India and User Experience — The story so far
Definition:
UX : juːˈɛks/ noun
A holistic, multidisciplinary approach to the design of user interfaces for digital products, defining their form, behavior, and content.
The term UX (User Experience) was coined by Don Norman while he was Vice President of the Advanced Technology Group at Apple. In his own words: “I invented the term because I thought human interface and usability were too narrow.”
Initially, UX was centered around simplicity. The focus on simplicity was not a choice, but dictated by technology that provided rudimentary functions and layouts. User Interfaces on websites were minimalist and uncomplicated. The advancement of technology brought with improved software and hardware, that helped integrate multiple processes and made complex processes simpler. In time, there was the realisation that exiting interfaces had gotten overly complex for the average user. This lead to the realisation that
“When creating for the masses, create interfaces that are easily understandable and usable by everyone”.
This eventually lead to the birth of User Experience as a field of study.
Being user-centric was now the focus of companies developing products and User Experience(UX) became an integral part of the design process. UX became a buzzword amongst design communities around the world. Websites now focused on making their layouts user friendly. User friendly websites flourished, whilst websites with complex and confusing layouts faded to oblivion. It was found that easy of use was an essential part of user retention.
During the 1990’s, Europe and America were at the forefront of the UX design revolution contributing to the direction, vision and momentum of the UX design process. In Asia, the vision and importance of considering UX as a an essential part of product design was still in the nascent stages.
UX beginnings in India
India took some time to jump onto the User experience bandwagon. There was a time when design in India was confined to ensuring that all the information was available at once to the user and the study of User Experience was non-existent. (One can imagine how crowded the sites and interfaces looked!!)
There was a lack of awareness of the global contemporary design trends and best practices in user experience. This could be attributed to various reasons: a) Low penetration of the Internet in the 90’s.
b) Adhering to the dogmatic ideology of “more for less”. A prime example of this would be cramming all the buttons and content onto a single page to supposedly make the page look tech savvy.
User Experience practices did eventually trickle down into India in the late 90’s. Thanks in small part to the Y2K bug which brought India’s IT prowess to the forefront which attracted international IT companies to set up shop in India. Companies like Cognizant, Honeywell, Oracle, Phillips, Siemens being front runners in ushering in India’s IT revolution. The recognition that India had a talented labour force and a native command over English made India an attractive option for them to setup their offices. The influx of international companies in India prompted homegrown IT companies like Tata Consultancy Services, Infosys and Satyam Computers( now Tech Mahindra) to expand their business to other countries, and inculcate new ideologies and processes in line with their global partners. User Experience was one of the ideologies that was imbibed as a result of this.
These ideologies, which focus on giving importance to User Experience, led to the rise of companies like Design For Use, Human Factors International, Kern Communications Pvt. Ltd., and Onward Research in the early 2000’s, with the mission of spreading awareness of good User Experience practices.
Current State of UX in India
India today boasts of around 5000 companies dedicated to UX and building UI that connects with the user in a meaningful way. With the exception of the government owned websites, Indian companies have understood the importance of adopting a user centric approach and have embraced the UX revolution. This has prompted a change of mindset from
“more for less`` to ``less is more”.
Simplicity with good functionality has now become the norm amongst web design companies and experts.
The emergence of Google, which quickly trumped Yahoo!, with its simple design and great functionality further cemented the notion that great UX can take businesses to greater heights.
UX in India — What lies ahead ?
If the Indian IT industry was kickstarted by the tsunami of international companies setting up shop in 1999. The next evolution of the Indian IT landscape was brought about in the 2012 with the influx of “The Start-up Culture”
“With great competition, comes great innovation” — Anonymous
Startup’s brought venture capitalists and hedge fund companies into India in search of fresh ideas and innovative inventions. This could be attributed in part to the West and Europe being in depression and the conflict in the Middle-East. The economic slowdown could also be another contributor towards this migration towards India. With India having the second largest population in the world and the having the highest number of graduates in the world, the attractiveness of investing in an untapped market helped infuse funds into startups. The value proposition of “starting-up” with ready availability of funds, prompted Indian entrepreneurs to chase their dreams and start their own companies.
Competition amongst companies vying for the same customer base prompted them to look for ways to differentiate themselves from the competition. In a bid to retain their existing customers and acquire new customers, User Experience soon became an important tool. Companies realised that providing users a unique experience is a sure shot way to establish the product. Early adopters of user centric design were rewarded with a large chunk of the customer base while laggards paid the price for late adoption. Web-Design today is totally UX centric.
India is going digital at a scale that is unheard of and unmatched thanks to new collaborations between the public and private sectors. The mobile penetration in India is now estimated to have reached 1.27 billion and around a third of the them are active internet users. The appetite of the the Indian market for digital content is ever increasing.
2018 is shaping up to be an interesting year for Indian User Experience Design . It could well be the year where Indian UX design proves to the world it has arrived and forces the world to take notice.
Let us know by sharing and leaving a comment.
We are DTALE, a UX UI agency from Bangalore. We design digital experiences that tell a story. Here are some interesting UX Tips for your Startup. Download them for free.
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