New corporate buzzwords come and go with more reliability than a Sydney bus, and to make matters worse, they usually come in the form of indecipherable acronyms. One such acronym you may have heard with increasing frequency over the past few years is ‘UX’. The truth is, there are a lot of conflicting definitions out there, and the term has become overloaded and overcomplicated.
However, in the most common sense of the word, ‘UX’ stands for ‘User Experience’. It’s about having empathy for your customer’s experience of your business online. Your online business could include a wide variety of digital touchpoints; from websites to e-newsletters, apps to marketing emails.
UX is about analysing the way your customer (or user) interacts with these digital touchpoints and redesigning things accordingly to make them more valuable.
Saving time and seizing attention
UX can be broadly split into two categories: saving time and seizing attention. So what does that mean in practice? Let’s look at a couple of examples from two companies you’ve probably heard of: Amazon and Facebook.
Amazon
Always end up buying far more random items online than you ever thought possible? That’s down to the time-saving UX-stroke-of-genius that is Amazon’s 1-Click ordering service. Way back in 1997, Amazon realised that typing in your address, bank details and contact details every single time you went to order something isn’t just frustrating – it’s actually bad for business.
Instead, they offered their customers a simple solution: the ability to purchase any item with a single click. By removing the barriers to purchase, Amazon’s customers were suddenly buying a whole lot more.
By successfully identifying a problem (too much boring typing) and coming up with a seamless solution (1-Click ordering), Amazon displayed textbook UX design thinking at its best.
Amazon went on to make a tidy profit by licensing this technology to many other web giants including Apple. It’s interesting to note that Amazon’s 1-Click patent ran out in the middle of last year, so my bet is we’ll start to see one click UX designs popping up at the checkout of every online store pretty soon.
On the other side of the UX coin lie those designs that suck your time, attention and keep you coming back for more. Sound familiar? That’s because Facebook is the master of perfectly attention-seizing UX.
In complete contrast to Amazon’s 1-Click ideology, Facebook’s remit is to keep you on its sites and apps for as long as humanly possible.That’s because the longer a user spends on Facebook or Instagram, the more adverts they’ll see along the way (and the more money that finds its way to Mr Zuckerberg’s pockets). Every aspect of Facebook’s UX is designed to keep you scrolling, and it’s pretty much impossible to keep away for too long.
Have you ever suddenly found yourself in a session of seemingly endless Facebook scrolling only to realise your toast is burnt and you’re late for work and you haven’t finished that email you were supposed to write? That’s the power of infinite scrolling; a feature most UX designers could probably talk to you about for days.
Facebook was one of the first companies to realise the power of the algorithm on a user’s experience. They realised that instead of ordering posts chronologically, a user would be more likely to stick around if Facebook could show its users exactly what they wanted to see at any given moment. This was when the news feed algorithm was born.
Couple that with the fact that receiving a ‘like’ on social media activates the same area of the brain as eating chocolate or winning money, and you’ve got a world-changing UX design on your hands. In fact, I’d argue Amazon and Facebook’s half a trillion dollar plus valuations can largely be attributed to their innovative time saving and time-sucking UX designs.
Critical to your business’ success
But what does all this mean for my company, you ask?
It means UX isn’t just another corporate buzzword – it’s the cornerstone of some of the world’s largest companies. If you’re not willing to learn a thing or two from their successes, there’s a good chance you’ll get left behind in the next big wave of digital disruption. When all is said and done, if your customer has a bad digital experience, they won’t be coming back.
Empathy is key
Now you’re paying attention to UX, what’s the best place to focus your energy?
The most important thing you can do is to stop looking at things from your own point of view and exercise your empathy muscles – try to see how your customer and a range of other stakeholders view your digital experience.
Have conversations with the real people who use your product or service, chat to a variety of people inside and outside of your organisation, including creative types, marketing gurus, support staff, sales guns and product experts to name a few.
A User Experience designer can help you identify and solve your most challenging issues.
The bottom line
Still not convinced this UX malarkey is worth investing with your precious time and capital?
Let’s get down to brass tacks.
According to research from Pointsource, putting money into creating a better User Experience reaps impressive returns. Here are a few examples:
1. $2 spent on UX returns $100
2. Focusing on UX reduces support costs by 90%
3. 67% of customers are more likely to purchase on mobile-friendly sites
4. Optimised ecommerce sites have seen 70% more products sold
5. Customers are 15.8% less likely to switch brands when there is a good UX
In summary, taking an active interest in continually improving your customer’s User Experience can provide significant dividends. It pays to be attentive to UX!
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