What is UX Strategy and Why is it Important?
Before answering the question “what is UX strategy” let’s first define what is user experience (UX) itself. This term refers to people’s emotions and attitudes about using a product.
In 2015, Jamie Levy, a UX strategist, defined user experience strategy this way: “UX strategy is the process that should be started first before the design or development of a digital product begins. It is a plan-of-action on how to find out if the user experience of a product is aligned with the business objectives.”
The goal of UX strategy is to build a process that will enhance user satisfaction through improved usability, accessibility, and comfort provided during the interaction.
More and more leading brands start considering UX as a tenable source of competitive advantage, investing more funds in UX strategy techniques. But what does make UX strategy so important? Let’s dive a bit deeper into details.
Why is UX Strategy Important
Caused by the impact of digital technologies, consumer behavior is changing incredibly quickly. Just a few decades ago we were amazed by the first internet browsers and search engines, then social networks came into play, and after all, a variety of smart mobile devices conquered the way we consume information.
These days, new tools and gadgets move into mass usage much faster than before.
As a result, consumers are no longer willing to wait for UX to be created for them, they expect to get it ab initio – from the very first touch.
Even though, business behavior is not changing as fast as customers requirements do – it is generally moving at a much slower pace. And the difference in pace of change creates quite a huge gap in UX design experience.
Therefore, businesses and organizations need clear UX planning which includes the complete spectrum of customer touch points and can strategically lead to engaging experience.
Let’s brief out the main steps of UX strategy planning.
How to create a solid UX strategy?
Without a shared understanding of customers and their needs, it’s impossible to create a consistent and valuable experience strategy.
Step 1. Start with the research
To get a clear vision of your target audience needs, a proper UX strategy development should start from thorough research.
- Communicate with the end users to get a complete awareness of what people still need but don’t have in your niche.
- Get to know well your competitors. What else is already available? How can you create a better, unique solution?
- Outline your goals and business expectations. Define the metrics of your success.
Once your idea is clear and aligned with the research you are ready to start outlining the design.
Step 2. Sketch out the design with your team
At Synergy Way, our dedicated UX design team does loads of brainstorming prior to developing a “final” set of prototypes and wireframes for client’s feedback.
Outline what you expect users to intuitively do with your website or application, map the user’s path through your design and you will get the clear basis for your testing phase results.
Step 3. Test the User Experience design
The testing phase can show you all the weak points your product has. Until you’ve rolled out your product without a “Beta” sign, users expectations would be reasonably tempered. Knowing that you’re looking for users’ feedback, your potential customers will feel involved and engaged, with a clear benefit of getting exactly what they need.
Step 4. Evaluate the results
Now you are ready to collect users data, look for design elements that are NOT working and compare those to ones that do. How would you bring users to the desired actions? Can you apply the working principles across the whole design?
The professional UX designers will help you identify which features/contents do not work. Examine these elements and make improvements. Implement. Roll out. Test again.
Step 5. Improve UX design
The only right way to increase your competitive advantage is to always keep evolving your UX design. Users will continue to engage with your mobile application or your interactive website because of the positive UX. A proper strategy will help you create what customers will eventually strive to get.
