Basics of UX
In this first part out of 5 of the series of UX Analysis, we’ll go deeper into the Basics of UX. What does UX stand for, what does it include, how can you implement it, and what are the benefits of optimizing for it.
User Experience, or sometimes Customer Experience (CX), is in everything we see. UX boils down to the basics of how you understand and engage with your ‘product’. This can be the billboards next to the road, the supermarket layout and walkways, the signatures in airports, the label on your drink.
Everything is designed and copywritten with a certain goal in mind.
But as a UX designer, copywriter, or marketer throughout, you also need to understand that everything is connected. You should keep in mind where the user is coming from, who the user is, what they saw before your product, and why they are seeing your product now.
Why a UX Analysis is Important
Take for instance any car of a plumbing company. You mostly see them driving around, or parked outside, but you have no idea what they really represent. Many just slam the name and logo on their car, their service (“plumbing and piping”), a phone number and potentially a website.
It gives you no information about the type or quality of service, potential price points, friendliness, and ease of use. You basically can stand on the street, shout your name and phone number every 10 seconds out loud, and desperately wait for customers.
Arguably, who cares with these small players as they mostly rely on word of mouth, but they are still messaging to their potential audience!
The same goes for your digital shops and websites, and why you need to do a proper UX analysis. Many do not treat it like a storefront, or understand that the customer is king. You should treat your users/customers online as you would in person if you were to have a store; their time is most valuable, and you need to assist them wherever possible.
Or, instead, see your landing page as a sales pitch. You have 20 seconds to convince a rich investor why you are unique and different, and why they should buy with you. It’s like riding a bike in a busy city or like building a house.
Key UX Analysis Principles to Keep in Mind
In order to get where you should be, there are a few principles you need to keep in mind to guide you along the way in building up your website or app.
- Useful: Be relevant. Why would people buy your product, visit your website, or use your application? This is not what makes you unique compared to your competitors, but rather do you tick the boxes of your user. Do you have what they are looking for?
- Usable: Your goal should be for each page or even each section of a page to be self-evident. Just by looking at it the average user can say “I get it“.
- Findable: Make things easy to find, in places they are used to finding them (like the search bar being at the top). Don’t hide prices until the checkout process, or additional shipping information.
- Credible: Would you rather consume (buy) a health bar your doctor gives you, or one from a salesman on the street? Users must trust and believe what you tell them. You should not come across salesy or pushy, but rather professional and expert-like.
- Desirable: Do people want it? The image and brand provokes an emotional response. Think of premium brands charging a higher price only because of the brand and it’s associations, or exclusive products (bitcoin, anyone?) going for higher value.
- Accessible: Maximize your user group by allowing anyone (literally) to be able to browse. Can someone with disabilities do the same interactions or experience your elements the same way? Think color blind, poor eyesight (zoom function), or even fully blind (voice command).
- Valuable: The summary of the above-mentioned: is it functional, enjoyable, and easy to use? Successful products usually have a little spark and shareability. They make you laugh and/or excited, they make you feel better, they make you want to share and potentially consider to buy.
- Power of Proof: Always change a winning team. To make your product effective, you should test your website/app regularly on Conversion Rate Optimization. Every design update is outdated after practically 1.5 to 2 years. Listing your opening hours for 2020 or the sales discount for Easter, for example, is not useful anymore already!
Fun UX Facts
Making your website better by doing a UX analysis is crucial. Especially during COVID times, where brick-and-mortar stores and physical sales is more difficult than ever before. Here’s a few facts that hopefully will make you more interested in optimizing your UX.
Go ahead and google them, you’ll find a LOT more where this came from. Bottom line is; help your customers, and make it as easy and as friendly as possible for them to browse or use your website or app!
- A customer who’s dissatisfied will tell between 9-15 people about the bad experience, and 91% of unhappy customers will not return to your website. Avoid this!
- 57% of mobile shoppers will leave if the website loads more than 3 seconds. And you probably paid already for that customer to go to your site… waste of money.
- It can be up to 7 times more expensive to get a new customer than it is to keep a current one, and repeat customers spend on average 33% more than new customers. So you don’t want to lose new customers, and you want to retain existing ones.
- 8 out of 10 people are willing to pay more for a better User Experience, so why not give them a better UX?
- A well-conceived, frictionless UX design could improve conversion rates with up to 400%. Optimized e-commerce websites have seen 70% more products sold, with 30% increase in sales.
- 70% Average Cart Abandonment Rate across all industries (86% on mobile!), which is over 4 trillion dollars globally lost in cart abandonment. So you want a smooth checkout experience.
Next steps
In the next parts of this series on UX analysis, I will dive deeper into:
Part 2: How to do a heuristic UX analysis – Landing Page and PageSpeed
Third part: How to do a heuristic UX analysis – Category and Product
Fourth part: How to do a heuristic UX analysis – Cart and Checkout
Part 5: How to be your own user in validating your user experience
Look me up on LinkedIn if you want to get notified for the next parts, or if you want further clarification on some of these elements shared in this article.
Cover photo source of this article by stories – www.freepik.com
