We’ve all probably heard that ”Change is the only constant” and this certainly has been a relatable experience for everyone during this pandemic. With the changing landscape to innovate and in the context of this blog’s topic, the new normal has forced companies to question how they innovate to build better products and services and, most importantly, if they were building the right capabilities for the future? And one such topic we keep hearing about is building the UI (User Interface design) & UX (User Experience Design) capabilities. They are not new terms in the industry; it’s been around since the nineties, but there has been a gap in our understanding to illustrate what these two roles mean, what to expect from them and how we can incorporate them to inform the experience decisions. With businesses increasingly learning the value of UI & UX, it’s becoming intrinsic to embed them in our DNA to develop enjoyable, useful, and sustainable solutions.

Although UX and UI designers have different roles and responsibilities, they are often interchangeably used, and many may argue how are they different when they both inform the design experience?

Let’s start with What is UI & UX are?

UI is the process of creating and maintaining the visual aesthetics of a digital product. They care and maintain the visual consistency, the looks, and feel of the product. Those visual elements consist of the layout, icons, typography, and other design elements that the user might interact with.

Don Norman, Cognitive Scientist & User Experience Architect, describes “User experience encompasses all aspects of the end-users interaction with the company, its services, and its products.” (Neilson Norman Group)

UX is the process that focuses on how users might interact with the overall products and services. UX is not limited to digital products. They inform the experience decisions on why, what, how users meet their end goals. UX is rooted in human factors and ergonomics, a field that, since the late 1940s, has focused on the interaction between human users, machines, and the contextual environments to design systems that address the user’s experience. (Interaction design foundation)

The UX profession is expected to grow from about 1 million people to about 100 million people. A growth factor of 100.

Why are we talking about this now?
If you are in the business of building digital products, you might be in the right place! Well, according to stats by (Forrester)

Every $1 invested in UX results in a return of $100. That’s an ROI of 9,900%.

With the rise in digital adoption, most organizations are looking for solutions that create a seamless experience. To transition into creating experiences that matter, we need to first consider our users. People are becoming digitally mature, and if organizations don’t meet the users where they are, it will cause some friction in the user’s experience, thus impacting your business. Humans tend to ruminate negative experiences more than good ones as negative experiences involve more thinking, and more information is processed during these experiences.

So, understanding the user’s end-to-end journey becomes crucial before envisioning a new or enhancing the current experiences. A typical journey begins with aligning your thoughts on the current experience and then use that to inspire yourself to focus on strategizing for the future.

As Frank Chimero, one of the top UX designers, put it: “People ignore design that ignores people.”

There is not a single road map to innovation. Although there are many different methods organizations can adopt to reach their destination. Companies that effectively incorporate good design have higher revenue growth and higher returns to the shareholders.

Here are some tips that you should consider

Have a Clear Defined Challenge.
“A brilliant solution to the wrong problem can be worse than no solution at all: solve the correct problem.”

Investigate, analyze, and find the ‘why’ in solving a particular problem. Ask yourself, is there a need for a solution first, and what need does this solve for the end-users? A well-defined challenge helps the team to stay focused and guides the team to look for solutions in the right direction.

Listen, Interpret, and Inform
“The universe is made of stories, not atoms.”

Research. Research. Research! It’s not a bad word; it’s the key to success. Many companies shy away from research or are biased against investing in research as they feel it is time-consuming and expensive. To design experiences, we must be willing to put our biases aside and listen carefully to what our users are saying. It’s never a good idea to not consider your users and assume their wants and needs to inform the design decisions. There are many research methodologies available that can be adopted to understand your users, and there are some less expensive methodologies for, e.g., Desk research, surveys, heuristic evaluation, Etc.

Empathy drives people to dig deeper and pushes them to go beyond what’s visible at the surface level. It helps them establish a connection; the more closely you work with the user, the more you learn.

Collaborate to reach your full potential
“The problem with the designs of most engineers is that they are too logical. We must accept human behavior the way it is, not the way we would wish it to be.”

Design in the simplest form has two purposes: the functional and the emotional. The engineers focus more on the functional side of things. Yes! Your design needs to work as it is intended to be, and the designer focuses more on delivering the emotional value for the user. If we remove one of them from the process, the product and the service fails. It’s also important to constructively challenging your team members.

Prototype and test and Pivot
“Fixing a problem in development costs 10 times as much as fixing it in design and 100 times as much if you’re trying to fix the problem in a product that’s already been released.” Or “When it comes to innovation, business has much to learn from design. The philosophy in design shops is, ‘try it, prototype it, and improve it.’”

Prototyping should ideally be the first step while executing an idea. It’s a powerful tool that gives you a glimpse into the future while also leaving room for iteration. Designers bring in value by creating either high fidelity or low fidelity prototypes. Testing them helps you evaluate if the designed solution would meet the user’s need or more work is required. One of the most significant advantages is that it is very cost-effective and makes sure you are not stuck to a solution because you’ve developed it.

In conclusion, design is a process and is ever-evolving. The more mature a company gets in design, the more it benefits in the different areas of the business. In the future, companies need to be willing to adopt a more design-inclusive approach to be successful.

As a result, companies also minimize the risk of failure and create products and services that are more relevant, valuable, and efficient for all their users.

If you would like to continue the discussion further, please reach out to our team at engage@kalpavruksh.com