What is User Experience? (UX)
User Experience (UX) is the development of products that provide important and memorable experiences for online customers. The creation of an analytical process of how a website, app, device or software is going to be operated by the user, is the essential basis for the user’s own experience.
Therefore, the UX designer has to take into account every possible detail and outcome of every action the user is likely to make. It is the task of delving into the mind of the user and putting yourself in their place, in turn creating a product that is simple and easy to navigate. 88% of online consumers are less
likely to return to a site after a bad experience and thus may be permanently lost as a customer. This negative experience from a single user could have cascading effects for a company if they begin to have a reputation as a non-user friendly site. The best way to create a great experience is by asking the user, “what they want and how designers can build a better experience.”
“As a programmer you read more code than you write. Keep it readable, commented, consistent and explicit.” — Sindre Sorhus
Why Is UX Important?
More and more of our daily interactions are beginning to happen through a smartphone, plain and simple. It has never been more pertinent to offer users a smooth and polished digital experience that can make their daily lives easier. The importance of designing an effortless user interaction in any product is more important than ever before. This is what creates the want for users to return. Be it complex applications, online retailers, startups or small businesses; no company with an online presence can succeed in today’s atmosphere with a site that is hard to navigate. This same concept applies to
companies with small budgets, no matter the size of the organization, content or services provided. It does not take thousands of dollars to make a website that contains a clear cut and easy going User Experience. Whether you have created a website, app or business to business model, every individual in
today’s world who needs a digital presence across all industries can benefit from the process of User Experience.
“If you think good design is expensive, you should look at the cost of bad design.” — Dr. Ralf Speth
Where is UX & AI going as an industry?
As smartphones take bigger leaps forward in the right direction, whether it be the addition of smarter AI or Augmented / Virtual Reality, the job of UX designers is to start thinking ahead in order to be on top of how users will interact with AI and Mixed reality apps. For example, designing the algorithm
that determines how an autonomous vehicle makes the right human-centered decisions in an unavoidable collision. Virtual and augmented reality is set to become a $150 billion industry by 2020, disrupting everything from healthcare to advertising. Facebook designers for the last five years have been using Oculus Rift and learning how to become designers for Virtual Reality. AI technologies such as machine learning, chatbots, VR/AR and other systems that are momentum. This growth has been a slow and steady process.
Thank you for reading.
