Why Skipping UX is the One Thing You Can Do to Sabotage Your Project

When you’ve worked in digital media for so long, it’s pretty easy to fall into the trap of taking the user experience process for granted.

Because the process starts to become routine–habit, even. That you cannot even imagine starting a project with first exploring the UX (and probably the CX, consumer experience).

But for anyone outside of the digital product world, or anyone not quite up-to-snuff on best practices, they’ll view it as the “fluff” that doesn’t need to happen. It’s the part of the project that usually gets squeezed when a timeline is tight.

Why is it that UX is so important that it’s the step you should never squeeze out?

Because you wouldn’t build a house without the blueprints first.

As a former co-worker once told me, try building a house with your contractor without the blueprints and he’ll just laugh at you. You have to create a framework against which you can build. You need to create a hierarchy of content to help your users discern what is the most important piece of information, followed by the second most important piece of information.

Because you have to build a smooth flow void of dead ends.

A house built as a maze would just piss the homeowner off. You want there to be breathing room–a clear flow from the front door to the living room to the kitchen to the backyard. You don’t want the kitchen next to the master bedroom, do you (I don’t)? And, you want to identify if you have enough rooms to satisfy all scenarios that would happen in said house.

Your website needs to have a user flow that makes sense–one that identifies how a user (prospect, client, etc.) might access your site, what their objective might be, and what it is that you want them to do (buy something, sign up for your newsletter, etc.)

Because a project without a strategy is just you throwing darts in a dark room.

Yes, it really is. We can all make decisions based on our gut and on best practices, but if you don’t take the time to understand WHO your user is, HOW they use technology, HOW they’ll access your site, WHAT you want them to do, then your site or project becomes a random hodgepodge of gut feelings and hunches.

Then, when the project launches and you don’t meet your objectives, you’ll be left asking yourself, “Why?” I’ll tell you why, because you didn’t ask all of the questions at the beginning. You started designing without understanding: who the consumer is, how you want users to navigate, and what your key goals are.

Without UX (and / or CX), your project is bound to fail.