UX is an acronym for user experience. When working on UX, a designer will take into account how the intended user will interact with the design rather than how the design look visually. UX takes into consideration the users experience from start to finish and all the touch points in between. For example, what is the potential user looking for? Where would it be best positioned for them? How can we display this in the easiest way possible. Essentially it's the thinking behind making the users life as easy as possible allowing the to quickly get to their destination.

‍

Why does it matter to your business?

But why is it important to your business? What do you get out of investing in UX? Lets discuss some of the key benefits to good UX for businesses.

‍

In the long run, UX design can reduce costs significantly.

Every new project your business undertakes involves a certain amount of risk. The fact that UX design and design thinking entail research, analysis, and testing puts you on the right path for success from the get-go.

‍

Preventing usability issues from the start is far easier and cost effective than waiting for issues to arise and fixing them after your project is already public. Making sure your product is usable from launch not only means that your product is better from the off-set but you also don't need to make as many amendments or bug fixes which will all have to go through design and development stages.

‍

Imagine cutting you ongoing development cost down by 80%! A mere 20% of issues spotted within a product are actual dev issues, the remaining 80% are usability issues which could have been avoided if the correct UX approach was taken from the start.

‍

So whilst it may seem more costly to go through these stages at the beginning a ‘pay back time’ will be quickly reached.

‍‍

User Experience can increase your conversions

When there are so many websites offering essentially the same product and services user experience can be a clear deciding factor for which site the user will choose to support.

If a user enters a site and can easily navigate a site and seamlessly find exactly what they are looking for they are a lot more likely to remain on the site and make a purchase as opposed to having to navigate through multiple different pages of content which are difficult and frustrating to understand.

Simply put, people are impatient, and with the internet at their fingertips this is even further exaggerated. They know what they want and your product has to be able to give it to them in the easiest and quickest way possible or you risk losing that potential customer.

There are many ways to optimize your product from a UX perspective the key ones being:

• Making the content the user is looking for accessible in the quickest way. This means allowing the user to get to where they want in the fewest number of clicks. The less decisions you give the user to make the less chances there are for you to lose them.
• Give your CTAs (Calls to action) meaning. Buttons labels should be descriptive and convincing to the user to give them a reason to click them and let them know why they are clicking them. A newsletter sign up with the button ‘click me’ offers next to nothing while ‘Join the club’ is emotive, it explains what the button will do and helps persuade the user to engage with it.

‍

UX design helps with SEO (Alot)

‍Nobody wants to open a website and not be able to find what they are looking for right? Google feels the same way! Because Google wants to keep their customers happy they dont want to promote sites that will frustrate their users, sites with poor UX are penalized by Google and rank badly in their search algorithm.

This is not only the case for organic reach but also translates to PPC (pay per click) on platforms like Google Ads, this can be especially frustrating for product owners as they are not getting the most from the money they put into marketing!

‍‍

Goods UX builds trust with the user and leads to brand loyalty

Good user experiences go a long way for any business. If a user is able to effortlessly navigate your site they will have less hesitation in doing so again and again until your business seems like the only logical option for that specific product or service, this is important particularly for ecommerce brands.

Great UX not only attracts new customers but helps maintain relationships with existing customers keeping them coming back time and time again.

A good UX will help customers feel cared about and considered when using your website or app. If they have a difficult or frustrating experience using your product this can reflect badly on your brand on and offline.

‍

Making the world a better place with UX

Not only does a positive user experience have many great results for your business by allowing them to effortlessly spend money with you, get in touch, or whatever the end goal of your product is but great UX is also making people's lives better. Making things simple and easier, reducing stress and making things quicker than before.

‍
If you want to learn more about how UX could benefit your business please get in touch!