How UX design can grow your Business

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How UX design can grow your Business

What will you discover in this Blog post?

• How important is User Experience to a business
• What problems to avoid and opportunities to leverage
• How UX Design can improve your business

How important is User Experience to a business

McKinsey & Company, one of the world’s largest and most important international consultancies, conducted a study over more than 5 years on 300 companies, in which they measured how a good design culture can positively impact revenues.

What did they find?

Companies that pay attention to design increase their revenue and shareholder returns at twice the rate of their competitors.

How did they measure the impact of design on business?

For 5 years they analysed the design activities that companies put in place, then collected data on financial results.

In a nutshell, they literally calculated the business impact of design.

What does this study show us?

What was once considered a luxury or an extra cost is now the key to success and innovation.

It is more important than ever to have products that provide a good user experience (UX).

“An attractive product is a product that seems to work better.”

The words of legend Don Norman are clear.

Consumers will buy and use products based on their design, appeal and usability.

Companies that have not yet understood the importance of User Experience risk being overtaken by competitors who are already doing so.

The impact of UX on revenue

In Forrester’s June 2013 “Business Impact of Customer Experience” research, it was estimated that having a superior user experience to competitors would produce:

• more than $3 billion in additional annual revenue for telephone operators
• $1 billion for hotels
• $262 million for insurance companies
• $227 million for retailers.

Whether users are customers or employees, a good user experience translates into savings and increased revenue, while a bad user experience can have a serious impact on sales, satisfaction and costs.

General estimates of the value of user experience investment range from a return of 2 to $100 for every $1 invested in user experience design.

We have saw the positive impact of a good user experience.

But what can be the negative impact?

• Sales drop
• Unhappy customers
• Poor ratings and reviews
• Negative word of mouth
• Negative impact on brand and reputation
• Increased need for documentation and training
• Increase in support requests and costs

For example, for business software used by employees, the goal is not sales but effectiveness, efficiency and productivity.

Business software and apps with a good user experience help employees to be effective, productive and better focused.

Systems with a poor user experience, instead, can lead to the following consequences:

• Decreased productivity
• Increased errors
• Increased support costs
• Increased training costs
• Decreased job satisfaction
• Increased employee turnover

So how can UX Design be used to avoid these negative consequences?

3 actions to take to improve revenut with UX Design

There are 3 factors that make a difference that every company should focus on:

1. Conduct user research (UX Research) to understand the characteristics, behaviours, needs and context of use of your product.
2. Use the results found from the research to design a solution that follows best design practices and meets business objectives.
3. Analyse design choices with users by conducting usability tests and making changes based on the results in an iterative design process.

In addition to these 3 elements, there are 3 areas that every company needs to work on to create a corporate culture that enables direct business impact.

3 areas to work on to increase revenue through UX

Analytical leadership

To increase the commercial value of design in your company, UX/UI Design issues need to be addressed by top management.

Every company should have a designer on its board.

First and foremost, UX/UI should be evaluated by measuring the efficiency and value they bring to the company.

Secondly, decisions should be made by understanding what really constitutes design.

The participation of leaders is crucial to start sowing the seeds of design culture in a company.

In fact, at Eye Studios when we start working with a new client we always try to get access to the highest decision-making level of the project.

Multi-platform user experience

Cross-platform services are becoming more and more common. For this reason, a perfect synchronisation of the user experience must be created at each touchpoint with the company or its product.

This requires an understanding of the underlying needs of potential users in their environments. This requires quantitative and qualitative data observation and analysis.

For this reason, at Eye Studios no project comes to life without research and understanding of the users and their needs.

Continuous testing and iteration

Testing and continuous iteration.

Only through these two practices, you will be able to track down opportunities.

In addition, the main factor is always kept in mind: the user’s needs and how to satisfy them.

According to McKinsey’s research, testing and continuous iteration must lead to quantitative and qualitative data.

In this way designers can share their results based on data and can get effective feedback from all stakeholders.

If you want to understand how to measure UX, you can learn more in our article UX KPIs – Measuring User Experience Design.

Conclusion

As you may have guessed, UX is a crucial element of any business.

If until now many companies have only thought about reducing product or software development time, now the priority has changed.

Now there is a need to create products that people can use in the best possible way, quickly and easily achieving their goals.

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