Michael Deshayes

If you told me you're skeptical about this whole 'user experience' or 'UX' term and are questioning firstly what it really is and how it benefits businesses, I would not be surprised at all. At its core, it is quite a valuable way to look at anything (physical or digital) to improve the usability and effectiveness of a design. I'll walk you through what this stuff really is and why so many businesses from small to corporate spend their hard-earned cash on it. Let's get stuck into it!

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E-commerce

With today's convenience of being able to almost buy anything you need and have it delivered within a number of days or even the same day, it's clear that e-commerce is a key area of business investment. This is prime for UX design, in fact the majority of the websites and apps you buy from have been designed with UX in mind. Some perhaps better than others...

Let's take a look at Koala, a relatively new player in the bedding and furniture market within Australia. Their website is carefully designed to firstly showcase their products, company values and provide key information to customers about their products. Throughout their website you can see not only are they exposing in-depth information about how their products are composed and the dimensions, they double down on buyer confidence. This undoubtedly is good UX design, a key aspect is understanding customer needs and responding to them... which in the world of sales is crucial and can make or break a lead. If you think about it, they're creating momentum for the customer to go from 'interested' to 'bought it' by the UX design of their website.

Now let's dip into something with serious scale, Amazon. Although some might think their websites and apps are a bit dated visually... the arrangement of text, images, buttons and features on the site is incredibly thoughtful and has been refined immensely. This is how UX design can become a superpower to convert leads into customers. For example, Amazon uses UX design to make the search and purchasing experience incredibly simple. With all of your information already stored in your Amazon account, you can seamlessly buy products within seconds of landing on the website. There is very little friction or unnecessary questioning of the customer in order to make the sale. That, in addition to the insanely competitive shipping times and market dominance for pricing... this makes Amazon the ultimate e-commerce player for a wide range of product segments.

Products

It's very common for the 'UX' term to be only discussed in relation to digital products (at least these days) but the reality is it applies to many things we interact with. Let's take a look at some notable UX design decisions in products.

Nalgene drink bottles, a perhaps odd choice for this article but their careful considerations of User Experience have helped them create a range of affordable, easy-to-use products that last. Let's look at where the 'rubber hits the road' for a drink bottle, the lid and opening. The experience of opening the bottle is aided by heavily textured moulded plastic making even the tightest of twists pretty easy thanks to the added grip. When you're in a rush, it's easy to accidentally spill water on yourself due to most cheap water bottles having an 'easy to manufacture' opening with little taper or consideration for shape. Nalgene have designed theirs with a slight outer lip that provides a secure connection between the lip and the bottle, reducing the unwanted splash back. No doubt that these simple details have been carefully designed and tested to make for a better user experience in a cost-effective manner.

Mirrorless (Point & shoot) cameras, this is obviously a massive category but something perhaps we might take for granted thanks to UX design. Whether you look at older cameras that utilize film or modern digital cameras, there are products made for professionals and others made for every-day folks. Where UX design comes into play is making sure that the customer has a product that meets their needs. For the professionals, they need access to all of the granular settings in an instant, making for a complex yet intuitive set of controls on the exterior of the camera. On the flip side, looking at the everyday folks, they don't care about all that, they just want a photo that looks good... so the exterior is very simple, easy to hold and designed to literally just take 'good' photos without confusion.

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Is UX design also UI design?

In short, yes! User experience considers the overall journey and touch points of a customer which includes things like user interfaces.

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What does UX design provide me with as a business?

It provides confidence in the design decision-making process, helping you make sure your product, website or idea is created in the most appropriate manner possible... considering the customer needs, business needs and the market.

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Does UX design cost more than other types of design?

This all depends on how complicated the problem is and how important it is to your business. At the end of the day, it's about time spent. UX design can involve many different types of research and design testing techniques to increase your confidence in the right direction of the final solution. It takes the guesswork out of the 'airy fairy' designer jargon and leverages data.

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When looking to invest in your business's digital touch points or products, UX design can greatly improve your ability to tailor things to your customer needs. This can also help to ensure your business objectives are at the centre of your efforts, maximizing your potential to capitalize on leads. If you'd like to learn more about how UX design can apply to your specific business scenario, get in touch with me for a chat.