Importance of UX design in the business success story
It was sometime in 2009 when I opened my Facebook account. As an over-excited teenager, I was overwhelmed by the newly discovered virtual world. From “cool” images of friends and relatives, Farmville offers, and Facebook asking me ‘What’s on Your Mind?’, I found my private Neverland.
My internet adventure led me to discover another social site called MySpace. I could tell it was popular enough since my older cousins were active in it. But my curious teenage self could also tell that something was profoundly wrong.
It just wasn’t Facebook.
In a few months, MySpace vanished. Proof. Gone. Since then the world only knew blue.
Believe it or not, user experience has contributed a lot to Facebook’s success story. Since the very beginning, they were user-centric. Any first-time user can turn Socrates by the question ‘What’s on Your Mind?
With digital innovations on the peak, UX stands as an integral part of any business. It helps to boost sales, increase customer satisfaction, and make great conversions. Let’s discuss this more in detail.
Skyrocket to the top of the search list
The internet is a zombie apocalypse. There is always a commotion going on. Like a resilient survivor in zombie land, your business can’t fall back. It needs to squeeze its way out of the crowd.
This may sound surprising but one of the ways you can do this is by optimizing user experience. Allow me to explain.
As you know, Google is the All-Seeing Eye. It keeps track of the zombie land. It has started examining Dwell Time, the amount of time a user spends on a page it has googled before turning back to the SERPs. The more time a user spends on a website, the more reliable it becomes for Google. Thus, seamless user experience can make your website appear at the top of the search list
Keep It Flowing
In their 2016 report, The Six Steps For Justifying Better UX, Forrester Research claimed that “Every dollar invested in UX design returns $100”. Now, I couldn’t study the report owing to the fact that it’s available at $745. But I dug out the internet to see if this statement is true and turns out most articles, including one by Forbes, mention this integral part of the research
From Jeff Bezos to Joe Gebbia, several business leaders understood the importance of user experience design. In the first year of Amazon, Bezos invested a hundred times more into customer experience than advertising.
While Gebbia praises the power of UX to propel AirBnB to $10 billion.
A report by Infragistics shows how Bank of America saw a 45 percent increase in online registration after their investment in UX redesign while American Eagle Outfitters saw an increase of 53.6% a month later they launched their redesigned website.
Convert & Roll In
There is a large mall near my home, where my family and I often go shopping. My family and I, except for my 44-year-old uncle. It’s a highly decorated mall with a myriad of stores but without any proper direction. So, on my uncle’s second visit to the mall, he left unsatisfied because he couldn’t find his way to the perfume store.
Websites are pretty much the same. It’s great to have an eye-catching site. It really is. But if it fails to navigate your users to their destination, then your website is sadly a beauty without brains. You don’t want your customers to bounce back like my good old uncle.
For instance, Virgin America partnered up with Work & Co, which redesigned its website in 2014 to connect well with modern travelers. It was designed in such a way that it can easily respond to modern travelers. As a result, their conversion rate increased by 14% along with a 20% decrease in web-related support calls, and flyers were booked nearly twice as fast.
The airline company ceased to exist on April 24, 2018, when it was acquired by Alaska Airlines but their digital innovation is still talked about today.
User Experience is all about your customers. Your UX strategy should be thoroughly based on what they prefer and detest. It should be supported by valuable data such as customer psychology and behavior patterns. So, you better work out your UX strategy and craft the perfect business story.
Sources:
- Andrew Kucheriavy 2017, How UX Is Transforming Business (Whether You Want It To Or Not), Forbes, visit the link .
Goran Paunovic 2017, The Bottom Line: Why Good UX Design Means Better Business, Forbes, viewed 12 May 2020. - Dasha D. 2019, Why the UX Is Important for Your Business, RubyGarage, viewed 12th May 2020.