User Experience Design
Integrating a User-Focused Mindset to Improve Your Business
User Experience Design, or UX, is such a vast field that one of the main debates within it, is actually defining it's parameters. Often, it is lumped together with User Interface Design, or UI, to create an even broader field of UI/UX. In this article, rather than get into the nitty gritty of semantics surrounding the field, I'll highlight some of the core principles of UX that can make any business better, whether they have the resources for dedicated UX personnel or not.
Know your customer
Too often, businesses want their products to be universal. While this is an admirable goal, it often leads to a lack of clarity and focus within the product development lifecycle. Establishing a clear understanding of who you are designing for can better allow you to anticipate the needs, motivations and behaviors that your product will seek to fulfill.
Once you've established who your target users are, gather real data to better understand them. Complete a competitive audit to see how others in your market are addressing their pain points, conduct user interviews to get a better understanding of how they are interacting with your product and create systems of consumer feedback like surveys to get large, quantifiable data. A grave mistake is to assume you are your customer and that what you like, they'll like. Take the time to do the research - the investment is worth it.
Test Often!
The great unveiling of a product is filled with excitement, hope and anticipation. This is not a time to see that your product's core feature doesn't appeal to your target customer. Getting products in front of real users early and often is a key philosophy of UX design. Not only does this allow you to continue learning about your user's needs, motivations and behaviors, it allows you to identify the most pressing problems to solve moving forward so that your project can continue with clarity of vision. Catching problems as they arise is well worth the investment of frequent user testing.