Economics of User Experience in Digital
How does one quantify the value of superior user experience? This is something that I always struggled with. Barring some exceptions in Tech space, the value of UX is largely under appreciated both amongst senior management and business community at large. The root cause for this could be how little business theories and frameworks taught in business school ever attribute success of a business or a product to superior UX. Probably most of professors and researchers in the realm of business theory largely grapple with quantifiable aspects to prove a theory, often which UX doesn't naturally qualify. This is shocking because UX in digital can be a strategic and competitive advantage just as much as your Operations or Marketing.
It is fundamentally impossible to explain the differences between WhatsApp and Yahoo messenger app in business terms, both of them happen to be messengers, both of then allow you to text your friends via internet on mobile devices. But what lead to stunning success of one, while the others languished? At best Network theory might explain why WhatsApp went on to kill it, but it will still not explain why Yahoo messenger or Skype failed. WhatsApp was propelled with superior UX, by adopting a zero step contact management, a frictionless method to manage contacts. Superior UX unlocks possibility of making unviable ideas viable.
Ever wonder at what number of customers a Starbucks coffee shop’s user experience will starts to deteriorate? The beauty with UX in digital is that the marginal cost of delivering a superior user experience to additional customer in ‘Zero’. The cost of delivering superior user experience to infinite users is near to nothing, where as in a traditional world there is a cost to delivering a consistently good experience to an additional customer.
Apple pay would probably be a poor product if it were not for TouchID’s one step payment method. However the financial projections and goals for the product will probably be the same irrespective of whether the user experience is good or bad. So how do you attribute dollar value to frictionless experiences that really propel digital products to their heights.
In such a scenario how would one convince leadership or senior management that it is worth their time to wait until UX is nailed down?
