Still don't know what UX means?
If you have been around the tech industry for the last years you have probably heard people talking about UX design. And most of you may not know yet what this fancy acronym means. Don’t worry, its not rocket science, but it does can get very blurry at times (it does get very blurry at times). UX stands for User Experience Design and the best way to explain it is by first saying that UX is a series of well known tasks. Most organizations producing consumer products perform this tasks in a regular basis, even without having a specialized UX designer. What I mean by this is that UX design can be part of the job of many people on an organization, like graphic designers, front-end developers, project managers, marketing professionals, business analysts, etc.
User Experience Design tasks are:
Research:
- Competitor Analysis
- Customer Analysis
- Content Development
Creating:
- Personas analysis
- Scenario analysis
- Wireframing
- Prototyping
- Testing/Iteration
Execution and Analytics:
- Tracking Goals and Integration
- Analysis and Iteration
A great definition given by Sari Kujala on the Oxford Journal says that “The goal of user experience design in industry is to improve customer satisfaction and loyalty through the utility, ease of use, and pleasure provided in the interaction with a product.”
The main workflow of a UX designer starts by having a clear understanding of the product and the business goals, then researching the users and their decision processes. With all the data collected ‘personas patterns’ are built, which are the user behavior patterns that will help validate wireframes and workflows. Once the first prototypes are built the testing phase begins which is where the designs will be tested and evaluated continuously until the main stakeholder’s goals are met.
The tech industry has become more aware in the last years that UX plays a major role in the acquisition and retention of customers. If the experience of using your product doesn’t feel natural, straightforward or enhancing, then you’re leaving a window of opportunity for your competitors to take those customers away from you.
There’s no bad UX, there’s only better UX.
The UX of the product you make is related and compared to all the other products in the environment where the user consumes them. For example, a user will compare the experience of using Amazon to the experience of using Facebook, even if Facebook is not a e-commerce platform, but because both are websites. The user will compare you to the experiences that he is related to, being these refined experiences or not, from your same industry or not.
User Experience Design is never a completed job. The surroundings and environment of a user changes constantly, and these changes affect the user perception on what is a good experience. The goal of an organization in respect to User Experience Design should be to maintain a high level of usability and at the same time push the limits of what the user is already expecting. Don’t be reactive, be proactive.
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