As a manager, you are expected to have a certain level of knowledge that you can pass onto your team, even if it’s by way of guidance or ushering towards a certain way of thinking. If you work in user experience (UX), then there are some concepts that you definitely need to grasp and understand in order to maximise on your business’s UX efforts.
1. User Research Is Essential
User research is not something that you can let slip or do half-heartedly, it’s an essential component of everything you are about to do to improve your user experience. Think of it as the foundation. Developing user personas is an integral part of building up a positive user experience, and this cannot be done without conducting user research first. This will help you align your business to these personas, thus improving the service offering and end result.
2. User Experience (UX) Is Not One Singular Process
There are a number of elements to UX and these all need to be considered for it to be implemented effectively. Often, seniors within the business don’t understand this and it’s important to explain it to ensure proper buy-in from the relevant teams. There might be different micro-processes within one grand course of action and each one should be treated separately. Painting each action with the same brush can result in you missing key elements of the user journey that are difficult to navigate or understand.
3. UI Is Only One Element Of UX
Sometimes UX is confused with user interface (UI), especially within teams that don’t work directly with the UX teams. UI is an element of UX, but it is not the same as UX. It is a large component of UX because it speaks to the navigation, button placement, screen flow etc, but UX teams are well aware that the entire user experience can also plug into the content and how it is delivered, the process of moving through different functions, as well as the user journey as a whole.
4. Usability Is Also Only One Element Of UX
UX is not usability. Usability is not UX, but only an element of UX. Just because the usability of a product is great, doesn’t mean that it will be well-received, especially if it serves no real purpose. A product can be easy to use, but that doesn’t mean it is useful.
5. Usability Tests Are Your Friend
If you’re not doing usability tests, then how are you understanding the pros and cons of your product, service and how it is being perceived by users? User testing can prevent a number of headaches and can also stop you moments before making a destructive business decision. Your expertise speaks volumes about you and what you’re capable of, but you are not your users and you don’t speak for them either. By gaining an understanding of how they perceive your business and the essential elements of it, you can tweak and modify in line with what is expected and what is preferred, and you can also test the waters before investing large sums in an idea.
6. UX Takes Time
It might be easy to assume that once your UX is “done”, you will start to see the benefit of it in your return on investment. But it’s not ever really “done”. UX requires many iterations before it can be perfected, and even so, it can always be improved upon. Various levels of wireframing, prototyping, analysing and testing will need to be put into practice. Even if the user experience is top notch when you go live, learning from your users and their behaviour might change your mind on that after a few weeks. And that’s okay… being flexible is key.
How does your business far in the UX department? Whether you’re looking for consultation or UX itself, we are your people. Give us a call.