I’m here to explain once, and for all the meaning of life. just kidding, I will write about the what-how-and-why UX is necessary.

Ready? Here we go!

I’m assuming that if you’re already here, it means you are familiar with the concept of “user experience.” Clearly, I won’t be revealing any big secrets to you. Still, I’ll definitely ‘to bring my personal touch to the subject try. Yes, hmmm’ (Yoda rules!). And most of all, I’ll try to convince you to implement this concept and value in your business better.

The ‘What’

The concept of “user experience” was out there way before digital came into the picture.

Any product or service (digital or physical) designed to be used. However, if it nither benefit the user, nor address his wants and/or provide a solution (value) to his needs, it will never survive the test of time.

It has been the case since the dawn of time, even if we didn’t conceptualize it until a few years ago.

Quick jump to the past… *Beep bop beep…* (cool sound effect)

In the beginning, God created the heaven and the earth.

Too far? Not really… Even the BIG GUY made his creation with his target audience in mind… But back to the subject at hand…

Moving forward… *Beep bop…* (half a sound, it’s not that far)

Remember the mini-fridge they invented for mobile communication between people? I’m talking about the first cellphones, which changed our lives amazingly.

This revolutionary invention improved our reality and achieved the impossible. Anyone who could afford it became the proud owner of a device, learned to use it, learned to live with the cumbersome design: the antenna, the green screen, the ringtones. Oh… the ringtones… And you know why? Because the product was created to provide a practical solution rather than an experience.

Competition itself in the industry has caused manufacturers to try to acquire differentiation or advantage, in part by improving the experience of using their devices.

Hold on tight, we’re making a quick stop in the future… *Peeeeuuuuu* (a high tech sound effect)

A wise man once said:

“Design is not just what it looks like and feels like. Design is how it works.” Steve Jobs.

And the user will see that it is good and pleasant and flexible and efficient and will want to use and upgrade and spread the word…

What I am saying is (besides manipulating verses in the bible) that a good user experience is a necessary component in any successful and durable product (physical or digital).

The ‘How’

And now that I’ve explained the ‘what,’ let me show you the ‘how’… We’ll start with the main variables in the equation of any product: The Trinity.

THEY

Customers

Users

Target Audience

ME

Entrepreneurs

Designers

Developers

Advertisers

Website Owners

THE PRODUCT — THE IDEA — THE MESSAGE

Banner

Post/Ad

Landing Page

Website

App

CV

Hologram (are we there yet? NOT! but still…)

My Formula

Their perception of your idea will determine their level of engagement (use) with the interface and the quality of the conversation about it (reviews and recommendations).

User experience designers also have a recipe for a winning prosses and preparation stages that must be followed strictly to ensure a successful result. Unfortunately, in every novice professional field, lots of “experts” pop up very quickly. Lately, I’ve been exposed to quite a few who on paper seem very promising, but in reality, do a pretty poor job, to say the least. So if you already decided to spend money and time on creating a smart interface and seek the services of a company that specializes in the field, you must not compromise!

So I’m sharing with you my ‘must-have checklist’ (now yours hopefully) for you to insist upon hiring a professional:

Overview Stage

• In-depth study of the product (they should want to know everything and anything about your product)
• Survey of customer needs; primary and secondary goals of the digital asset
• Excitement 🙂

Research Stage

• Competitive Market Analysis
• Interviewing target audience users and the process of creating personas

Functional Experience

• User flow and Journey mapping
• dynamic wireframing to illustrate the processes within the interface

Documentation Stage

• Creating a functional documentation (How everything works)
• Textual breakdown for the operational scenario (by user types: new/repeat/registered and more):
• Indicators
• Error Messages
• Microcopy
• Micro-interactions
• Animation

Design Stage

Receiving design sketches containing all user scenarios

Development Stage

• Commencing programming, preferably on a development environment
• Conducting QA based on the documentation and design

QA Stage

• QA and feedback
• If possible, it’s best to run usability testing

Launching Stage

Transferring the product to the production environment + once again conducting the QA process to check the quality of the transfer.

Always On Stage

TESTING TESTING TESTING. Supper important to always test yourself. Every good product can and should be excellent! AB the hell out of it!

Of course, the above checklist is the wet dream of every designer, but unfortunately, it’s not always possible. Sometimes there are budgetary constraints, technical limitations, etc. Our job is also to find and suggest the right way to implement the process without skipping too much.

Be involved

It is also vital that you insist on being involved at every stage and take full part in the process of creating your product, It’s yours! It’s important to ask questions and understand the reasoning behind each of the designer’s decisions. You must insist on getting all the facts.

And please stay away from any service provider who tells you things like “This is what’s trendy now…” or “That’s what Amazon does…”

It is crucial to make decisions based on research.

UX is just an opinion

Recently, I attended a meeting where someone mentioned that the field of user experience is a subjective gray area. Usually, my first reaction to words like his would be shouting OFF WITH HIS HEAD. This time though (not sure what took over me) I took a deep breath and realized there is a kernel of truth in that remark, but from a different perspective.

User experience is indeed subjective — your users’ opinion will determine whether or not they continue to use your product. However, any self-respecting user experience designer will base their recommendations for a proper consumer journey in a digital interface on research-based facts!

For me, user experience is a science for all intents and purposes. Just as chemistry is the science behind any good meal, psychology is the science behind any perfect experience (you can read more about this in the excellent book by David C. Evans — Bottlenecks Aligning UX Design With User Psychology

The ‘why’

For any of you that survived this far… Good job 🙂 you’ve successfully scrolled to the “why” part… I will ask you to close your eyes and envision a situation in which everyone talks about your product, using it, praising it, mentioning it everywhere, rating it, and giving it positive feedback… hmmm… and ‘Vuala’ that’s why!