How Design Has Become a Huge Part of the User Experience

Have you thought about users’ emotional experience of your platform? It’s hard to quantify, but to build empathy with users, it’s important to consider what users want and need, and design your platform customer experience accordingly.

In a recent article entitled “Design Thinking Comes of Age”, the Harvard Business Review brought attention a shift that puts design firmly at the centre of enterprise. Quite simple, they wrote, “people need their interactions with technologies and other complex systems to be simple, intuitive, and pleasurable,” and user experience needs to be carefully designed to ensure that.

“A set of principles collectively known as design thinking is the best tool we have for creating those kinds of interactions and developing a responsive, flexible organisational culture.”

HBR

They’re calling it ‘design thinking’ and industry giants like IBM and GE, for whom software is a fundamental part of their business have already adopted it’s sentiment as a means to ‘humanise’ and modernise their product.

“There’s no longer any real distinction between business strategy and the design of the user experience”

Bridget van Kralingen, Senior Vice President, IBM Global Business Services

That’s why IBM intends to hire 1,000 UX designers in the near future.

“Every established company that has moved from products to services, from hardware to software, or from physical to digital products needs to focus anew on user experience.”

HBR

The success and effectiveness of an online platform, software interface or application depends on one thing…user experience. Itsnavigation, operability and other advantages to the user dictate whether it succeeds or fails. This puts an enormous responsibility on the UX designer or architect. It is their responsibility to come up with ideas to increase usability, to make sure that all available content is relevant and valuable.

If ‘UX Design’ is considered to refer to the approaches and methods employed to make sure that a website is entirely tailored and customised for a target market, then design is integral, a massive part of user experience. If an online or application platform does not appeal to the audience that it is designed for, it will be quickly forgotten. The user makes the decision to accept or reject an app, online platform or resource with seconds – once you have their attention, you need to hold onto it with an seamless, functional and aesthetically pleasing user experience.

So how exactly has design become a part of customer experience?

Well, simply put, customer experience became the tipping point for the success of a product or service. So design, and specialist professionals able to deliver it, became extremely valuable. UX designers have started to consider how users feel when they interact with certain types of software or platforms, and whether that is the rightemotion according to the design. IS the experience universal? Is it right for growth and development?

If you want to guarantee a superb user experience, then you need design. We have access to a pool of some of the most talented and knowledgeable UX designers in the UK and Europe. Want us to help you find you the perfect candidate? Get in touch.