a UX designer is the person who solves them.
What does a UX designer do?
UX stands for user experience and concerns the attitudes and emotions of the customer while using products or services. A UX designer works on gaining a deeper understanding of users, the possibilities and the limitations they experience, in order to change those and so improve the overall user experience.
UX design can also be implemented in a way that aligns with business objectives. When you gather information about your products or services, UX helps you determine where changes to a service or product could generate information that is more useful, desirable, accessible, findable and credible.
UX vs. UI
User experience vs. user interface
The terms UX and UI are often used side by side, but they certainly do not mean the same thing. User interface refers to the design of interfaces for digital products. Its main goal is to maximise the usability of those devices and to complement the user experience. Interface design is about anticipating what a user might do.
The main difference is that user experience emphasises the overall feel of the product or service, while user interface is far more about how a product looks. On top of that, UX generally applies to any type of product or service, whereas UI concerns digital products above all.
Why does UX matter?
Let us return to the user experience. Most people will recognise the following: you have to wait for a website, app or program to open or respond, and then abandon it out of impatience because loading takes too long. A simple but telling example of how important the user experience is for keeping customers. If users do not enjoy using your product, it can lead to a poor reputation and lost revenue, because your customers choose to go to a competitor instead.
The success of your product, service or company can depend heavily on an effective and efficient user experience. By prioritising your customers’ needs, learning about their expectations and then exceeding them, you end up with satisfied customers. That makes it far more likely they become loyal and keep coming back. A good user experience always works in your favour in the end: the more loyal your customers, the more successful the business, because over time you retain more of them.
A fraction of a second
What makes a good user experience?
You never get a second chance to make a first impression. It takes only a fraction of a second for users to form an opinion about a product or service. If that first impression does not meet expectations, they usually leave. That is why it matters to capture the user’s attention as quickly as possible, and build from there.
Findability of the right functionality or information is equally critical. One of the most frustrating problems users experience is not being able to find what they are looking for. It matters just as much to keep the user engaged and intrigued while they use the product. Make navigation easy and show the relevant information and functionality the user is actually interested in.
Third, accessibility and personalisation deserve attention; not every user is the same. In complex systems especially there are often different types of user who need to interact with the system in distinct ways. That can create clutter and reduce productivity sharply. Any functionality that is not usable wastes time and energy needlessly. To prevent that it is essential to identify the type of user and offer them an optimal, personalised version of the system. The result? They can get on with their work unhindered.
How do you improve your user experience?
When UX designers create a new product they typically follow a user-centred design process, making sure every decision is evaluated and every feature is assessed for whether it makes sense or adds value for users. To improve the product or service it is important to collect and act on user feedback. That can be done through customer service, or by offering ways to report problems directly. Those channels gather complaints and feedback which are then passed to the technical team, who use usability testing (also known as guerrilla usability testing) to test possible implementations and adjust wireframes to solve the problems.
Shaping behaviour by design
The psychology of UX
Knowing how to build good UX matters, but understanding why certain UX choices work — and what makes them effective — matters even more. Once you understand the psychological effects particular UX elements have on users, you can shape and steer the way a user interacts with your product.
The psychological side of user experience is the study of how people feel, think and react when they interact with a product, service or environment. Knowing what motivates people, how they behave and how they respond to particular feedback is essential to making use of that psychological response.
A common piece of UX feedback is the need for animated interface elements. Animation can be used to improve the interface, make it more intuitive and create an emotional response in the user. That emotional response then leads — hopefully — to a desired action. In this case the animation gives the user an unconscious urge to act after seeing it. Visual confirmation is very important for maintaining a smooth, unhindered experience. The desired actions can be small, such as moving to the next step in a multi-step process, or larger, tempting the user into a better or bigger purchase. The goal is to help the user know what the next step is, so the process keeps moving.
UX optimisation is indispensable for the modern business
There are many ways to improve the user experience, but what matters most is doing it with the right intent: a UX designer has to understand what users need. If you manage to perfect the UX, it not only raises customer satisfaction but delivers lasting benefits for the business.
