A strategy a year makes UX appear
Unlike apples and nuts, great products don’t grow on trees. They happen through well-considered strategies and tested UX design methods.
You probably think you’ll soon have more strategies than you do customers, but it’s worth it… we promise. Once you have a detailed plan for consistently keeping your users happy and your overall goals top of mind, you’re golden.
Besides, a UX strategy isn’t as intense as a business profile. Think of it as a roadmap to streamlining paradise.
Roll up your sleeves, bring the pens, and meet us at the corner of UX design and business strategy.
1. Define your #UXgoals
Aligning business with user goals gives you and your team a clear guide and peace of mind that you’re on the established path. Together, outline what you want to achieve in terms of UX. You might answer questions like:
- What are we creating or improving?
- What problem does it solve?
- What is a successful UX?
- Who are our users?
- What are the financial targets?
- What does the budget look like?
- What is the deadline?
- What are the timelines of each project?
- Are there any potential company performance improvements that could help us enhance UX?
- What tools do we have to test, track, and monitor our efforts?
- How will we know when something is not working?
2. Do your UX research homework
Research is the part that takes the longest, so determine the available tools and resources to streamline the process. Think about the information you need and how you will capture and assess it.
But wait, there’s more…
You can’t just meander through the Google results pages. Categorise your research into:
- Users:
- Do we already have some information about users? Or are we starting on a blank page?
- What data do we need? (demographics, wants, needs)
- How will we get it?
- What tools can we use to distribute surveys?
- Will we compile data into journey maps, personas, stories, or scenarios?
- Competitors:
- Which companies have similar products?
- What services do they provide?
- How do their products function?
- Do they have a strong UX?
- Are there good UX examples?
- Stakeholders:
- What do they expect from the product?
- How will they use it?
- Have they tried any UX techniques in the past?
- How do they track and determine success?
- Seasons:
- How do users behave in winter, summer, spring, and autumn?
- Is there a noticeable difference in behaviour?
- How does it affect our UX strategy?
3. Put UX examples on the blackboard
Once you’ve answered your questions, you should have a solid foundation to start brainstorming. However, consider what brainstorming methods work best for your team’s dynamic and select the right approach for you.
For example:
- Ideation exercises
- Online software
- Wireframing and prototyping tools
- Design software
Then, outline the bare minimum features, images, graphics, usability, accessibility, and content necessary to make your UX successful.
4. Implement to see what works
Planning, product testing and analysis can be complicated, especially because established methods may need to change for future product testing.
So, create a more generic plan:
- Who’s doing the testing?
- Are tests moderated or unmoderated?
- Are we doing in-person or remote testing?
- What standardised UX testing methods are there?
- Are we testing in-house, or are we outsourcing?
- How will we measure UX success?
- Quantitative data, qualitative data, or both?
5. Repeat
Look, perfection doesn’t exist – so you constantly have to tweak your strategy. It’s normal to completely re-create the thing once or twice (or more) as long as you keep improving your approach and meeting user expectations.
Not feeling up to doing all this solo? We gotcha. Contact us for a killer UX strategy.