Ask any engineer and they’ll tell you: it’s more important for the application to do what it’s supposed to do rather than to look good while doing it.
Most users, however, are not engineers and will only use a product that is intuitive, simple and “feels right.”
This is where user experience – or UX – design comes into play.
A good UX designer will anticipate the user’s needs as they interact with an application and help developers build an application flow that makes intuitive sense.
Research and Testing for UX
Using tools like A/B testing, site-flow diagramming and wireframing, UX designers collaborate with software engineers and business managers to ensure that the site delivers a solid user experience.
Companies often view UX as a secondary priority, dismissing designers as people who just make websites pretty. However, UX design roles are crucial to building sites and applications that the average user can navigate. UX designers try to empathize with the users and imagine what they need to make their lives easier. They do this through processes like user research and testing, where they solicit feedback from users on what works and what doesn’t.
A/B testing – where different groups of users are given different versions of the site – allows a company to use analytics to gauge what changes keep users more engaged or make them more likely to purchase something from a site. Because margins can be razor thin, even differences of 5% can be the difference between a thriving company and a bankrupt one.
UX Design and User Experience
Design is more than just drawing something pretty and putting it up on the web. Built into every UX design are intentional patterns and design decisions geared towards making the user experience easier. A designer will choose color schemes, contrast levels, accessibility features, display architectures and button and widget sizes to make the site as easy to use as possible.
Good design evolves based on user feedback, and a good designer will be responsive to the changing needs of the user. As feedback comes in, new product features or other reasons to redesign emerge and designers will implement changes to the product. These subtle changes can dramatically improve a user’s ability to engage with, navigate and make full use of the features of any web application.
Effect of UX
The potential impact of good UX is tremendous. Poor UX causes product abandonment rates to skyrocket, and the best UX companies outperform the S&P with triple the return rate.
UX is also key to earning customer loyalty. Users who enjoy interacting with a site or application are significantly more likely to return to it, and their perception of how well the product works is often based on its usability. Without a strong UX team, companies can find themselves supplanted by competition with inferior technology if the competition can make using it more fun.
Employee productivity is another value added by UX designers. Navigating a clunky interface slows down work and can distract employees from their tasks. Companies can calculate savings and losses based on the UX of their software, allowing them to quantify the value added by good design.
Even though it may seem like design is a secondary feature, research shows that ease of use and comprehension can be the difference between success and failure.