Newsletter #158 Why is UX So Important?

UX is a shortcut for 'user experience'.

As we spend more time online, making transactions, looking for information and socialising, our UX becomes more important. Why waste time on a Website or application that makes things difficult? In our business we use competing online services in many areas and we naturally gravitate to those that make our life easier.

In a recent Xero blog, Philip Fierlinger talked about the UX of Money and how money is really just data. Bankers are apparently worried that a company like Apple could get into banking and provide a far better UX than they can on their old-world infrastructure. Online UX is the new business differentiator, if you don't measure up you're out.

Five easy steps to improve your online UX:

1. Work out where the problems are by looking at factual data. For example: Google Analytics says our conversion rate is 2% compared to the industry average of 5% - how can we improve the sales process?
2. Keep a record of problems customers have with your Website - there may be issues that aren't obvious to you but are regularly found by users
3. Test design scenarios by using Experiments in Google Analytics - real users show you which designs are the most effective
4. Arrange usability testing where users are watched and recorded while they complete tasks on your site
5. Make sure those people charged with making changes to your site are on the same wavelength. It's best to develop UX guidelines if there are multiple people involved

But is UX really the whole story? No it's CX (customer experience), a summation of all the UXs throughout a customer's interactions with you. For example it is fine to have a great online UX for your customers but not so good if you don't deliver and don't support your product or service.

Increasingly your customer's online UX is a huge part of the whole CX and is worth spending time and money to get right.



Best wishes

Alex Garden