UX Strategy For Businesses in 2020: Here’s What You Should Know

A good UX is no more a “nice to have” but a “must-have” feature for businesses of all sizes. The problem is, not many companies understand the mechanics of a good UX. A recent Mckinsey study of 1700 companies revealed how most of their C-suite executives didn’t understand design leadership. However, the ones with design leadership did record 32% higher revenue than the former. Unsurprisingly then, the success of your business largely depends on how well you execute a UX strategy. In this blog, I explain the in’s and out’s of a good UX and how to develop the right UX strategy for businesses in 2020.

UX Design: Meaning and Elements

User Experience (UX) includes the entire interaction of an individual with a product or a service. Thus, UX design refers to the process of designing and delivering products that are user-centric. Its goal is crafting a product that is not only pleasing to look at but also very simple to use.

Remember: UX is NOT UI

People often use the terms UX and UI interchangeably. But in reality, UI is different from UX.

A user interface is actually the visual presentation of an app or a website and its components. Buttons, icons, drop-down, menus, background color, etc are all parts of the UI. In this way, UI is a part of the entire UX process.

Suppose you are tasked with building a birdhouse. Typically, the first step would be to make a blueprint of the house. This would require you to take decisions relating to the size of the house, its color, etc. In the second part, you will act on the decisions you took i.e. assemble the house, paint it, etc.

This example makes it easy to understand that UX concerns itself with planning and UI concerns itself with execution. Thus, the UX design process looks after each and every element of the experience. Moreover, it also concerns the kind of behavior those elements elicit from the users.

Advantages of A Good UX Strategy For Businesses in 2020

If you’re still not sure about transforming your business into a design-led enterprise? Then let’s look at what a good UX strategy can do for your business.

• In eCommerce applications, UX plays a significant role in business conversion and generates a greater marketing ROI. Users like to shop if the products they want are clearly segregated and visible to them. If they get confused while looking for their desired product, they will exit instantly.
• User Interface (UI) is the foundation for the success of a mobile or a web application. A well planned and executed UX translates into an excellent user interface for the app. This can considerably increase the time spent on the app by the user.
• In addition to generating revenue, an appropriate UX design can also reduce the costs of the company. Since a user-friendly product is readily accepted by all, the frequency of complaints and customer support is reduced. This saves a lot of time, effort, and cost incurred in the employment and training of the support staff.
• Other benefits of developing the right UX strategy for businesses in 2020  include a reduction in maintenance costs, improvement in user retention and acquisition rates.

Useful Tips For A Successful UX Strategy For Businesses in 2020

Remember the McKinsey study I talked about at the beginning? Many design professionals often emphasize advanced aspects so much that they miss out on the simpler ones.

Here are 3 super useful yet often overlooked tips for an effective UX strategy for businesses in 2020:

1. Enhance the accessibility of your product with a universal design

Top UX design trends in 2020 have advocated accessibility in design. Accessibility refers to the ability of the user to interact with your application. It could include pressing buttons, moving from one part to the other, opening and closing menus, entering texts, etc.

Traditionally, accessibility in design meant making it easier for the specially-abled people to interact with your application. For example, businesses add magnifiers and screen readers to their apps’ UX to help visually challenged people use their products.

However, the recent UI trends have a larger look at the picture.

The concept of universal design takes the idea of accessibility in design a step ahead. It emphasizes the use of a design that is common yet accessible to everyone.

Key features of your UX strategy with a universal design include:

• Readability
• Flexibility
• Simplicity

This means a good UX strategy for your business must include a flexible interface that can easily be used on different screen sizes and platforms.

Thus, design your UX with considerations like a feature to adjust the layout for right-handed and left-handed people. It goes a long way in showcasing your brand as an empathetic brand that knows and cares about its users.

2. Don’t see minimalism as art, see it as a skill

Minimalism has been one of the most popular UX strategies for business for a while now. However, does it work well for everyone every time? Not really.

Minimalism is a tight rope to walk on. Without a perfect, meticulous balance, your attempt at minimalism could lead to a lack of content. The whole idea goes to rust if your UX mistakenly misses “just enough content” and instead, adopts “not enough content.”

Of course, eliminating unnecessary graphics and animations is important for a cleaner look. However, to succeed at minimalism, you need to have a look at your page both from the design and the content perspective. Many a time, all the clutter reduces in an instant if you just edit and shorten your copy.

A few simple tricks for an effective minimalistic UX are to reduce crowded elements, increase white space even in the margins, and using shorter yet complete descriptions on the page.

• While reviewing your UX, check whether every design element and every word contributes to your overall value proposition. Remove whatever doesn’t feel necessary.
• After that, see if anything feels incomplete or incoherent.
• In the end, you will have arrived at the holy trinity of less design, less content, and complete information.

3. Accommodate convenience in your UX strategy

One of the most impactful components of a strong UX strategy for businesses in 2020 is personalization. Yet, ironically, it is also one of the most overlooked components.

UX designers and business decision-makers can sometimes be so occupied with the aesthetics that they forget about the user.

One of the biggest USPs of streaming giant Netflix is their consistent focus on customizing things for the users. Yet, not many in the industry followed suit and continued to lag behind. Recently, the very successful Prime Video had to include custom profiles in their UX too.

This is just one example of how personalization and customization can single-handedly raise the impact and the success of your business’s UX strategy. With the help of AI and Machine Learning, you have the opportunity to present content and interaction points to your users based on their past actions.

Tailor-made recommendations, presentation of frequently accessed features at the top, etc. are pretty simple and quick ways to make your UX more convenient for the users.

The customer is extremely busy today. They are surrounded by a hundred digital devices begging for their attention. If you make it convenient for them to keep doing the stuff they like to do, you will be their first preference amongst all the competitors.

How To Develop A Successful UX Strategy For Businesses in 2020

Great UX designers work their charm by creating an experience that’s intuitive and easy to follow for the users. But the question is: What is it that they actually do?

In order to accomplish their task, UX experts develop a detailed plan and follow it up with an execution strategy.  A typical UX strategy execution process follows the steps of the Design Thinking Process.

1. Research and ideate the design

The first step involves observation on the part of the UX team. This is important to thoroughly understand the users that are/might be involved with the product. To get a clear idea of customer pain points, the UX team conducts extensive research and competitor analysis.

Personal interviews and survey forms are used to gather data and information from the individuals who are/will be directly involved with the product. The collected data is then analyzed and the resultant feedback helps the team in creating ‘user personas.’

These user personas specify your target user’s goals, emotions, and behaviors.

The tools and methods at this step include personal interviews (in-person or via video chat), extensive surveys, polling tools, group stakeholder workshops, site analytics, etc.

2. Create a design prototype

The data collected and the user personas formed in the previous step serve as the basis for actual designing. The designers take into consideration the goals that the users might be trying to achieve when using the product. They also bear in mind the user journey i.e. steps taken by the users to achieve a specific goal.

All this information helps designers in mapping out various user flows that demonstrate all the possible user journeys.

To wrap it up, the designers create wireframes and prototypes of the final product in order to check the visual and technical feasibility of the user flows.

The resources at this step include various UX design tools in 2020 such as UsabilityHub, Adobe XD, Axure Rapid Prototyping, Figma, etc.

3. Test, measure, reiterate.

With prototypes, the UX team seeks to conduct usability tests that measure the success of a particular UX design. The tests employ various metrics such as time spent by the user on the app, the number of actions taken by the user before exiting, etc.

These metrics indicate how a user interacted with the product and whether it requires any updates. No design is perfect in the first attempt. At this stage, you try out a few versions, keep polishing them until your metrics meet your usability goals.

4. Launch the product with the polished UX design

The final step of the execution strategy is launching the product in the market. This action can be performed in the form of updating an existing website/app with an improved UX or releasing a new, better version from scratch

It is important to note that the aforementioned process provides a general insight into the UX designing process. In practical terms, the steps in the process vary according to the size and requirements of the company.

In MSMEs as well as startups, the responsibility of the entire UX execution strategy usually falls upon a single person. Whereas, it is not uncommon for large enterprises to hire a specialized UX team, wherein each member individually focuses on each aspect of the execution strategy.

The roles are typically divided as:

1. UX Researcher/Strategist

2. Designer/Prototyper

3. Product Manager/UX Manager

We can take care of your UX strategy while you take care of your business

In a nutshell, a solid UX strategy is imperative for your business growth in the current times. From branding to customer acquisition and retention, every little component of the UX plays a significant role in making or breaking your business.

Thus, developing a UX strategy for businesses in 2020 is an intense task and requires in-depth experience in design principles. Whether you are a startup or an enterprise, it’s ideal for you to find expert design and development partners to devise an effective UX strategy.

Third Rock Techkno has been consistently delivering impactful applications with compelling designs that sell. We have a strong grip over efficient competitor analysis, a solid background in cost-effective product development, and a diverse team of designers, developers, project managers, and business consultants.