What is User Experience (UX)?

Businesses are increasingly becoming online to expand their reach, User experience has become a buzzword. User experience is much about the simplicity and authenticity of presenting the product in the market. A good user experience tells how far the market can expand in the coming future. To develop such trustworthy user experiences, the major sectors of a company are required to merge and work together for better results. 

Keeping this aside, at the end of the day the only thing that matters is how the user is experiencing the product. Does the website provide all the necessary information to the user? Is it easy to use? There are a lot of questions that run through a user’s mind when they first experience the website or the product. 

A person should feel engaged, simple, and connected while using a particular system or product. That is why having an outstanding UX experience matters a lot for businesses. In this article, we are going to understand – what is user experience or UX? Why companies are spending a lot on getting the user experience right? Let’s understand what is exactly UX and why it is in vogue.

What is User Experience?

User experience, also called UX defines how the digital experience of a user can be made more pleasant and useful. It covers all aspects of user interaction with the product or service.

Basically, it looks at the aesthetics, accessibility, durability as well as usability of the product, to make the user experience more meaningful, relevant, and smooth.

UX means- Understanding users’ persona, their emotions, and behavior while using the product.

Why do we need UX?

Now that you know what is User Experience, let us learn why do we need UX.

UX aims to provide a positive experience for the user to build and maintain a strong bond with the customer.

Imagine creating a product that is too complex to be used by users, or has too many fields to be filled in checkout forms, unnecessary navigations and such scenarios are endless. In such a competitive market, with such UX obstacles and bad designs, a brand can definitely lose its customers.

And if you want to keep the user engaged, good UX design is significant. UX design takes care of all the needs and expectations of the user. Providing a fantastic user experience that also adds value to the user is obviously, important. Now, if the product doesn’t make any value addition to the customers, next time they will never use it.

Also, if your user is frustrated, angry, or confused, then it’s a red flag for your brand and product. Any friction between the user and your service could be disastrous in the long term. So, this is the reason why UX is important.

How UX is different from UI?

Ever came across the term User Interface?

Well, the two terms UX i.e. User experience and UI i.e. User Interface go hand in hand. But both have their different meanings and significance.

Now, if we assume UX is like the human body structure, UI is adding skin and clothes to it.

Simple, right?

Another example could be like designing a sofa. The UI designer will look at the aesthetics, the colors, and the texture while a UX designer will need to understand the user and see what can be done to make it more comfortable.

So to summarize…a UI designer takes care of the visual elements WHILE…

… a UX designer needs to look at a larger picture that encompasses the whole user experience to make it more meaningful and interactive.

Let’s understand this concept from a different perspective. Whenever you see a product or a website on an outer level, it is known as the UI of the product. UI is what the user sees and interacts with the product. The buttons, the layout, navigation, etc. It is similar to the buttons on the remote control car which are only visible for the user journey to operate the car. 

Whereas, the user experience is the amount of time the user gives to the product and how it is beneficial for the user at the end of the day. User experience covers all the interactions a user has during the working of the product.

In What situation UX is more beneficial?

When we talk about a great UX ( eg. iPhone), we consider the various situation and benefits it will provide to the end-users. A good UX always covers Why, What, and How to provide the best user experience. However, let’s understand the most engraved areas that are benefited from the use of the best UX ever. 

• Startups

As we see, startups and small companies do not have many resources to hire employees entirely dedicated to this role. In this situation, training developers or web developing interns are more suitable for the company. However, having an amazing UX design would benefit the company in terms of market value. However, as a startup owner, initially, you may not have the appropriate resources to hire someone. 

• Projects with longer timeframes

Adding a timeframe for user experience design will create value for the company. However, UX designers can assign longer timeframe work to other web developers or designers and focus on solving real user problems. 

• Complex Systems

Once the system gets complex, the planning and architecture also get complicated. In that case, a few things need to be simplified in the work processing of the company. E-commerce, retail, and other companies benefit from the UX design and boost their sale accordingly.

Aspects of UX Design

Generally, the format of UX is simply, any UX designer asking the questions:

“Who? What? Why? Where? And How?”

They need to understand the user persona and then accordingly, design the system in order to give a delightful user experience.

User Experience: For every UX design, what the user is experiencing on the screen matters a lot. Everything the user will see, interact and use will affect the quality of the company too. It becomes really important to not overlook the user aspect. 

Usability: The usability of a product matters a lot when the company’s face is the UX of the product. However, it is not always necessary to have great usability. There are many products that have great usability but lack market success. Consumers want easy access, control, and a simple UX interface. Anything complicated does not overwhelm the users. 

Functionality: The functionality of a UX design matters a lot if you are running a startup. A more functional UX design is always good for the company and brand value.

What is the value of a UX designer for a Project Manager?

UX is concerned with the user experience, while product management is concerned with the business side. However, unlike a coin, there is a lot of crossover between the two fields.

Product managers are primarily concerned with the “what” half of the equation: who the target market is, what problems the product is attempting to solve, what capabilities must be in place to solve those problems, and what the business model and value proposition are, and so on. Meanwhile, UX focuses on the “how” aspect of product development, that is, how will the user perform their duties.

Conclusion

So, now you have a basic understanding of user experience, its need, aspects, and the difference between user experience with the user interface.

The prime focus of your product should be the users. If it can’t cater to the users’ needs, no matter how visually appealing your product is, no one will care to use it. 

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