What Is User Experience (UX)?
UX is a discipline that studies the user experience of a product or service, with the aim of stimulating improvements.
The acronym itself already gives this meaning, as it comes from the English user experience , which precisely means “user experience”.
Basically, the UX professional seeks to understand what qualifies or harms the user’s relationship with the product and service in question.
He does this mentally, putting himself in the position of a user, but also studying people’s behavior with surveys, interviews and usage tests.
Thus, valuable insights are generated to improve this experience, which collaborates with customer engagement and loyalty – who can even become brand ambassadors .
Some prefer a literal definition of UX, making it clear that the subject studies user experience and not customer experience – the two may or may not be the same person.
For example, a customer might go to a store and buy a gift for someone close to them. He will have the purchase experience of the product he has purchased, but not the user experience.
There are many UX designers, though, who specialize in optimizing digital channels , such as branded websites and apps.
Its role is to study ways to make these channels more intuitive and easier to use, so that they can easily find what they are looking for.
The experience of using these channels may have little relation to the experience of using the final product.
Even so, there may be UX work in this first phase of the relationship between the company and the consumer .
If we are talking, however, only about the design of the visual part of websites and applications, it is not about UX, but UI, or user interface.
What Does It Mean To Work With UX?
If UX is the discipline that studies user experience, what do those who work with this topic do?
This professional studies the interaction between the customer and the product and proposes solutions .
It will investigate how the product is used, what difficulties the user encounters in this process, what are their needs, what are the opportunities to impact them, etc.
It is a somewhat strategic work , as the solutions presented must be aligned with the company’s purpose , with the value it intends to generate for customers.
The UX professional must therefore understand not only what the user wants, but what experience the brand wants to offer.
While many view user experience from a micro perspective, more and more successful Information Age businesses take macro UX into account .
With Generation Y (the so-called millennials ) taking the lead in the consumer market, the focus has shifted from objects to experiences.
Brands that deliver the best experiences for their customers therefore differentiate themselves.
And this can start long before the individual actually enjoys the product or service.
Consider Uber, one of the world’s best-known and most valuable technology companies .
The user experience of this service is much broader than just getting into a car where you can choose the radio station and air conditioning intensity until you reach your destination.
It involves the use of an intuitive application, which displays where the car is, how long it will take to arrive and other information, in addition to automatically executing the payment by credit card and having features such as splitting the value of the ride with a friend.
In other words, the company was able to incredibly facilitate the experience of requesting a private transport service in cities.
The UX work, therefore, can be extremely strategic, with the professional having the great challenge of aligning the company’s value proposition with the consumer’s needs.
How Important Is UX?
The market has changed a lot, as well as consumer habits . All over the world, in all segments of the economy .
Globalization and technology have shortened distances and increased competition.
This means that the scenario of a niche market has become very rare in which dominating distribution points and investing in brand reinforcement actions is enough to remain at the top.
Today, it’s all about offering the best customer experience, no matter how many years you’ve been in the market.
Even the most traditional and well-known company runs the risk of being overtaken by a competitor that appears to provide a superior experience.
That’s how you win over the audience these days.
That’s why every administrator should open their eyes to UX design, whether hiring professionals in the area or consulting a specialized company.
The important thing is to understand that UX cannot be an isolated department , subjected to organizational niches that create rivalries between sectors.
Long before that, UX is a concept that should permeate all the organization’s activities.
Thinking about the user experience should be a mantra of the company’s organizational culture .
Thus, the chances of the customer being contemplated with a product or service that promotes maximum satisfaction are much greater.
What Are The Main UX Related Positions?
Most UX professionals call themselves designers .
Design, as you may already know, is a very broad area, which has long ceased to be seen as simply planning the look of a product.
Which brings us to the famous Steve Jobs phrase : “Design is function, not form”.
Design can be summarized as the activity (or art) of developing projects that represent simple solutions to people’s problems .
This is far from being an absolute definition that covers all the complexity of the area, but it helps to understand that a central design issue is the total focus on the user.
From there, aspects such as industrial design, graphic design, methodologies such as design thinking and, of course, UX design emerge.
This professional is responsible for doing everything we’ve been talking about so far: creating solutions to improve the user experience of a product or service.
Some companies work with the position of UX analyst – which, in practice, can have the same attributions as the designer.
Others even create the UX strategist .
In the end, it will simply depend on how the company prefers to divide the functions and name them.
Remembering that there is the possibility of assigning the word UX a leadership or managerial position, with positions such as head, leader , coordinator or UX manager.
12 Basics That Will Help You Get Started In UX
Next, we try to summarize the most important UX principles into topics, so that you really understand what it means to think about user experience .
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1. Think About The User
When you have all the knowledge you can about a product and the processes that give birth to it, your eyes are hooked.
In UX, it is essential to practice empathy , putting yourself in the shoes of regular users and seeking to understand their perspective.
2. Products That Generate Experiences
Although it is common to say that the UX designer creates experiences, it is good to make it clear that they create processes , products, services, etc.
The experience itself is generated when the user uses the product .
If, in your mind, the experience should be different, it doesn’t matter. What matters is what happens in practice.
3. UX Is A Macro Process
Despite what we said in the previous item, it is good to make it clear that the user experience is not limited to just using the product.
It can also involve touchpoints before and after actual use (remember the Uber example) and interaction with other experiences.
4. Bad Experiences Are Remembered…
When someone uses a product or service that generates a negative experience, they will hardly forget about it .
You will try to tell people close to you what you disliked and will hardly be willing to try that product or service again.
5. …The Good Ones, Not So Much
On the other hand, often when an experience is positive, it doesn’t have the same impact, simply because it ‘s usually what people are expecting .
For this reason, it is said that the work of the UX designer is often invisible.
Internally, however, it is a highly valued role in companies with vision.
6. Restrictions Help
Don Norman , author, professor at the University of San Diego and former Apple employee, says the best way to design something easy to use is to restrict the amount of user choices so that it is impossible to do the same activity any other way.
An example is an electronic device battery: if it only fits in one direction, the user will have no problem connecting it correctly.
7. Experiences Have Cycles
The user experience follows a cycle, which can be short or long , depending on the particularities of the product or service in question.
The cycle begins with the first use or contact with the product, evolves with regular use and eventually declines with replacement with a better solution.
8. Collect Data Constantly
Having constant user feedback is the best way to continue developing products that always offer the best possible experience.
In the age of big data , this has been an increasingly common reality, with software that monitors and processes large amounts of information in real time.
9. Don’t Forget The Human Side
There are subjectivities in a person’s relationship with a product, service or anything else that algorithms cannot understand .
So, as much as big data and business intelligence solutions are advanced, the work of a UX designer cannot leave aside the creativity to seek new solutions and the strategic thinking that only a human can have.
10. Mistakes Are Part Of The Process
The activity of a UX designer is full of ups and downs.
Mistakes are normal, so they should be treated not as tragedies, but as learning opportunities .
11. Adaptation Must Be Quick
A UX professional who dies embracing his convictions doesn’t understand anything.
The market and the consumer public are more volatile than ever, so you have to cultivate a flexible mindset and not be afraid to transform things.
12. Try Prototyping
The best way to put the previous two principles into practice is with prototypes.
They are simple preview versions of an idea, which are used to test if it will work as expected, before the product or service is officially launched.
How To Apply UX Principles On Your Website?
As we explained at the beginning of the text, UX design is more widespread in the technology market .
If, in other areas, it is even rarer to see user experience designers, in the production of websites, applications and software , it has been common for a long time.
Some very common UX terms in this context are:
- Information architecture: is the study of how information will be distributed within a web site
- Interaction Design and Task Flows: How will the user interact with site elements? What will be your journey within the online channel?
- Wireframes: are the drawings that represent (without the application of colors and visual identity) the pages, showing where the elements will be placed and how they will be displayed
- Wireflow: is the user journey illustrated with screen designs
- Sitemap: schematic graphic with the distribution and hierarchy of the site’s contents.
To test the thought solutions, it is possible to apply usability tests.
The designer can also apply A/B tests to compare the performance of two solutions.
How To Learn More About UX?
Interested in the UX area, do you think this could be a good career for you or an excellent opportunity to grow the company?
In fact, the job market is increasingly valuing the professional specialized in UX .
Likewise, companies that apply user experience design principles see satisfied customers and better results.
You have already taken the first step, informing yourself here about the basics. There is a lot of material available online to delve into: ebooks, videos, and online courses .
But knowledge deserves investment.
If you are looking for broader training that includes management lessons in the innovation market, try to find out about the courses offered by Fundação Instituto de Administração (FIA) .
There are several options, at different levels of education. See some examples:
- Big Data Analytics and Digital Analytics (extension)
- Digital Arts Business Management (extension)
- Strategic Innovation Management (extension)
- Digital Marketing and Social Media (EaD)
- Postgraduate Diploma in Digital Marketing
- Postgraduate in Business Management, Innovation and Entrepreneurship .
