The Importance of User Experience

Basically, User Experience is key to building a successful product or service.

Have you ever wondered why a vast amount of your colleagues at work, friends at home or even family members react to certain actions taken while using a product ( e.g refrigerator, television, website, or even the common mobile phone ), or a service? This is fiercely as a result of how they feel towards the product or service rendered which in turn is called User Experience.

Many a time, when we use a specific gadget, let’s say a phone, we try to perform a simple task which was a norm while using an application on the phone previously but we now find it difficult to redo such tasks which in turn could upset the user. This problem may be caused by a recently installed update which may be difficult to understand while using the application and as a result of this, we get frustrated. The above scenario is an example of a bad UX. A product with a good UX should not give the user any difficulty while the user is making use of the product. For example, while using a Facebook application, the user has a conceptual knowledge that should he want to navigate to the bottom of the page, their is a need to scroll upwards but imagine using an application in which you have to scroll downwards to navigate to the bottom of the page. However, it will be strenuous to figure that out because most people will scroll upwards initially before thinking or trying to figure out that the application was designed to scroll downwards if you want to navigate to the bottom of the page — Bad UX.

Furthermore, it is important as a Project Manager to analyse the User Experience with the UX designer in the team before building a product or service. The work of the UX designer is to carry out a research on the target users to get information on how they feel towards the product you are to create. This is necessary because you are building the product to be used by Users and not only by the team members. Building a good User Experience and User-centered interfaces is very important for a product so as to attain a sky-rocketed ROI ( Return On Investment ).

You may be thinking asides “building for the Users”, why is User Experience important. The answer is simple, “there is no other reason”. From the inception of the idea to the launching and maintenance of the product you want to build, the Users should always be at the back of your mind because you are building the product to solve a problem the target users encounter on a daily basis.

Hence, User Experience is essential when building a product.

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