What is User Experience or UX?
UX is a relatively new field and a very broad one covering skills as diverse as computer science, design and cognitive psychology. UX’s aim is to remove friction and road blocks in people’s interaction with something like a website.
Today more and more of our daily tasks are conducted between human and machine rather than human to human the UXer is the often unsung superhero that’s stands up for the human in the equation.
We’ve all experienced frustrating websites, infuriating kiosks and the hell of being stuck in endless call enter mazes. In those situations we just want to scream at the top of our lungs ‘Let me talk to a human!’ These are the situations UXers fight to avoid.
We’ve, on the other hand, also all had the delight of experiencing an interaction that went seamlessly, where our needs were anticipated, our feedback listened to and our journey supported. Where it be a well designed smartphone app or a trip to Disneyland, these great experiences don’t just happen, they are designed.
This is the result of incorporating UX methods in your process.
Why is UX important and why should I care?
UX is important because you want your customers to have a positive impression of you product or service, because if they do they’ll come back for more. Not only that they’ll spread the word about how great your company’s product or service is.
Apple is a great example of this. The term UX was coined by Don Norman who worked at Apple at the time. Central to Apples philosophy is making products that are a joy to use. Their investment has been repaid many times over and their customers are among the most loyal in the world. I know, I’m one of them!
Pixeldust’s approach to UX
Most of the clients we deal with don’t have Apple sized budgets for UX. That’s ok. Our approach to UX is lean. We take the essence of the process big companies use and only incorporate the steps that give you the biggest bang for your buck. The good news is a little bit of UX goes a long way. Each step helps save time and clarify the next – avoiding costly rework down the track. It’s all in the planning as Frank Lloyd Wright so eloquently states or if you prefer the old builders adage ‘measure twice, cut once’.