What is UX and why should I care?

What is UX and why should I care? Here we will clarify everything that you need to know about UX. From what is UX, to some brilliant book recommendations.

User Experience (UX)  is the process of designing products with the user in mind. It is often incorrectly used interchangeably with User Interface (UI). However, UI design focuses solely on the interface that users interact with. UX design looks at the whole user experience and journey.

What is the goal of UX?

When asking what is UX? It is important to look at the desired outcome.

It is about improving customer satisfaction and loyalty by making things easier to use and more enjoyable. But this isn’t just about making people feel good. Good UX will improve your business and increase your sales. The goal is to analyse the experiences you are giving your users and improve them. Experiences are how we perceive things. How they make us feel, react and behave.

What is UX?

UX isn’t just about design. It is about crafting an experience. It is the process used when crafting the experience your user will have when interacting with your product. It is all about putting your user first and solving their problems through empathy. When considering UX it is important to consider the why, what, and how of product use.

• Why: The motivators, values, and views.
• What: The functionality and features
• How: The accessibility and how it looks

As with normal business best practice, you also need to know: What problem you are solving? Who are you solving it for? How do people feel about it? This is a scientific and artistic process, as all the best things are!

Why should I care about UX design?

UX is a commitment to building products and services with your customer in mind. Being user-centred is a good thing for your business. It is about people and designing experiences for those people. Experiences they will pay for. Your business is there to solve a problem and UX allows you to solve that problem in an enjoyable way for your user, making them happy. Humans may be complicated creatures, but when we like something we champion it. We use it again and again. Having a good UX means people enjoy using your business. They will come back and they will recommend you to other people. Which will lead to an increase in revenue for your business?

When UX is good, your users will probably not notice it. If it is bad your users will. They are likely to leave and probably never come back. Resulting in a loss of revenue. How often have you left an online store because the purchase journey was clunky and annoying? Have you ever left a site because it was confusing and you couldn’t find the information you needed? You have probably done a free trial of something and not committed to purchasing afterwards because you found it hard to become acquainted with it?

That is due to bad UX. Bad UX is losing you money. It is that simple.

Two of our favourite UX Case studies

The Wave

The Wave is an inland surging lagoon and artificial wave pool in Bristol. It means you can surf on consistent, safe waves all year round.
We worked with the Wave to improve their UX by automating and streamlining their Wavier system allowing their customers to book quickly and easily, resulting in more sales.  

Then we added TV screens to the cafe showing useful information and aspirational content, which engaged the user and made them open to upsells.

Once I’ve Gone

Once I’ve Gone (OIG) is a digital product that helps people’ Live for Today, Prepare for Tomorrow’.

We partnered with OIG after it’s release as a Minimum Viable Product, helping to reimagine the product for a full release, keeping the end-user at the core of our process.

We’ve worked with OIG on a new UX/UI for the user dashboard, and the technical development of the product in partnership with their core team.

Some great UX focused books?

There are some great books on the subject – a couple of our favorites are:

1. Don’t make me think by Steve Krug.
2. Start with why by Simon Sinek.
3. Hooked: How to build habit-forming products by Nir Eyal.

Ready to find out how UX can earn you more revenue and improve your business?