How UX Consulting Can Help Your Business

Introduction

It seems like everyone is talking about UX consulting nowadays. And no wonder, because it’s not just another buzzword in the IT world. It is essential to consider users and their needs when creating a product. That approach can decide whether your service or product will ultimately prove successful.

At the very beginning, it is crucial to understand what UX design is. It focuses on the overall feelings and experiences the user has in contact with your product. The goal is to create a service that will not only meet the needs and expectations of customers but will also be comfortable to interact with.

“Don’t make me think. It doesn’t matter how many times I have to click, as long as each click is a mindless, unambiguous choice.”

– Steve Krug

People use well-designed products without hesitation, but when badly designed, this difference is very noticeable. Do not let your business be perceived poorly. Find out how user experience consultants can help you.

A better understanding of users and their needs

User experience consultants will help you check what bothers users and what causes them the most significant problems. This knowledge is the basis for being able to improve business, thereby increasing its attractiveness to users continually.

Products that do not solve the real problems of users have the highest chance of failure. UX consulting will help you step by step in analyzing who your users are, what they expect, or what frustrates them about the current service.

You will have the opportunity to act not only based on your assumptions but also on the results of usability tests or collected statistics.

The data will allow you to choose the proper direction of product development and learn what needs improvement or what to do in the future to meet the needs of users.

Validation of product and ideas in early stages

Digital products are very often created based on many unverified assumptions that come to light only when they enter the market. That is quite a big mistake because, at an early stage of the project, can you check which of the assumptions are right.

User experience consulting opens up a lot of possibilities in this matter. Thanks to the help of experienced designers, you will be able to create an interactive prototype of the application in a short time, which you could show to stakeholders and potential users of the application to collect their feedback and introduce some changes.

This process is continuous and allows you to verify your assumptions several times so that the product that will be released for production meets the needs of users as much as possible.

Cost reduction

Optimization of finances is important for any business. This also applies to digital products. You should pay more attention to the application at the very beginning of its creation, in the conceptual and design process, and then test it with end-users to avoid too many fixes introduced after implementation or launch.

“For every dollar spent to solve a design problem, you save $10 on development and $100 on post-spend maintenance”

– Clare-Marie Karat, Cost justifying usability.

At the stage of interactive prototypes, you can test the broad future functionality of the product. It pays off to make those kinds of changes when it is still relatively inexpensive.

It is also essential to test the product before its implementation. In that case, you increase your chances for success after a launch because you have relied on user feedback – and it is directly connected with finances.

Users expect good UX

User experience has been an increasingly valued field for several years. It is not surprising that the major players consider how to make their products comfortable and intuitive.

Facebook, Google, Booking, Netflix – they have entire departments of designers and researchers who are continually testing newer solutions and checking what users currently like. Google is famous for testing 40 shades of blue, which is used in links in Gmail. This only shows how valuable user experience is and how much impact it has on business success.

A good example goes from the top, so users who are used to the intuitive Airbnb interface expect the same quality from other applications they come into contact with. If they do not meet their expectations, they quickly describe them as difficult to use or, worse, unworthy of remarks.

Do not let your business be identified in this way. Try out user experience consultancy and see what you can improve to satisfy users and make them feel as comfortable as when using their favorite services.

UX consulting can help improve your product along the entire life-cycle

Work on a product doesn’t end only when it is released onto the market. It is crucial to track how customers use it, what opinions they have, and above all, what is difficult for them.

You may find that the things you didn’t even think about are real blockers for users who stop using the service. Identifying the problem, designing the solution, and then implementing it will not be a one-time action, it really should be cyclical.

Keep your finger on the pulse all the time, conduct regular quality tests with users, perform A/B testing, track statistics – these are actions that you need to take to make your product desired by users. Thanks to this, you will also learn in which direction you should develop it so that it continues to enjoy interest.

No matter what stage your product is in, you should put a good deal of attention on listening to the customers. Product design and development without this aspect can lead to a lack of interest in it.

The balance between business and users

Running a digital product is not the easiest thing to do. It’s the real art of balancing between business vision, stakeholder goals, technology capabilities, and user needs.

When the scales dangerously tilt only towards business without taking into account the problems of customers or only towards users without a business context, the chances of success of the product decrease dramatically. This difficult art of balance is not easy to achieve but possible with the use of appropriate tools and methods.

UX consulting will help you find it more efficiently and provide attention to every key stakeholder. Thanks to various workshops and direct interviews, designers will be able to better understand the needs of stakeholders, visions, and business goals.

By simultaneously following and listening to users through usability tests, it will be possible to build a product that customers need, while at the same time bringing profits to the company.

Higher conversion rate

By having a website or online store, you know that conversions are significant for business companies. Choosing UX consulting, you will find out how it works, what is suitable for users, what needs to be improved, or if it’s worth keeping.

Thanks to quantitative tests, e.g., A/B tests, you can try out many of the same solutions at the same time to choose the one with the best conversion.

A common e-commerce problem is abandoning the basket in online stores just before finalizing the transaction. Perhaps with quantitative data, you will be able to see how big part of the website traffic it is. Researchers, after usability tests, will not only know that users abandon baskets, but also why they decide not to buy, which may be interesting information for your business.

On this basis, a list of recommendations will be created, which helps you to improve the product and thus try to get higher and higher conversions.

Good UX helps to build a positive brand image

I have already mentioned how important it is to create useful products that customers like to use. Remember that your business is judged based on ease of use – this also translates into how people perceive your brand.

Make sure your users have the best experience while using the services. If you don’t know how to go about that, choose user experience consultancy. Designers will carry out the product improvement process and collect opinions about its real users.