Creating an app or website isn’t just about functionality; it’s also about the look. As said by Andrew Kucheriavy, the founder and CEO of Intechnic, investing time and energy into UX is no longer just the cherry on top, but more so “a matter of survival”. Think about this. Why did Facebook drive out MySpace? There were many reasons, but one of the biggest was because of the UX. With better services, features, and a more inviting appearance, Facebook, and companies such as Amazon, Google, and Airbnb, has risen to become one of the most influential and successful companies – they can thank their customizable UX for that. Clearly, a great user experience is essential in today’s competitive market. The elements such as colors, shapes, sizes, and texts that you put on the homepage, or maybe even something like the search menu, can make or break your conversion rate. Even if your product is the best product that has ever been created it doesn’t mean it will be successful. Some of the most successful companies such as Amazon, Apple, and Google have attributed part of their success to investing lots of time and energy into the user experience. So how does one create the essentials for an unforgettable UX? By incorporating elements of consistency, customization, and using specific tools, your company can create a memorable user experience to improve your conversion rate and growth in the number of paying customers. Take a look at these tips below on how to get started. 1. Listen to Your Customers This may seem obvious, but really, it’s the most important step. Without knowing what your customer desires to see in your mobile app or website, you won’t be able to create a great UX for them – remember that you are not the best judge of the app/website, but your customers are. To get your customers talking, play around with these questions: 1. What is the goal of the customer? 2. Why is the customer using the app/website? What is the main force behind them wanting to use it? 3. Where are they when they interact with your app/website or service or company in general? 4. Are the customers distracted while using your app/website? 5. What are the priorities of the customer? 6. How can you improve your app/website to turn these customers into long-term customers? Talk to as many clients and customers as you can. Document their answers, do anything to envision the perfect look that your users want to see. In addition to learning from customers, pay attention to the successes and blunders that your competitors have made. Is there a common component amongst these companies? What were the opportunities that they snatched which made them successful, or ones that failed? Investigate questions like these to take advantage of your resources. The answers can help you get started on designing or redesigning your app or website for a higher quality UX. 2. Collaborate Designing the UX is a team effort, not only requiring UX design experience but also input from the client, user, and your team. Collaborate with these different teams to help you produce the best results. 3. Consistency Not every element has to be wildly different from those of other companies. Keeping certain elements consistent is also important. The user should not have to be clicking on different links or looking in the top, left, right, and bottom corners to find the search bar. Some essential features found on all apps/website similar to yours should be kept the same so that the user can easily navigate your software. In addition, keeping certain elements such as colors, imagery, slogans, shapes, and text consistent throughout your app or website will help establish your brand and make your brand easily recognizable to anyone. For example, anyone who uses Facebook can recognize that the white “f” within a blue box means “Facebook”, and can associate the colors white and blue with that company. 4. Customization Personalizing the UX will make the app more appealing to a customer. Customers can be in charge of their own experience which will make your app appear better than any competitor. To do this, you can collect information about the customer in unique ways. As an example, the app MyFitnessPal prompts the user to input their information through an entertaining texting format between the user and the MyFitnessPal Welcome robot instead of using a standard bubble-in or fill-in-the-blank format. From here on out, you can continue to personalize and allow the user to customize their own experience. Another method to choose is to group activities that users do into categories such as Browsing, Looking for Specific Content, Comparison Shopping, and Killing Time. This will allow you to see how much time customers spend on certain activities and what your users prioritize. UX design requires a great deal of time, energy, and investment, but your company doesn’t have to deal with all of these factors. UX design professionals from the software development company, SDI, will help your company create the user experience that your customers want to see. With over a decade of experience working with enterprises, start-ups, small, and large companies, SDI will be with you every step of the way to improve the quality of your company’s customer experience. Interested in improving your UX design? Contact us here or call Sakshi at 408.621.8481.