Why should I invest in UX design and how do I measure its value?

So explain this fluffy idea of user experience (UX) to me

The basics of UX design is a big umbrella term that states how something is designed for the best experience for the user while using a product. It looks at how the human interacts with the computer and the outcome of that interaction.

Imagine yourself going on a random website. What is your first impression?

A website with a great UX design provides a pleasurable experience in the interaction between user and the website, enhances customer satisfaction and attains the user’s loyalty and recommendations.

UX focuses on having a deep understanding of users – their needs, what they value, their abilities and also their limitations.

User experience is not just about visual design but a combination of skillsets including interaction design, information architecture and user research. It has a lot to do with research about how to provide a meaningful and valuable user experience. There are many forms of User-Experience research methods such as first click testing, usability testing, conducting focus group interviews as well as eye-tracking.

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Why should I invest in UX design?

In this day and age of metrics and measurements, many find it hard to propose the benefits of UX investment to their companies due to its ‘intangibility’. On the big picture scale, a good UX design can lead to:

• Increased productivity
• Increased sales and lower costs for customer acquisition
• Increased brand loyalty (Think Apple)
• Increased market share
• Lower support costs

Most importantly, measuring the ROI of UX design is definitely possible (not fluffy at all!). Just like the days where people used to think measuring the returns on marketing effort and branding is impossible, UX as a relatively new-comer in the digital world is going through this same phase.

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