Good UX / Product Design Starts with Listening to Users
User experience (UX) is an integral part of every product, and it should be taken into account right from the start of the development process. However, a lot of businesses still consider UX later in the process. Yet, early UX collaboration can have a significant impact on your product’s success. Listed below are the top 3 reasons why UX should be embraced into your product design process right off the bat:
Reason #1: Time is not your friend
One of the biggest challenges that product teams face is the time it takes from ideation to deployment. Time is the only resource we will never get back and cannot buy. So when mistakes are made, users aren’t part of the process, or there’s no research, that usually means products break and teams fail. So even if you have to start small, always bookend your sprints with UX. Always strive to be UX’n.
Reason #2: UX Design Can Save Time and Money
There are definitely exceptions, but it will absolutely save you money if you include UX early and often. The user experience involves more than just how a product looks. Fixing UX issues later in the development process can be costly and time-consuming. By incorporating UX early on, you can identify and address any potential issues before they become bigger problems. It’s about how it feels to users and how it satisfies their needs. It is essential to consider UX from the very beginning of the product process, from the c-suite to the App Store.
Reason #3: Including UX Leads to Better Products
This is about listening to people. It’s about understanding the user and trying to explore the pain points in order to solve user issues. Development or product or marcom aren’t always completely concerned with these matters. Incremental improvement over time is critical, though is that improvement driven by personalities or maybe even just speed. There is no exact right or wrong answer here, but when we understand the user, we understand how to convert.
Here’s what the Interaction Foundation says:
Why has user experience (UX) design become so important? Experience clearly matters. In fact, user experience has become one of the major roles required when you want to design an interface or interaction. Learn exactly why UX design has become so important in our world today from professor Alan Dix.
Discover more about the field of UX design in our online course on how to become a UX Designer from scratch: https://www.interaction-design.org/co…
UX is more than just how a product looks. Fixing UX issues later in the development process can be costly and time-consuming so incorporating UX early on can help identify and address any potential issues before they become bigger problems. Products is about understanding people and UX is a great tool to include early and often.
Simon is a Product Designer and Front End Dev with over 20 years of experience. He started as a graphic designer and illustrator coding his first website in 1996. He has worked with brands like Publix, Microsoft, and Discovery Channel.
