Why User Experience Design isn't a one off
We get to grips with why you need to adopt an 'always on' approach to User Experience Design to realise the full potential of your investment.
User Experience (UX) Design is a cute, excitable, and sometimes annoying miniature Dachshund. Am I making any sense? Probably not. What I actually mean is that UX Design is that dog you don’t just buy for Christmas. Ok, bear with me…
The digital products you interact with on a daily basis are so complex and ingrained in everyday life that they need constant attention and improvement to stay up to scratch. Do you remember the last iOS update; did you notice the latest UI changes on Spotify, or have you used the new ‘Companion mode’ feature on Google Meet?
As your audience’s needs and behaviours change so frequently, the products and services they use need to keep up. UX Design is an integrated process that is increasingly championed as the secret ingredient which enables you to evolve to meet, and exceed, your users’ expectations; elevating your digital experiences above the competition. Proactively leveraging insights from high-quality user research, rather than reacting to negative trends in your website analytics, keeps you connected to your users and helps you deliver impactful experiences time after time - each day becomes more and more like Christmas. See where I’m going with this?
Adopting an ‘always on’ approach
You guessed it. UX is the family dog you’ve known and loved for years - obviously. Like most dogs that are now part of the furniture they’ve been around for a while and the same goes for UX - developing a furniture-like, ‘always on’ approach to UX takes time, but the benefits are tenfold.
With this in mind, we’ve taken some time to think about the reasons why UX Design should be an integral part of your business strategy. The top teams are doing it, so why shouldn’t you?
Keep your audience front of mind
Taking what your customers have to say seriously is the key to driving value for everyone involved. Embedding user-centred practice and customer feedback into your decision making process enables you to design solutions which solve real-world problems.
Break down silos
Too often the work produced by UX teams is passed along the chain, never to be seen again. Positioning UX as a necessity with an ‘always on’ approach opens up the discussion to the whole team, from SEO to Design, establishing a holistic mindset which drives value across the board.
Unleash the power of design
It’s a common misconception that UX design takes time and is all about polished deliverables. Whilst a well-designed persona is nice to look at, UX Design as a process describes how the activities in a UX designer’s toolkit can be used to supercharge creative teams. From providing rationale for engaging UI interactions to eliciting insights that reduce friction during checkout; UX outcomes rather than deliverables - such as brand love, recall, and loyalty - can be leveraged to give you a competitive edge over and over again.
UX Design as a process describes how the activities in a UX designer’s toolkit can be used to supercharge creative teams.
UX outcomes sound great, right, but how does this work in practice? The reality is that it very much depends on your goals and priorities as a business, but what remains constant is the fact that keeping a close eye on your digital health from a UX perspective will help you save time and money by uncovering and solving pain points that are vital to your success.
What’s more is that an ‘always on’ approach develops internal knowledge of UX best practice and empowers your team to avoid common pitfalls and the associated cost to your business.
Little and often wins the race
Cue Lean UX, the methodology which borrows from Agile principles of waste reduction and user-centred design. Following a think-make-check cycle, this process focuses on a collaborative approach to experimentation to deliver value to users ASAP - goodbye silos, hello agile teams.
In plain terms, this means you can come up with ideas, build them and test how they perform. You might take a look at your website’s analytics, conduct a heuristic review or gather customer feedback to generate ideas - the key here is knowing how much research is enough research. You’ll then likely prioritise your ideas based on their perceived impact versus estimated effort, and build your solution; but it doesn’t stop there. Make sure to revisit your analytics or conduct A/B testing to validate your solution. And so it goes.
There are a plethora of UX design methods available. What is important is that they become an integral part of your decision making process, not an afterthought. Switching your mindset to an ‘always on’ approach doesn’t mean you have to invest an arm and a leg in UX but it’s the first and best thing you can do to efficiently drive value for both you and your customers - be more dog!
If you’re looking for some advice on how to embed UX within your business or just up for a chat about all things digital, feel free to drop us a line at info@yoyodesign.com.
