Why does UX matter?
UX design (user experience) is the process of designing a product’s interface and experience in a way that it meets the needs and wants of the user (or customers).
This involves everything from the overall layout of the website to the smallest details like buttons and icons.
Core goal of UX design is to create a product that is easy to use and provides a great experience to the user.
A good UX design will not only make a product more enjoyable to use, but will also help to increase sales and conversion rates.
There are many reasons why UX design matters more now than ever. In the past, UX design was often seen as a nice-to-have, but it is now becoming increasingly important as businesses recognise the need to provide a better user experience.
Today teams are putting more efforts into creating a UX research plan which can in turn help reap the benefits of a UX strategy much faster. Truelist curated a list of UX Statistics, which tells us that UX indeed cannot be avoided.
- The ROI on UX investments is 9,900%. (UXCam)
- Improving customer experience can raise KPIs by over 80%. (Intechnic)
- A good user interface can increase websites’ conversion rates by up to 200%. (Intechnic)
- 90% of users won’t return to a site solely due to bad UX. (Toptal)
- Mobile users are 5 times more likely to abandon their tasks if they’re not optimized for mobile. (Toptal)
- Just a one-second page response delay can cause a 7% reduction in conversions. (Kissmetrics)
- 70% of online businesses fall through because of bad UX. (Uxeria)
Ignoring UX as a marketer means leaving money on the table. UX is a must for your digital marketing success, and in this article we discuss ‘why’.
But here’s a UX secret that most miss out, i.e. creating a UX research plan.
UX research is crucial to guide the design strategy made at every junction of the design process.
When you learn how to create a UX research plan, your take out bottlenecks that can ruin or hinder that process. For example, here are a few steps that are the part of a user research plan:
- Define your objectives – What do you hope to achieve from your user research?
- Choose your methods – There are a variety of user research methods you can choose from, like interviews, surveys, focus groups, and usability testing.
- Decide on your sample size – How many users do you need to research?
Great user experience can lead to increased satisfaction and efficiency, while poor user experience can lead to frustration and dissatisfaction.
As good advice, its best to spend some time to create a UX research plan. Some benefits of creating a UX research plan include:
- Gaining a better understanding of your users and their needs
- Identifying potential areas of improvement for your product or service
- Designing new features or redesigning existing features
- Evaluating the effectiveness of your product or service
- Improving the overall user experience of your product or service
In nutshell, even before you start working on your UX strategy, start with creating a solid UX research plan to help kickoff the project with ease, and ensure that all the stakeholders know what to expect out of it.
Benefits of UX that help achieve digital marketing success
- Boosts retention and revenue
According to Forrester, “Better UI could raise your website’s conversion rate by 200%, and better UX design could yield conversion rates of up to 400%.”
Good UX design makes the experience better for customers. There is a direct correlation between having a great UX design and an increase in revenue. When customers have a better experience using your product or service, they are more likely to continue using it and recommend it to others. Additionally, they are also more likely to make purchases through your site or app.
Good UX design not only provides an effortless experience, but also ensures that the end user has to think less, and do less. Therefore, by investing in UX design, you are directly increasing your chances of boosting revenue.
Good UX improves user retention by making it easy to use. First step to creating good UX is making your product easy to use. Users should be able to intuitively understand how to use your product without having to read a manual or watch a tutorial.
Moreover, when it comes to UX, less is definitely more. UX ensures that users can achieve their goals without being overwhelmed by too many options or too much information. If the product is easy to use or the website is easy to navigate, it automatically provides a great user experience, and the users will be more likely to keep using it.
Moreover, UX ensures that the user keeps coming back. This means regularly releasing new features and improvements, and addressing any bugs as soon as possible.
- Aids in search engine optimization
Effects of UX on SEO can vary depending on the specific website and how well the two are integrated.
However, in general, a good UX can help boost SEO by making it easier for users to find and use the site, and by improving the site’s overall accessibility and crawlability.
Core Web Vitals is a report by Google that shows how the pages perform, and is based on real world usage data. For example, first screen loading time, ease of interaction, and visual stability. When the report indicated a low performance, it means that the number of users leaving the page is high. So, when SEO ranking drops, there is a negative impact on conversion opportunities.
If your team is investing heavily into SEO but not so much on UX then the efforts put in SEO might not yield expected results.
Related reading: How an Accessible Web Design Can Help You Win Big at SEO
- Can cut future costs
It can be difficult to predict the future costs of a product, but a well-designed UX can help to reduce these costs.
By taking into account the needs of users, designing for ease of use and creating a user-friendly interface, you can help to reduce the amount of time and money that will need to be spent on support and training.
In addition, a good UX can help to reduce the number of customer complaints and the amount of time that users spend struggling with a product.
- Creates strong brand loyalty
UX design creates strong brand loyalty because it generates a messaging experience that accurately mirrors your brand promise leading to consistent customer relations.
It provides clarity for your target market, which enables you to serve your customers better and contribute to your bottom line. Users come back to a site or product if they believe that the site or the page provides something they need right away. Creating a product that is simple and easy to use will result in users trusting your brand and being more likely to recommend it to others.
Customer experience or CX relates to how a customer perceives the interactions with a brand. It encompasses the entire buyer journey, which includes the business website too. UX design process directly impacts CX.
Good CX ensures that users have a delightful experience when interacting with your brand. The result is repeat visits and better brand recall, which then leads to more business.
A poorer CX, on the other hand, can make customers leave your site and never come back. Not only that, they may also write negative reviews or talk badly about your brand to their friends. As you can imagine, that’s not good for business
Related reading: Why Branding Is Important, and How to Do It Right
Marketing success comes easy when you define the UX strategy through a solid UX research plan
Investing time and resources in good UX design is beneficial for teams. However, before deifining a strategy, creating a UX research plan can help put things into perspective.
It can help create a common understanding of the product, what users need, and how the product should work.
By designing with the user in mind, teams can avoid design debt and create a product that is intuitive and easy to use. Creating a product with good UX design can be a challenge, but it’s worth it in the end.
Products/websites with good UX will save time, money, increase conversion rates and it will be more likely to be successful with users. Thus, your marketing success is guaranteed!